Chapter 11: The Lunar Suite Invitation I Shouldn't Have Followed
The ballroom annex hummed that night like it hadn't heard anything at all. Same marble under my shoes, same large multi-pane window at the far end of the dressing suite, only now the light coming through it wasn't daylight. It was the amber wash from the parking lot lamps outside, reflected back through the glass and thrown low across the floor. The caterers had laid a runner down the main hall for the House Lancaster gala, but back here in the private wing, the floor was still bare and cold and loud when anyone walked on it.
I'd stayed near the service door where Deputy Alvarez had told me to stay. She wasn't in uniform. Black dress, small clutch, earpiece tucked behind her hair. She'd checked the bodycam herself that afternoon at the station while Ray sat with the sheriff's copy of the fifteen-second video. The audio was clean there, every verbatim line locked. This part was supposed to be live.
"You don't have to go in there," Alvarez had said earlier, her voice low. "We can pull them out here."
I nodded, but I didn't answer right away. My hands were tight around my own collar without thinking about it. Different dress tonight, not the pajamas, but the same habit.
That's when Jace appeared in the doorway. Buzz cut, stubble catching the warm light, black leather jacket zipped halfway. Same jacket from the other night. Ellis was half a step behind him in the vest, his wavy hair pulled back, hands tucked in his pockets like he wasn't trying to look like anything.
Jace didn't come closer. He held his hands up a little.
"Hey," he said. "We wanted to apologize. For real. Can we talk for two minutes? Just in the lunar suite, not out here in front of everybody."
Ellis nodded toward the dressing suite. "No crowd. No scene. We know the foundation doesn't want a scene tonight either."
It was the word that hooked me. Lunar. The same unfinished word from the recording, the same fragment he'd left hanging on the floor that night. If I get to have the lunar. He said it now like it was an offering. An apology needed privacy, he said. House Lancaster had set that suite aside for donors. Quiet room, no cameras inside except what we brought.
I looked past them to where Ray stood by the bar, his eyes already on me. He gave me the smallest shake of his head. Don't. Alvarez touched my elbow, just once, and whispered, "Your call. We hear everything if you go."
I went. I told myself it was because I wanted it on record that they chose the same place again.
The lunar dressing suite smelled like fresh paint and hairspray. The marble was the same, polished to a shine that reflected the window grids even at night. The window itself was dark, but the security floods outside made it glow, that same warm low-key light recreated with bulbs instead of sun. A vanity with a skirted table, a rack of coats, a door that could lock from the inside. I'd left it open two inches the way Alvarez told me.
Jace stepped in first and closed it anyway. Not locked, just closed. Ellis stayed behind me.
"We didn't mean for it to go that far the other night," Jace said, and his voice dropped the way it had on the floor when he was inches from my face. "You hit me. You remember that?"
I didn't answer. My back was almost to the vanity. My breath had gone shallow.
Ellis put his hand lightly on my shoulder, same hold as before, fingers spread. It wasn't friendly.
"You don't need to make this bigger," Ellis said. "Foundation night. Big donors. You don't want them hearing House Lancaster can't even control its own girl."
Jace leaned forward, aggressive the way the video had caught him, leather creaking. His hand came up fast and caught the collar of my dress, twisting the fabric until it pulled against my throat. Same motion as with the pajamas, same blue-piped collar memory even though the fabric was different. My hands shot up and grabbed his wrist.
He grinned, teeth bared, and the words came out exactly as they had before. It wasn't an apology at all.
"Bitch, you dare hit me? By the time we're done, you won't even be able to close your legs," he said, his face inches from mine, spit on his breath, eyes locked.
Ellis laughed behind me and tightened his grip. "If I get to have the lunar," Jace kept going, finishing the fragment from the other night like he'd been waiting to say it whole, "then I get to have whatever else comes with it. House Lancaster isn't going to save you in here."
I could have screamed. The ballroom was right there beyond the wall, a hundred people with champagne. One scream and Ray would have broken the door.
Instead I let go of Jace's wrist with my right hand and pressed the small panic button Alvarez had taped under the vanity lip. Two quick presses. The signal I'd promised.
I spoke then, quiet, so the mic would catch it clean.
"If you dare touch me, House Lancaster will tear you limb from limb," I said, repeating my own line back on purpose, giving them the cue they'd taken before.
Jace sneered and pulled harder on the collar. "Let them try."
The door opened before he could pull again. No crash, no shouting. Alvarez stepped in with Ray right behind her, her clutch open, the red light blinking on the bodycam pinned inside. Two sheriff's deputies filled the doorway behind them, blocking the hall light.
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"Hands off her," Alvarez said, not loud. "You're live. Every word just recorded."
Jace didn't let go right away. Ellis did, his hands coming up. The marble floor reflected all of us at once, the window light behind Jace's shoulder, the leather of his jacket, my hands still locked on his fist at my collar. He was breathing hard through his teeth, still leaning in, still caught in the act when the audio caught him saying it again.
