Chapter Text
Jude glanced to where the pretty boy model was lounged, head thrown back in laughter at something one of the three girls around him had said. It was revolting.
Not because of the fact that she was jealous of the girls getting his attention, no Jude was revolted because he’d been doing the same thing for three weeks straight. If he wasn’t at a gig he was at a club or house party getting drunk and ending up in the bed of some floozie.
It was a waste of her talents is what it was. Her father, The Director of the biggest security company in New York, was punishing her- he had to be. Madoc never did something without a reason.
If only Jude could figure out the reason she’d been stuck with a snobby brat, she could cash in on where the real danger was- with the king.
“Jude!” Cardan drawled in her direction, the name getting horribly slurred on his lips. “Come here.” Jude repressed her groan, lips set in a firm line as she approached him. She kept as much distance between them as possible, her stomach knotting at the vile smell of alcohol on Cardan’s breath.
“Do you require something?” Jude bit out, patience already wearing thin. It was almost 2am and her feet were killing her. She wanted nothing more than to deposit the brat back at his penthouse and leave him with the overnight detail.
Cardan’s dark eyes were partly glazed over as they took Jude in, scanning her body with a drunken grin. “Care to join us? You look so sad in the corner by yourself. This,” His long fingers touched the chin of the girl wrapped around his left side, “is Ginny. This,” He does the same with the girl to his right, “is Maia. And this,” He weaves those fingers through the girl who’d planted herself between his thighs, “is Nix.” Now that Jude was closer, she noticed that Nix was not actually a girl but a boy with long blonde hair. They all purred at his attention, Nix running his hands over Cardan’s thighs with clear enjoyment.
Jude could only bite back a groan. The night crew would be dealing with more than usual tonight. She pitied them.
Cardan pressed his lips to Maia’s, leaving a trace of gold from wine on the edges of her lips. Ginny whined at being left out, so Cardan turned his attention to her as Nix planted soft kisses onto Cardan’s thighs.
Jude couldn’t take it anymore, not when she was about to stab herself in the eye with the dagger at her waist. She rounded the couch and hauled Cardan up, much to the disappointment of his groupies.
Cardan didn’t look surprised at all, sending a quick grin to them and saying sweetly, “Looks like Jude wants me to herself tonight.”
Jude grit her teeth against her remark that no, not in a thousand years would she ever willing sleep with this spoiled brat. She nodded to her two backup lackeys- the Bomb and the Ghost- before swiftly exiting the party with Cardan draped over her shoulder.
She deposited him in the car, sliding in next to him. They waited only a moment before the driver took off into the night. By the time they reached Cardan’s building, he was already dozing on Jude’s shoulder.
The night crew was waiting and all too eager to find that Cardan was alone tonight. After exchanging reports, she hopped back into the car where hopefully she could find rest in her own bed.
~~~
It was barely two hours later when the blaring ring woke Jude out of her deep slumber. Without any regard for pretense or civility, she picked up her phone and growled, “What?!”
The Roach, all too used her moods and head of the night crew, just sighed. “There’s been an incident.” Jude bolted upright in bed, already in motion as he continued, “Cardan is being transported to the hospital as we speak. He stopped breathing in his sleep.”
Jude cursed herself for letting her charge drink too much. “Have them pump his stomach when he arrives and wait for me.”
The drive to the hospital was filled with speeding, horn honking, and at least three separate near head-on collisions. Jude stormed into the ER with a murderous look on her face.
The Roach was waiting and signaled her over, talking as he led her to where Cardan was being kept. “They pumped his stomach about seven minutes ago and are running a tox screen on its contents now just in case there was any foul play.”
“The only foul play,” Jude growled as they reached the sectioned off part of the ER, seeing Cardan passed out with several sets of wiring going into his body. “is that he’s a damned idiot. Even so, better to rule everything out. Have them send me the results as soon as they’re ready.”
Roach nodded his head. “Of course, ma’am.” He left the room, leaving Jude alone with the unconscious brat. She pressed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger, already feeling a headache pounding in her temples. It was going to be a long night.
~~~
Jude stood before the large desk, trying not to feel small as her father regarded her with his cool and unreadable expression. After several minutes of silence, Jude’s heart beating in her ears, Madoc said, “I’ve been informed there was an incident.”
He didn’t ask it as a question, but Jude answered, “Nothing I couldn’t handle. Cardan got a little too drunk. The night crew found it necessary to have his stomach pumped at the hospital to lessen the possibility of risk.”
Madoc inclined his head, those cool eyes assessing her story. Jude fought the shiver that wanted to creep up her spine. “Very well. You kept this out of the press?”
Jude nodded. “No one saw Cardan entering or exiting the hospital. The only thing the media knows is that he left the party alone last night.” The headache she’d acquired hours earlier still pulsed, making her eyes especially sensitive to the fluorescents of the office.
“Good.” The word was in and of itself a dismissal and Jude got up to leave. Just as her hand touched the doorknob, Madoc said, “Don’t let this happen again, Jude.”
The threat in the words made her stomach sink. “Yes, sir.” Was all she could muster, slipping out of the room as fast as her legs would carry her.
~~~
Jude stared at the report in her hands. It had to be a mistake- a faulty test. She read it twice within the span of a minute before making her eyes focus on the tox screen. It’d been almost a month since the hospital incident with no sign of foul play or repeated accidents.
But the report in front of Jude didn’t lie- someone had tried to poison Cardan, and they’d nearly succeeded.