Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

Fuck. What's she doing here?

Then he remembered. When Sophia had mentioned she was helping him shop for clothes for the Yacht Club party, Lily had mentioned that she was going as well. For some reason he'd forgotten about that shortly after.

As soon as Lily saw Jack, she stalked towards him.

Not wanting Katie to be blindsided by whatever Lily was going to say, he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her close, then leaned down and whispered in her ear.

"I rescued Lily from being raped. I'll tell you more about that later. She is obsessed with me now, and her grandfather wants me to marry her. I refused and only managed to get them to back-off when I promised to spend time with her only after she turns eighteen."

Katie stiffened when he mentioned marriage and turned to look at him worriedly when he finished.

"Marry?" she asked.

"Not gonna happen," he said firmly. "The girl is entirely too selfish for my taste."

Katie smiled and relaxed.

As soon as Jack pulled Katie close to him, Lily scowled. When she reached Jack, she put her hands on her hips and demanded acidly, "And who is this?"

In a polite tone, he said, "Lily Wallingford, this is Katerina Blake, one of my girlfriends and my date for this evening."

Then, in a stern tone, he added, "If you ever take that tone with me or any of my girlfriends ever again, you can forget about me spending time with you when you turn eighteen."

Lily's scowl dissolved into a look of frustration and annoyance, then into reluctant resignation.

She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed shallowly while saying begrudgingly, "I apologize. It won't happen again."

Katie looked between Jack and Lily, her expression showing mild surprise.

The crowd of men that had been surrounding Lily had watched with looks of surprise, curiosity, and animosity as Lily and Jack talked.

They had all followed after her and formed a semicircle behind her just after she had apologized to him.

A man in his early twenties, dressed in jeans and a red button-down shirt, said, "I guess we can forget about winning now."

The man next to red-shirt, dressed in slacks and a dark blue sports jacked, said, "What's your secret? I've never seen Lily bow to anyone."

To Jack's right, a man dressed in a tracksuit and wearing a gaudy gold chain sneered while saying, "You don't look like much. Barely an adult. She needs a real man."

Okay, what the fuck is going on?

Red-shirt noticed Jack's puzzled expression and asked, "Do you not know about the contest?"

"What contest?" replied Jack.

"Old man Wallingford announced that he'll give the Grand Wallingford Hotel to the man that marries Lily."

Jack glanced at Lily just in time to catch her quickly suppressed smirk.

So that's their plan, huh? The old man probably thought Jack would jump at the chance to own a billion-dollar hotel. But Jack wasn't interested.

While the Grand Wallingford Hotel might be worth more than he had at the moment, in a few months, if Natalie was to be believed, he'd be a billionaire several times over.

He wasn't particularly worried about the old man or Lily's machinations, but he was mildly concerned that one of her 'admirers' might do something drastic.

"Huh, this is news to me," said Jack. "And for the record, I'm not interested in marrying Lily, so please keep me out of whatever machinations you have planned."

Lily pouted.

"Hah, nice try," said the sneering man. "I'm not buying it."

"Dude, seriously?!" said Jack. "I have seven girlfriends. I most certainly am not interested in a selfish, self-centered child. Even if the old man offered me his entire fortune, I would still not be interested."

Lily's face paled, and her lips pressed together, then her eyes narrowed.

"Seven?!" blurted the man in the red-shirt.

"Damn. Seriously, what's your secret?" said the man in the blue sports jacket.

The man in the tracksuit snorted and said, "Your daddy must be so proud, paying for all those escorts." Then, looking at Katie, he said, "Honey, I'll double your rate if you ditch loser boy."

Lily turned and gave tracksuit man a warm smile.

The man standing next to tracksuit said, "Um, Darrel, do you not know who she is?"

Jack felt a spike of rage flash through him that quickly turned to cold contempt for this buffoon in a tracksuit. He wasn't sure if the man was trying to provoke him, or if he was serious.

Before he could think of a response, Katie turned to the man and hissed, "Just wait until my father hears about this, Darrel Westlock."

"Ooh, I'm so scared. Is your daddy your pimp?"

"Dude! Her dad is Orin Blake!" hissed the man next to Darrel.

"So?" said Darrel, clearly not caring.

"Darrel is it?" said Lily brightly. "Come, let me introduce you to some of my friends."

Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards a group of three girls. As she passed, she stuck her tongue out at Jack.

Jack didn't know anything about Katie's family either, so he was curious why Darrel's "friend" was acting so concerned. Was her dad involved in the underworld? And what about Darrel's family?

In his soul space, he summoned Isabella and asked her about Katie's father. From her, he learned that Orin Blake was not involved in the underworld. He owned a private military company and a drone manufacturing company, both with military contracts.

Jack suspected that Darrel's friend was aware of Orin's PMC and worried about a possible black-bag reprisal.

Next, he interrogated a copy of Darrel. From Darrel's copy, he learned that Darrel was the wastrel son of Warren Westlock, a high-ranking member of the Novarossiyan mafia.

As for Darrel's insults, he wasn't trying to provoke Jack. He thought Jack was just posturing, because hiring seven escorts long term was something Darrel would do if his dad ever gave him enough money.

Knowing the man had ties to the Novarossiyan mafia, Jack asked him why he was even at the yacht club party. He learned that Darrel was in Stetle to visit several affiliated gangs and had decided to visit Randal, a former classmate, while he was in town.

Learning about the yacht club party, Darrel had invited himself along. Worse, on learning about Lily's dowry, Darrel had made plans of his own. Dangerous, violent plans.