Her Prince (Twisted Royals #2)

by Sidney Bristol

  “N-nooo.” Shelby managed to roll onto her back. Her foot moved, but not where she wanted it to.

  Electricity did some fucked up shit to the body.

  What was that smell?

  Why was she wet?

  Did she just pee?

  Of course she’d peed.

  “You—fuck,” the first man growled.

  “Gentleman.” Ogden’s voice might as well have been a whip snapping.

  The two men jerked to attention, focusing on Ogden.

  Shelby managed to get her hands under her and scooted away from the others. There wasn’t anywhere to go, nowhere to hide, but the instinct to get the fuck away was strong.

  Ogden crooked his finger and both of the men closed in, standing at attention.

  “We treat our guests with respect.” Ogden grabbed the Taser from the first man and threw it out the door. “Out. I will deal with you two later.”

  Shelby was only a tiny bit pleased. From the looks of it, this was where she’d be living. And these men? The ones in trouble? They were her guards.

  Things were not going to go well for her.

  Ogden leaned against the wall. His features softened, becoming almost kind. She didn’t trust that look at all.

  “I’m sorry, that wasn’t how you are supposed to be treated.” He slid his hands into his pockets.

  Shelby braced her back against the wall and took stock of herself.

  One boot on.

  One boot off.

  The dress was soaked in places.

  But she was otherwise okay.

  “We’re going to have a party tonight in your honor. I’d appreciate it if you’d wear this.” Ogden stood up and walked to the rack of clothing.

  He picked out a long, silky red dress. The plunging back would likely show off her ass-crack. It was made for someone taller. Like her mother.

  Great.

  “The stylist will be here in a few moments to prepare you. You might want a shower before then, so I’ll give you some privacy.” Ogden hooked the dress on the end of the rack.

  “This isn’t just a party. What’s going on?”

  “I told you, we’re going to get it right this time.”

  “What does that mean? Are you going to keep me locked up, like Rusty’s mother-in-law? Did you even follow through on letting Johnny go?”

  “Johnny? Not yet. I’m holding onto him for a while longer. Insurance. As for the rest of it, Kade will join us at the party tonight and then,” Ogden shrugged, “I’ll kill him. You really should shower.”

  “Wait! We agreed—”

  Shelby pushed to her feet as the door closed with a bang.

  She’d agreed to this, to keep Kade safe. Alive. Unharmed. And now Ogden was going back on his promise.

  She shoved down the initial burst of anger.

  There was no time for that.

  She had to start thinking and making a plan.

  Kade could always take her abandonment at face value, especially if he never got her email. He could leave her to this fate.

  Yeah.

  And pigs would fly.

  Kade was going to walk into a trap, and Shelby would be damned if she’d let that happen.

  She climbed into the shower and stripped. The hot water began knocking thoughts lose.

  Ogden was crazy. Certifiable, if he thought she was her mother and they could just do the past over. Guys like him, who did what he did, paranoia scrambled their brains. If he was off his rocker, God only knew what he’d do next.

  He was still protecting her. Concerned about making her comfortable, intervening when things got rough. Would he continue to do that? And where was this party? Here? Somewhere else?

  Shelby showered swiftly, dried off and brought the dress back to change in the privacy of the shower stall. As she suspected, the stupid dress barely covered the essentials. Still, it was what she had, and if she was going to be trusted long enough to get close to Kade and warn him of this charade, then she needed to play by Ogden’s rules. No matter how crazy this seemed.

  30.

  “I can’t go with you.”

  “What?” Kade turned to face Owen. The detective had practically horned his way in without invitation.

  Owen glanced across the apartment at Rusty. It was just them. Everyone else was making a quick trip home to get kitted out. What did it say about Kade that most of his friends in the civilian world were ready for a strike like this?

