A Valiant Prince: The Poisoned Pawn Duet Part II

by S. E. Rose

  “Caffeinate. It’s going to be a long day,” she says with a wink. I shake my head and down the coffee. The five of us are in the car after Lucas and Hendrick join us for coffee, and we begin our road trip. Of course, Pete has to be a buzzkill early on and note all the rules we will have to follow in order to be safe. Anna rolls her eyes so many times that I warn her that they may stay that way. That only earns me another eye roll.

  We listen to music. Anna makes us play a game of “I spy,” saying it’s not a road trip until we do so. I question her on whether she’s actually been on a road trip.

  She cocks her head from side to side and shrugs. “What counts as a road trip?” she asks me.

  “Have you ever traveled in the car for multiple days?” I ask her.

  She shakes her head. “No, just for a few hours,” she admits.

  “Well, then you are a road trip virgin,” I tell her. She hits my chest, and Lucas stifles a laugh as Anna glares at him.

  “Oh, OK, Mr. Know-It-All. How many road trips have you been on?” she asks me. If she wasn’t seated, I’m pretty sure her hands would be on her hips. The corners of my mouth threaten to turn up, and I have to use my will power to prevent that from happening because I’m fairly certain daggers would shoot out of Anna’s eyes if I laughed right now.

  “Two,” I answer.

  “Details?” she asks.

  “My grandparents rented a camper and drove me out West one summer after I got back from camp. We spent two weeks driving around. It was really cool. And then in college, my friends decided to drive to Mardi Gras. We ditched class on Friday so that we could leave Thursday afternoon. We took turns driving. We spent two nights sharing a hotel room and then drove all the way back so we could get to classes on Monday morning,” I tell her, smiling in fondness at the second memory.

  “People seriously do that?” she asks.

  I laugh. “Yes, crazy young people definitely do that,” I say.

  “Well, count me out, that does not sound like a good time,” she says. I laugh again.

  “How much longer?” she asks, pulling out her phone.

  “About an hour or so,” Lucas says from behind the wheel.

  “Why don’t you take a nap?” I suggest.

  Anna shakes her head. “Heck no! What if we see something cool, and I miss it?” she exclaims, making all four of us chuckle.

  “What if I promise to wake you if we see something cool?” I ask her.

  “Nope, your idea of cool may be different than mine,” she declares as she crosses her arms and gazes out the window. She asks questions about things as we drive past. She makes us play one more car game before she sees the first sign for the American side of the falls.

  She squeals in delight and points to it. “We’re here!” she says excitedly. You’d think this woman had never been anywhere before, and yet, I know for a fact she’s been all over the world.

  “How come you are so excited?” I ask her.

  She shrugs. “I love seeing new things,” she says. “You know, the adventure of it all.”

  I watch her excitement grow as Lucas finds an acceptable parking spot. We get briefed again by Pete before we’re allowed to get out of the car. Eventually, Anna places her hand over Pete’s mouth. He quiets immediately.

  “Yeah, yeah. We get it, security, blah, blah, blah. We’ll be good, I promise. I’m pretty sure whoever is trying to kill us, won’t be looking here or suspecting that we’ll take a sudden road trip. Now, can we go?” she asks.

  Pete nods, and we all get out of the car. The plan is to act like normal tourists. So, we do. There’s a formation to us but not one that a normal person would pick up on if they walked by us.

  We walk a little way until the Canadian falls come into view, and Anna breaks the formation and runs over to the fence along the walkway. She leans over and looks out at the falls.

  “Oh my god!! This is so cool,” she exclaims. I can barely hear her over the pounding of three thousand one hundred and sixty gallons of water that fall every second. I grin at the weird fact I remembered learning last time I was here.

  “Can we go down there?” She points to where people are walking down by the falls. I nod and grab her arm.

  “Stay next to me, Anna,” I say in her ear. She nods, and we walk toward the entrance to the pathway.

