Hadrian did, out of fear he’d either throw up, or worse, that he wouldn’t and he’d be as caught in the sight as Heather was, a deer in headlights.
“I appreciate you coming,” Heather said as the nurse patched up the bandages.
“I kind of have to be here.”
She let out a sigh. “I didn’t say I liked you being here.”
They both knew what his being there represented—beyond paying respects to Dante’s death, he was there to assume Michel’s position, effectively cutting King Armand’s children and grandchildren out of the procession.
“Rumor has it you have a new girlfriend.” Heather didn’t take her eyes off her husband as she spoke. The nurse finished her work and exited the room. She moved her chair back to the side of the bed, slipping her hand around Michel’s fingers. At least they weren’t bandaged.
“Royal Rumors is hard at work,” he replied, trying to make a joke about the rumor mill circulating through the palace any time day or night. They’d nicknamed it Royal Rumors when they were kids, and the name had stuck.
“Tell me about her.”
“Surely you don’t want to know.”
“Tell me how you met. I need to hear something that isn’t so bloody depressing.”
Hadrian smiled. “She was sitting by a fountain, about to make a wish. I stopped her, she elbowed me in the gut.”
Heather smirked, though it wasn’t a truly joyful laugh. “The Drake family gut kick strikes again.”
“I didn’t expect it to be so physical.”
“They all say that.” She squeezed her husband’s hand.
“I’m sorry, Heather. I wish things were different.” And God, how he did.
“I do too,” she replied, fiddling with the cuff of his pajama sleeve. “I had planned a private dinner Monday night. We were going to sit down, have this special dinner. I wanted to be alone with my husband. Elizabeth and George were going to take Sara out for the evening, give us more privacy. We were going to have fruit for an appetizer, then a lamb ragout for the main course. And dessert? One of your sweet sundaes that you sometimes make on the show. The one with cream and chocolate and the brownie?”
“Yes, I know which one you mean.”
“And as I fed him a bite of his dessert, I was going to tell him I’m four months pregnant.” Her hand ran across her stomach.
He hadn’t noticed that she looked a bit rounder than he’d remembered. But looking over her shoulder, he could see the small swell of her abdomen that wasn’t usually there.
“You’re still going to tell him. And he’ll be thrilled.”
“Since we’d had the two miscarriages, I had wanted to wait to tell him until I was sure the baby would be okay. He took both so hard. In four weeks, I can find out the sex of the baby.”
This added a whole new layer to the procession. If Michel has a male child, that male would be the next in line for the throne before Hadrian. If something happened and Michel didn’t live, then Heather would become the regent crown princess, and eventually regent queen, ruling in her son’s place until he was of age.
“Why haven’t you told the king and queen?”
“Because my husband needs to know before anyone else.”
“So why are you telling me?”
She turned to look at Hadrian, finally. Her eyes were cold and black, like she had already accepted the death of her husband. “Because this baby will change your life as much as it will change his.” She looked back down at her husband. “One way or another.”
“Bloody Hell,” Hadrian said, pulling out one of Heather’s favorite phrases.
Chapter Twelve
After a week of absolute Hell, I decided it was time for me to go out and have a beer. Figuratively speaking. I didn’t actually touch beer. I was a wine girl.
I hadn’t heard a word from Jim since his initial text on Tuesday but that didn’t mean he wasn’t out there. What he was up to, though, I didn’t know.
He’d show up, probably drunk, yelling and screaming that I had ruined his life, yet again.
It was the same old same old.
Didn’t help my nerves much. About the only thing that did was the occasional text message from Hadrian. They were few and far between, but I did get about one a day. Maybe two if I was lucky.
I knew more from the news about what was going on with him than anything. I had become a tabloid reader since he left. Any one of the rags with any news about the Crisis in Koros as it was being labeled by the press wound up in my home.
Fifty to sixty percent of it all I had to ignore, because one tabloid would say he was banging his grief-stricken sister-in-law, the next would say that he’d been having a long-standing love affair with his assistant.
And the biggest news was that Hadrian wasn’t just possibly this new crown prince, but that he was called the Pasta Prince on television and how it had been such a joke on the public, since he kept his royal standings hidden.
I felt really bad about it all for him. I mean, here he was, in the middle of a family drama, and the tabloids are going nuts over who he might have been sleeping with.
I also kept an eye on them in case Jim had decided to call the tabloids with some story about me.
So far, nothing had appeared. Not that he probably hadn’t tried. They probably wanted photo evidence, and that didn’t exist, thanks to Hadrian’s guards.
I walked into the Chalet.
The bar was pretty crowded, a basketball game played on the big screen and tables were full of college crowds watching the games. I didn’t see anyone I knew right away, so I headed for the large, horseshoe-shaped bar. I didn’t even see the karaoke deejay there yet.
I got up to the bar and ordered a glass of white zinfandel. The bartender handed it to me as I heard my name being called out.
“Sydney.”
I spun around. Standing there was Bella and Lynn Broadmore—where Bella was tall, lean, and blonde, Lynn was shorter, dark-haired and more on the curvy side. I hadn’t seen Lynn in a while. Well, not since her last scheduled appointment anyway. Lynn had been so overly occupied with school and her new FBI fiancé, who’d saved her from a serial killer last year, that she hadn’t been in to see me since October.