  “This guy…he knows when and where things happen. Listening to both of you, he’s always ahead. And that means…I hate to say it…he has some sort of inside guy.” Owen stared into Kade’s eyes. It was that unnerving cop stare again. “My advice? Take him with you. Who knows if he’s telling the truth or leading you into a trap?”

  “I am not,” Rusty said with feeling. Anger. Outrage. It was a good act.

  “You’re right.” Kade didn’t like to admit that he hadn’t thought of something, but this was so far outside what he did, what he’d done. In the army, he’d gone where he was told. Combat was a different beast from tactical strikes.

  “So, I’m leaving. But…if I haven’t heard from you guys in ninety minutes, I’m coming. Got it?”

  “Yeah, man.”

  Kade slapped Owen’s upheld palm, then wrapped another arm around the guy’s shoulders.

  “Ninety minutes, and then I show up. And I won’t be alone.” Owen backed up, his promise sounding more like a threat.

  Ninety minutes.

  It would take thirty to get to the site Rusty told them about. Kade didn’t think it was a coincidence that the property was in sprinting distance to an airstrip. A small one. But if Ogden wanted an inconspicuous way to travel, that would be it.

  Kade shut the door behind Owen and locked it. Just in case.

  The guys would be back soon. Those who didn’t live close were taking advantage of the kit Ian and Ryan kept at home. The guys might be civilians, but their lines of work meant they were often in harm’s way. Kade would never forget a night, much like tonight, when they’d staged a crazy rescue op for Vito.

  Kade had always known his friends were of a certain stripe. Honorable men. Dangerous men. But knowing versus seeing it in action were two different things. Being there. Experiencing it. Kade didn’t have to ask himself another time why the hell he was friends with this group.

  They were all the same.

  Different individually, but at their core, each of them were alike. It was what made them stick together. What brought guys back time and time again.

  Kade hadn’t wanted to like them. He didn’t want anything to do with mercenaries and rough sorts. And then he’d met Ryan and the others. They were the good that tipped the odds in favor from the bad. The salt of the earth.

  “You know he’s going to kill you?” Rusty glanced up from the floor. His wrists were bound together with over-sized zip ties and his pockets had been turned out.

  “He can try.”

  “That’s the point of all this, don’t you see?” Rusty straightened.

  “What am I supposed to do? Leave her there? If your guy were still alive, would you?”

  Rusty glanced away.

  “So…you see why I can’t just walk away?”

  “You barely know her, man.”

  “Some souls recognize each other.” Kade crossed to the sofa and perched on the end, facing Rusty. “There’s this story my mum told me growing up. It’s how a brave, poor gypsy boy teams up with a brave, beautiful princess and they slay a whole band of robbers. Together. They fall in love, and he has to leave her. Duty to his family and all that. But they see each other again after a while and she still knows him. Sometimes, our souls are like that.”

  “This isn’t a fucking story,” Rusty spat. “I don’t know what world you live in, but in this one? We don’t just hold hands and everything is okay.”

  “That’s why I’ll have a very big gun with me. And you.”

  Rusty flinched. For whatever reason, he didn
’t want to be there. Not that Kade could blame him, but was that because Rusty had already betrayed them?

  Shelby shuffled forward, trying to keep up with Dick #1. The guy who’d Tasered her. She could still feel the phantom charge coursing through her veins.

  Her head felt funny and Dick #1 wasn’t exactly walking slow enough for her to keep up easily. Her foot had already slid out of the strappy, sky-high heels once. She was decent enough at walking in heels, but these were way too big.

  Shelby didn’t want to look at her clothing too closely. Not after she’d paused to examine the aged, satin label in the back of the blue dress. She didn’t want to voice her suspicion, even if it was just in her head. It was too much. Too weird. Too scary.

  No, she needed to start thinking about how the hell she was going to get out of here. Or signal Kade.

  They should have come up with a code word. Or phrase. Something to say that would alert the other. She’d used them with some people she’d worked with undercover, but she’d never thought things would get this out of hand.

  Dick #1 used a keycard and then a key to open a set of double doors.

