“Nate.”
Her voice was barely a whisper, so he leaned down over her. Marcello came to sit beside her as well. “What is it, Charlotte-mine?”
“Bomb.”
“Quiet,” Marcello called out in a loud, even voice that their father also used. The din around them quieted. “Say that again,” he asked Charlie.
“Bomb.” She groaned and her face winced in pain.
“Charlie, I need you to stay awake for me, all right?” Nate pleaded. “Just a little while longer. Where’s the bomb? In the palace?”
“Council.”
“Council chambers,” Marcello said to Nate. “We’ve swept it, though, it’s clean.”
“Sir, we found this man trying to sneak out of the palace,” an agent said, and Nate recognized him as the chef he’d had Coco fire.
“What the fuck are you doing in this palace?”
“You two know each other?” Marcello asked.
“Pierre. Used to be a chef until he harassed Charlie and he was fired.”
“I don’t know what that bitch told you,” he said in a conceited French accent. “She wanted it. Besides, she’s a liar.”
“If you were fired, you’re banned from the palace grounds,” Marcello said.
His eyes looked wild for a minute. “It was her. She had some crazy scheme to kill the King.”
Charlie shook her head on the floor, her breath coming in short gasps.
“I tried to stop her,” Pierre continued, fighting against the agents holding him. “We fought for the gun and it went off. Serves the bitch right.”
“No,” she coughed, then moaned.
“Charlie, don’t talk,” Nate said as he brushed a hand over her hair. “Help is coming.”
“Bomb. Others. Nate.”
“It’s okay. It’s okay.”
“Bomb,” she whispered, her voice trailing off. When her hand went limp in his, Nate was sure his heart stopped.
“Charlie? Charlie?”
“We’ve got this, Sir,” the paramedics said as they arrived and began working on her.
“Take Pierre to interrogation,” Marcello ordered. “I want to talk to him later.”
“It was her, all her!” Pierre yelled as he was dragged away.
As Charlie was loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled away, Nate started to follow, but was held back by Marcello.
“You’re coming with me,” Marcello told him.
“The hell I am. She needs me.”
“Why does she need you?”
Nate watched the stretcher fade further and further from view. “Because we love each other. She just doesn’t know it yet.”
Marcello shook his head and wiped a hand over his face. “Only you would fall in love at a time like this.”
“I didn’t choose to fall in love, it just happened, as you well know the feeling.”
“I know,” Marcello said softly. “But you’ve got to help me take care of things here.”
Nate shook his head. “She needs protection. If she overheard Pierre or whoever talking about a bomb plot, we need to keep her safe.”
“You’re sure she didn’t just target you to get close enough to kill you or someone else?”
“No.” At Marcello’s raised eyebrow, Nate cursed him under his breath. “She wouldn’t betray me, not like that.”
“I’m not sure I believe she’s innocent, but I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, for your sake.”
“Fuck my sake. Do it for her own. She’s going to be your sister-in-law one day.”
“You’ve proposed? I thought she didn’t even love you yet.”
“Semantics.” Nate shook his head. “We’re wasting time. I’m going to her.”
“Wait.” Marcello pulled out his phone and dialed one of his agents. “Go straight to the hospital and stand guard over a gunshot victim from the palace coming in shortly.”
“Her name’s Charlotte Wyler,” Nate said.
Marcello nodded and continued speaking into the phone. “Victim’s name is Charlotte Wyler. Bring a team, and go into the operating room if you need to. She doesn’t leave your sight for one minute.” Marcello ended the call with a swift tap. “Stay here, Nate. I need your help with things. If you and Cat can deal with the guests, I can run down to the bunkers.”
Nate sighed. Duty or love? He felt as though he was being tested with the question all over again. “I’ll do it. How do you want us to handle the guests?”
“My agents should be questioning them now. Once they’re done and they’ve been cleared, you can have them escorted out.”
“What if one of them is involved in this? What do you really think happened here tonight?”
“It could’ve been anything. Maybe someone hates Australia. Maybe someone hates us. Maybe someone just hates Charlotte. You said Pierre harassed her and then he got fired for it; maybe he showed up here to take revenge on her.”
“I’ll fucking kill the bastard.”
“That’s not going to help anything. Take care of the guests. Once they’re clear, I want all the family in the Situation Room. This is all hands on deck.”
Nate nodded. “Give me the contact for the agents guarding her.” At Marcello’s pursed lips, he added, “It’s either I call them or call you for updates at incredibly short intervals. What’s it going to be?”
Marcello nodded and gave him the information before striding away to speak to agents nearby. Streaks of blood marred the polished floor. Charlie. Please live, Charlie. Please don’t leave me, he pleaded again.
