Broken Songbird (Vicious Games #2)

25. Chapter 25

I put the car in park in the valet driveway and a valet attendant opens my door.

“Good evening, Miss,” the attendant says as he holds out his hand to assist me out of the car with the very high stilettos I chose for the evening.

Lucas walks around the car with my rose gold clutch bag that matches my heels and holds it out to me.

“Thank you, Lucas,” I say, pulling my white faux fur coat around me tighter, blocking the chilled evening breeze.

“Call if you need a lift home. I’ll be at Luxuria for the evening, so I’m only five minutes away.”

I nod and walk into the lavish hotel as Lucas drives away. In the bright, extravagant foyer, many people dressed in finery mill about, some by the lobby bar, but most near the elevators.

I wave to some people I recognise as I make my way to a man at a podium and a clipboard. He recognises me without me telling him my name, and instructs me to go to the third floor with the other guests.

I strike up a conversation with another doctor from the children’s hospital as we travel up to the gala, joining another fast-moving line into the ballroom.

The space is warmly lit, with high ceilings and huge chandeliers, shiny wood floors, a wall of windows showcasing the view of the city, and round tables dotted throughout, decorated in white and gold.

I’m looking down at the card the woman gave to me at the ballroom’s entrance with my table details, when I feel a presence behind me.

“Cheese Thief,” Heartbreaker’s voice purrs behind me.

I turn sharply, about to ask him why he was here and berate him, when I’m rendered speechless.

True to his road name, Heartbreaker looks heartbreaking in a tailored navy-blue suit with a matching tie and a white shirt. His cinnamon-auburn hair is artfully tousled back, and he’s freshly shaven, flaunting his signature smile.

But what really short-circuits my brain is Creed standing next to him. His hair is back in its signature neat bun, and he’s dressed in a black suit, fitted perfectly over his frame, a dark, storm-grey shirt with no tie and the two top buttons undone.

Where Heartbreaker’s looks and energy are inviting, Creed is disarming.

Creed is a demon waiting for souls to offer themselves for sacrifice.

But those honey-brown eyes are solely focused on me. That dimpled smirk luring my whole body to succumb to his demon charm.

And it’s working.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, my voice raspy. I clear my throat, dragging my gaze to Heartbreaker. “And why aren’t you wearing a sling?”

“It would totally ruin my outfit,” Heartbreaker pouts. He reaches out quickly with his injured arm for a glass of champagne from a waiter walking past.

“If you tear through your stitches, I’m going to cancel the cheese order I made for you,” I warn.

His mouth pops open as Creed chuckles, stepping to my side and wrapping an arm around me. “You really know how to cut deep, princess.”

“It’s the only way you guys listen to me.”

He leans down and kisses my temple. “Don’t ever stop. You know I love fucking that attitude out of you.”

I swat him on his hard abs with the back of my hand as he chuckles, and Heartbreaker makes gagging noises.

“You didn’t tell me why you’re both here,” I say, looking up at Creed. Even in these heels, he’s still stupidly tall. “How did you even get in?”

Creed steers me toward my table and the three of us move as a unit. “We got an invitation.”

“Last minute, I presume?” I ask dryly, fully aware they probably hacked their way onto the list or something of that nature.

Heartbreaker chuckles. “It actually wasn’t that hard when—”

“Is that your mum?” Creed asks abruptly, cutting him off. What was he about to say?

I look in the direction he’s referring to and see my parents standing with Austin.

“Both my parents,” I confirm. Nerves suddenly twist my gut, and I halt in our approach, looking at Creed. “You’re about to meet my parents.”

I came solo tonight because I didn’t want to distract my parents from this event, and I wasn’t… ready for this conversation with them.

His brow creases in concern. “Do you not want me to?”

“No, I do ,” I say with assurance. “But, my mum knows . About a lot. Definitely the players, at least. And with…” I take a breath. “She was never okay with Teo, given who he was, and I want you to be prepared for the same aloofness.”

Creed’s arm flexes around me, pulling me tighter against him, a wicked smirk on his face. “You’ve already warned me your mum won’t like the big old biker.”

“Yeah,” I squeeze out, since my lungs have decided they don’t know how to function when he looks at me like this.

He kisses me quickly and placidly, but it just fuels the rising tension in my body, then continues moving us along.

