Lessons Learned (The Gifted Realm Book 2)

by Jillian Neal

  “I’d tell her soon, Rainer. We had ten children. If I’d waited to tell Lillian things until everything was calm, we wouldn’t have spoken for nearly thirty years. That isn’t how marriage works.”

  After that piece of advice, Governor Haydenshire slapped Rainer on the shoulder and headed back into the house.

  Rainer and Logan meandered to the end of the dock. A goading smirk etched Logan’s face, but he was quiet for a few minutes as Rainer contemplated everything Governor Haydenshire had told him. It wasn’t the first time that he was immensely thankful that the Haydenshires didn’t read the tabloids like The Gravity.

  “So,” Logan quipped, “Where were your hands, Rainer?” he mimicked his father’s voice.

  Rainer rolled his eyes as he skipped a rock out over the lake. Logan studied him, and then cocked his jaw to the side and shook his head. “In a restaurant? That’s sick, man.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

  “Uh huh, I don’t think so. We’ve been best friends since we were born. I might even say that I know you better than the girl you had your fingers up in a restaurant in New York last night, and I knew you were lying when you told Dad that.”

  He refused to either confirm or deny Logan’s suspicions. He tried hard not to laugh. Logan leaned and knocked him to the side with a great deal of force. “That’s sick, man. You eat with those hands?”

  Rainer raised his eyebrow with a goading grin and waited on Logan to catch on to the unspoken insinuation. Logan shuddered and pretended to gag. “I do not want to think about that!”

  “You said it, not me.”

  “Ugh! Wait ‘til I tell Dad,” Logan teased.

  This time, Rainer nearly edged Logan off of the dock. “You tell your dad what I did, and I’ll tell the papers we’ve had something going on for years. You know we’ve shared a bedroom since we were kids. You’ve always been the one for me.”

  Logan cracked up. “Well-played.”

  Rainer pretended to bow as they laughed heartily.

  They sauntered back in the house with Logan still harassing Rainer about what he’d done to Emily in the restaurant.

  Appropriate Dinner Conversations

  Mrs. Haydenshire served dinner after Rainer and Logan set the table. Everyone settled in hungrily.

  “Geez, did you wash your hands, Rainer? I mean we’re about to eat.” Logan teased with a goading smirk as Rainer narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like where this was going.

  “Yes, Logan, I did.” He shot Logan a warning glare.

  Emily and Adeline studied Logan confusedly. Conversation picked up as Connor casually mentioned that he was thinking of asking Katie, the Angels Junior Shield, out on a date when his father inquired about his love life.

  Rainer picked up the napkin in his lap and wiped his hands before cutting another bite of his chicken.

  “Oh, what’s wrong there, Rainer? Get something on your fingers?” Logan goaded with heavy emphasis on the last word.

  Rainer glared at him hatefully. Emily rolled her eyes. She still didn’t understand what Logan was up to, and went back to encouraging Connor to ask Katie out for the party, after the first game the following Saturday.

  “This is delicious, Mrs. Haydenshire.” Rainer gestured to the roasted chicken on his plate.

  “Yep… nice and juicy.” Logan quipped.

  Rainer shot another warning glare and mouthed “Shut the hell up!”

  After laughing silently, Logan shook his head and waggled his eyebrows at Rainer.

  “Hey, Mom, you know what we should have soon?” Logan was on the brink of cracking up.

  His mother studied him speculatively. “What’s that, dear?”

  “Chicken fingers.”

  Rainer took a well-aimed kick into Logan’s shin. Logan stifled a groan and then sneered. “Yeah, I think chicken fingers would be very pleasurable. I think they’d really hit the spot.”

  “If you want chicken fingers so badly, I can make them for you,” Adeline offered. She studied Logan like he might’ve lost his mind.

  Rainer guffawed, unable to help himself, as Logan turned bright red. The Governor and Mrs. Haydenshire shared a quizzical glance.

  Irritated that Rainer had gotten the last laugh, Logan decided to up the ante by discussing human hands.