  Anna’s enthusiasm for the day is contagious. She makes us all go on one of the boats that take you out to the falls and back. She takes selfies of us all in hats, sunglasses, and those ridiculous ponchos they give out for the boat ride.

  We grab lunch and walk around some more, taking in every tourist attraction we come across. By dinner time, I can see Anna’s slowly winding down. And by the time the lights come on behind the falls, her eyelids are drooping.

  “Are we ready to head back?” Pete asks, as we all lean against the railing and look out at the color display.

  “Yeah, let’s head back,” Anna says, as she laces her arm through mine as we walk back to the car. She curls up against me once we are settled inside.

  “Thanks,” she murmurs. “That was so much fun.”

  “It was,” I agree.

  “Sometimes, it’s really nice to just be me for a day,” she whispers as she falls asleep against my shoulder. Pete hands me a blanket from who knows where, and I lay it over her. She snuggles down against me, her head falling into my lap. She sleeps the entire way back to the house and doesn’t even stir when Hendrick stops the car.

  “I got her,” I say to them. I unbuckle her seatbelt and walk around the car. I open the door and lift her into my arms. Pete closes it.

  “She needed this,” he says quietly. I raise an eyebrow.

  “What?” I ask.

  “She needed a day to be her,” he says.

  “So did I,” I say as I carry Anna into bed. She stirs as I remove her shoes, but quickly curls up under the covers that I wrap around her.

  Something about the happiness and carefreeness of the day, feels like an ominous sign, as though something this good can’t possibly last. I can’t shake the feeling of it as I slowly fall asleep with Anna in my arms.

  Chapter Eleven

  It’s the click-clack of the keyboard that wakes me again the next morning. I look over to see Anna with those big earphones on, and I grin. She looks like Princess Leia.

  I get up and walk over to her, placing my hands on her shoulders. She jumps.

  “Jesus, you scared the shit out of me!” she exclaims, whipping around to face me as she sets her headphones down on her shoulders.

  “Sorry,” I say, rubbing her shoulders.

  She leans her neck to one side and then another as she turns back to face her laptop. “If you keep that up, then you’re forgiven,” she says. I laugh.

  “Noted,” I say. “What are you working on?”

  “Digging,” she says.

  “Find anything yet?” I ask.

  She shakes her head. “Nothing useful, anyways,” she says to me with a huff. As she says this, she freezes. “Hold on…” She trails off and begins typing a mile a minute.

  “What are you doing?” I ask her.

  “Trying another angle,” she says.

  “What’s that?” I prod.

  “Hacking into the royal security servers,” she says.

  “Wait, as in your security’s servers?” I ask her.

  She glances at the door to our room and back at her screen. “Yes, as in those servers,” she says.

  “Anna…I…maybe we shouldn’t,” I stammer.

  “Or, maybe that’s exactly why we should,” she says like the badass, rule-breaking princess that she is.

  I sigh and pull up a chair for the show. Although, I really have no idea what the hell I’m looking at as she scrolls through code on the screen.

  “I’ll get us coffee,” I say to her as I lean down and kiss her head before heading out to find caffeine.

  Pete’s in the kitchen when I come in.

  “Morning,” he says. />
  “Morning,” I reply. I make Anna and myself coffee before heading back to the bedroom. I set the coffee down for her, and she thanks me without looking away or stopping the tapping of her fingers on the keyboard.

  I sip my coffee and watch her. Her brows furrow and then un-furrow. She frowns and then stops frowning and then frowns again.

  “What is it?” I ask her.

  “It’s just…this doesn’t make sense,” she says.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Why would Victor and Marcus ask my father to send us here?” she says, biting her lip.

  “What do you mean?” I ask, setting my coffee down on the desk.

  “It says here that Marcus determined the locations with Victor that were the most appropriate to send us all. But why would Marcus determine that for Victor? That doesn’t make sense. Victor’s our chief of security. He should be making those decisions,” Anna says.