My mum looks gorgeous tonight in a deep purple suit set and a cream silk shirt. The jacket’s structured fit accentuates her curves and the wide-leg pants flow to the floor elegantly. She has her braids hanging long down her back and she has adorned her neck and ears in gold.

My dad at her side is in a tailored charcoal-grey suit and white shirt combination with a purple pocket-square that matches Mum. He’s recently gotten a haircut; his black hair, peppered with very few greys, is shorter than the last time I saw him.

My mum’s face lights up when she sees me and starts walking over, but her expression dims slightly in cautious confusion when she sees my companions.

“Scarlett, darling, you look incredible,” she gushes as we approach, not so subtly pulling me into her embrace and out of Creed’s.

“So do you, Mum,” I say, pulling back.

She keeps her hold on me and faces us at Creed and Heartbreaker. “And who may you two be?”

“Theodore Masters,” Heartbreaker says in the most aristocratic tone that I can’t do anything but balk at as he claims Mum’s hand and kisses the back of it. “You may call me Theo.”

“Lovely to meet you,” Mum practically gushes.

“The pleasure is mine, Mrs. Sakura,” Theo says with a dip of his chin. Creed is probably restraining his eye roll as much as I am right now.

“And I’m Creed,” he says with less spectacle, taking Mum’s hand in both of his and shaking it gentlemanly.

“Lovely to meet you, too,” Mum says to him, then turns her attention to me. “How do you all know each other?”

Shit, I knew she’d ask.

I say the first thing that comes to mind. “We’re dating.”

Are we dating really? More like fucking. No, it feels like more than that, but it also doesn’t feel like dating, either.

Is it more than dating, then?

Her perfectly shaped brows rise. “Both of them?”

My mouth pops open and Heartbreaker chokes on a stifled laugh.

“I’m dating Creed ,” I clarify.

“Oh,” she chuckles. “Well, it wouldn’t matter if it was both.”

“Theo can only wish,” I say, drawing another chuckle from Mum. “It’s just Creed.”

“Must be serious, then,” Mum comments in jest.

“ Very ,” Creed confirms before I can say anything. The conviction of that simple word makes my chest flutter and my cheeks heat.

Mum lets go of me and hooks her arm into Creed’s. “Let me introduce you to my husband, Benjiro.”

I’m left standing dumbfounded as she pulls Creed toward Dad, seemingly at complete ease with him already.

“That went better than expected,” Heartbreaker comments beside me.

“Yeah,” is all I can say as I watch Dad and Creed shake hands, then Austin clap him on the arm in a friendly manner.

I don’t understand what dimension I’ve stepped into where my parents are having a jovial conversation with the biker I’m kind of, sort of, maybe more than dating.

“You still didn’t tell me why you’re both here,” I comment, still watching Creed.

“Creed won’t let you out of his sight until the ‘A’ problem is sorted out,” Heartbreaker says. “And I’m here to make sure Creed doesn’t start some shit that’s bound to find him in these circles.”

My head turns to Heartbreaker. Gone is his easy smile, replaced with seriousness and…concern?

I’m about to ask a slew of questions when my name being called pulls both our attention and we turn toward the voice.

Lime-green hair and a shimmery silver dress make a smile burst across my face.

“ Posey? ” I call excitedly as she shuffles quickly on sky-high heels and wraps me in a tight embrace. “What are you doing here?”

“Welles Foundation,” she says, like I should know. At my silence, she giggles. “My parents run the foundation.”

“You’re a Welles?” I say in disbelief.

“Posey Welles, in the flesh.”

The Welleses are a high society family going back generations. My parents made Sakura a name in the last thirty years, but the Welleses, like the Herringtons, are old money.

“And you, you little minx,” she jests. “You didn’t tell me you’re Scarlett Sakura .”

I laugh. “That’s me.”

Posey shakes her head incredulously. “Shit, of all the people to meet on a tram.”

My thoughts exactly.

“This is who you were with two weeks ago?” Heartbreaker asks next to me.

We both turn swiftly to him like we forgot he was here.

“I met Posey and her friends after dinner,” I confirm.

“So, you were at W ?” Heartbreaker seems angry at me. I don’t know why he suddenly would be.

“Have we met before?” Posey asks him. “I feel like we have.”

“Scarlett,” another familiar voice says, and we all turn.

What the fuck is happening tonight?

