To Love a Prince

by Nana Malone

  Ashton jerked on the chains and launched for Sebastian. His guard, Grayson, was a little slow on the take.

  Good thing I was there.

  I won't say it was satisfying to apply the chop to Ashton's throat and then armbar him. I wouldn't say it wasn't satisfying either. As he was subdued on the floor, I glanced up at his guard. "And that's how you subdue a prisoner, in case you're wondering. Granted, this only applies if you're not working with the prisoner."

  Grayson’s eyes flared. "I don't know what you mean."

  Ethan stepped forward. "Grayson, we already have the financial records. We know about payments into your accounts from an unmarked account in the Caymans. We’re certain the forensic accounting on Prince Ashton's accounts will no doubt prove them to be the source. We understand he was stashing money before he was sent away, perhaps for something like this, off the books. Don't worry, you'll get leniency if you tell us who else you've been working with."

  All the while, Ashton jerked in his chains.

  Ethan made a quick call on his cellphone for two Guards. Trevor stepped through the doors, but the other one I didn't recognize. They had two island police officers with them. Was this it? Just like that, it was over?

  Something isn't right.

  I glanced around. Tristan was watching me as if he'd never seen me before. Roone was grinning at me like an idiot. Ethan was giving me the smile of a proud father. And Sebastian, he was totally complacent as if this was normal everyday shit.

  Tristan leaned forward and offered a hand to help me back up.

  When I stood, Penny fist-bumped me. That was normal too. Everything was working out exactly as we needed it. But what the hell? Something was still wrong. Yes, we had traced the financial transactions to prove which guards were working with Ashton, but I still didn't have any proof that Ashton was the one behind the murder attempts on Tristan.

  Once the Council meeting was adjourned, Tristan immediately took my hand and tugged me toward one of the hidden tunnels, dragging me inside. "Tristan, you do realize everyone saw you pull me in here, right?"

  He shrugged and slammed his lips on mine. His lips were firm, his tongue hot as he licked into my mouth. He kissed me long and hard, giving my body time to melt into a pool of jelly that couldn't quite function right. And then he drew back. "Fuck them all. Have you met my woman? She's badass."

  "That's Lady Badass to you."

  "I beg your pardon. Now, if you don't mind, since I am no longer exiled, I would very much like to drag her to the bedroom."

  I laughed. "You just got out of the hospital. Don't you want to take it easy?"

  "No. I already lost several days with you. I'm not losing anymore."

  Fifteen

  Ariel…

  What was I missing? In the palace somewhere, there was a safe. A safe that meant the difference between true freedom for Tristan and forever being afraid of his brother.

  Think Ariel, think.

  I could feel the shifting of the door and assumed it was Penny, so I glanced up with a smile, but it wasn't Penny who met my gaze. It was Ella. I stood up straight. "Oh, it's you. Is there something I can help you with?"

  "What are you doing?"

  "Well, if you must know, Tristan said Ashton has a safe in the palace. I'm trying to find the most likely locations.”

  She nodded. "Right. Of course."

  She lingered in the doorway, shifting from foot to foot, and I put my pen down. "Is there something you need?"

  "Yeah, I uh, I wanted to apologize for the other day."

  I lifted my brow. "What other day?"

  She winced. "The Council Ball, the day there was an explosion."

  "Were you involved in the explosion?"

  Her eyes went wide. "No, of course not. I would never."

  I stared at her carefully. "So, what is it? What are you saying sorry for?"

  "I, I was trying to prove something with Ian. I guess, with Tristan too. And I um... I don't know. It didn't feel like the right thing to do, and I'm sorry."

  I studied her closely. "You're apologizing?"

  She nodded. "Yeah, I know. I don't do it often, but give a girl a break."

  "Look, I don't care if you date Ian. It’s not like I want him. It just felt like you were trying to get my attention, or worse, Tristan's."

