“Are you sure?”
She shivered. “I couldn’t forget him.”
“Any others?” he asked, flipping through the rest.
“Wait,” she said when he got to the last photo. “There’s something wrong with that picture.”
“What do you mean?”
“It looks like the other man, but doesn’t. He’s too thin, and his glasses are different. The man I saw weighed much more than him and his glasses were thinner.”
Marcello grabbed Charlie’s arm. “Are you absolutely sure about that?”
“You’re hurting me.” Marcello let go of her arm, but the fervent expression remained. “Yes, I’m sure.”
Marcello took out his phone and tapped and swiped for a minute or two before he stopped and turned the phone’s screen to her. “Is this the man you saw?”
“Yes, without a doubt.”
Marcello ran a hand over his face. “Holy fucking hell.”
“Who is it?” Charlie asked as Marcello rounded the bed and headed for the door. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later. I’ve got to go help Nate.”
“Then go,” she said quickly. “Tell him … Tell him I can’t wait to see him.”
Marcello nodded and left, leaving a guard at her door.
As soon as Marcello left, Charlie winced as she reached for the television remote, praying that Nate was all right.
Chapter 19
Nate was running on pure adrenaline and caffeine. He’d not slept a wink last night at Charlie’s bedside. Putting aside the lack of sleep, he’d also exhausted himself watching her for any movement, and jumping every time he’d spotted a tremor or bat of her eyes while she’d slept. Marcello had promised to provide an update before the Council meeting, but none had come. His stomach felt twisted and sick with worry.
Despite that, Nate walked into the Council chamber with his head held high. The massive room was organized in one large circle with a dais for the royal family designated at the head of the room. The room featured the dark purple of Valleria set against cream walls, with rich wood tables, polished as though they were mirrors. The podium and table where he would sit today sat facing the dais.
Nate was wearing an outlandish ceremonial cape and carrying a red briefcase over one hundred years old, titled the ‘Budget Briefcase’. It had been used by ministers in his position on the Council since that time to carry their speeches on Budget Day, and a monarchy was nothing if not mired in tradition.
Budget Day was allowed more exceptions than just the formal cape and briefcase. The entire royal family was allowed to witness the presentation and, as he walked in, he saw several of them seated behind his father, including his siblings, cousins, and more.
The Sergeant-at-Arms heralded his arrival and he stepped in and took his place; it was one of the only times someone was allowed to enter the Council chamber after the King.
Nate bowed to his father and mother, then also to Alex – more ceremony – before speaking. “My Royal Majesty King Gabriel, My Royal Majesty Queen Genevieve, My Royal Highness Prince Alexander, distinguished members of the Royal Council, and honored family and guests.”
He nodded to each group in turn and swung off his robe, laying it to the side. His crisp dark suit underneath matched his mood. “I am here with the honored task of presenting the annual budget of the great nation of Valleria for the next fiscal year. I know it is customary for the Minister in this position to provide a summary of the proposal at this time; however, I am breaking from that tradition.”
Murmurs broke out through the massive room, but Nate continued. “When you hear what I have to say, I trust you’ll find that it was the right thing to do.”
Nate’s phone vibrated inside his jacket pocket. It would be a serious breach of protocol for him to retrieve it. Not to mention, the presentation was being televised and the camera could zoom in on his message. He glanced around the room for Marcello, but didn’t see him. Trusting his brother to remember an old signal they developed as children to indicate trouble, Nate scratched his neck and looked straight at Alex. Nate saw him remove his own phone a moment later.
“My budget will be, in a word, austere.” Louder murmurs, some shouts. Another exception on Budget Day: Council members were allowed to speak their thoughts without waiting for recognition from the King before doing so.
Alex leaned over and whispered to their father; Nate noticed his father’s hand reaching for his mother’s. Nate had only wanted an update about Charlie, but something must seriously be wrong. The bomb.
