by Geneva Lee
Praise for The Royals
“Geneva Lee convinces with fluid writing that’s full of drama, ups and downs…”
People Magazine
“Romance and drama…when it comes to dirty talk, the British heir to the throne can hardly be topped…”
The Huffington Post
“Sexy, sinful, and downright delightful! Geneva Lee is the queen of writing drama, angst, and the heroes of your dreams.”
Cora Carmack, New York Times Bestselling Author of Losing It
“A royal tale unlike any other. Heart-stopping, mesmerizing, a delicious treat with every page turned. I only wanted more.”
Audrey carlan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Calendar Girl
Also by Geneva Lee
THE ROYALS SAGA
Command Me
Conquer Me
Crown Me
Crave Me
Covet Me
Capture Me
Complete Me
THE ROYAL WORLD™
Cross Me
Claim Me
Consume Me
STANDALONE
The Sins That Bind Us
Two Week Turnaround
CONSUME ME
Copyright © 2019 by Geneva Lee.
All rights reserved.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Ivy Estate Publishing
www.GenevaLee.com
First published, 2019.
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-945163-26-5
Cover design © Date Book Designs.
Image © vasyl/Bigstockphoto.com.
To Ceej,
Thank you for being a light. You will be missed.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
ALEXANDER
No one had slept.There wasn’t a chance in hell any of us would. Not tonight. Not until we found her. My inner circle had widened considerably in the last few months, but that wasn’t what felt off now. There was a time when only Norris and Brex would have been with me during a crisis. Tonight, neither of them were here. In their place were questions I couldn’t answer. I trusted my new allies, but that didn’t make the others’ absence easier to bear—especially since one of them was the last person seen with Clara.
“Again,” I repeated, growing tired of my own question. There had to be something we were missing, some clue as to what happened in the time between the heart attack and my discovery of Clara’s absence.
Sarah swallowed, looking around the room for a saviour, but no one spoke up. She’d changed into a loose pair of pants and a sweater that didn’t match. Her dark hair was still curled elegantly from the evening’s party and her make-up was tear-stained. “Norris and Clara took me outside. Norris called a car. It drove around and Norris helped me inside. The driver left a minute or two later without them and brought me here.” She hesitated, her teeth sinking into her lower lip as her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Alex. I thought they were staying behind or…I didn’t really think. I was…was…”
“It’s okay,” Edward said wearily as he tried to scrounge up sympathy. I heard the frustration running like a current in his voice. He hadn’t bothered to change. There’d been no time between leaving the hospital and getting my call to come here immediately. He’d lost his tuxedo jacket and tie somewhere along the way. His husband was still fully dressed next to him, looking shell-shocked. “You were upset. No one blames you.”
But I did blame her, which was why I didn’t speak now. How could she not have noticed what happened to them? Why had Norris put her in the car first? None of it made any sense. The pieces didn’t fit together to form a clear picture—the pieces didn’t match at all. “Why didn’t you ask the driver where they were?”
“I didn’t think!” She hung her head, the tears spilling down her cheeks as she cried silently. “I just assumed they were coming in a different car, or they went back in, or…”
Across from her, Belle forced a sympathetic smile. My wife’s best friend hadn’t spoken a word since she’d arrived with her husband an hour ago. But where Belle appeared numb and half present, Smith listened to every word. I could almost see him filing them away for later analysis.
But what would he discover that I didn’t already know? Sarah had told us what she remembered, and it took effort to bite back more accusatory questions. Her story hadn’t changed once since I’d woken her up a few hours ago. She’d been fast asleep on a couch in the Belgium Suite, still in her dress from the night’s ruined party. The relief I’d felt when I’d found her was short-lived. She was alone, and her explanation of how she’d gotten home didn’t make sense. Not because she wasn’t being clear. I believed that she was self-absorbed enough to not care that she’d left the others behind. What didn’t make sense was the breach in protocol.
What didn’t make sense, quite simply, was Norris.
He wouldn’t have sent Sarah home with a driver when I asked him to take her home. He wouldn’t have put my wife in a different car. But the things that he wouldn’t do—the things that had already been done—paled in comparison when I considered the things he would do.
He would protect my wife as if she were his own.
He would see her safely home if I asked him.
He would answer his phone.
I couldn’t bring myself to consider why he hadn’t done any of these things or why, even now, hours later, I couldn’t reach him. Perhaps, because I couldn’t face the only explanation that fit with what I knew of my best friend and most trusted advisor.