  She shrugged. "You don't understand. Ever since I met Tristan, there was something always aloof about him. He made it clear that he wasn't really emotionally available. And like many women before me, I thought I knew better and I could change him, or he'd change his mind. And it never worked out how I thought it would."

  "I mean, you're a supermodel-turned-actress. You're beautiful. You don't need to get anyone's attention. Ninety percent of the attention is on you already."

  "Just not the attention I want."

  "Ah."

  "The funny thing is, I'm not even really in love with him. It's just for so long you were this unreal phantom, and then suddenly you were real. I was forced to address the truth that he didn't love me back. I'm sorry for that."

  "Well, it wasn't that there was anything wrong with you. And it doesn't stop me from being sorry that you felt that way."

  She nodded. "Yeah well, maybe it's time to do some growing up. There's no reason you two shouldn't be together. Hearing the real story of what happened with you guys is like some star-crossed-lovers shit. I don't want to be the one who stands in the way of that. I was going to tell him tonight, and I'll make an official statement to the press tomorrow. There's always going to be affection between us, but it's time for us to go our separate ways."

  I released a sigh. "Oh, thank you, I guess."

  "You don't need to thank me. It's the right thing to do."

  "Don't tell me I have to start liking you now."

  Ella coughed a laugh. "Yeah, same. It turns out you're actually pretty awesome. And you saved his life, so I can't be angry at you. It doesn't matter how much I want to. I kinda have a crush on you myself."

  I laughed at that. "Well, if I ever become single again, I'll let you know."

  "Something tells me you'll never be single again."

  I smiled at that and tried to head off the awkward silence that I knew would follow. "Any idea where you'd put a safe?"

  She stared at the palace blueprints and frowned. "Here's the thing, all those times Ashton said he's had a safe, but I keep thinking about the kind of person Tristan told me Ashton was. He was a master manipulator from the beginning. What if there isn't a safe?"

  I frowned. "What, you mean he just made it up?"

  "Yeah. Not that there isn't anything to hide, because it is very much like him to keep evidence of something, but what if this whole time he's been leading us to believe that there is a safe when none exists, just twisting Tristan up. He giggles because he can, knowing that Tristan will spin and spin and spin trying to find this safe that doesn't exist."

  My eyes went wide as I scanned the palace blueprints. "Jesus Christ. If that's true, then I have no idea where to look. Okay, so if you are hiding something that should be in a safe but isn't in a safe, then where would you put it?'

  "Well, that's easy. His safe deposit box. There’s no way I'd put anything in a safe these days. There are people like my great-grandfather who could easily crack it. And then there's no point to a safe if you can't actually access it. If you wanted something for safekeeping, you'd put it in a safe deposit box and you'd tell no one."

  "Okay, maybe you're right."

  Ella said, "We know that he’s clearly had help, right?"

  I nodded.

  "Okay, so how does he pay for that?”

  "Zia and I have isolated the guards with an influx of funds into their accounts down to ten out of the thirty-five guards on rotation. Those ten guards have had questionable cash infusions over the last three years."

  She nodded. "So it stands to reason that they're very likely working for him."

  "We’re still working on it, but we know that the funds are
coming from the Caymans. Obviously, most of those accounts are untraceable, but Sebastian can pull strings as the royal family has properties in the Caymans. We can probably check security feeds at the most likely banks located there and see which ones Ashton had been inside before he went to prison."

  "You could do all that?"

  I grinned. "Yeah, of course."

  She lifted a brow. "Is that legal?"

  "You know, legal-schmegal."

  “Everyone did warn me you are a hacker.”

  "I haven't really been a hacker in a long time. Okay, that's a lie. I hack from time to time. But I don't steal anything, and I'm usually trying not to get anyone into trouble. Most of the time, I’m usually making things unhackable for people like me."

  She studied me closely. "You know, I think he'll love this version of you almost as much as the old version."

  Warmth spread toward the center of my chest. "Thank you."

  "Do you mind if I watch?"