  “Is that smoke?” Shelby stared at, yup, a curling tendril of smoke coming from under the door.

  She inhaled, but nothing smelled like it was burning.

  Dick #1 opened the door and hauled her in, feet sliding on the slick surface.

  Neon lights blinded her.

  A fog machine was working in overtime somewhere, churning out a thick cloud.

  Shelby had never been much for clubs. Rusty liked to say it was because her mother and father were the king and queen of Miami nightlife, back in the day.

  “Let it down,” Dick #1 said.

  Someone coughed.

  Another person groaned.

  Shelby turned, peering into the darker recesses of the room.

  Those couches were moving.

  What—or who—the hell was in here?

  A motor hummed somewhere overhead. Dick #1 reached up and grasped a black nylon cord with a hook at the end and looped it through the plastic cuffs binding Shelby’s wrists together.

  “Take it up a notch,” Dick #1 said.

  “What the hell is going on?” Shelby pulled back, but it was a token effort.

  If she got away, where would she go? What would she do?

  Escapes only worked with a plan.

  In her experience, simply getting away from her captors wasn’t a lot of good unless she knew where to go. She needed Dick #1 to back off and let her figure things out.

  He backed up, studying her like he might a piece of furniture. This man still didn’t see her as a person. Maybe he was a sociopath. Maybe he just didn’t care. Or maybe it was a coping mechanism. Whatever the hell it was, she hoped she’d get the chance to make him eat his own balls someday.

  Shelby didn’t take much stock in vengeance. She couldn’t eat it, pay bills with it, or sell it, so what the hell good was it to her? But for this guy? And Ogden? She’d make an exception.

  She’d come into this whole mess seeking the truth. If they captured Ogden, great. Now she wasn’t so sure she wanted to know. If it would matter.

  Dick #1 turned and strode out through another set of doors at the far end of the room.

  Natural sunlight stabbed her in the eyes and her skull pounded.

  “Hello?” someone called out from Shelby’s left.

  “Who’s there?” Shelby pivoted on tip toe toward the voice.

  “Who are you?” the woman asked. A figure sat up.

  “I asked you first,” Shelby said.

  “Freya. My name’s Freya. Where are we?”

  Shelby turned herself in a circle.

  Given the size of the house, how far it’d taken them to walk across it, Shelby had to assume this was the central entry. Maybe a formal living room? It was decorated like…a club. A badly…outdated…club. With pink flamingos and neon palm trees.

  Oh, God.

  Ogden had said he wanted to remake the past.

  Shit.

  “Where am I? Why am I handcuffed?” Freya’s voice rose in pitch. Others joined her.

  What was a club without people?

  Was Ogden really this crazy?

  Shelby turned slowly. The lights pulsed and changed colors in time to a song she couldn’t hear. Her eyes had at least adjusted enough the lumps were starting to take form.

  People.

  Metal rattled.

  The lights glinted off rails.

  Fuck.

  How many were there?

  “Freya? Hey—Freya? Can you tell me where you are? What are you handcuffed to?”

  “This rail.”

  Metal clanged against metal.

  The woman had a strong voice.

  She was a fighter.

  Ogden knew how to pick ‘em.

  “Freya? Don’t struggle. Don’t hurt yourself.”

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to get us out of here.”

  That was an awfully big promise, given that Shelby was strung up like a carcass on a meat hook. Except she wasn’t in metal cuffs, and she wasn’t just any girl.

  Ogden might have fallen in love with her gentler, more poised mother, but he didn’t know Shelby.

  What do you know?

  Start at the beginning…

  They were in a large house, some sort of mansion.

  The central core of the house was made to look like a Miami nightclub, complete with a bar behind her.

  There were people here. Innocent people who’d been kidnapped to serve as a living background for this tableau.

  The house was outfitted with a shit ton of upgrades. Maybe one of those new smart homes?

