The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 828

Alex looked at the little blue box in her hands as if he had never seen it before.

"A kind lady gave it to me," he said.

"A kind lady? Why?"

"For being good." He nodded hard, pleased with the answer. "She said I was very good."

"Very good at what?"

"Standing still," he said proudly. "I'm the best at it."

It was true. She could hear that it was true. And it sounded exactly like a child's lie.

Then she closed the box. She did not ask again.

"Will you put it on me?" she said instead. "My hands are still stiff."

She turned her back to him, careful of the bandage, and lifted her hair. His fingers fumbled at the clasp. Once. Twice. He dropped the end down the back of her collar.

"Alex, it's a clasp. It isn't a lock."

"It's a tiny clasp," he said, keeping a straight face. "Clearly meant for a lady with dainty hands. My big paws are struggling here, so be patient with me while we work on our truce."

She laughed before she could stop it. The clasp closed with a tiny click. The jade settled cold in the hollow of her throat, then warm.

"There," he said. "Now it's found you."

---

He was quiet for a while, folding his jacket the wrong way. Then he brightened.

"And the kind woman says I can work."

"What kind woman?"

"Ms. Vale." He said it carefully, like a word he had practised. "From Halcyon. She says I can work at Halcyon. Security. Because I need to earn money."

Serena turned round so fast that her back pulled under the bandage.

"Security? Alex, you're afraid of the dark."

"I'll stand where the lights are."

She stared at him. He looked back, perfectly serious.

"That's... actually a very good plan," she admitted.

"I thought of it myself."

"And what does a Halcyon guard do?"

"Stands," he said. "And says good morning. And doesn't touch anything." He counted on his fingers and ran out at three. "She said they'll pay it to you. Not me."

"To me? Why?"

"Because I lose things."

"You do lose things," Serena said slowly. "You lost a shoe last week. One shoe. How do you lose one shoe?"

"It went for a walk."

It was the most sensible arrangement anybody in the Tiffany house had made all year.

The jade at her throat. Halcyon's Ms. Vale in the yard this morning, saving her a million dollars without one glance at him. And now a job, paid into Serena's own hand.

A kindness to Halcyon's perfumer, she told herself. That was all.

She set the two things side by side in her mind, like two cups on a high shelf. And left them there.

"Ms. Vale is a good woman," she said softly.

"She's very strict," Alex said. "She told me my jacket was a disgrace."

"Your jacket is a disgrace."

"It's my only one."

---

Morning came grey over the kennels. The old hound with the torn ear lifted its head as he came out.

"My first day at work," Alex told it.

The hound thumped its tail once. It did not look impressed.

Behind the kennel wall, under a loose brick, an old phone lay in a tin box. One message.

Morgan House asks for God's Hand. Today. The car is at the end of the lane. N.

"If anyone asks," he told the dog, "I'm standing where the lights are."

---

Calder smelled of rain and coal smoke and money. Every servant on the Morgan steps bowed to the white mask as it went past.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify