A Valiant Prince

by S. E. Rose

“Exactly,” Anna replies. “That’s just it. This goes deep, deeper than I know we’ve considered up until now. I feel a little…well, stupid, for not having ever investigated my own family before. Until now, I never thought anyone I knew personally could be…well, I never thought they were a threat. And that’s why I need your help.”

  “Do you have an idea?” Jack asks her.

  She clears her throat and looks back over her shoulder at me, and I’m momentarily confused because she’s giving me a very guilty look and I don’t know why.

  “I think it’s time we flush out our bad guy,” she says to him.

  “And what’s your plan to do that?” Jack asks. Pete steps forward, clearly disliking this idea as much as I do.

  Anna holds up her hand to stop Pete from speaking. “Just hear me out, OK?” she says, looking around the room. I follow her gaze and see that Hendrick and Lucas have joined us. I question whether we can trust them, but then Anna speaks again. “I trust everyone in this room because I’ve investigated each and every one of you. You’re all clean.” She looks at back at Jack. “You are a little harder to investigate, but I trust you. I’m concerned about my brothers. I think there’s a reason we were separated a few days ago.

  “What if we go somewhere that looks like we’re hiding…together, but we’re not. If the plan was to separate us, then let’s change up that plan,” she starts. Pete, Lucas, and Hendrick all take a step forward so that they surround the island. “Jack, you still own a gatehouse on your family’s property, yes?”

  Jack looks a little surprised, but nods.

  “What if my brothers and Logan and I all went there and maybe we leave a little trail of breadcrumbs,” she says. “I’m guessing that house is actually a bit of a…what’s the saying, ‘Fort Knox’?”

  “Anna, you know what you’re saying, right?” Jack asks.

  She nods. “I’m saying we all play sitting ducks so that someone thinks they can take us out. Only, we aren’t playing sitting ducks. Up until now, we’ve had a poisoned pawn in our midst, gentlemen, but I think it’s time to turn the tables, it’s time for us to be the poisoned pawn. Whoever this fucker or fuckess is, we are going to bring their ass down,” she says. She’s damn sexy when she talks like this, and I have to push that feeling way down because it’s completely inappropriate timing.

  “I’m not sure your fathers would agree to that idea,” Jack says.

  Anna smirks. “And that’s why we don’t tell them,” she says.

  “Anna…I…” Jack stammers, clearly attempting to find the right words.

  “Jack, I’ve been through every scenario, and this is the best option. My statistical skills are almost as good as my hacking skills,” she says to him. “It’d be better if our fathers were with us, but you’re right. They will not agree to this. But your job isn’t to protect us, it’s to find who’s threatening not one, but two royal families.”

  “True,” Jack says. I can almost see him biting his tongue as she speaks.

  “So, you know I’m right,” she states.

  “Just because I know you’re right, doesn’t mean I want you to be right,” Jack admits.

  “Anna, may I speak?” Pete interjects. Everyone turns to look at him.

  “You may,” she says.

  “God help me, but I agree with you,” he says. He looks over at Jack. “There’s only a handful of us that I trust with security, so I’d need backup.”

  Jack nods. “I can provide that,” Jack says.

  “When?” Anna asks.

  “Give me twenty-four hours to pull everything together, including how we’ll be getting you and your brothers to this location without your fathers knowing and without anyone else knowing but with enough tracks behind you so that the one person that we don’t want knowing will find out,” Jack says. When he puts it like this, I’m momentarily struck with how intricate the plan will have to be.

  Anna grins. “I can help you with my brothers…we have…well, there’s a way we can get them there,” she says.

  Jack shakes his head. “Anna, no funny business. I know you three have ways of sneaking off without your staff, but it’s too dangerous,” he scolds.

  “Jack, it’s the only way. I trust Mia, but everyone else, including most of their security, I’m still on the fence about,” she says. “Cain and Nico, I think are in the clear and can help us, but I still have digging to do on Auggie’s bodyguards, Patrick and Vince. Paolo, well, I’m not sure yet.”

