by Emma Lea
We grappled wordlessly. I got in close to him so that he couldn’t use his powerful swing to knock me to the ground. I needed to stay upright. The minute I hit the ground, he would have the advantage. I think I surprised him by the ferocity of my attack. I don’t think he was prepared to fight a woman. Guys usually weren’t. Even the guys in my team tended to go easy on me - not Jamie, but the others. It had been ingrained in them that they should never hit a woman and they struggled to overcome that internal value even when it was their job to do so. This guy was no different.
I pressed my advantage, not even looking to see how Jamie was fairing and then just as I gained the upper hand, the guy turned and ran. I dropped my arms and watched as he, the woman and the other guy who had been wrestling with Jamie took off down the tunnel. I looked over at Jamie then and noticed a cut above his eye, the blood running down the side of his face. He was breathing hard and it suddenly hit me that we had both been in very real danger. In all the years of training, I had never actually been in a serious, life and death fight. We had run drills and sparred and run as many scenarios as we could in order to be battle ready, but we had never had to face a real life threat. My body started to shake as the shock set in.
In two steps, Jamie was picking me up and wrapping his arms around me. We were both breathing hard and I think tears were running down my face. I searched for his lips, needing to feel them on mine. I needed reassurance that everything was okay, that he was okay. It wasn’t professional or regulation and it went against everything that I had been trained to do but I didn’t care. Jamie had been threatened. The man I loved had been in danger and he was hurt and bleeding and I needed the reassurance that he was okay. I wrapped my arms around him and breathed him in. I could feel his heart beating against mine and I relished the way he held me tightly as if he was just as shaken up as I was. Neither of us was behaving as elitely trained royal guards right now. We were two people who had feared for the other’s life.
“Jamie? Meredith?” Cody’s voice broke through the bubble that had wrapped around us and Jamie let me down slowly, but he didn’t let me go entirely.
“There was an incident,” Jamie said. “We need to get back to the hotel ASAP.”
Chapter 14
Jamie
“Where’s Daniel?” I asked as Cody hustled Meredith and me back to where the car was waiting.
“I don’t know,” Cody replied. “I can’t find Danika either.”
“I just don’t get it,” Meredith said, her arm through mine. “Why were they after Will?”
She had a point. All the scenarios we’d run centered around Alyssa being taken. No one had ever expected Will to be the target.
“What did that woman say to you?” Meredith asked, looking up at me. “How did she get you to follow her?”
“I thought she was you,” I replied looking down at her. “She was wearing the same clothes as you, the same hair.”
“I was following someone who was dressed as you as well,” Cody said. “That’s how I managed to lose you. When the two of you split up and went in different directions, I followed who I thought was Meredith and Daniel followed the Jamie look-a-like.”
“There was someone who looked like me?” I asked as we stopped at the car.
“Yes,” Daniel replied, stepping up beside me. “Led me on a merry chase too. I was too far away from you when I realised I was following the wrong person.”
“This wasn’t random,” Meredith said.
“No.” I couldn’t get the woman’s voice out of my head. It had sounded familiar. Not exactly familiar like I knew the woman, but the accent was familiar and one I hadn’t heard in a long time.
Daniel opened the door of the car and I indicated that Meredith slide in first. “Where’s Danika?” I asked Daniel quietly.
“I don’t know,” he said, “but we’re not waiting for her. This was the rendezvous point if things went south. She will need to find her own way back to the hotel.”
I nodded and then slid into the car beside Meredith.
“I know exactly who you are.” The woman’s words ran in a loop around my head. When she had spoken those words I had the uncomfortable realisation that she wasn’t talking about me being Will. She wasn’t even talking about me being a body guard impersonating Will. There was the distinct threat that she knew who I really was. She knew I was Prince Christophe. That had to be what she meant.
“Here,” Meredith said, holding a cloth up to show me. “You’re still bleeding.”
I turned to her and lowered my head so she could press the cloth to the cut. She rolled her lips together and wouldn’t look me in the eye. Her face was pale and she had a little smudge of dirt on her cheek. I reached up to wipe it off and let my finger linger on her skin for a little longer than necessary.
“Are you okay?” I asked quietly.
She nodded, but kept her lips pressed tightly together. Her eyes were glassy but she didn’t let the tears fall.
“Are you sure?”
“You’re the one who’s bleeding,” she snapped. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I hated that we had to be so careful with one another. I hated that I couldn’t pull her into my arms and just hold her. I think we both needed it. We both needed the reassurance that the other one was fine. I knew I needed to feel her warm body against mine as reassurance that she was okay.
The car cruised to a stop and the door opened. I reluctantly slid away from Meredith and then reached in to help her out of the car. We still had to keep in character. We were dressed as the queen and prince of Merveille and until we got behind the closed doors of our hotel, then we would need to continue the ruse. I tucked Meredith under my arm, holding her close to my body, and we walked, head down, into the hotel, Cody and Daniel flanking us tightly. There were no press, thankfully. The attempted kidnapping - or whatever it was - hadn’t been leaked to the media yet.