  “Think about everything we can do with them.” He held out his right hand and gazed at it in mocked awe. “We summon with them, eat with them, make things, fix things, feel things.” He stared directly at Rainer.

  Rainer rolled his eyes and shook his head. Suddenly, Emily figured out what Logan had been discussing, and what Rainer must’ve confessed. She glared at him; Rainer knew she was furious.

  He shook his head slightly and willed her to understand, but she threw her napkin down, declared herself done, and stomped away from the table.

  “I’m, uh, finished as well.” Rainer stammered quickly. He cleared his and Emily’s places and then raced out the back door to find her.

  He started towards her loft but then spotted her out on the dock. He took off in a heated sprint and made it to her in under a minute.

  “Em, your dad asked me about the paper, and Logan knew I was lying. I didn’t mean to tell him,” poured from his mouth in a heated plea.

  “How could you?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Rainer! Ugh!” She began pacing up and down the dock.

  “Baby,” Rainer tried, but her eyes flashed dangerously, and he knew he was in for it.

  “Baby? Don’t ‘baby’ me! How dare you tell him something like that? That was private and special and…” she narrowed her eyes. “Why do you all have to be such stupid macho pigs?”

  “Emily,” Rainer soothed, “Please, I’m sorry! I swear I would never have told him about that. He was standing right here when your dad asked me where my hands were, and he knew I was lying. He’s known me since I was two days old. He kind of has my number.”

  “What did you say to my dad?” she demanded.

  Rainer drew a deep breath and hemmed. “He asked me where my hands were when the waiter couldn’t see them, and I said they weren’t anywhere they shouldn’t have been. Which, if you think about it, is kind of true.”

  She shot him a look that said he should consider himself very, very lucky if his hands or any other of his body parts got anywhere near there, at any point, in the near future.

  “Em, I didn’t know what to do or say. I’m so sorry. You know what that means to me, and you know I would never brag about something like that to Logan.”

  “It really wasn’t his fault,” Logan offered as he made his way to them in several long strides. Since neither he nor Emily had noticed his approach, Rainer was thankful it wasn’t Governor Haydenshire.

  “Don’t beat him up, Em. He didn’t tell me. I guessed, and it was in the paper. I knew he was lying to Dad when he asked him, and I called him on it. I’m sorry. Be mad at me, not Rainer.”

  Emily spun, and shoved Logan hard in the chest.

  “Why did you keep doing that at dinner? You’re not twelve!”

  “Hey,” Logan caught her hands before she could push him again.

  “Let go of me!” She wriggled, and Rainer grasped Logan’s wrists.

  “Let her go, Logan.”

  “Not if she’s gonna shove me in the freaking lake!”

  “She’s not,” Rainer turned his warning glare on Emily. Logan released her arms, and she crossed them over her chest with her temper at full tilt.

  “Neither of you will ever say another word about any of this.”

  Logan and Rainer nodded their agreement.

  With that, she stomped back towards the house. Rainer reached for her, but she shifted quickly to the side and away from his grasp.

  “She’s a hot mess, man. You sure you know what you’re getting yourself into?” Logan glared at his sister as she marched away.

  “Logan, just shut up, okay?” He took off to catch Emily before she made her way back
into the house.

  “Emily, please!” he called as she neared the back porch.

  She halted and spun to seat herself on one of the lower steps. Hot tears were flowing rapidly down her face.

  “I am so sorry, Emily. I should never have done that in a restaurant. I really didn’t think anyone would ever know. I just wanted to share something private with you, something only we would know about. I guess that’s more than I should ever hope for, though.”

  “No,” she shook her head and let him brush away her tears. “I really loved that. I felt like that, too. Like it was something just for us.” She shuddered as her tears began spilling from her eyes faster. Her chin trembled as she laid her head on him. The motion soothed his soul, and he wrapped her up in his arms.

  “I don’t think it would’ve bothered me so much for Logan to know, if the whole stupid Realm didn’t know!”

  “Nobody knows anything. No one saw what I was doing, sweetheart. For some ridiculous reason people want to pretend that they know everything about you and me, or me and whoever they’ve decided I’m cheating with this week.” His anger grew with every word.