  “OK, so I’ll reach out to Cain and Nico, they will help Chris, Mia, and Auggie get to Jack’s place,” Pete says. “We don’t need your shenanigans, Anna. Jack is right, it’s dangerous.”

  Anna sighs. “Fine, but only Cain and Nico,” she huffs.

  “Agreed,” Pete says.

  “Anything else I need to know about?” Jack asks.

  Anna shakes her head. “Not yet. I may have some more info, but until I can figure it out, it’s useless,” Anna says to him.

  “Hand me your phone,” Jack says to Anna. She passes her phone to him, and he gives her a pointed look.

  “I mean, your ‘phone,’” he reiterates. With another sigh, Anna hops up and walks into the bedroom. A moment later, she walks back out and sets a phone down on the counter. Jack motions to her with his chin, and she punches some numbers into it and hands it to him.

  “I’m programming a number into this phone. There are two ways to reach me. Either dial my contact number or hold down the seven key for seven seconds,” he says.

  “I’ll be back in touch tomorrow,” he adds as he stands.

  We walk him toward the door. He turns before opening it.

  “Once I leave here, this plan goes into action,” he says to Anna.

  “I know,” she says in a quiet voice.

  “There’s no turning back,” he says to her.

  “I know,” she says, slightly louder.

  “The stakes are high,” he warns.

  “They’ll be higher if we don’t do this,” she says. “I won’t hunker down and cower like a frightened rabbit. And my brothers won’t either. It’s a risk, but it’s a risk I know we are all willing to take. We can’t live under a threat like this forever. We won’t.”

  “Very well, then. I don’t love it, but I agree, it may be the best option to flush out whoever is behind this,” Jack says. He sighs as he walks through the door. “I just hope your fathers don’t have my balls for this.”

  Anna stifles a giggle. I nudge her, and she looks up at me with a grin. I shake my head at my little fierce princess.

  Anna looks out the window as Jack gets in a car and takes off down the street.

  “Anna, this is risky,” Pete says as he crosses the room to stand beside her.

  “So is staying here. And if my hunch is correct, then staying is playing into the hands of the killer,” Anna points out.

  “Agreed,” Pete says.

  “Good, then prepare yourself because we are leaving here…I reckon in about forty-eight hours,” she says.

  “Yes, Your Highness,” Pete says. I know he uses the formality to rib her a bit, and she glares back at him as he heads up to his room to no doubt let Cain and Nico in on the plan.

  “This is crazy,” I say, finally finding my voice.

  “Yes,” she says. She turns and walks back to our bedroom. I follow her and watch as she logs in to the computer.

  “What are you looking for now?” I ask.

  “Checking on something,” she mutters. A minute later she closes the laptop.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Checking to make sure Auntie Lara is still alive,” she says.

  “And?” I prod.

  “For now, she’s stable and still in the ICU,” she says softly as she crouches down and grabs the papers we had gone through earlier.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Anna spends the next twenty-four hours scouring the web and every document I’ve brought over here. She pinpoints a number of people in the photographs my mom ha
d, most are staff, a few family members, and security.

  “Anna?” Pete’s voice calls from the hallway.

  “Come in,” she says.

  Pete stands at the door with a phone in his hand. He holds it out, and Anna frowns but takes the phone from him.

  “Yes,” she answers. “I see. Understood. Jack, they can’t know anything, or this will all be called off. Fine. Yes. At what time? We’ll be ready.” She hangs up and looks between Pete and me.

  “We’re leaving on a flight this evening. Jack wants us to drive to the Cleveland airport. He has a plane waiting there for us. He’ll call you back in a few minutes to explain more, Pete. He has a few additional calls to make,” she says.

  Pete nods. “I’ll make sure we’re ready,” Pete says as he walks back out toward the kitchen.

  “I should call my grandparents,” I say.

  Anna shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Logan. When this is all over, we can come back here to visit them, but we can’t tell anyone anything. It puts them in grave danger,” she says to me, a look of sympathy on her face.

  “Oh,” I say, feeling silly that I hadn’t thought of that myself.

