Chapter 4

P.O.V. Alice

My relationship with Ivarsen just has been perfect, he understands my routine of working almost every night, as I understand his routine of working at almost every moment, since he is starting a company with his cousins. I still don't know what they work, knowing them? It will be another castle in their family's dynasty.

I just got home from one more successful night at the restaurant, it's almost 2 AM and I'm taking a bath with relaxing warm water, listening to Chace Atlantic when the music stops, being replaced by the sound that indicates that someone is calling me, I take my phone, being careful not to drop it in the water, picking it up.

"Alice King speaking"

"Why so formal, my love?" I heard Ivar saying, I could feel that he was smiling, even through the phone.

"I didn't look to see who it was" I hear him laughing "Why are you awake? Is everything okay?"

"I was solving something with Athos, we'll have a meeting at 9 AM" he was quiet for some seconds "And yes, everything is fine, just needed to hear your voice"

The only thing I could do was smile, this boy makes me feel so good, safe, and loved

"I love you baby, but you should be sleeping." I said already, getting out of the tub and taking my towel, drying, and getting into my closet to get Ivar's black t-shirt and some underwear.

"Do you want to stay on call till you sleep?" I ask him, already knowing his answer.

"Of course, I want, let me just take a shower, I'll be right back" he was out for some time and while he was out, I was doing my skincare routine and brushing my teeth. I was already under my blanket when he came back "Goodnight, princess"

"Goodnight, love" he always slept first when we were on call and wouldn't take me so long to fall asleep as well.

( ... )

P.O.V Ivarsen

At 8 AM the alarm rang, and I told my echo dot to shut up, take a quick shower, put on a black suit with a white shirt and no tie. I take my phone off the charger, hopefully Alice is still sleeping, and I don't bother her, I hang up the call and send her some texts right after, I go downstairs to make some sandwiches for me and Gunnar, he is coming to the meeting with me as well.

As I'm eating, I hear footsteps and Gunnar sits in front of me, already in his navy-blue suit, he thanks me for the sandwich and some minutes we're ready to leave the house.

We go on my black Jeep Compass and it doesn't take much time to get to the company's building garage. Athos is parking her car at the same moment as Madden and Indie, we all go to the elevator and at 9 o'clock we are at the meeting room deciding some details for the inauguration day.

"So, it is still a secret for everyone what we are doing here, except for us. "Athos smiled; a smile as devilish as Aunt Rika's

"So what are the plans to tell the horsemen that we want to make money with one of their biggest secrets?" Athos starts with the most important subject of our list, basically , after some years of knowledge and a lot of thinking I came with the idea of using the carts in the tunnels and win money with then , we already done our research and could work , we already have our legal permissions , the place is already safe enough to receive a big amount of people and being used as a new way of moving throughout Thunder Bay and Meridian .

Safer ways of going into the tunnels are already being built, thanks to Madden and thanks to Indie, Uncle Will, doesn't even suspect what we are doing. Of course, we built more trails and bought more carts, and we also closed the paths that led to our houses so only we could use, and thanks to me, the numbers are good and we're going to win a lot of money, the only problem now is telling our parents.

"We could organize a conclave" Madden suggested, and Indie agreed with him

"That's perfect! We should do exactly like Aunt Rika and use the Pithom, they wouldn't have a choice besides accept what we said, because we cannot back down now, we have 2 months before the opening party" Indie said, reminding us that we already pushed this far too much.

"Athos, get the keys of the Pithom and tell the crew we will need them" Madden said, and she nodded and already started typing on her phone.

"Who would go?" Gunnar asked "We need to prepare to stay at sea for at least a couple of days"

"We need my dad, Will, Kai and Michael and they won't leave without the girls so we can also put my mom, Emory, Banks and Rika on the yacht as well" I said taking notes of who would be there "Would our partners be there too?" I ask looking at Madden and Athos

"Eslem is on a business trip in Italy, I can talk to her, but I don't know if she would be able to get here on time" my older cousin said without looking at me, still typing

"Who would even try to stop Octavia from going?" Madden smiled and I nodded, Alice would come with me as well, so I put their names on the list, putting a question mark sided with Eslem's name and give one to Indie and one to Gunnar

"Send the invitations to all of them, 10 days from today, this needs to be solved quickly" I said looking at Indie, then I turned to Gunnar "Can you get the food and organize the separation of the rooms?"

"Sure, I have the time, should I make the order from Alice's restaurant?"

And before I could answer Madden, Athos, and Indie scream at the same time

"YES!" I start laughing and I remember one tiny problem "What about our siblings? Who will take care of them, mostly who will take care of Aaron and Isabella?"