Isaac, Del’s brother, approaches with someone I never thought I’d see again.

“Sta—Clara?” I blurt out.

Star. The woman who was Enzo’s lap buddy at that poker table last year. The night Creed, Teo and I ended up in that hotel room.

She’s just as annoyingly stunning, with long, voluminous brown hair falling in waves over one shoulder, and wearing a fitted maroon dress that compliments her dark bronze skin and dark eyes. Isaac wears a black suit and tie with a white shirt.

“Songbird,” she says with a genuine smile.

“Scarlett,” I amend as she steps forward and pulls me into a brief hug.

“Is this the new dress Bastille just got in? With the drop back?” she asks, appraising the dress I have on under the jacket. It’s silk satin in sage green with a high split up one thigh and a cowl neckline draped over my chest. It clings in just the right places and in just the right way over my curves, but still flows effortlessly to the floor.

“It is.” Her keen eye reminds me she’s in fashion or a model.

“This colour is absolute perfection,” she says, stepping back to Isaac’s side.

He wraps his arms around her in a very familiar way.

“Seems like you know my cousin as well?” Clara says, looking between me and Posey.

Cousin. I pull at the seemingly useless knowledge I have of upper society. Clara has to be Clara Tannis, making Posey’s mum her aunt.

“And you know Isaac?” I ask.

Isaac and Clara look at each other lovingly.

“We met about six months ago,” Isaac confirms.

“I was visiting with my aunt when Isaac was picking up Silvia from the house. And, well, here we are.”

I nod with a tight smile. Del is going to eat this up when I fill her in.

“Is Del here tonight?” Isaac asks hopefully, like he knew I was just thinking about her.

“Not tonight,” I say.

His face falls slightly. “Tell her to call me?”

“Sure.” I can only imagine the discomfort someone must feel when a sibling freezes you out.

I technically have two siblings that Mum and Dad adopted before me, but they were already adults and had left the Sakuras by the time I moved in. We see each other for holidays, but it’s more a friendship connection than family.

But Del is family, and from what she has told me about her and Isaac’s past, though, I question Isaac’s motives for reconciliation. Why now after almost a decade?

“Is your brother here, too?” Heartbreaker asks Posey, drawing my attention back from my suspicions of Isaac.

Posey looks around. “He—”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jay’s voice comes from behind us. He steps into the gap between me and Clara, completing this weird circle of circumstance meetings. “Theo Masters. It’s been a decade.”

“Jude,” Heartbreaker says in a clipped tone. He seems to move a little closer to me.

Jay, Jude , cleans up nicely in a deep brown suit and white shirt, sans tie. His attention moves from Heartbreaker to me.

“Scar,” he says in surprised confusion.

“Good to see you again, Jay.”

“You know Theo?” He looks between us. “Dating?”

A warm, hard body presses into me as an arm wraps around my waist, the hold possessive.

“She’s with me,” Creed says, his voice vibrating through me.

Jay’s eyes widen like he’s seeing a ghost. “Shit. Vasek? ”

“Jude,” Creed says in the same clipped tone as Heartbreaker.

“Your dad told us you were—”

“Dead?” Creed surmises. “Figures.”

Jay winces. “He’s here, you know.”

“Great,” Creed says under his breath.

Jay pulls out his phone briefly, his brow creasing at whatever he sees, then he pockets it again and holds out his hand. “If you’ll excuse me. Good to see you, Creed.”

After a beat, Creed takes his hand and shakes it once. “Jude.”

Jay does the same to Heartbreaker, then kisses his sister’s cheek and says something in her ear which makes her roll her eyes, then he disappears into the crowd.

“I have so many questions,” I say under my breath, knowing Creed can hear me.

“So do I, princess,” he responds.

Posey crosses over to me and grabs my forearm gently. “Join me to the ladies.”

The glint in her eye screams gossip.

I nod and she steps back as I turn in Creed’s hold. “You okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” he says, but the pinching at the corner of his eyes says differently.

“I won’t be long, but I have my phone if you need a rescue.”

He cups my cheek, his eyes searching my face. “Be careful.”

I stretch up and kiss him briefly. “You too.”

Posey hooks her arm through mine and pulls me away from Creed, heading toward the side of the room.

“And I thought this night was going to be dull,” Posey says as we bypass the main bathroom everyone’s going to and head for a ‘Staff Only’ door.