  “Ladies, if I may have your attention.” Dick #1 was back, but without the shit suit.

  The bonus? Shelby could see his face, and she would make sure to never forget it. He looked familiar.

  “I am your host for the evening.” Dick #1 turned in a circle.

  Where had Shelby seen him before?

  “You may be wondering what you’re doing here? What’s going on? You are all taking part in what I like to call a fantasy experience. Shelby, here, is our leading lady.” He turned and gestured toward her.

  Fantasy.

  Experience.

  Oh, no…

  Yuri Gabor.

  He was on Rusty’s short list, the unpublished Most Wanted.

  She’d referenced it from time to time, to match who Ogden might be doing business with. Who they could catch with Ogden, or because of him. There were few people on the list who scared her like Yuri Gabor did.

  He grinned at her.

  Shelby took a deep breath and shoved her fear down deep.

  “The rest of you are set dressing. Sit back and enjoy the show.” He glanced once more at Shelby then turned toward the bar.

  This had been bad before, now it was worse.

  They weren’t just dealing with Ogden and his enterprise, they were dealing with two. And that complicated things.

  From a reputation standpoint, Gabor couldn’t allow for the fantasy to go wrong. If it did, his reputation was on the line. In the criminal underworld, reputation was everything.

  Shelby had to do something, and fast.

  Ogden wanted to rewrite history, as if he’d get another chance with her mother. That, as disturbing as it was, was his fantasy. Shelby didn’t intend to give him that. The problem with fantasies that involved people? Things could always go wrong, and Shelby had an idea…

  31.

  Kade peered into his binoculars at the house at the end of the drive.

  The address Rusty had given them was in one of the wealthier neighborhoods outside of Seattle proper. The large house sat off the road, with enough distance between it and the neighbors for privacy. From the outside, it appeared quiet and normal.

  They’d parked at the house butting up behind their target, a property for sale and conveniently close to th
e target. It made for a good staging location. From here they had a line of sight onto the back patio and through the windows. Lights were on, but no one was moving.

  “Belongs to a Dennis Freeman.” Ian scrolled on his phone. Owen had sent them a write up, stuff they might need to know. “Problem is, Freeman doesn’t exist. At least, not this version of him. How do you want to do this?”

  Kade wasn’t like Ian. If it wasn’t a medical emergency, Kade didn’t call the shots. He was out of his depth, yet the decision maker had to be him.

  “What would you do? If this were a tactical operation?” Kade never took his eyes off the house.

  Shelby was in there.

  Ian sighed and shifted from foot to food.

  “I know what I’d do,” Ryan said. He took a step closer and gestured at the house. “We send three in from the front as a distraction, the rest of us approach from the rear.”

  “Mm.” Kade shook his head. Something was off. “No.”

  “What’s our other option? Barrel in from the back?” Ryan shook his head. “We’ll draw the full force of whoever he’s got in there with him.”

  “No.”

  “Then what, man?” Ryan was a man of action. Movement. Always on the go. He never settled.

  Kade inhaled a deep breath, rolling the pieces around in his mind.

  Ogden didn’t know him. Couldn’t count on his reaction.

  “Ogden wants to recreate a moment. I’ll give it to him.” Kade clipped the Glock holster on his hip and checked the chamber to ensure it was loaded.

  “You’re just going to walk in there?” Ryan gestured at the house.

  “Look—this guy is expecting me.” Kade turned to face the others.

  Ryan. Jaxon. Ian. Vito. Erik. Duke.

  “You’re going in there to give him what he wants,” Jaxon said slowly. “You’re faking him out. Draw his attention to your pretend weakness, and then we drive him to the ground.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t like it,” Ryan muttered.

  “I’ve done something similar,” Vito said slowly. “It could go bad for you.”

  “It will go bad.” Kade thumped his fist on the Kevlar vest Ian had loaned him. “Look, all I have to do is get in there and find Shelby. When their focus is on me, that’s when you guys come in.”