  Anna crawls over to me and sits on my lap. “First time in espionage, huh?” she says, trying to make light of our situation.

  I look down at her. “Anna,” I scold.

  She shrugs. “I have a feeling things are going to get crazier before they calm down,” she says.

  I sigh and lean down to kiss her head. I let the smell of her shampoo fill my nostrils. It smells like home and that’s when I realize that no matter how insane the world is around us, I love this woman, and if I’m with her, then it’s all fine. I wrap my arms around her and hold her tightly against me, feeling her in my arms, breathing her in, listening to the soft sound of her breath, and looking down at her so my vision is filled with only Anna. If only I could taste her right now, then my sensory overload would be complete perfection.

  “We need to pack,” she says, squirming in my arms. I let go of her, and she heads over to the closet. I watch as she pulls out her suitcase and starts placing items inside it.

  “Logan?” she says, looking down at me on the floor.

  “Right,” I say as I stand and go to grab my own suitcase.

  We pack in silence, working around each other like a well-choreographed dance. When we finish, Anna looks down at the box on the floor.

  “Bring that with us,” she says.

  “Why?” I ask her.

  She shrugs. “Intuition, a hunch, just put the lid on it and make sure Pete packs it in the car,” she says as she lugs her suitcase and carry-on bag down the hallway. I follow her and pretty soon the car is loaded, and we are on our way to Cleveland.

  It takes us a little over two hours to get to the airport. No one says much in the car. Every single one of us deep in our own thoughts. And I can’t blame us, what we’re about to do is…crazy.

  Pete pulls up to an area of the airport clearly reserved for celebrities because it is not the main departure gate. We are quickly processed through customs and led by an airport employee to a transport car that takes us to a hangar where I see a jet, a private jet. I want to make some snide comment about rich people and their planes, but then I remember that I’m now one of them, so I shut my mouth. Not surprisingly, Anna does not.

  “Whose plane is this?” she demands as we walk up to it.

  “A good friend of Jack’s,” Pete says. Anna stops walking and glares at Pete.

  He rolls his eyes. “Bryce Gallagher. He owns a private security firm and consults with several intelligence agencies,” Pete says.

  Anna’s eyes widen at the name, which I don’t recognize. I shrug and get on board the plane, making myself cozy. Anna walks in behind me and eyes her surroundings before choosing a seat next to me.

  “Everything OK?” I ask her.

  “Yes,” she says.

  “Who’s Bryce Gallagher?” I ask.

  “He’s…well, a sort of legend. We’ll be safe on this plane,” she says but doesn’t elaborate. I decide I’ll search his name later. We’re served drinks as the pilots go through their pre-flight check. It isn’t long before we are flying, and everyone is on their electronic devices. I settle myself into my seat and close my eyes, hoping to catch a little sleep before we arrive because god knows I won’t be sleeping once we get there. The thoughts of the trap we are setting bounce around my mind. I can’t shake the feeling that this is a bad idea, a dangerous idea that could get us all killed. I ponder what my father would think of that and that makes me think of Pops and Nana. I wait till the seatbelt signs have been turned off before getting up and walking over to Pete.

  “Yes?” Pete asks me.

  “My grandparents…” I start but he holds up his hand.

  “Are being watched. Don’t worry. Jack’s on it,” Pete says.

  “Oh, alright then,” I say as I walk back to my seat.

  “Everything OK?” Anna asks me.

  I laugh. “If running back across the ocean while trying to evade and then draw in a killer is OK, then I’d say everything is just perfect,” I grumble.

  Anna looks up at me. “I’m sorry,” she says. I suddenly snap out of my doom and gloom.

  “For what?” I ask.

  “I feel like going to you…maybe I should have just alerted the authorities,” she says.

  I want to groan. “We’re not seriously back to that are we?” I snarl.

  Anna glares at me. “Well, sorry I care,” she says with a huff and turns away from me. I feel like an ass. I put a hand on her arm, and she shrugs it off.