Cody was on his phone, leading us through the lobby, and Daniel crowded in behind us. Of all of us in the guard, only Daniel and Carlos had been involved in anything like this before. That had ended in the tragic deaths of Alyssa’s father and brother. I could tell by the set of Daniel’s shoulders and the grim look on his face that he was remembering that day and was probably kicking himself for the near miss of today. Today’s attempt had been well coordinated. Professional. Planned.
“We have a leak,” I said as the elevator doors closed.
Daniel nodded once. He had come to the same conclusion. It was the only explanation for why there were multiple people dressed in the same clothing as Meredith and me. Clothing and wigs that were so close to what we wore that it was enough to fool the body guards tasked with protecting us. There was no way a random person could know the details of what we would wear. It had to be someone within our entourage, someone with intimate knowledge of our mission. Someone who would also have had to have known that I wasn’t really Will. If they knew what we were going to wear, then they would definitely know that we weren’t who we were dressed up as.
They weren’t after Will.
They were after me.
Meredith
I felt like I would never be warm again. Cold had seeped into my very bones and only Jamie’s body heat kept me from shivering uncontrollably. I pressed into his side and his arm tightened around me. While I had been in the fight, I hadn’t thought about what was happening. My body had just responded with muscle memory. It was why we trained. It was why we ran scenarios. I had kept my head and I had done what I was trained to do. What I hadn’t been prepared for was the after effects. I wasn’t prepared for the excess adrenalin in my system. I wasn’t prepared for the crash that came after the spike. And I wasn’t prepared for the emotional response of seeing Jamie in danger, of seeing Jamie hurt and bleeding.
He tightened his arm around me and I had to suppress the need to melt against him. The last thing I wanted to do right now was to go into a meeting where I had to reliv
e what had just happened. I wanted to go to my room and be alone with Jamie where I could just have him hold me so that I knew he was alright. Maybe then I would be alright too. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t fall apart. This was my job. This was what I had been trained for all my life. This was what I was fighting with my mother over. If I fell apart I would just prove all the naysayers right. I needed to be strong.
The elevator doors opened and I stepped away from Jamie, although it killed me to do so. I followed Cody, walking in front of Jamie, putting distance between us. I had to do it for my own preservation. I needed the distance so that I could find the calm, cool Meredith that could deal with a crisis. I did not need Benjamin, my boss, or Alyssa, my real boss, to see me falling apart. I had to show them that I was worthy of the confidence they put in me, even if inside I was falling apart.
We didn’t need to discuss where we were going; we all knew that nothing would happen until after we had briefed Benjamin. Cody had been on the phone to him already and he was waiting for us. We all trouped into his room and took our seats around the table. There was a laptop open and Von Bartham was on the screen, looking back at us.
“Tell me what happened,” Benjamin said, all business, no pleasantries.
“We got separated,” Jamie said, taking the lead.
“How is that even possible?”
“It was crowded,” I said, glad that my voice wasn’t shaking. “I moved away from Jamie to look at something and the crowd seemed to surge around me, carrying me further away from him.”
“I followed her,” Jamie said, shooting me a look, “but when I got close enough, the woman revealed herself not to be Meredith. She had lured me away specifically.”
Jamie and Benjamin shared a long look that I couldn’t interpret.
“And what about you two?” Benjamin asked, shooting quick glances at Cody and Daniel.
“I was following Meredith,” Daniel said, “but again, it wasn’t Meredith.”
“And I was following Jamie, except…”
“It wasn’t Jamie,” Benjamin said with a sigh.
“They knew we were coming,” Jamie said, his voice hard and cold. “They knew exactly where we would be and what we would be wearing. They knew where Cody and Daniel would be in relation to us. This was a well-coordinated attempt.”
Benjamin nodded, his eyes on Jamie. I got the feeling that something was going on between them that I didn’t know about.
“Where’s Danika?” Von Bartham asked from the laptop.
“We don’t know,” Cody answered. “After the attack we rendezvoused back at the agreed place but she didn’t arrive.”
“It had to be her,” I said. I never liked her and certainly never trusted her. It seemed that my gut was right about her and it wasn’t because of the way she threw herself at Jamie…well not just because of the way she threw herself at Jamie.
Benjamin made us run through it several more times, asking specific questions and interrogating us until he was satisfied. Then he dismissed us. I was exhausted and just wanted to go and collapse on my bed.
“Jamie, a moment?”
I turned to see Benjamin looking at Jamie with that weird expression and I slowed. Why did Benjamin need to speak to Jamie alone?
“You can go, Meredith,” Benjamin said, and I nodded.
I walked out of the room and headed for the elevator and my suite. I walked into the room just wanting to fill the tub with hot water and bubbles and sink into it before crawling into bed and letting the exhaustion take me. But before I could even get two steps into the room I was enveloped in a hug.
“Oh my God! Meredith! Are you okay?”
I squeezed my best friend hard and finally allowed the mask to drop. A sob escaped my throat and the tears that I had been holding back began to flow freely. I wasn’t having a break down, this was just the excess adrenalin leaving my body. I was a professional. Professionals didn’t cry.
