Supreme Authority

Chapter 4

The glass doors of the government office swung shut behind them.

Beverly's black car waited at the curb with the engine running. Max, her head of security, stood beside it with three of his men.

Alexander took Sophia's hand and started down the steps.

Derek, Victoria's younger brother, stepped in front of them. Margaret came right behind him, her handbag tucked under her arm.

"Going somewhere?" Derek said.

"Home," Alexander said.

"Home?" Margaret laughed. "You don't have a home. You don't have anything. My daughter made sure of that."

"Then there's nothing to talk about."

"Of course there is. If you hadn't done anything wrong, my daughter would never have divorced you."

"You know how I treated her for two years," Alexander said.

"Who knows what you did behind our backs? Look at yourself. She was always out of your league!"

"That's enough, Mom." Derek looked Alexander up and down. "Victoria said you leave with nothing. How do I know that's true? A cheat is a cheat. You probably hid something."

"I didn't take anything."

"Liar!" Margaret snapped. "Derek, check his pockets."

Derek shoved his hands into Alexander's jacket. Margaret dug into his trouser pockets from the other side, hunting for anything left worth taking. People on the pavement stopped to stare.

"Do you have to do this?" Alexander said quietly.

Margaret spat on the step beside his shoe.

"Don't speak to me like you're still family. You lost that right in a hotel bed."

They found nothing. Not a wallet. Not a key. Not even a phone.

"Did he really not take anything?" Derek said, disappointed.

Then his eyes dropped to Sophia's hand. The thin silver ring sat loose on her finger.

"No way. That's my sister's ring."

He grabbed Sophia's wrist and twisted the ring off her finger. Sophia cried out.

"Derek, stop! It's mine now! He gave it to me!"

"Yours?" Derek held the ring up between two fingers. "You were caught in a hotel bed with my sister's husband. You shamed this whole family in front of everyone. Then you married the liar the same day. And now you want to wear her ring too?"

"Give it back," Alexander said.

"Wait." Derek's eyes narrowed. "He asked for this one thing. Is it worth something?"

"Then it pays for the shame he brought us," Margaret said. "Keep it, Derek. Let's go."

Alexander's hand closed around Derek's wrist. His body was weak, but four hundred years of fighting still lived in his hands. His fingers knew exactly where to press.

One thousand bitcoins were worth eighty million dollars now.

"Ow! Ow, let go! That hurts!" Derek's knees bent.

"Give it back," Alexander said again, very quietly.

"I'd rather throw it away than give it to you!"

He threw the ring down onto the stone step and stamped on it with his heel. Once. Twice. Then he kicked it, and the ring skittered off the step into the flowerbed.

"There," Derek said, breathing hard. "Go and dig for it."

Sophia's hand flew to her mouth.

Alexander glanced at the flowerbed, then back at Derek. If the cipher engraved inside that ring was ruined beyond reading, a thousand bitcoins would vanish for good.

It was his final lifeline—his only shot at clawing his way back.

The slap came so fast nobody saw his hand move. Derek's sunglasses flew off his head and clattered down the steps. He spun halfway around and fell on the stone.

"Since your mother never taught you manners," Alexander said, "I'll do it for her."

He took Derek by the hair, pulled him up, and slapped him again. And again. Blood ran from Derek's nose onto the step.

"You hit my son!" Margaret rushed at him with her handbag raised.

Alexander turned his head and looked at her.

"Back off."

Margaret froze where she stood. In two years she had never seen that look on his face. He looked like he could tear her apart.

When she found her voice again, it came out as a scream.

"Help! Max! He's killing my son!"

Max touched his earpiece and waved his hand. His three men came up the steps and spread out around Alexander.

"How dare you start trouble with the Cavendish family?" Max said flatly. "Have you lost your mind?"

"What are you waiting for?" Margaret shrieked. "Beat him!"

Alexander let go of Derek's hair and stepped back. Four men. And his own legs still heavy from the drug.

Four was too many for this body. He tested the thread of spirit energy inside him. It was just enough to find the soft spot in a wrist. Not enough for four grown men.

Not yet. Body first. Three months of cultivation at dawn, the right herbs, and this body would be like stone. Then forty men would not be enough.

One day soon, men like these would be the ones opening his car door.

"Stop it!"

Sophia pushed past him and stood in front of him, her arms spread wide. She was shaking, and there were tears on her face, but she did not move.

"He's my husband," she said. "If you touch him, you touch me."

The guards stopped. They looked at each other, then at Max. Nobody on Beverly's payroll laid a hand on a Cavendish girl. Not even one from the poor branch.

Max glanced back at the black car.

The back window was down. Beverly sat inside with both hands on the silver horse head of her cane. A woman on the pavement was holding up her phone.

Beverly tapped the cane once against the floorboard. "Have you not brought enough humiliation upon the House of Cavendish? Get in. Now. Before the whole street watches us wallow in your shame."

Max raised a hand. His men stepped back.

"What are you doing?" Margaret screamed. "Why are you letting them go? What do I pay you for?"

"Ma'am," Max said, without looking at her. "Mrs. Cavendish pays me. And Mrs. Cavendish says let them go. Not in front of the whole street."

"Useless! You don't dare touch a girl from the poor branch, but you'll stand there while he beats my son?"

Nobody answered her.

Alexander walked down the steps and knelt at the edge of the flowerbed. The soil was cool and damp under his fingers.

There.

The ring lay in the dirt, bent almost flat. His thumb ran slowly along the inside of the band.

The engraving was whole.

He let out a long, quiet breath and closed his hand around it.

Sophia crouched beside him. "Is it broken?"

"It's fine," Alexander said. "It's just bent."

"I'm sorry. I couldn't stop him."

"You stood in front of four men for me." He helped her to her feet. "Nobody has ever done that."

He took her hand, and they walked out onto the street. No one tried to stop them.

Behind them, a car door opened.

Victoria stepped out from her car, her phone still in her hand. She saw Derek on the steps, holding his bloody nose.

Margaret ran to her and burst into tears.

"Victoria! Look at your brother! Derek only wanted to give that ring back to Sophia nicely, and that animal beat him half to death!"