“We’re fine,” Hadrian said.
“They said you were shot?” the queen asked, looking Hadrian over. Her hands were like ice against his skin, and he then realized he didn’t have his shirt on.
“It was just a graze,” Hadrian said.
When the queen’s hand slid over his arm, grazing the bandages, he winced.
“Oh, son, I’m sorry,” she said, pulling him into her arms. Hadrian didn’t quite know how to respond, the queen’s emotional outpourings were usually reserved for the king, and only when she thought no one was looking.
She’d never called him son.
She turned to Sydney. “My poor dear,” she said, putting her arms around her.
Sydney leaned into the queen, and the queen stroked the younger woman’s head. The crown on the queen’s head bumped the jeweled piece in Sydney’s hair. The doctor fired off a few things to the queen, and she nodded as the doctor took Sydney behind a screen to allow her to get out of her dress for his exam.
“What happened?” the king asked, turning away from where Sydney had stepped.
“I saw Syd duck outside, and I was going to surprise her. I came around the corner, and there she was, coming back. She fell, and when she went down, I saw Alicia behind her. Slipped through the bushes and was going to tackle her…”
“That explains your hair,” the king said.
Hadrian reached up and stroked his head. Something sharp stabbed him. Perfect. “Sydney spun, elbowing Alicia, and got her on the ground. Gun went off. I didn’t even realize I’d been hit until I pulled Syd up.”
The king shook his head. “Why are all you boys so damn noble?”
Then he pulled Hadrian into his arms.
It was almost like hugging his dad.
Almost.
The ringing in my ears was almost gone, but my head hurt like Hell. Tylenol wasn’t touching this one. Not that I had a lot of choices as far as medication.
There was still a faint buzzing in my ears, and I was kind of glad. When Lindsey and the rest of the Drake clan burst into the room where the doctors examined us, I used that as an excuse not to speak.
I was overwhelmed. I mean, twice in the last three weeks, I’d had guns waved in my face. Most people go their whole lives and never see that.
And I was pregnant.
I cradled my stomach, thrilled beyond belief that my little bump was okay, and I sent happy thoughts to the baby. The bad is going away, little one. It is. The doctor cleared me of any difficulties to the child, though he wanted to take a look at me again in a few days.
However, the anger still radiated through me. I was furious. Every pore felt like it bled the heated emotions, and I wanted to scream. Well, that wasn’t the only thing I wanted to do. I had to confront Nico.
How dare he.
How dare he.
My hands shook, and Hadrian must have thought I was still distressed. The family had left, leaving me and Hadrian fairly alone in the little room. He pulled me in his arms and kissed the top of my head.
“Baby,” he whispered, “Syd, I…”
I pushed him away. “Where is he?”
“Who?” Hadrian asked.
“Nico.”
Hadrian released his embrace, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Syd, I really don’t think you need to see him right now.”
I glared at my husband. “I might be dead, no thanks to that bastard.”
I headed out the door, pulling out of his grip. Someone had run and gotten me a button down shirt and a pair of pants from upstairs, which was much easier to move in than all the fabrics of the dress. I charged out, on a mission.
I didn’t have far to go.
Standing in the doorway, was Robert and Nico.
I didn’t hesitate.
I marched right over to Nico and with every bit of strength I had, I punched him in the face.
It would have been really cool if he had stammered, stumbled or generally acted like the punch did anything at all.
“You led me to a monster.”
“Your Grace, please,” came Robert’s voice, and he reached up to restrain me from hitting Nico again. “He was under orders.”
“You bastard! I could have been killed,” I screamed at Nico. “I trusted you.”
“He was under orders,” Robert said, holding me back.
Robert’s words sunk in.
Orders? “You told him to use me as bait?” I spun into Robert, ready to swing at him as well, but he held me too firmly.
Robert steadied me. “I told him to do whatever necessary to get Alicia close enough to capture her.”
I struggled, jerking out of Robert’s arms. “I am not bait.”
Hadrian pulled me away from Robert and Nico. “Are you done now?”
“You knew?” I threw my venom at him.
“I knew they were using Nico’s past with Alicia, yes.”
“You couldn’t tell me?” I started hitting him, one particular swat landed on his bandaged arm. He winced in pain.
“Sydney! Sydney calm down.”
“I’m not about to calm down. You used me, and you didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me.”
“It wasn’t supposed to go down like this,” Hadrian said, trying to calm me down.
“And what was it? I was supposed to have tea with her?” I hit him in the chest again. And tears burst forth. “She could have killed me. She could have killed the baby.”
And that’s when I broke down. I collapsed against Hadrian’s chest, tears pouring out of my eyes. Tears of anger at Nico and Robert and the whole rest of the royals for not telling me what was going on, fury at Alicia for in essence taking me hostage, and rage at Jim for being the first person to wave a gun at me in the last few weeks.
Hadrian’s hand ran down my back, his fingertips a soft massage on my spine. “It’s okay, baby. It’s going to be fine.”
Yet… Yet it wasn’t. “I could have died. She could have pointed that gun an inch or two the other direction,” I whispered, not wanting to imagine what would have been left, had the gun strayed.