Gabriel suddenly stood up, forcing the rest of the room to stand with him. “Minister Nathaniel. Thank you for your opening remarks. However, there has been a credible threat made concerning the Council chambers, and we must all evacuate. Everyone please proceed to the nearest exit.”
“No, you don’t!” screamed a voice behind Gabriel.
Everyone turned to see Gabriel’s cousin, Gerald, waiting, a slim canister in his hand.
Alex rushed his mother and fiancée out of the room, the other royals following suit. The majority of the Royal Council fled as well, but a few, including Byron, Tim, and Jasper, remained behind.
The one other person that remained was his father. Nate couldn’t leave him to deal with this alone.
Gabriel held his hands out, and approached Gerald as though he were a rabid dog. “Gerald, don’t be a fool,” the King said in an even voice. “What have you done?”
“It’s not what I’ve done, it what you’ve done!” Gerald bellowed, pointing a finger at Gabriel. “It’s what your sons have done.”
“What have we done?” Gabriel was inching towards him, and Nate was slowly inching towards Gabriel.
“You murdered my son!”
Though few remained in the room, Nate was sure he heard the collective gasps of everyone watching the scene play out on live television.
“Your son,” Gabriel said with a bite, still inching closer, “tried to murder the future king and soon-to-be future queen of Valleria. He was shot in self-defense, as you well know.”
“Lies!”
“Hardly. What is surprising is that we never knew about your son until he almost destroyed Valleria’s future.”
“Valleria’s future is mine.” Gerald’s arms shook with rage, the canister tilting precariously.
“You know it’s not.”
“It should have been! The royal line should have been mine, if it wasn’t for my whore of a great-grandmother, who forced my great-grandfather to abdicate in order to marry her.”
“He was in love, Gerald.”
Gerald scoffed. “Love doesn’t exist, and it certainly didn’t for them. I made sure my son knew that.”
Marcello appeared from a shadowy corner of the room; few knew that even the Council chamber had hidden passageways. He inched towards Gerald, his hawk-like eyes never leaving the canister in Gerald’s hand.
Gabriel caught Marcello’s eye and began in earnest to distract his cousin. “What else have you been plotting, Gerald? Now’s your moment to become famous.”
Gerald’s eyes twinkled and glanced at the cameras still recording in the room. “Well, Valleria, you should know that I’ve stolen all your money. So, if you don’t let me kill the King and take over the throne, you’ll not get it back.”
“So you are admitting to stealing several billion from Vallerians for your own personal gain? Who helped you? You’re certainly not smart enough to do it on your own.”
“Of course I am, you poor excuse for a king. I’ve done it all on my own, with no help from anyone. The money’s all mine now.” Gerald’s eyes turned maniacal. “All mine. And soon, Valleria will be, too.”
“No!” a voice rang out from across the room. Jasper! “Without me, you wouldn’t have been able to steal a fucking piece of lint from the royal coffers. I bankrupted Valleria, not you, you ungrateful piece of shit.”
Jasper pulled out a gun and Nate was torn between who to go towards: his fath
er or the man who might kill him. After a quick glance at Marcello, Nate made his decision.
“You lie,” Gerald shouted at Jasper. “You didn’t help me at all, except to provide me with this lovely sarin bomb. You really hate the monarchy, don’t you?”
“Yes, I fucking hate them,” Jasper said, contempt evident on his face. “They’re useless. They’ve let billions slip right out from under their noses because they were too stupid to see it.”
Jasper, however, was too stupid to see Nate getting ever closer to him. No one had noticed him slip under the Council desk and crawl towards the danger. Byron and Tim eventually noticed him and gave him room to act. If they weren’t such fucking pricks, they would have taken Jasper down already.
“You want to kill me?” Gerald taunted Jasper. “Go ahead and try it. Everyone will die, even you.”
“No, they won’t,” a voice called, and Gerald whorled around to find Marcello slinking on the ground behind him. Gerald let out a gasp just as Marcello kicked Gerald’s feet out from under him. Just as Gerald let out a cry and began falling to the floor, Marcello grabbed the canister in one hand and punched out Gerald with the other.