  "You want to watch me hack something? It's kind of boring. It's just me at the computer tapping away, trying to make things work."

  "I don't know. It might be interesting. I could learn something. I'm not just a dumb actress, you know?"

  I shook my head. "You know, I never thought that."

  "Even after the whole Max thing?"

  "Especially after the whole Max thing. It was really brave of you to get out any way you could. I know that a lot of people sometimes don't."

  "Yeah. I really worried when Tristan... you know, went and white-knighted it."

  I shook my head. "He still doesn't see how dangerous any of that was."

  She laughed. "Of course not. I tried to talk him out of it for months. It all seemed like a great idea at the time, but the actual execution of it… Once I realized what it was going to entail, I knew he could get hurt or he could end up in jail. Obviously, I didn't want any of that. But hey, the prince has nine lives."

  "He has so many more than that.”

  “So, do I get to watch?"

  "Um, you're serious?"

  "Yeah, something tells me that you and I could be friends."

  "Easy does it. Let's not get all effusive now."

  She laughed. I pulled out my laptop and started down that hole. After all was said and done, she'd had the best lead. It didn’t even take me that long to find the information. We had to look from three years ago. Most places erased data that old from their archives, but luckily, banks hold on to things longer.

  "So, these three look fine."

  Ella shrugged. "Ashton's a narcissist, right? He wants the best? So probably that bank." She pointed to my laptop screen.

  I studied the opulent entrance with its marble floors and Grecian statues. And I shook my head. "No, he's also a manipulative prick. I’ll bet it’s the nondescript one."

  She shrugged. "I don't have to be anywhere for a while. How long do you think it takes to get to the Caymans?"

  "So, you're on Team Winston Isles now?"

  She crossed her arms. "Come on, I helped, didn't it?"

  "Fine, you helped a little."

  "A lot. I helped a lot."

  I rolled my eyes again. "Yeah, fine."

  "Oh, you'll like me. It'll just take a minute, but you'll like me. Everyone always does."

  "You are surprisingly persistent."

  "You are not the first person to tell me that.

  "Fine, I guess we're making a little trip to the Caymans."

  Tristan…

  She was quiet. One thing I knew about Ariel was that she was never quiet. I squeezed her hand as we walked down the hall on the way to the game night. "What's wrong? In case you forgot, we won."

  She frowned. "I still need to tell you something."

  I stopped in the middle of the hall. "How come I never like it when you have something to tell me?"

  "It's just that you were in the hospital, then there was the vote to deal with. There hasn’t been time." She shifted on her feet.

  "So let me guess, you did something dangerous by yourself?"

  "No, I did not go by myself."

  My eyes widened. "You took Penny again? Sebastian is going to have your ass. And not in a fun way."

  She coughed a laugh. "You have my ass. Penny has his. But listen, I went with Ella."

  I stopped and stared at her. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. My ex, with my present girlfriend? But girlfriend was really the wrong word for Ariel anyway. Love of my life felt like too much, but it was also the truth. "Okay, where did you and Ella go?"

  She started talking fast then. "Okay, so I was searching the palace's blueprints for anywhere Ashton could have stashed his safe. Somewhere accessible, easy for him where he could avoid cameras, right? While I was doing that, Ella came in and she pointed out that someone like Ashton was going to want to play with his toys. And he’d want to know that they were secure where he could access them and make sure that no one else ever did."

  I frowned. "Hence, a safe."

  "No, he's in prison. And at the time, he probably considered that he might get caught. The writing was on the wall. With him in prison, how was he ever going to access a safe in the palace?"

  I frowned again. "Okay, so what's your point?"

  "Well, it was actually Ella's point, and it was an excellent one. He would most certainly want to play with his toys. Touch them, stroke them, all those things. But he's going to know he's never going to be able to do that from prison, right?"

  "So?"

  "Someone like him isn't going to risk that someone would stumble on a secret safe and Sebastian would demand it to be opened."