Or even the other way… Hadrian would have…could have…
I wailed, holding onto him. He stroked my head, and little kisses grazed the top of my head.
“Come on,” Hadrian whispered, and I was led upstairs.
Though I did make one particular dictate. “I want another bodyguard.”
“Done,” I heard Robert say behind me.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“I want to see her,” Hadrian said to Robert.
They’d put Alicia in a secure cell down in the basement. Robert was watching her through a window. He’d taken Sydney upstairs and got her into bed, and Lindsey was keeping an eye on her for the moment.
Hadrian needed to know how Alicia could do this to him, to his family.
He had trusted her.
She may have drove him nuts, but he had trusted her.
He gritted his teeth as he watched her through the window. She paced the room, her once perfect curls a rumpled mess as she ran her hands through her hair, now making her resemble an insane clown. She shook her head, like she was talking to someone, gesturing in the air, resembling someone who should be put in a padded cell.
“You shouldn’t,” Robert said. “She’s delusional. Seeing her would make her delusions deeper.”
Hadrian raised his eyebrow at Robert. “You seem to know a lot about this stuff.”
“You’re not the only one who likes to read.”
“What has she said?”
“Nothing. She keeps rambling around as though she was setting appointments and trying to run things. We’re going to bring in a doctor to analyze her tomorrow.”
At that moment, Alicia held her hand to her ear, as though she held a phone, and began talking and pointing her fingers in the air.
“Lord,” Hadrian whispered. “Will she be able to stand trial?”
“I doubt she’d comprehend it,” Robert muttered. “I don’t even know
if she’d recognize you at this point.”
Hadrian didn’t care. He needed to speak to her, to see why… Why she would do this to him and his family.
“I have to know, Robert.”
“Son, you’ll not like what you hear.” Robert patted his good shoulder.
He met the guard’s gaze. His bodyguard. His friend. He’d always looked out for Hadrian after his dad died. “My cousin is dead. My other cousin almost died. I need to know why she did this to me. Please.”
Robert grabbed a tape recorder and walked in with him. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
When Hadrian walked in the room, Robert behind him, gun in one hand, the recorder in the other, Alicia stopped and looked at him, her eyes surprisingly clear, like she was suddenly very aware of who she was and where she was.
But she wasn’t.
“Hadrian, where have you been? Ron’s been calling. You need to get back to the set.” She glared at him, like he was a child.
“I’ve been out,” Hadrian said. “What’s the agenda today?”
Alicia held out her hand, like her Blackberry was in her hand. “There’s shooting that should have started an hour ago, and then next week, we’re going back to Koros.”
“Why are we going back?” Hadrian asked. “We were just there.”
Alicia shook her head. “It’s for your coronation, silly boy. The monarchy needs its royal family.”
“What happened to the family?”
“I had them killed,” she said with a smile. “You’re the new king.”
Hadrian tried not to stagger under the words, yet they made him sick to his stomach. “Why should I be king, Alicia?”
“Because you’re next in line.”
“But why should I be king?”
She blinked at him. “Because…” She danced around in a circle. “Because I’m pregnant, and we’re going to have a baby.” She cradled her stomach. “How else will I be queen?”
“So you want to be queen,” Hadrian whispered.
“I run your life. How much harder would one little island be?”
Hadrian stepped forward, staring at this woman he’d thought he’d known so well. He had always been able to predict her moods.
But evidently, he was wrong.
“Do you love me?” Hadrian asked.
She started laughing. “I will love being queen. I don’t need to love you too. I’d marry a toad if it would get me to the throne,” she said in a high, childlike voice, then wagged her finger at him. “Don’t pout, you’ll never know, when it’s done.”
He’d heard enough, and he turned to Robert, nodding his head.
As he walked out of the cell, he felt a tear come out of his eye. “Goodbye, Alicia.”
“Don’t be late for the plane,” Alicia said, and started moving around like she was packing.
“Ouch!” I snapped as the tailor did a few minor adjustments to the wedding dress.
The tailor muttered an apology, as well as a reminder how I needed not to move if I didn’t want blood spots on my wedding gown.
“The thing I don’t get,” I said, staring at the screen that stood next to the door, preventing anyone from coming in my suite to see me. “Is how she could be so meticulous? According to what you found in the computer, Alicia planned this out in great detail.”
“Even the most certifiably crazy people are meticulous,” Hadrian said from behind the screen. I could see his shadow, and he ran his hand through his hair.
“So what, she was in love with you? That’s what they came up with?” I asked, not quite believing that was the reason Alicia had done all this planning and work.
“A perverted kind of love—she needed me as much as she thought I needed her. She wanted to be queen. I was a means to an end.”
I shook my head. “That is just crazy,” I muttered, trying not to move so that the tailor didn’t stick me again with a pin. He let out a sigh, the emotions under his breath. “How are you doing?”
“I didn’t realize Alicia had me pulled in so many directions,” Hadrian said from behind the screen. Then I saw his fingers scratch at the light screen. “Really, is this necessary?”
“Bad luck,” Nico said. We were getting married tomorrow, in the big, fancy ceremony for the king and queen. Both of whom had wound up being much nicer to me after they heard I punched Nico.
