Page 14 of Lessons in Power

That was less of a question than a demand. Theshein question could only be Ivy.

“Nice to see you, too,” I muttered.

“Were the circumstances different, I would happily spar with you, my dear, but this is not a game, and I am not playing. Where is Ivy?”

“I don’t know,” I said, glad, for once, that Ivy had kept me in the dark.

“You have a cell phone.” That was a statement, not a question. “Call her.” Keyes gave the order like he was God, setting down an eleventh commandment.

I folded my arms over my chest and leveled a narrow-eyed stare at him, all too similar to the look he was aiming at me. “Why?”

“Because,” he snapped back, “she’ll pick upyourcall.”

I wanted to refuse out of principle, but Ivy would want to know that Keyes had come to our home. AndIwanted to know what exactly he was so dead set on saying to her.

I took out my phone and dialed. Ivy picked up on the third ring.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I told her. “But I’m not alone. A certain someone was waiting for me when I got home for school. Tall. Cranky. Overly fond of the Earl of Warwick.”

Keyes snatched the phone from my hand. “You will tell me what you are playing at here, Ivy.”

Those words confirmed for me that there was more going on here than I knew—and Ivy was in the thick of it all.

She won’t tell you anything, I thought in his direction.

On the other end of the phone line, Ivy must have said something to similar effect.

“I’ve heard things,” William Keyes told her, the edge in his voice making the words sound less like a statement and more like a threat.

What kind of things?I wondered.

“There are questions about the way this is being handled, and I don’t need to tell you what those questions could do to the party in the midterms.” Keyes didn’t wait for a response before he went straight for the jugular. “The youngest Nolan boy came to visit you last night. Why?”

Listening to this conversation was like watching the old man play chess. Each move was calculated for maximum effect, part of a larger plan.

Unfortunately for William Keyes, when he’d taught Ivy to play his game, he’d taught her a little too well. She wouldn’t tell him anything she didn’t want him to know. Keyes turned his back on me as he replied to whatever she’d said. I couldn’t make out his words.

Less than a minute later, he cursed and hung up the phone. When he turned back to me, his expression was perfectly controlled. He held the phone out to me. I closed my fingers around it and then made a move of my own.

“Daniela Nicolae,” I said. A split second of surprise crossed his face before he banished it in favor of a scowl. “You said there were questions about the waythiswas being handled,” I continued. “I’m assuming thethisin question is the bombing.”

The kingmaker’s eyes raked over me, the way they did when we played chess, assessing the extent to which I’d taken his lessons to heart.

“There is one thing on which that godforsaken mother of yours and I agree,” he said finally. “And that is that whatever is or is not happening, it’s no concern of yours.”

I expected that from Ivy and Adam. I hadn’t expected it from him.

Keyes assessed me dispassionately. “You dislike being kept out of the loop,” he said. “That, you get from me.” He strode past me. “Come along.”

I stayed glued to the spot.

William Keyes turned back toward me. “I am many things, Theresa, but I am not a man who would leave his only grandchild alone in a house like this one at a time like this. Ivy is playing with fire. I’ll not have you burned. If she cannot provide adequate security for you, I most assuredly will.”

This was why Ivy hadn’t ever wanted Keyes to know about me. He was a man who gave orders and exerted absolute controlover everyone in his domain. The moment he’d found out I had his son’s blood, that domain included me.

“If you would prefer,” Keyes said, his voice silky, “I can arrange for Hayes to stay here with you until Ivy returns.” He nodded toward his driver.