“I’m okay,” I said when I finally pulled back from Alyssa. “I’m fine. I wasn’t the target.”
Alyssa held me by the shoulders and inspected me, taking in my appearance and the mess the tears had made of my face.
“They didn’t go after you?”
I shook my head. “They were trying to take Jamie - or Will, I suppose.”
Alyssa took a step back and sat with a thump on the sofa. “They were after Jamie?”
I sat beside her. “Yeah. A woman had a gun on him and wanted him to go with her.”
Alyssa turned to me and furrowed her brows. “But why? Why would they want Will?”
“A cheese coup?” I asked, trying for levity and failing miserably.
Alyssa turned back to me, her eyes concerned. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I nodded. “A bit sore. That guy was big, probably had a hundred pounds on me.”
“You had to fight someone? I thought they were after Jamie.”
“They were, but I came to his rescue. There were these two big guys, I stepped in and took on one of them while Jamie took on the other one. We would have beaten them too, but they turned tail and ran.”
Alyssa shook her head slowly before dragging me back into a hug. I was feeling better, much more like myself. See, I was a professional. I wasn’t an emotional wreck because the man I was in love with had been in danger. I wasn’t freaking out because he had been bleeding and had had a gun pulled on him. I was perfectly fine.
“Are you okay Mer?” Alyssa asked. “You’ve gone really pale.”
I nodded jerkily and tried to smile. “I’m fine,” I said, “just exhausted.”
“Oh of course. You probably want to shower and crawl into bed. I’ll let you be. We’ll talk later.”
I nodded and was able to hold it together until Alyssa left the suite and I was all alone. Then I began to shake and the cold enveloped me. It was shock. Just shock, that’s all. I made myself stand and head to the bathroom. I needed a hot bath and rest.
Jamie
“What’s really going on?” Benjamin asked as soon as we were alone.
“The woman said she knew exactly who I was,” I said slowly, imbuing my words with meaning. “She knows who I really am.”
Benjamin nodded. “I figured as much. There is no logical reason to try and kidnap Will. Why not just go for Alyssa?”
“Exactly,” I said.
“So if she knew that you are Christophe, what was her end game?”
“Could she have been one of General Anastas’ spies?” I asked. “I mean, she had to have inside information. Has the general been able to infiltrate us?”
Benjamin wasn’t surprised and I knew he must have already considered this scenario.
“And where is Danika? She was the only person apart from the three of us and Alyssa and Will who knows the truth. Is she the mole?”
Benjamin sighed. “I suspected she might be,” he said.
“Hang on. What? You suspected?”
He nodded. “I didn’t expect her to make her move so early, but I did expect her to try something. It’s why I brought her in.”
I shook my head, my brain running at a hundred miles a minute. “You knew she was a potential mole and yet you brought her along anyway?”
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
“So, she works for Anastas?”
Benjamin shook his head. “We could never tie her to him. She was definitely working for the Greek government, though. We know the government has been financing Anastas. We just assumed that she was with him even though we couldn’t find any associations.”
“So what happens now?”
“Maybe I can answer that.”
I spun around to find Danika walking in the door. I jumped to my feet.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I was so angry I could spit. She had not only endangered me but she had endangered my whole team. More than that, she had put Meredith in danger and for that I couldn’t forgive her.
“It’s not what you think,�
� she said with a sigh, walking over to the table and sitting down.
I looked over at Benjamin who was sitting calmly but I wasn’t fooled. Benjamin was like a coiled cobra, ready to strike.
“I don’t work for Anastas,” she said, practically spitting his name. “I am working against him.”
“You are with the resistance,” Benjamin said - not a question but a statement of fact.
She nodded once.
“And today’s stunt?” I asked indignantly. “What was that all about?”
“We think it’s time to make our move. Anastas is weak. Greece has pulled its funding and is wiping its hands of the whole matter. He has nothing left. The people hate him and resent what he has done to the country. They want their king back. They want you, Prince Christophe.” She looked right at me when she spoke. “And we can help you.”
“And you thought the best way to do that was to kidnap me?”
She shrugged. “We needed to push you. You are comfortable here with your job and your girlfriend and your cushy life. We needed to force your hand.”
“You didn’t think that maybe you could just, I don’t know, ask me?” I was so angry. I was angry that she hadn’t even come to me and at least stated her case.
“Would you have listened? Would you have been willing to leave all this? To leave Meredith? No. You needed a push and now we have provided it.”
“What do you mean?”
Benjamin’s phone started beeping and he frowned when he looked down at it.
“What did you do?” I asked staring at her with barely contained fury.
“I outed you,” she said with a shrug. “It is about time the crown prince of Kalopsia stood up. Your people need you. Your country needs you and yet here you are hiding and pretending to be someone you are not. It is time for you to be the man that your father trained you to be.”
“While I admire your commitment to your country,” Benjamin said, “I can’t say I am all that enamoured with your process. We would have helped if you had only come to us.” He shook his head. “Now you have tied our hands. You have outed the prince and we will have to distance ourselves from the fallout.”