There was some silence and Madden came with the solution

"Fane and Finn can stay on command, all of them in one house and I can call Alex so she can take care of Isabella and Aaron" Madden's idea was perfect, I nodded, and he left the room to call Alex and set everything with her. The meeting ended with a new goal, hope that the conclave goes well and hope for everything to work smoothly. We all know how our parents can be pretty dramatic, mostly mine.

It's noon when me and Gunnar left the building in direction to somewhere to lunch

"You think Alice is awake?" Gunnar asked

"I can call her, you want to have lunch there, don't you?" I asks smiling and I give my phone to him, since I'm driving "Call her and put on speaker mode" he nods and asks for my password, I tell him and in a couple of seconds I can hear her voice

"Hey babe" I can hear something frying on the background

"Hey princess" said Gunnar trying to imitate my voice

"I don't talk like that, asshole" I can hear Alice laughing "Hey princess"

"Hi Gunnar, you guys are coming here to have lunch?" She asked, it was like she could read my mind

"Yes, and Alice, my gorgeous sister-in-law, can you make some brownies?" Gunnar asked and I slapped the back of his neck "WHAT? Did I say something wrong?"

Alice is laughing and we're almost at her house "I already baked some, I always have some brownies since your brother likes it so much, are you guys close?" Alice said and Gunnar did a happy dance

"Yes babe, almost at your driveaway"

"Okay, bye"

She hangs up and in a couple minutes I'm already parking my car, Gunnar is the first one to leave and run to her door and ring the doorbell, I roll my eye and wait by his side, the door opens, and I see my beautiful girlfriend, I smile and pull her by the waist to kiss her, she smiles

"Hi Alice, bye Alice" Gunnar gets into the house running to the kitchen "BROWNIESSSS" Alice can help but laugh, she closes the door, locking right after as I instructed her to do it, even if I'm with her and she goes to the kitchen and I follow her "Gunnar, you're not a child anymore, have manners" I yelled pretending to be pissed

"Ivar, please, fuck you" he says, and I almost don't understand him, because he has his mouth full of brownies

"Gunnar stop eating brownies, N O W!" Alice said getting the bowl where it was and put on top of the fridge "First lunch, dessert after"

"But- but IVARSEN YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS BEING MEAN TO ME "he faked a cry and I laughed, Alice was laughing as well when she hugged him "You can have more after lunch , now sit , I'll bring the food" she kissed his forehead and started organizing the table , I went to get the plates and the silver wear while she was putting the food on bowls, I looked at Gun and mouthed " Go help her , now" he nodded and went to pick the bowls already filled with fries , meat , rice and Caesar salad.

Few moments later we were all eating, Gunnar was sitting in front of me, and Alice was by my side, one of my hands rested on her thigh, she wasn't eating much, but it was better than nothing

"So, how was the meeting?" Alice asked, I knew she was curious about what we were doing

"It was good, we're having a conclave in 10 days, and you are invited" Gunnar said while getting more fries "this is amazing, thank god we are ordering food from your restaurant"

"My restaurant? Conclave? I-I don't understand" said Alice a bit confused looking at him and then to me

" Our family has a unique way of solving problems , A conclave is how we do it , in this specific situation, we're going to stay a couple of days in the Fane-Crist's Yacht to solve what we have to solve , and for that we need food , so we're ordering from your restaurant , Gunnar is in charge of that , and since I'm going to be there , you're coming with me as well" I explained to her and gave her a kiss on her neck and I can feel her shiver.

"You can order whatever you want, call the restaurant today and I can already start organizing for you guys" she said, "What do I need to bring for the conclave?"

"Besides your sexy ass? warm clothes, it gets cold in the middle of the sea" I said to her "M-middle of the sea? no, no, no I don't do boats" she started shaking her head in denial " Come on Alice , it will be okay , you will be with me all the time , you'll be safe" I said taking her hand and kissing her knuckles .

"I have to think about that" she said and nodded

"So, can I have more brownies now?" Gunnar asked and we laughed "Yes, you can have more now" she said getting up to get them. After eating dessert, me and Gunnar cleaned everything up while she was complaining that we weren't letting her do anything in her house, but I just gave her a quick kiss and told her to sit down promising to reward her later and she was quiet.

We finished everything and I told her that I would be back at night to take her to work since I would stay there with her today.

"Bye Alice" Gunnar said hugging her and she smiled hugging him back "Bye Gun"

She unlocked the door and stood behind it so watch us leave

"Lock it okay?" I said to her, she nodded, and I gave her a quick kiss after leaving the house. I heard her close and lock the door and went to the car with Gunnar, driving home.