“Hey you two, what’s going on?” I asked them.
“You going to spend all night at the bar?” Bella asked.
“I don’t know. Hanging with clients can be bad business.” I grinned.
Bella stuck her tongue out at me. We sat at a long bank of tables, four pushed together to make a huge one, and I glanced around, recognizing some of the faces. Several were people who hung out at other karaoke bars in town. Well, the only other one I went to was Walt’s, and I recognized several of the people from there.
Luke, who I’d seen enough times at Walt’s to remember his name, sat across from me, his hair jet black, and from his light complexion, it wasn’t naturally that dark.
Lynn sat with a very good-sized, blond-haired guy that I hadn’t met before. At the far end of the table, I recognized a Native American guy, or at least he was partially Native American. When he looked me over, his eyes seemed to glow. Or maybe that was all the jewelry in his face.
“Who is that guy,” I asked Bella, pointing to him.
“Oh, that’s Soundman.” She waved her hand at him. “He’s harmless. Sells comic books at Legacy Comics off of Maple.”
I nodded. I’d heard of the store, I think I’d even seen it, but I had never been a huge comic book fan, so even if I did, I probably didn’t pay the place any mind.
Luke leaned across the table at me. “You’re, uh, Sydney, right? I’ve seen you at Walt’s.”
“Yeah,” I replied, holding out my hand. “You’re Luke?”
He grinned and glanced at the guy sitting next to him. “See, I’m a celebrity.”
Bella went around the table, pointing at everyone and quickly introducing me as the greatest hairdresser in the world. I even pulled a few business cards out of my purse and h
anded them out to anyone who was interested.
“So, is that him?” I asked, leaning toward Bella, and gesturing to Lynn’s date.
“Jack? Yeah, that’s the one who saved our precious Lynn from a fate worse than death.”
Lynn was leaning over, whispering in Jack’s ear, and he grinned at her words. I noticed her hair had grown out well. We’d been trying to grow it out since I cut it off last summer after her ordeal.
This was probably the first time I’d seen her with it fixed, and I leaned over to her.
“Lynn, I wanted to tell you—”
“Oh, I know, my hair is in desperate need of another trim,” she said, grinning at me. “I’ve been so busy with school and the wedding plans.”
“I was going to tell you, your hair looks really cute.” I leaned in a bit closer to her. “And he looks good on you too.”
Her eyes lit up. “I know, who would have thought, little old me, would wind up with a big studly FBI guy?”
“I hope you don’t tell him that. It may go to his head.”
“I do tell him that,” she said, stroking his arm. “When it goes to his head, I reap the rewards.” She waggled her eyebrows at me. She glanced at Jack, then back at me. “You haven’t met him, have you?”
I shook my head.
“This is Jack, Jack, this is Sydney, the gal responsible for my hair.”
Jack shook my hand with a firm grip. “You take good care of her. Now, can you get her to stop stressing about mine?”
His hair was short and close to the head, and I immediately went into hairdresser mode, seeing flaws in the haircut, long pieces that needed to be cut to smooth out the hairstyle.
“Oh, I hate where he goes. They always do a terrible job.” Lynn sat there, running her hands through his hair.
“You stress yourself out too much about my hair.” He pulled away from her so she couldn’t touch it.
“Jack,” I said, getting his attention. “Probably fifty percent of my clientele are men, maybe sixty. You should let me do it.” I handed him a card, and he stuffed it in his wallet.
“I’ll call you next time.” He wrapped an arm around Lynn. “Might make her shut up.”
“I’m not nagging. I hate seeing you get ripped off with your—” Jack put his hand over her mouth.
“See?” he said with a grin. Then Lynn must have licked his hand or something, because no longer was Jack paying any attention to me or anyone else. He’d zeroed his focus solely on her.
I felt my stomach drop.
It was such a sensual look, so much power there, and I felt my heart ache. I was suddenly missing Hadrian something terrible.
I pulled my phone out of my purse and laid it on the table.
“Oh, let me see your touch screen phone,” Luke said, pawing at my phone. I handed it to him. He started playing with all the features on it.
He was pressing some of the icons. “Did you know this thing is GPS enabled?”
I shook my head. “Like I can use it for a map?”
“Sure,” Luke said. “Let me get it set up for you.”
“Go for it,” I said with a grin. That surely could come in handy. I wasn’t the best with directions.
I’d taken Teresa’s advice and bought a new phone, one with a ton more memory so I could actually store the text messages that Jim sent me. I even went overboard, getting one with a touch screen and all the bells and whistles.
Naturally, I haven’t gotten a text from Jim since.
I glanced over at Jack and Lynn, their heads very close together, giving each other light little nips of kisses. While they weren’t making out, I imagined when they got home they probably wouldn’t make it to their bed.
“They’re like that all the time,” Bella said, gesturing to Lynn and Jack. “One minute, you’ll be having a conversation with them, and the next, they’re all about each other.”
I smirked. “So have they set a date?”