Chapter 17
Charlie drifted in and out of consciousness. She couldn’t make sense of anything as the fog rolled thickly through her brain. Voices shouted at her, called for her, but none was the low cadence she wanted to hear.
She slipped away again.
***
It took three hours to clear out the guests, and transfer the Prime Minister and his family to the Royal Wing of the palace under heavy guard. Nate kept contacting the agent at the hospital for updates, but she was still in surgery. He wished he were there with her.
He, along with his siblings Cat, Lorenzo, and Carolina, went to the Royal Wing themselves to change. They fielded calls from their other siblings abroad – Sarah, Arianna, and Ethan – who had planned to arrive in Valleria the next day. It was almost midnight when they arrived in the Situation Room, comfortably dressed but wary and on edge.
Gabriel was still dressed up, as was his mother, Alex, Rebecca, and Grace. They, along with several of Marcello’s top intelligence agents sat along the large rectangular table in the main conference room. Screens of information floated by – surveillance images of the airports and more, information on the people scanned in those images as a supercomputer rooted through them all, and, at the very end, a terrifying sight.
Charlie’s staff photo, next to Pierre’s.
“What the hell is her picture doing up there?” Nate asked, not even bothering to sit down and forgoing propriety with non-royals in the room.
“Nathaniel,” his mother warned.
“No, I don’t care. If you think she’s a fucking suspect,” Nate said, glaring at Marcello, “then you might as well arrest me, too. We’ll share a cell, if you don’t mind.”
The entire room went deathly silent, until Cat, unable to bear it any longer, spoke up. “What’s going on? Do you know her, Nate? Doesn’t she work in the kitchens?”
“I’m in love with her,” he admitted to the shocked faces of his siblings. “And there’s no way she’s involved in this.”
“She was shot,” Marcello said from where he stood near their father. “She’s involved one way or another.”
Nate checked his phone again; no news.
“Look, let’s just go over what we know,” Alex said. “Marcello?”
“Pierre was the only one caught escaping. After several hours of interrogation, he admitted he wasn’t working alone, but that’s it. We don’t know what’s being planned or who the others involved are
.”
“Did he accuse Charlie again?” Nate ground out.
“Charlie?” Carolina asked.
“It’s Charlotte’s nickname,” Nate said absently.
Marcello shook his head. “He didn’t accuse her again, and he eventually admitted he’d made most of that shit up. He was, however, only too glad she was shot. She may not have been the intended target, but he was pleased she got caught in the crossfire.”
“That fucking bastard.”
Marcello nodded. “You said it. Someone else is questioning him now. Since he was fired and kicked out of the palace, we’re not sure where he was living. We’re going back through old security footage to see if we can figure out where he went when he left here a few days ago.”
“Is there footage of the corridor where Charlie was shot?”
“No, there’s not,” Marcello confirmed. “We can’t have cameras in every corridor. The palace is too fucking big and there’s not enough agents to surveil them all.”
“What about footage from the party?” Alex asked. “What if someone at the party is in league with him?”
“Nate had the same thought,” Marcello said. “All the guests were questioned before they could leave, and we’re going through their statements now.”
“What happens tomorrow?” Rebecca asked from her seat next to Alex, where she was cuddled in his coat over her formal gown. “The budget? The Council meeting? Is everything cancelled?”
Everyone looked at each other, then all eyes turned to Nate. He’d forgotten, completely forgotten all about it. “We can’t do it now.”
“I think we’ll have to,” Alex said. “If we cancel it, it makes us look weak.”
“Fuck that,” Nate said. “We’re going to look weak anyway when they find out about the debt.”
“You have to do this, Nate.”
Nate just shook his head, his eyes glued once again on Charlie’s picture. “I’ve got somewhere else to be. She needs me.”
“She’s protected, Nate,” Marcello reminded him. “She’ll stay that way until you tell me otherwise.”
Nate nodded. He knew it was the most practical solution. His heart, however, wanted another one – the one where he stayed by her bedside so his was the first face she saw when she woke up.
“My son,” Gabriel said, his eyes a little sad. “I know it will be difficult, but you must do this.”
He felt the world closing in, felt himself once again driving along a snowy road when a patch of black ice derailed him, and his future. He once again felt worthless to stop it. “Fine. I’ll do it. I’m staying with Charlie tonight. Come find me in the morning.”
They all called his name as he walked out, trying to stop him, but he didn’t care. Not tonight.
Chapter 18
Charlie had just come out of surgery when he arrived. The doctor said words like ‘minor blood loss’ and ‘weakness’ but, in the end, he said she would be okay. She was a fighter; he knew she would make it.
