Stay With Me (She's With Me #2) - Jessica Cunsolo Page 0,82

I’ve stepped into a scene straight out of The Great Gatsby, but modern, and even richer, if that was possible.

A woman walks by with a purse I know costs about $20,000 (because Charlotte is obsessed with it), and I think maybe I really shouldn’t touch anything.

Aiden takes a deep breath beside me. Although he has his impassive mask on, I can feel the rage bubbling beneath the surface, begging for someone to say one wrong thing or make one wrong move so it can be unleashed. A server walks by with flutes of champagne and Aiden plucks one off and hands it to me, as if sensing that I’m just as overwhelmed as he is.

“I’ve never felt the urge to drink in my life, until right now,” Aiden mutters as he takes in the scene in front of him, his posture rigid and his jaw clenched.

“I can’t drive stick,” I answer, taking a sip of the champagne he handed me.

He takes another breath, spotting something in the distance and following it with his eyes. “I know. Remind me to teach you one day.”

“You’re Aiden Parker,” comes a voice from beside us.

The woman is familiar, but I can’t place her until I read the reporters’ pass dangling from a Channel Five lanyard.

“I’m Vivienne Henfrey from Channel Five News,” she says, voicing what I already put together. She was the one hounding Andrew at the fair the other day.

“How do you know who I am?” Aiden asks, his expression giving nothing away.

“When you’re dealing with someone as crooked as Andrew Kessler, you do your research.” She reaches into her handbag and pulls out a business card. Her eyes remind me of a viper eyeing its prey. “I’d love to talk to you about your father.”

Aiden stares at the card in her outstretched hand for a few beats, then takes it. “He’s not my father.”

She gives him a sympathetic smile, but everything about her screams of her ambition. “Of course. He hasn’t been your father in years.”

Aiden’s gaze finds something in the distance again. “Sure,” he says simply to her, and without taking his eyes off whatever he’s trailing, he says to me, “Come on.”

Leaving Vivienne behind, I set the champagne flute down on a random table and let him lead me in the direction he was looking, skillfully weaving around people. Even here, Aiden’s presence is too much to ignore, and people move out of our way like they do in the halls at school. We exit the ballroom and walk through the house, where there are still tons of people mingling. Every tidbit of conversation we hear that’s Kessler’s so great, or Kessler’s so generous, or Kessler’s an amazing guy, makes Aiden’s hand in mine tighten a little bit more.

We slip behind a security guard and head down a hallway that’s definitely off limits. My footsteps are softened by the red carpet, and I can’t help but stare at all the abstract paintings we pass. Was that one signed Picasso? Aiden pulls us to a stop in front of a room from which voices are drifting out from, and we move to the side so as to not be seen.

“How did you lose my son?” Kessler asks, his voice venomous.

“I’m not a babysitter,” comes the flat answer, and I know it’s from the large man, Harvey.

“You have to get him under control,” comes another voice, a woman’s. It sounds elegant even though she’s clearly not happy. “We can’t afford anything that would jeopardize you not winning this election. Do you know how royally fucked we’d be?”

“Yes, Katherine,” comes Andrew’s harsh reply, and I realize that’s his wife. “I’m aware of the money we took and the promises we made.”

“Those aren’t the kind of people we can fuck over. Do you remember my cousin Vincent?” Katherine asks.

“No.”

“Exactly!” she screeches, and I hear a glass being set down. I imagine she just chugged whatever alcoholic drink she had in her hand. “We have too much riding on this to let your stupid kid fuck it up.”

“Calm down, Katherine. You know I’ll do anything to win. I’m not going to let a kid I never even wanted fuck it up.”

“I still can’t believe you had him,” she says like it’s the most absurd thing she’s ever heard.

“We’ve been over this. You know I only married his mom because I knocked her up. I’d never see him or his stupid bratty brothers if I didn’t have to. I’m never going back to the life I