  “How long has Victor been your father’s head of security?” I ask her.

  She stops typing and considers the answer. “Well…let’s see. He came on after Lara and Hans were married but before I went to college. I’m trying to remember. I think I was eight or nine, maybe? I don’t know, like ten plus years ago?” she contemplates.

  “And how about Marcus?” I ask her.

  “Oh, Marcus was longer than that,” she says. “He’s been my dad’s personal secretary for, gosh, since I was little, even before my mother died.”

  “Where are your brothers?” I ask her. She types some more before answering.

  “So, it looks like Chris is staying at a small inn near Mia’s family’s home just outside of London. And Auggie is at a friend’s chalet in Switzerland,” she says.

  “OK…why so separated, especially us?” I ponder.

  “That’s a good question,” she notes as she types some more.

  She sighs as she leans back in the chair after a few more minutes of searching.

  “What?” I ask.

  She turns her head toward me and purses her lips. “I have a theory,” she says.

  “Which is?” I ask.

  “Which is, what if we were separated for a reason other than our safety?” she asks.

  “What reason would that be?” I ask.

  “Exactly,” she says.

  “I’m not following,” I say to her.

  She turns her chair so she’s facing me. “Before, we were all together. We changed the plans. And then we weren’t where we said we’d be; thus we weren’t in the plane when it blew up,” she notes.

  “What about the palace?” I ask her.

  “Well.” She taps her lips. “If I hadn’t gone to your room, then I would have been in mine which is down the hall from the blast. Auggie was supposed to have been on that side of the palace if he hadn’t have stopped to get cookies and play video games in the game room, and Chris said he had been heading to a meeting with Mia in the drawing room where I’d been earlier which is right below where the blast was. So, all of us could have been there, but for various reasons, ended up not being there. Our dads were both in the blast as well as Auntie Lara.” She stops when she says her aunt’s name.

  “Any word on her?” I ask her. I haven’t mentioned it since we’ve gotten here three days ago now.

  She shakes her head. “There are no updates, which I guess is better than bad news,” she says, looking away.

  I place my hands on hers. “I’m sorry, Anna. I hope she makes a full recovery,” I say to her.

  “Me too,” she whispers. She shakes her head and clears her throat, squaring her shoulders. “So…anyhow, I…where was I. Right, we were together all those times. What if, whoever is behind this, thinks it would be easier to take us down if we were separated?” she hypothesizes.

  I consider her theory. “Divide and conquer?” I muse.

  She nods. “Divide and conquer,” she repeats.

  “But, we’re together,” I point out.

  “True, but maybe that’s part of the plan,” I point out.

  “You think this is a plan?” I ask.

  “Yes, I do,” she says.

  “So, why come here then?” I ask her.

  “Because, I think if we are going to take down whoever is behind all of this, we need to go along with their plan for a bit. Plus, it buys us time to figure things out, and then, we pounce,” she says.

  “I don’t know, Anna. This is…” I trail off because I honestly don’t know what to say.

  She gets a look on her face, and I know she’s just come up with an idea.

  “What?” I ask, almost afraid to hear her answer.

  “My dad mentioned a name…” She pauses and turns to her computer and begins typing. A minute later, she pulls up what looks like a phone number pad on her screen, and she places a call…through some secured audio chat on her computer. I shake my head at this amazing woman.

  “Is this Jack Ross?” she says when a deep Scottish accented voice answers on the other line.

  “Who’s speaking?” he says gruffly.

  “Mr. Ross, this is Princess Susanna of Norddale. I need to speak with you, privately,” she says.

  “How did you obtain this number?” he questions.

  She grins. “I’m a princess,” she says.

  “Your Highness,” he growls, clearly not having the patience to be toyed with even by a member of a royal family.

  She sighs. “I hacked the phone system at Interpol,” she says.

  “You what?” he exclaims.