  My brows furrowed. “Okay, I’m following… because anyone could have found a safe. And Sebastian is king now, so he would have been notified immediately, and he has all the resources on the planet. He could get someone to open the safe.”

  “So, when a safe isn't safe, where do you put something?"

  "I guess, a safe deposit box."

  She nodded. "Exactly."

  "Please don't tell me you went traipsing around some godforsaken place looking for a safe deposit box."

  "I didn't go traipsing. We did it through a series of very targeted investigations."

  I lifted a brow. "You hacked in?"

  "Look, the royal family has holdings in the Caymans. It stands to reason that some of them would bank there."

  I shook my head. "What's the short version?"

  She shifted on her feet and then reached into her pocket and pulled out a USB drive. "This was in Ashton's safe deposit box."

  I zeroed in on her palm. "Excuse me?"

  “He had a safe deposit box in the Caymans. I found a way into their systems to put my name on the account. I walked right in and I took it."

  My gaze flicked up to her eyes and then back down to her palm. "Are you sure?"

  She nodded. "And he had other things in there too. Passports for the United States, Venice, Venezuela. I mean, that was his in-case-of-emergency stash. There was some cash too, and I left everything else where it was. I figured that's the thing that you’d want."

  "You're sure?"

  She shook her head. "Look, for all I know, that could be financial records of some sort. I didn't plug it in to have a look-see, but it has your name on it."

  My mouth went so dry it was as if the Sahara had taken root on my tongue. I reached into her palm and took the thumb drive. On the back it said, Baby Tris. The heat of shame flooded my skin. That's what he used to call me. He tormented me, tortured me, and called me Baby Tris because I would usually cry.

  "I'm so sorry Tristan. I didn't know if he had anyone else who would go get it, and I just wanted you to have it. And maybe I didn't think it through. Maybe it was impulsive, but that’s who I am now. I protect the ones I love, and I didn't want you hurt again. So, I did this thing.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she blinked them away rapidly. I pulled her close and tucked her under my chin, holding her to me, letting her warmth seep into me, chasing away the c
old. "Thank you."

  "You're welcome."

  And then I stepped back, dropped the USB drive on the ground, and stomped on it. I stomped again and again and again until there was nothing but scattered broken pieces of my torture. Finally, I stepped back and bent to start picking up the pieces, but Ariel beat me to it.

  There was one piece, a chip of some sort, and she took it and bent it into neat little halves and then quarters, and it cracked. "Just to make sure that it's gone for good. Whatever was on there, you don't have to be afraid anymore."

  I pulled her close. "Christ, I love you."

  "This version of me? Who is a little impetuous and doesn't always think things through?"

  "I love all versions."

  She gave me a sweet smile as she picked up the rest of the pieces and then discarded them in the nearest trash can. "Awesome. I'm glad. Because you know, the jury is still out, but I think I like you a lot."

  I grinned down at her. "Oh yeah? What do I do to tip the scales?"

  "I'll let you know. I mean, it's going to take a lot of work."

  I grinned. "I'm up for the challenge."

  As much as her smile warmed me, I still had that hollow feeling in my chest, but I wasn't going to dwell on that. She'd just given me the one thing I needed to be free. I wasn't going to spend this time waxing on and on about why my brother hated me so much. Nope. I was going to be grateful and thankful. And then I was going to go play a silly card game with my family. My royal family.

  When we entered the game room, everyone else was already there. Bryna was on Lucas's lap, and they were making out like a couple of teenagers. Roone was pacing. Jessa was gabbing away with Penny.

  Why was Roone pacing? It didn’t make any sense. Ella was there too, and she’d brought a date. The way she’d helped Ariel recover my past for me earned Ian a reprieve. I might not love it, but she was happy, and I could be happy for her. Ethan was there, Queen Mother Alexa, my whole family. Sebastian watched me closely. I didn’t like how quickly he could ascertain that something was wrong, because he asked me right away, “Are you okay?’