“Same,” I say as she pulls us through to a bustling kitchen, weaving in and out of fast-moving waiters and chefs. She stops by a bench lined with trays of canapes, rearranges one of them with selections from other plates, then picks it up and hands it to me before we’re on the move again.

She takes me to an office in the back and closes the door behind us. It’s a functional room with a desk, a couple of filing cabinets, and a couch that fits under the wall that has one-way glass looking out into the kitchen.

“It’s surprisingly quiet in here,” I comment out loud as I put the tray on the low table in front of the couch and perch on the edge.

“One second,” Posey says, then darts back out to the kitchen. She stops one of the waitstaff and gives her instructions I can’t hear, which they nod to and dart away.

Posey returns to me and sits on the couch.

“Are we allowed to be in here?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she breathes, looking over the food. “Our family is hosting and I’m banging the head chef.”

“Do I need to be concerned about sitting on this couch?”

Posey giggles as the waiter returns with champagne flutes and an open bottle on ice. They place the items by our food and leaves swiftly.

“No.” She waggles her eyebrows, passing me a flute and picking up the champagne. “Not yet.”

We both laugh, as she pours us each a glass, then take a sip, then start on the canapes.

“Okay, fill me in,” I say, picking up a crostini topped with smoked salmon and cream cheese.

“First, I must know how you know Isaac and Clara.”

“Isaac is my best friend’s half-brother.”

Posey frowns while she sips her champagne. “I got the vibe you and Silvia weren’t particularly friendly.”

“Not Silvia, his other half-sister, Del. On his mum’s side.”

“Oh,” Posey says in familiarity. She then winces. “Yeah, Silvia has said some not-so-nice things about her.”

“Bitch,” I breathe out, then drink half of my champagne.

“I’m with you there,” Posey says, picking up the bottle and tops up our drinks. “Del is marrying Enzo Herrington, right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s what she talks about the most,” Posey says between bites of the goat cheese and pear croustades. “She’s definitely jealous.”

“Jay must love that attitude,” I comment, drinking more. At this rate, I’m going to be halfway tipsy by the time we get back. That thought reminds me to get out my phone from my bag.

Posey makes a disgusted sound. “He’s such an idiot. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even like her, but Dad was all ‘she’s a Bennett’ blah-blah-blah.”

“Speaking of Jay,” I say carefully. “Do you know how he knows Creed and Theo?”

Posey nods as she tops up our drinks again. “They all went to high school together.”

I frown trying to process that information, but Posey continues.

“Jay was two years below them, but Creed and Theo were ‘ the guys’ in their time. Creed is a Vasek, their family almost as old as mine, but Theo, from what I heard, wasn’t from our circles.”

She says ‘our circles’ like I was born into it.

My expression must change enough that it makes Posey reach over and grab my hand. “I’m sorry, I sound entitled as fuck. I’m regurgitating information without thinking about what I’m saying. Jay was a little obsessed with your boyfriend back in the day.”

“So, what happened?” I ask, returning to the conversation. “Jay said he hadn’t seen Theo in ten years.”

I know what happened; they joined Savage Wings.

Posey shrugs and sits back. “They both disappeared just after they graduated. There were so many rumours flying around, and then Creed’s dad suddenly announced he was dead with no explanation three months later.”

“And no one questioned it?” I ask. Surely someone enquired about details.

Posey shakes her head. “You don’t question Filip Vasek. He’s looking to be the next Chief Justice in the Supreme Court.”

I cover my snort in my champagne flute as I take another sip. Having a son as the president of a criminal motorcycle club, I can understand why he said Creed was dead.

“He sounds like a dick,” I comment before shoving a mini pesto arancini into my mouth. The catering here is fantastic.

Posey makes a face confirming my suspicions before finishing her whole drink.

I check my phone—there’s nothing from Creed—but I feel antsy to get back to him in case he happens to run into his father. If Heartbreaker was around for whatever happened ten years ago, then I see him starting a problem, not diffusing one if the Vaseks come face-to-face.

“Let’s head back,” I say, tipping back the rest of my drink.

“I’ll be right behind you,” Posey says as we both stand.

“Make sure you take that dress off completely so none of the beading rips off from the friction ,” I insinuate with a wink.

Posey erupts into giggles as I exit the office and weave through the kitchen, back toward the ballroom.