  “Listen, I don’t have time to explain. I’m calling from my secured server which is working remotely, and I only trust it to stay secured on such a call for a short period of time. So, can you meet with me?” she asks.

  “You’re in the States?” he asks, but in a way that tells me he already knew that.

  “Yes,” she answers.

  “Tomorrow,” he states. Not a question, just a statement.

  “Fine, what time?” she asks.

  “I’ll come to you,” he says. “I’ll be in touch.” And then he hangs up as she looks over at me.

  “Well, this ought to be interesting,” she muses as she closes down her laptop.

  “Very,” I agree.

  “Let’s go visit your grandparents,” she suggests.

  “Now?” I ask.

  “Why not? I mean, they are retired, and it’s not like they are going to be busy,” she says. “Plus, we promised them we’d come back over this week.”

  “We did,” I recall.

  “Good, it’s settled then,” she says. And just like that we get ready and head back to my grandparents’ home.

  Chapter Twelve

  “I’m so glad you came over,” Nana says as she busies herself in the kitchen preparing a feast fit for a holiday.

  “Nana, you really don’t have to go through all this trouble,” Anna says. “At least let me help.”

  Nana shakes her head. “Oh, thank you, my darling, but I love cooking. It relaxes me. Plus, we so seldom get a house full of young people. It’s my pleasure to cook for you all,” she says as she chops vegetables on a cutting board.

  “What can we do to help?” I ask her.

  “Yeah, put us to work, Vera,” Hendrick says as he walks into the room with a mouth full of food from the appetizers Nana set out on the living room coffee table.

  I half grin at the fact they are still there, remembering the days when we had Muffin, a mutt who we adopted and who would eat everything off any surface she could reach.

  “Pish posh, you go relax, young man,” Nana scolds as she sweeps the chopped vegetables into a bubbling soup on the stove.

  With a sigh, I start toward the living room. “You could go through more boxes up in your mother’s room?” she suggests gingerly. Nana has been gently hounding me forever to clean out that closet. She refuses to do it herself, hiding behind the fact that my mother’s belongings are technically mine, but in truth, I think it’s more because she doesn’t want to be reminded of the loss. Nan
a was always strong, even after my mother died, but I know Mom’s death took away a piece of her that she’ll never get back; it took away a piece of me too.

  I walk up the stairs, and Anna follows me. My mother’s room hasn’t changed much. It still sports a light green mint color and the dark wood furniture of her youth. There’re a few family photos sitting out on the dresser. Mom always kept it tidy.

  “This was your mother’s room?” Anna asks as she runs her hand over the dresser.

  I nod.

  “Which room is yours?” she inquires as she hovers by the door. I point to the door across the hall. She turns and opens it. I hear her giggle.

  “What’s so funny?” I call out as I walk over to where she’s standing. Then I see it, my comic book action heroes are lined up on my shelf. My awards, medals, and trophies are laid out on a shelf below them. I have posters of rock bands and supermodels. It’s an homage to my childhood.

  “Didn’t take much with you, then?” she asks, fighting like hell to stop a smile from curving her lips up on each end.

  “Well, this is where the magic happens,” I say, whirling around with my arms out. And she can no longer hide the smile or the laughter.

  “You’re hilarious,” she says as she walks toward my shelf. She picks up various items, studying each one. “You were quite the collector,” she notes as she holds up one of my action figures.

  I shrug. “You didn’t collect anything?” I ask her.

  “Sure, I just don’t have them out in my room anymore,” she says with a smirk.

  “To be honest, I don’t come up here as often as I should,” I admit.

  “I guess not,” she says. “Come on, let’s go see what we can clean out over there,” she adds as she walks toward me.

  “You know…I haven’t had a girl in here for quite a while,” I say to her.

  She raises an eyebrow. “Quite a while, huh?” she asks.

  I grin and shrug. “What can I say? I may have brought home a girl or two when I was in college,” I admit. She rolls her eyes.