  “Anna…listen…I’m sorry. I…I’m glad you came for me, OK? I don’t regret meeting you for a second. And you might very well have saved my life and your own by doing that. So, stop apologizing, alright?” I say.

  She turns slowly and looks at me. “Do you mean that?” she asks. I want to roll my eyes and knock some sense into her, but I refrain.

  “Yes, I swear it,” I say to her.

  She nods and turns back toward me, resting her head on my shoulder as she yawns.

  “It’s been a long day, and I think the coming days will be long too. We should get some rest,” I say to her.

  “I agree,” she says, and with that, I pull a blanket over us, and we fall asleep.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The thing about being royal is you are never alone. I’m starting to understand that, and I’m also starting to loathe it. Pete, Hendrick, and Lucas might as well be an awkward third wheel in Anna’s and my relationship. They are with us twenty-four seven. It takes about two hours to drive from Glasgow, where we land, to Jack’s home.

  I’ve never been to Scotland. It’s beautiful. I sadly wish we could sightsee, and then remember that we’re not hiding any longer. We’d need to be cautious, but I think we also all need to get out of here for a few hours. I contemplate this for a minute.

  “Can we go somewhere tomorrow?” I ask Pete, who drives us down a country lane with hedging that is entirely too close to the road on one side and a stone wall on the other.

  “I…well…maybe?” Pete says. I want to laugh because he sounds so conflicted.

  “We could go down to Edinburgh for the day,” Anna suggests. “You’d like it there.”

  “Sure, I mean, if it’s safe for us to go there. I do think we all need to get out of here for a bit,” I acknowledge.

  Anna frowns. “Where all have you been?” she asks me.

  I contemplate it for a minute. “Well, Canada,” I start and grin at her while she rolls her eyes, “Mexico, Costa Rica, obviously the Bahamas and a few other islands in the Caribbean, France, England, Italy, Norddale, and as of today, Scotland.”

  She giggles. “And Montelandia,” she states.

  “Oh, right, Montelandia, if you want to count where I was born but have no memory of,” I say to her.

  “Still counts,” she says. I shake my head and smile back at her.

  “It should be up
here,” Pete mutters as we come upon a giant stone wall with a gate. He pulls up to the gate and through the metal bars, I can see a rather large stone home off to the side of a driveway that goes through a tunnel of trees. It’s very picturesque.

  Pete punches a code into the security box on the side of the drive and the gates open. We pull inside and up to the old stone house.

  “Wow,” I say as I look up at it.

  Anna giggles again. “It’s just the gatehouse,” she says.

  “If this is the gatehouse, I can’t wait to see the main house,” I muse as we get out of the car. The pebble drive crunches beneath my feet as I walk up to a giant wooden door. It’s curved at the top and looks like some sort of medieval entrance. Pete punches a code into what I presume is a lockbox and it opens, revealing a very ancient-looking skeleton key, only it has been retrofitted with some interesting-looking electronic sensors. I note that while the keyhole is still ancient looking, there clearly has to be more security going on here than what meets the eye.

  Pete slides the key into the keyhole and turns it. There’s a beep and the door opens. Once inside, Pete punches another code onto a keyboard by the front door.

  “Jack had the house retro-fitted with a number of security upgrades after he had an incident here several years ago,” Pete says.

  “Oh?” I ask, curious as to what incident occurred here.

  Pete just nods and walks away, giving me no answer. I shrug. I walk back toward the car and grab my suitcase and the box of my mom’s things. Anna is already upstairs. She finds the master suite like a dog searching for a treat.

  “Found our room,” she says with a grin. I look around and wonder where her brothers will stay.

  “Don’t worry, there’s like four suites with bathrooms, plus there’s like three or four more bedrooms,” she says.

  “And how do you know this?” I ask.

  “I just ran around while you were busying getting luggage,” she says with a laugh.

  “Does Jack still live here?” I ask her.

  She shakes her head. “No, he lives in Maryland, but he keeps this property. He and his brother are turning the area around the manor into a nature preserve or something like that, I guess it takes a while to get it legally resolved,” she notes.