  “Samantha, or hell… Logan. No one seems to give a damn if there’s any truth to any of it or not.” He held her tenderly, but the anger and fury flowed rapidly through his veins.

  “But that, baby, that was just you and me. We are the only people who really know what went on in that booth last night.”

  “And, you know what, Em? Even if Logan did figure it out, he doesn’t have a clue about what that meant to me, or how much I loved giving you that, or what I feel when you let me in, when you’re with me like that. No one will ever know how much that means to me. No one but you.” He squeezed her tightly and willed her to feel the love that flowed so readily out of him and into her.

  “Rainer,” whispered from her lips, “You always say stuff like that, and then I can’t be mad at you anymore.”

  “It’s the truth, Emily.” He held her chin tenderly between his thumb and index finger. “I love you so much, and I will do everything in my power to make certain that our dates don’t end up in the papers anymore.”

  “Last night was perfect, Rainer, so I’m just going to pretend that the press never showed up, because I loved last night, and I love you.”

  He let her words heal his fractured heart and mend his weary soul. He squeezed her tighter. “I love you, too, Em. More than life itself.”

  “But I kind of feel like you’re keeping something from me, and then you told Logan that.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just feel something weird from you.”

  His boss having figured out what they’d done, and his assigning his inheritance to Logan, seared through Rainer’s mind. It was extremely difficult to keep anything from a Receiver, especially one you were sleeping with.

  He worked very hard to keep his emotions regulated whenever he was around her. As long as he didn’t think about his will, it was fine.

  He considered telling her everything. He didn’t like keeping things from her, but now didn’t really seem to be the best time. After deciding that he would tell her everything soon, Rainer squeezed her tighter.

  “I’ve just been really stressed with work, and I’m so worried about you all the time.” He wasn’t going to lie to her outright. Those were both very true statements.

  Emily nuzzled her head under his chin. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine as long as I know you’re fine, and that you’re not keeping anything from me.”

  “Okay,” Rainer carefully agreed as he kissed the top of her head.

  Be Careful What You Wish For…

  “Em still asleep?” Logan quizzed as Rainer poured himself a bowl of cereal the next morning. He began flipping through the paper, anxious to see if there had been anything else about his and Emily’s New York trip that might’ve made it to the presses.

  His heart sank rapidly into his stomach as he dropped his spoon. Rainer let his eyes close and willed the headline to say something, anything, different than what he’d just read.

  “What?” Logan and Adeline shared a concerned glance as Logan jerked the paper out of Rainer’s hand. “Are you freakin’ kidding me?”

  Rainer opened his eyes to see that the headline still read:

  Stan Lawson, brother of beloved Crown Governor Joseph Lawson, to sue nephew for half of the Lawson estate.

  Logan shook his head, and determination broadcasted from his jawline.

  “Man, you know that no one is going to give him a dime.”

  “I know,” Rainer sighed as his eyes fell to the line:

  Stanley Lawson is claiming that his nephew, Rainer, has proven himself irresponsible and unfit to manage the estate, due to his engagement to newest Arlington Angel Receiver, Emily Haydenshire, without first making her sign a pre-nuptial agreement.

  “Rainer, I’m so sorry,” Adeline gave him a sweet smile.

  He nodded, and reminded himself that no one in the Realm would award his good-for-nothing uncle a penny, but he didn’t want to go through a trial and drag Emily into it.

  “It’ll be another field day for the press.” He plunged his spoon into the bowl viciously. “Hey, I don’t want Em to see that yet. I’ll tell her later. It’ll just upset her, and they’re trying to get ready for the exhibition this weekend.”

  Logan shared another quick glance with Adeline. “Hey, Rainer. It’s none of my business, and I want to keep Em safe, too, but have you thought about how many times you’ve said that lately?” The concern wasn’t well-concealed in the warning.

  “I’ll tell her everything. Just not right now. I’m not gonna go wake her up before she has to go practice just to tell her that our estate is threatened by my moronic uncle, and that his premise for the suit is my not making her sign a pre-nup.”