Bella shook her head. “Nope. Every time they think they know when they want to get married, something comes up. They wanted this spring, but Jack’s got some work thing. Then there’s Lynn’s classes. She’s trying to get as many out of the way before they get married.”
“Fun fun.”
“Oh yeah.” Bella pulled a cigarette out of her pack, and I grabbed one of mine, though I held it, unable to light it. I must have bought a bad pack. They’d tasted funny lately.
“And where’s your date?” I asked her.
“I don’t have one,” Bella said. She was one of those women who could get a date anywhere, if she wanted one. “This week.” She tapped her cigarette on the ashtray. “Now. Tell me. What about Hadrian.”
“What about him?” I asked.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Have you heard from him? Has he called and professed his undying love? Did you get a cooking recipe from him?” She grabbed my arms and shook me. “Details, woman, I need details.”
I laughed and started telling her the little bit that she didn’t already know, about the tabloid stuff, and the text messages. I snagged my phone back from Luke to show her the messages. Of course, Luke took it back when I was done, saying he hadn’t finished playing.
As long as he didn’t cost me money, I didn’t care if he played a bit more.
I had just sat down from singing my first song, when Luke pushed my cell phone across the table at me.
“It went off. About scared me,” he said with a grin.
I glanced down at it. It was blinking, but I wasn’t sure if I had missed a call or had a new text.
So I began fiddling with it. It took a minute, but I realized I had a text message.
Call me. ASAP
Hadrian
Oh God, I thought, my stomach dropping again. This time, though I swear it rolled across the floor and out into the street.
I dialed the number.
One ring.
Two rings.
Three rings.
Four rings.
Five rings. Crap, I missed him. He must be asleep.
I hung the phone up, and started composing a text message, when the phone came alive in my hand, and I realized it was ringing.
“Hello?”
“He’s awake,” Hadrian said, breathless in the phone.
“Huh?” I pressed my finger into my other ear so I could hear better. Lynn saw me, and pointed to an old wooden phone booth in the corner. I walked toward it, and stepped inside, pulling the door shut. Even though the thing was there for style elements, the booth did manage to block out a decent amount of the noise from the karaoke.
Hadrian was still talking. “My cousin Michel. He’s awake. He’s been in a coma for five days, and he woke up. He’s not ready to play tennis, but he did say a few words.”
“That’s great, Hadrian.” I really was happy about this, but I must have been tired, because I didn’t understand the significance right away. “So what does that mean for you?”
“I don’t have to be crown prince.” The joy in his voice was almost tangible. Were he able, he probably would have reached through the phone to grab me.
Now this got me excited. “So you’ll be coming back soon?”
“That I don’t know. I want to, but I have to get some things taken care of here first.”
“Do they know who did this?”
“That’s why I’m not leaving yet. It’s a security precaution until they track it down.”
“I see.” I felt sad that he wouldn’t be stateside soon, but I also understood.
He had to be kept safe. He still might have to be crown prince. He wouldn’t be able to do his television show anymore if he had to be king. He loved doing his show, he had that same glimmer of passion in his eyes that I had when I did hair.
“I’ll be back to the States as soon as I can.”
I smiled. “Terrific. I’m sure they’re looking forward to you coming back.” God knew I wanted to see him. It had only been a week, but I was desperately missing him already. Or maybe I w
as missing the sex. It was too soon to tell.
“I will be seeing you, won’t I?” he asked me.
“If you want to.” I really wanted to see him, but I didn’t want him to feel like he had to come see me. I didn’t want to be an obligation.
“You have no idea how much I want to see you, Syd.” Even through the phone I could hear the heat in the words.
I blushed. “That’s very flattering of you, Duke.”
“No, really, you don’t have any idea.”
I laughed. “I bet I can imagine.”
Chapter Thirteen
As everyone started to leave the bar for the night, I picked up my stuff and was ready to go out, but I hesitated. I didn’t really want to go out by myself. Every time I looked at the entrance to the bar, I kept getting a weird feeling in my gut.
I was almost certain that Jim was waiting outside for me.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, like they had in Vegas, but worse.
I kept trying to tell myself I was being crazy. The Chalet isn’t Jim’s type of bar, and he never came up here. It was too pricey for him. Usually, when I did go out, the Chalet was a safe haven because I knew I wasn’t going to run into him.
But tonight, I had the most horrible nagging feeling that he was out there.
I glanced around the table. Surely someone could walk me out to my car.
“Sydney, are you okay? You look white as a ghost,” Lynn said as she slipped on her winter coat.
“I’m…” Her boyfriend came up behind her, and as soon as he looked at me, his face went into a hard line.
“Could you walk me out to my car?” I asked Lynn and Jack. “I just… I have this weird feeling.”
“Absolutely,” Jack said. He put his hand on Lynn’s shoulder. “We always trust our instincts, right, baby?”
Lynn reached up and patted his hand. “Instincts are good.”
We all said our goodbyes and headed outside. The wind was even colder than it had been earlier, biting into my exposed neck and cheeks. I seriously needed a scarf and hat. My car was on the east end of the parking lot, under a big lamp, and as we approached, I looked it over from all angles, even checking under the car for anything unusual.
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