There was only one thing that would have prevented him from doing so, and it was a possibility I couldn’t bring myself to consider, especially while Clara was missing.
A figure appeared in the doorway and I glanced up to find Georgia surveying the scene with careful eyes. With Norris unaccounted for and Brex gone, she’d stepped into the role one of them normally occupied without batting an eyelash. I would be grateful if I wasn’t angry at her, too.
“The sweep is complete,” she said with the air of someone tiptoeing through landmines. There was a split second of hesitation before she told me what I already knew. “Neither Norris or Clara are on the grounds. We reviewed the security footage and they never came through the gates. We’re trying to locate the driver that brought Sarah home.”
I heard the unspoken but that should have accompanied that sentence.
“But we won’t,” I said when she didn’t. “Was he on the footage?”
“I’ve called in some favors with MI-5. He was careful wi
th how he drove.” The statement was simple enough, but it was laced with meaning. She seemed to understand—as I did—the delicate situation we’d found ourselves in. Without more information, we might make the others panic if we dissected this revelation in front of them. Then there was the other consideration.
We trusted all the people in this room. That didn’t mean we should.
“I don’t understand,” Edward burst out. “Where would she be? Where’s Norris? Do you think she left? I know that you two talked about that.”
My heart flatlined at his words, surprised that she’d shared that with him. Mostly because after the fight in which I’d asked her to move out—to protect herself and the children from me—she’d refused to even consider it. “She told you that?”
“She tells me a lot of things,” he said softly. “She told me she wouldn’t go.” His voice broke on the words, the truth catching in his throat.
At this moment, we all wished it was as simple as her leaving me. We all wished she had because we knew one thing with certainty: Clara wouldn’t go.
As each minute passed without word from her or Norris, it became increasingly clear that there would be no innocent explanation for what was happening. We weren’t going to discover that she’d asked to go for a drive or had retreated to the country or gotten in an accident. Each moment not knowing erased one more possibility and took us closer to the nightmare I couldn’t bring myself to face.
“Is there tracking at all?” Smith said stiffly, glancing between Georgia and me.
“It wasn’t our car that brought Sarah here,” I said. “We have to assume…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I couldn’t bring myself to admit what my brain knew but my heart couldn’t accept.
“Not on the cars,” he clarified.
Belle, who’d been gazing into the fire, turned to stare at him. Her mouth fell open in horror as she processed what he was asking. “Tracking her?”
“No,” I said coldly. Even I wasn’t possessive enough to implant my wife with a tracking device. I tried to ignore the small part of me that wished I had when he suggested it a few weeks ago. “There is no way to track her.”
Not like that.
A sob spilled from Sarah, and she drew her knees up, hugging them. “This is all my fault.”
A good man might have comforted his sister, but I didn’t have time to deal with her emotional outbursts. Breaking down wasn’t going to get us anywhere. We needed a plan. We needed to consider all the possibilities. Tears and self-recrimination were obstacles we couldn’t afford. “You should go to bed.”
She wiped her face, shaking her head. “I should stay. Maybe I’ll remember something.”
I doubted that and from the looks on the others’ faces, they did as well. David put an arm around her shoulder. “Come on. I’ll take you back to your rooms.”
Sarah allowed him to help her up, but she stopped at the door. “Alex, can I stay in my old room—just tonight?”
Her fear splintered through me, creating a small crack in the determined veneer I clung to. Everyone was acting like we were planning funerals, not discussing strategy. I pushed it aside and nodded. “Of course.”
Before they were out the door, a familiar form met them. Brex paused with a grim expression, tipping his head in greeting as they passed. But when they were gone, he didn’t enter. Instead, he hung back, waiting for an invitation to cross the threshold into my private study. We stared at one another for a long moment. The usual smile was absent from his face and his eyes were shards of black coal.
“I called him,” Georgia explained. “We’re going to need his help.”
She’d called, and he’d come. I’d considered doing the same, but I held no delusions he would come when I called. But for her? Brex would come if Georgia asked, and I found myself glad that she had.
“My security credentials are still good,” he said. There was a question hidden in his words.
I trusted Brex. I’d hoped he would come back. I hadn’t expected it to be under these circumstances. “I’m glad you’re here.”
It wasn’t enough. Someday we needed to talk about why he’d left in the first place. I needed to explain why I’d kept my prior relationship with Georgia a secret. I needed to apologise. But true friends always showed up when needed no matter how much you hurt them.