When the doctor finally left, Nate stepped inside. A feeling of complete uselessness fell over him.
She was lying under white sheets in a white-walled room, casting her skin in an unearthly pale glow. Tubes ran into her arms, dripping some unknown liquid into each. Her heart was beating steadily and, though she had tubes in her nose, she hadn’t required a breathing tube or oxygen mask; she was breathing pretty much on her own.
He pulled an uncomfortable chair up to her bedside and gingerly lifted her hand. He half hoped she might open her eyes at his touch, but she remained deeply sedated. He should have known better than to expect that; his Charlie always took a bit of coaxing.
Whether in the bedroom, or on moonlit terraces, she required complete devotion and seduction. It wasn’t so much to ask, he thought as he pressed another kiss to her unnaturally cold hand. No, it wasn’t too much to ask at all.
***
Awareness for Charlie came slowly. Her entire body ached and felt incredibly heavy, as though a weight the size of the moon was holding her down. She heard beeping and talking nearby. An alien hand was on her wrist, then let go. She felt a small rush of air, and felt those same hands gently feeling her skin along the side.
“Stop,” she said hoarsely, still unable to even open her eyes. “Stop.”
A second voice spoke, someone she recognized but couldn’t quite place. “Charlotte, you’re in the hospital. You’re okay. Just relax.” Her fuzzy brain tried to decipher his words. If only she could move.
“Help.”
“It’s all right,” a female voice said. “I’m a nurse. I’ll help you in just a minute. I’m just checking you out, okay? Just your pulse and your bandage, and a few other things.”
Bandage. Gunshot. Nate. Her heartbeat sped up and the nurse gave Charlie’s hand a squeeze, and Charlie settled again. “It’s all right. You’re fine. You’re safe.”
“Nate.”
“He’s safe, too. I’m his brother, Marcello.”
She finally blinked open her eyes, squinting against the rising sun outside the window. “Nate?”
Marcello walked up to her and took her hand in his. “Nate was here all night sitting with you. He didn’t sleep a wink. He had to give the budget presentation this morning, and that’s the only reason he left. He didn’t want to, we forced him.”
Memories came rushing back and her heart sped up. The acrid taste of adrenaline now coated her dry mouth. “Nate. Danger.”
Marcello nodded to the nurse who left the room and closed the door behind her. “Calm down. We heard what you said last night. Something about a bomb at the Council meeting. My team was already sweeping it when you were shot. It was clean.”
No, no, no. “No, bomb after the sweep. Danger. Two men. Pierre.” Pierre, that fucking bastard. If she ever found him, she was going to cut off his balls for the sake of humanity.
“We’ve caught Pierre. He said you were trying to kill the King.”
She shook her head. Though it felt like shards of glass lining her throat, she continued talking. “I wouldn’t.”
“Nate seems to agree.”
With great effort, Charlie pulled her hand away from his. “Not you?”
“I don’t know you.”
“You don’t know Nate, either.” She started coughing, her whole body aching at the racking movements. She groaned.
“Here, sip some water. Slowly.” Marcello held up the glass and straw for her; it was the most wonderful thing she’d ever tasted. “Now, what did you mean about two men?”
“Heard two men. I can’t remember who they were, but they were talking about setting up the bomb after you finished your sweep. Nate. Help Nate.”
“I’ve got people there now, don’t worry.”
“Nate.”
“He’ll be okay. Are you sure Pierre wasn’t one of the two men you saw?”
She nodded. “He came later.”
“Do you think he’s working with the other men?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could you recognize the two men if you saw them again?”
“Yes. Told you. I know them but didn’t recognize them.”
Marcello’s eyes narrowed. “You know them? From around the palace?”
“I don’t know. Where’s Nate?”
“He’s about the start the presentation. You can watch it on television, if you want.”
Why couldn’t he understand? “I don’t want to watch it, you son of a bitch. Go save your brother. I’m telling you, he’s in danger.”
“Because you put him there?”
“Arrest me then, if you’re so sure. Just go help him. He needs you. He needs all of you, don’t you see?” A wave of dizziness overtook her, but she managed to just keep from passing out. She couldn’t while Nate needed her.
“I can see why he loves you, Charlie,” Marcello said after a pause. “You don’t need to worry about Nate. I’ll protect him.” Marcello reached over to a side table and picked up a manila envelope. He withdrew several p
ictures from inside and showed them to her in turn. “Recognize any of these men?”
Marcello flipped through five before she recognized the sixth. “That one. He’s the one that grabbed me in the hall.”
Charlotte & Nate (Royals of Valleria #4) Page 21