Resistance (Replica) by Jenna Black

private dinner with Chairman Belinski and his daughter this evening.”
    Nate blinked and shook his head. “Wait. That’s what you think is so important? A dinner invitation?” One Hartman had to know Nate would refuse out of hand.
    “It conflicts with your currently scheduled plans,” Hartman said. “The dinner is scheduled for six o’clock.”
    Of course it was. Right during the heart of the retreat’s visiting hours, so that Nate wouldn’t have time to drive out there either before or after the dinner. “You can send my father my sincere regrets,” Nate said, but he knew it wouldn’t be that easy. The Chairman was a bastard, but he wasn’t stupid, and he knew exactly what kind of response his invitation would elicit.
    Hartman nodded. “He told me you would say that. He said to tell you your mother might appreciate some company. He said you would know what that meant.”
    At first, he didn’t. What did his mother have to do with any of this? But it only took a moment for it to make sense. If Nate didn’t show up for the dinner tonight, the Chairman would recommend to the Lakes that they send Nadia to the Preston Sanctuary, the upstate retreat his mother had holed herself up in for the past decade. It was the kind of place where visitors were as rare as four-leafed clovers, and from which Executives rarely emerged. In one of those places, Nadia might well disappear from his life as thoroughly as his mother had. She might be destined for such a place anyway, but if his father “recommended” it, the Lakes would surely obey.
    “Do you still wish me to send the Chairman your regrets?” Hartman asked. There was a disquieting glint of satisfaction in his eyes. He wasn’t used to winning arguments with Nate, and it seemed he was enjoying the novel experience.
    Nate was angry enough—and felt helpless enough—that he was tempted to fire Hartman on the spot just because of the look on his face. He controlled the impulse with embarrassing difficulty. Hartman didn’t understand the threat he was making on the Chairman’s behalf, and Nate had to admit he wasn’t the easiest person in the world to work for. He suspected Kurt was the only person who’d ever been on his household staff who didn’t want to smack him every once in a while.
    “Tell him I accept,” Nate said, because he had no other choice. But he was going to do his level best to make Chairman Belinski think twice about the marriage arrangement. His own father didn’t give a rat’s ass about Nate’s happiness and well-being. Nate could only hope Chairman Belinski was a more loving and protective parent.
    *   *   *
    Wednesday was the closest thing Nadia had had to a good day since the moment she’d first set foot in the retreat. Thanks to the phone Dante had smuggled to her, she had a connection to the outside world, even if she could only use it in case of emergency. And she knew he would be waiting for her outside the fence again at midnight. She probably wouldn’t be as desperate for a friendly face today as she had been in the past, because it was an official visiting day, but she would sneak out to meet him anyway. If he was going to go through all the bother to come to the retreat every night, the least she could do was to show up, if only to thank him again.
    Nadia occupied her morning with a number of spa appointments, picking services where she didn’t have to undress. Having learned her lesson when her underwear was whisked away that first day, she wasn’t leaving the phone out of her reach for an instant.
    The afternoon, she spent reading on the spa’s rooftop veranda, which provided a panoramic view of the grounds. It was a beautiful spring day, and there were moments when Nadia was actually able to take a deep breath and relax for the first time in weeks. Those moments never lasted long, but she appreciated them anyway.
    She was down in the visitors’ lobby at exactly five o’clock. She didn’t know who was planning