Brex joined us in the office, refusing a seat in favour of leaning against the wall. Georgia took Sarah’s recently abandoned chair and drew a deep breath. Then to my surprise, she looked from Edward to Belle.
“We need to tell him. He needs to know,” she said, her voice low but firm. Belle’s mouth opened, but she didn’t speak as she looked imploringly at Georgia. Edward’s head dropped into his hands before he glanced up to meet their shared gaze.
I had no idea what these three could possibly need to tell me, but a chill ran up my spine like an icy finger. I waited for them to talk, dreading whatever was coming more with each passing second. Georgia was Clara’s bodyguard. Edward and Belle were her best friends. Clara shared a different relationship with them than with me. They shopped together and gossiped, and I’d never felt jealous of any of them until this moment. I fancied that my wife told me everything important. I’d never had reason to suspect otherwise until now.
“Tell me what?” I forced the question past my lips. A million possibilities tumbled through my mind. Perhaps I’d been wrong. Maybe she did intend to leave me. Is that why my brother had brought it up? Was there someone else? That possibility was laughable, but as the quiet strain between them continued, I was forced to realise that maybe I didn’t know my wife as well as I thought.
Georgia peered at Belle expectantly. “Tell him.”
“Me?” Belle’s hand reached for her husband’s and found it.
Jealousy crashed through me. She had someone to comfort her now as she faced something she didn’t want to confront. The first numb wave of panic replaced the blistering sensation as I realised that she knew something that Clara hadn’t told me.
“You know more than I do,” Georgia pressed, “and he needs to know as much as we can tell him.”
Belle’s eyes closed briefly and I recognised the gesture. She was drawing from some well deep inside her—a place that it seemed all women hid inside themselves—for strength. I’d seen Clara do the same on a number of occasions. Every time it had been right before she’d delivered words I didn’t want to hear.
I took a step toward the desk, gripping its edge to keep me upright.
“It’s about the baby,” Belle began and my fingers clutched the wood tighter. She seemed to notice and faltered. Her own knuckles had gone white as she held onto Smith.
“What about the baby?” I had to remind myself to breathe as I waited for her answer.
“There’s something wrong with the baby’s heart,” Edward said when it was obvious she couldn’t.
“What do you mean?” My words were strangled, hitching and hiccuping from me as I tried to process what they were saying.
Now that Edward had delivered the bomb, Belle seemed able to confess. “There’s a problem with a ventricle. The baby is going…going to need surgery after it’s born. Clara didn’t want to worry you. She thought you might…”
The rest of her words faded even though her lips continued to move. The baby’s heart. Clara had kept me from the doctor’s appointments on purpose, because of the baby’s heart.
“Alexander?” Georgia prompted when I didn’t speak.
I shook my head, wanting them to continue. It took effort to focus on what they were saying when inside I was reeling.
“She’s seen a few specialists. They advised her to keep her stress levels low.” Belle was crying, but I couldn’t find an ounce of sympathy for her suffering.
I couldn’t find an ounce of anything. There was only one sensation unfolding in my chest. Shame. She’d been advised? How long had she known? How much stress had I placed on her in that time? Why had she allowed me to dominate her if she
’d known? Was that why she’d sought release with me? I thought of the moment after the press conference. I’d told her to leave. I’d told her it was over. I could see her now, breaking on the floor and struggling to breathe as she begged me to make her feel something else.
She’d known then.
I had no doubt of that. I could see it now in my memory of that moment—one that I’d never be able to erase from my mind. It was etched like a tattoo on my soul. I’d tried so hard to give her up—and if I had…
Would she be safe now? Would the baby have suffered? Was there any decision that wouldn’t destroy us?
“What happens?” I murmured, unable to find the strength to interrupt her entirely, but Belle heard. “What happens to the baby if…?”
I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t face it. I couldn’t admit what I already knew.
What happens to the baby if we can’t find them in time?
Clara’s friends—her true confidants—shared a look that said enough. Then Belle whispered the words that broke me.
“I’m so sorry.”
Chapter 2
CLARA
She was gone. One look and she’d fled like a frightened mouse back to whatever hole she’d crawled out of—but that didn’t explain her ghostly appearance. For a moment, I’d mistaken her for someone else. Then I’d stepped closer and realized my mistake.
It wasn’t Sarah, which meant Alexander’s sister was somewhere else. Had she escaped? What chance did she have after…?