Nico even tried to tell me that he had a bit of a black and blue mark on his cheek afterwards. I never saw one.
He stood in the corner of the room, his sunglasses on, arms crossed, looking like his usual menacing self. I’d talked to Nico a couple of days after the attack, and I’d decided he could still be my bodyguard. I still wasn’t happy about the bait thing, and the head guard, Bastien and Robert got quite an earful from me.
But in the end, I still liked Nico, even if his choice in women wasn’t the greatest.
“Oh, it’s bad luck for me to see the dress, but your luck’s been great lately,” Hadrian told the guard.
I glanced down at the tailor. He made a couple more adjustments before finishing, and in a flash, the dress was whisked off me, the tailor promising to have it back in the morning.
Nico kept Hadrian back as I slipped my clothes on—yoga pants and a plain white tee shirt. I’d found over the last two days, the amount of things I’d been doing, getting ready for the wedding, the yoga pants were best. And they were softest on my slowly growing tummy. There was now a noticeable bump sticking out.
“Ahh,” Hadrian said, coming right for me, and kissing me on the lips, his hand grazing my bump.
He seemed to find the round hump quite fascinating, and took every opportunity to stroke it.
When he released me, I met his gaze, and could see the pain in his eyes. Alicia’s betrayal had hurt him a lot more than he was willing to admit. “Has the king made a ruling about her?”
“He can’t bring himself to have her beheaded, considering her mental instability. She’d probably think she was going to her own coronation. They’re putting her away for the rest of her life.”
“How do you feel about that?”
He let out a sigh. “Angry.”
“What would you rather the king do? Firing squad?”
“No, I’m angry because I never saw any signs. I had no idea she was… She’d made a break from reality.”
I ran my hand down his arm. “Sometimes you can’t see what’s right in front of you.”
“I know that more than ever now.” He kissed my cheek.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Look,” Hadrian said, adjusting the phone as the valet, Michel’s valet, to be exact, straightened his jacket. “I told you. I’ll be stateside in a month.” His producer wasn’t happy that he hadn’t come home yet.
“We don’t have another month,” Ron said.
In came Michel, who was no longer walking with a cane, and he raised his eyebrow at Hadrian. “It’s time,” he muttered in Korosian.
“Ron, I have to go.”
“We’re not done discussing this,” Ron said.
“I am,” Hadrian said, adjusting the phone. “I’m getting married in about twenty minutes.”
He could hear the producer yelling as he hung up the phone.
“Ahh, Hollywood,” Michel said with a laugh.
Hadrian grinned. “Can’t live with it. Can’t blow them up.”
“Come on,” Michel said.
The valet tossed the sash over Hadrian’s head, positioned it in place. Hadrian reached up to run a hand over his hair, but stopped, since the locks were sealed into place with gel.
Then the valet pulled out a small crown—it wasn’t as ornate as the king’s, small and golden, it had a ring of jewels around the base. The metal, molded into ropes, intertwined almost like a braid. The valet had Hadrian tip his head down as he placed it on his head.
Hadrian glanced at himself, a strange thought coming to him. “Michel, hand me the rings,” he asked, holding out his hand.
When Michel di
d, Hadrian looked one more time at himself in the mirror and then down at the rings.
And he started to laugh.
“What?” Michel asked, coming to his side.
“I guess Koros is more embedded in me than I thought.” He showed the rings to him.
They were the same twisted braid pattern as his crown.
Everyone was in place, the throne room decked out beautifully. Flowers were everywhere. The king and queen on their thrones, raised higher than anyone else to observe, beacons in the barrage of people. The rest of the royal family sat around them, their chairs not quite as ornate as the king’s and queen’s.
Hadrian and Michel were the only ones standing with the archbishop.
And Hadrian’s palms were sweating.
I’ve already done this, he thought to himself. This isn’t a big deal. It’s all for show.
She can’t run away this time.
Yet, he checked his watch for the tenth time in the last two minutes. The wedding was running late. The music should have started by now. She should have been coming down the aisle already.
Dignitaries and friends of the royal family filled the seats—all three thousand of them. The perimeter was lined with both Koros’s royal guards and personal bodyguards from certain guests. The edges looked as though the men in black suits were part of the décor. They were motionless.
And then there was the press—film crews, media, photographers. Already he had spots in his eyes from the flash bulbs. He wondered if they meant for the flashes to feel like a disco dance floor.
Hadrian checked his watch again.
“She’ll be here,” Michel whispered. “Relax.”
“I hate this,” Hadrian muttered. “This suit is scratchy, the crown is digging into my scalp, and I want a beer.”
“Not much longer now,” Michel said. The music started to change, and the procession began. The junior bridesmaids, made up of his cousin’s children, paraded in, in perfectly timed steps. The music changed, and out came Lindsey, Sydney’s bridesmaid, dressed in a beautiful purple gown. She moved slowly and gracefully, more than Hadrian had ever seen her move.
Though her attention was on the task at hand, he couldn’t help noticing her glance to the side at a man sitting on one of the end seats, and winking at him.
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