Chapter 14 Untitled Chapter
A few guests shifted uneasily. Kendrix caught it. So did Adrian.
“You think I’m scared of him?”
Bash blinked. “No. But I think you’re smart enough to be bored of dying young.”
Skyler stepped in, quieter. “Adrian. Just walk with us.”
Adrian looked at him. Then back at Kendrix. Something unreadable crossed his face.
Roberto’s voice cut low. “Leave.”
Not a warning this time. Pressure.
Bash lifted his drink. “Come on, man. Don’t do the whole Lucifer thing in front of guests.”
Adrian’s mouth twitched. Then he exhaled.
“Fine.” But his eyes stayed on Kendrix a beat too long. “Interesting,” he said under his breath and turned.
Bash fell into step beside him. “Great choice. You’re already improving your lifespan.”
Skyler followed, glancing back once at
Roberto and Kendrix.
As they walked, Bash leaned toward Adrian.
“Just so you know, if you come back in five minutes, I’m pretending I don’t know you.”
Adrian scoffed. “You’re still the same.”
“Unfortunately, so are you,” Bash said.
They disappeared toward the side doors.
The room loosened. Barely but enough to breathe.
Kendrix let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Her chest still felt tight.
She turned to Roberto. He was already looking at her. Not at Adrian. Not at the room. Just her. Like everything else was noise.
She swallowed. “What was that?”
Roberto didn’t answer right away.
His jaw was tight. “Nothing you need to carry tonight.”
Kendrix laughed, short and bitter. “People keep saying that to me.”
His gaze didn’t move. “I know.”
That was worse. Because the danger hadn’t left with Adrian. It had just stopped pretending.
The music shifted quietly. People turned toward the center of the ballroom without being told. A quiet ripple moved through the guests.
Kendrix frowned. “What now?”
Roberto didn’t answer. His fingers brushed her wrist briefly.
Her stomach tightened.“Don’t do anything weird,” she muttered.
A faint exhale left him. “I never do anything weird.”
Kendrix gave him a look. “That’s objectively false.”
He didn’t argue. He stepped forward. The room reacted without sound and people shifted uncomfortably.
Roberto’s voice was calm.“Everyone.”
The room went quiet. Even Bash shut up.
Skyler straightened. Nora looked up.
Kendrix felt it in her chest before she understood it. This wasn’t a conversation.
This was control.
“You’re here tonight for an engagement announcement,” Roberto said. “And it is.”
It landed wrong. Too final and too clean.
A few guests shifted. Someone whispered, then stopped.
Roberto’s eyes flicked to her.
“You already know me. Some of you don’t know her.”
Kendrix stiffened. Her name wasn’t spoken. It didn’t need to be.
Every head turned her way and she hated it instantly.
Roberto moved closer. Not possessive. Not soft. Deliberate.
“She will be known tonight as my fiancée.”
The silence that followed was ominous.
Even the music seemed to hesitate.
Kendrix blinked. Then scoffed.
“You can’t just…”
“She is not a guest here,” he said. “She is my bride.”
Bride. No engagement. No arrangement.
Just final.
Kendrix turned to him sharp. “You’re insane.”
Her voice didn’t carry.
Roberto looked at her for half a second longer than usual.
“Keep calm,” he said quietly.
It didn't sound like an order. It sounded like something lower. Too personal for the room.
He turned back to the guests. “I expect respect, not curiosity. Enjoy the night.”
That was it. Like he hadn’t just dropped a bomb. Whispers started again. The music came to live.
Kendrix stood frozen. Then she laughed once, under her breath. Not because it was funny. Because she didn’t know what else to do.
“Bride,” she said quietly.
Roberto’s fingers brushed hers again.
Barely. Warning. Promising. She couldn’t tell which.
And the ballroom moved again. But nothing felt normal.
Roberto stepped back half a pace and held out his hand. “Dance with me.”
Kendrix stared at it like it might bite.
“Now?”
“Before they start deciding what you mean to me for themselves.”
That made her jaw tighten. So did the way half the room was still watching.
She looked at his hand. Then at him. Then at the exit that felt too far.
“Fine,” she muttered. “But if you step on my feet, I’m leaving you limping.”
His mouth thinned into a line. Something almost amused crossed his face. He didn’t answer. Just took her hand and led her onto the floor.
The music adjusted. Slower now. Close enough that she could feel the tension in his shoulders.
“Don’t think this changes anything,” she said almost in a whisper.
“I know,” he said. “And yet, you’re here.”
Kendrix hated that he sounded sure of it.
She hated it more that she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t pulled away yet.
The music kept playing after the dance.
But the room felt different. Eyes shifted back to them immediately. Conversations restarted, low and careful, over the clink of glasses.
Staying close to Roberto suddenly felt harder than it should have. That dance got under her skin. He watched her. Too calm. Too unreadable. Like none of it touched him. It pissed her off.
“Well,” she muttered, “that was psychologically disturbing.”
Something almost amused slid across his face.
“You stayed.”
“I was publicly threatened.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“You trapped me in front of a lot of people.”
“But you’re still here.”
Kendrix opened her mouth then stopped.
The room shifted quietly. Like it noticed something before anyone said it.
People near the entrance straightened. Conversations thinned. Even the staff looked sharper.
Kendrix frowned. “What again now?”
Bash was at the bar, watching the entrance like he already knew. “If this party gets worse, I’m stealing a bottle and disappearing.”
Skyler didn’t answer. That made Bash look at him.
“Why do you look stressed?”
“Because I know who just walked in.”
She came in steady. Not dramatic. Like she knew the house and didn’t need permission.
Kendrix saw it in the room first. The recognition in the faces of the guests.
The woman wore black. Her face was calm and cold. Like she had locked everything away before she walked through the door. Her eyes swept the room once measuredly. Then locked on Roberto and stayed there.
Kendrix’s stomach twisted. Not out of jealousy, but out of instinct.
The woman didn’t smile. Didn’t greet anyone. Just looked at Roberto like she was confirming something.
“Who’s that?” Kendrix asked quietly.
Bash exhaled through his nose. “Ah. Fantastic.”
Skyler looked exhausted. “Nobody starts anything.”
“That sentence alone is concerning,” Kendrix said.
Neither of them answered.
Kylie walked toward them with calm steps.
Roberto didn’t move. Didn’t straighten.
Didn’t react. And that felt worse.
She stopped a few feet away.
“You didn’t tell me,” Kylie said.
Her voice came out smooth with an underneath pressure.
Roberto didn’t change expression. “I didn’t need to.”
Kylie nodded once, like she expected it.
Then her eyes moved past him to Kendrix.
And Kendrix understood why Skyler looked tense.
Kylie didn’t look at people. She dissected them with precision.
“Kendrix,” Bash said quietly, “meet Kylie.”
“That explanation feels incomplete.”
“It is.”
Kylie studied her a beat too long. “You’re not what I expected.”
Kendrix crossed her arms. “I’m getting tired of hearing that tonight.”