  Logan nodded his obviously begrudging agreement. He folded the paper and then handed it back to Rainer. “That sucks, man. I’m really sorry.”

  “I figured he’d do something. I was just waiting to see what. I guess now I know.”

  “You gonna hire Jack?”

  “He’s the best, right?”

  “Yeah,” Logan agreed then glanced at his watch. “Hey, we better go. Vindico’s probably already buried our desks.”

  The weather was ominous, with low black clouds and heat swimming in the air that surrounded Arlington.

  Rainer drove to the Pentagon and tried to come up with a way to tell Emily that he’d named Logan his beneficiary, and that his uncle was suing them.

  She wasn’t likely to handle the lawsuit well. She would feel it was her fault, but delaying telling her things didn’t actually seem to make them any easier.

  “I wish we would just do something at work. I’m sick of looking at evidence.” Logan grumbled.

  “I know.” Rainer quickly joined his team. “I mean, if all of Wretchkinsides’ guys are out there, or whatever, then why the hell can’t we go get them? I’m sick of sitting at our desks. That’s what we did at the Academy, and I was in the lamest car chase in history yesterday.”

  He would never have admitted, even to Logan, that, before it was over, he’d been quite terrified.

  Logan laughed. “Maybe we’ll get to do something cool today. Mitch’s dad was supposed to tell Vindico stuff over the weekend, right?”

  “Yeah,” Rainer had almost forgotten the deal struck between Mitchell O’Ryan, Sr. and Vindico.

  He followed Logan in through the Iodex checkpoints and felt defeat settle on him as he took in a new stack of evidence folders sitting on his desk.

  “Hey, Lawson, I saw the paper this morning. I’m sorry, man.” Vindico offered very kindly.

  “Yeah, I guess I need to talk to Stariff again.”

  Vindico glanced at his watch. “Hey, why don’t you head down there? Jack’s in early today. There’s a trial this morning, and we still have a little while before everyone will be in. I’m gonna go over everything I got off of O’Ryan yesterday, but your assignments won’t start until a
round lunch, so you have a little while.”

  Rainer stood. He tried not to sound shocked. “Uh, thanks.” He gave Vindico a genuine smile.

  Thunder bellowed outside the Senate as he made his way through the Governors’ wing. He lifted his phone from his pocket.

  Emily was terrified of storms. A driving rain had blackened the sky when her family had gotten the call that Cal had been killed, and it had rained even harder when her car had been run off of the bridge as she’d searched for Rainer that evening.

  Rainer passed the Auxiliary Wing of the Senate. Most Receivers hated storms. He saw a few of the Receivers on staff slinking away from the windows and gathering near the coffeemakers closer to the door.

  They could all feel the sheer amount of violent energy inside of a storm. It affected their reads on emotions around them. Their Receiving energies spiked and dipped erratically and generally made them weak and nervous.

  “Hey,” Emily answered her cell on the first ring.

  “You okay, baby?” He could see her in his mind’s eye. Her hair would be a mess after sleeping. Her bottom lip would be in her mouth from worry, and she would pace as she tried to stay away from the windows.

  His heart sank as thunder rent the sky again. She would tremble whenever the windowpanes shook from the force.

  “I’m okay.” She hadn’t meant to lie. It was what she thought she was supposed to be.

  “You gonna be all right to drive to the arena? I can try to come home and get you.” He tried to come up with some way to make Vindico understand that Emily’s fear of storms was more than even most Auxiliary Predilects.

  “No, you have to work. I’ll be fine. I’m gonna leave in a minute, so I can drive really slow.” She seemed to decide this as they talked.

  “Ok, baby. Call me if you need me.”

  “I will. Will you call and check on me at lunch?”

  “Of course. I love you so much, Em. You’re gonna be fine, okay? I can try to come pick you up tonight, if I get out of here at a decent hour.”

  “That would be great. I’ve wanted you to come out and meet everyone. I mean, you know, just like you and not like all of Iodex because you’ve been called out.” She fumbled over her explanation.