“No!” Jasper cried and aimed the gun.
Marcello quickly handed off the canister to one of his agents who took it away.
Then Marcello dived for their father.
And Nate dived for Jasper.
The shot rang out.
But the King was safe, covered on the floor by his son.
His other son, however, was not so lucky.
The bullet hit Nate on his left side, but he was undeterred. He struggled with Jasper for the gun, eventually pulling it away though not before another shot rang out.
A cry from across the room let Nate know someone else had been hit.
They fell to the ground, hidden underneath the table. Nate pushed Jasper’s head against the hard wood, bashing and bashing it until Jasper loosened his hold on the gun.
Nate grabbed the gun and rolled away, but Jasper followed.
Nate did the only thing he could do. With pure adrenaline coursing through his system, and blood leaking out of it, he fired the gun.
Jasper fell to the ground, bruised but not irrevocably broken. Blood was pouring from a wound in his leg and he was moaning in agony.
As Nate stood, he saw his father and brother with shocked faces across the room. As they began to run towards him, Nate looked down and saw the bright red marring his crisp white shirt. It reminded him of Charlie’s wounds just last night. Charlie.
As Nate fell to the floor, agents came rushing up, took the gun from his hand, and subdued Jasper. Paramedics soon followed and began to treat both of their wounds.
“Nathaniel? Nate?” Gabriel asked as he came rushing up to them. His father must be worried to use his nickname.
“Papa? You’re okay?” Nate asked as his vision started to waver.
“Yes, my son,” Gabriel said, brushing his son’s hair back. “Marcello and I are both fine.”
“That’s good,” he said before he fell unconscious.
***
Charlie had screamed at the television when the man with the bomb had appeared, then again when the other man had pulled out a gun. She’d seen Nate, just as the rest of the country had, slink towards the gunman. He’d been so brave.
She’d screamed even louder when Nate had been shot, earning a scolding from both the agent protecting her and the nurses. When they’d seen what had happened, however, they’d been just as stunned as she.
The agent had remained on the phone ever since, the nurses preparing for the onslaught of more gunshot wounds, one of those for a royal.
Several nurses were taken away to a separate wing of the hospital, reserved apparently for the royal family alone. Charlie sighed; that meant she wasn’t likely to find out what happened to him.
She kept checking in with the agent, who only told her Nate was still in surgery, time and time again. She became so worried and agitated, the nurses forced a sedative into her IV line and she fell into a dreamless sleep.
***
When Charlie blinked her eyes open several hours later, she immediately knew she was in a different room. The door was on the wrong side and the windows were covered, leaving the room looking pale and antiseptic. Her nasal breathing tubes were gone, as was the heart monitor.
She also realized she wasn’t alone.
“Nate!” She tried to get up, tried to walk to him, but her body still wouldn’t cooperate with her; her mind may have woken up, but her body was a little behind.
“He’s just fine. He’s just under sedation, so he likely can’t hear you.”
Charlie turned towards the door and the voice, and saw Marcello standing there. “He’s really okay?”
Marcello nodded and walked to his brother’s bedside. “He’s a tough one, that’s for sure. He’s not likely to give up easily.”
“No, he’s not.” She gave him a curious look. “Did you move me into his room?”
“I’m afraid that was me,” the Queen said from the doorway. She walked over to Nate and gave him a kiss on the forehead, then walked over the Charlie and did the same. She settled herself on the edge of Charlie’s bed and took her hand. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, no,” Charlie said quickly. “Of course I don’t mind. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
Genevieve nodded. “I can understand that. I want you to know, Charlotte, that if you make Nathaniel happy, that’s all I really need, or want as his mother. Do you believe me?”
“Yes,” Charlie said eventually. “I can believe that, but you’re not just his mother, you’re also a Queen. What does the Queen want for her son, the Prince?”
“That’s a fair question.” Genevieve squeezed Charlie’s hand. “There’s a lot that you become when you marry a royal. Some of your priorities change, you’ll be constantly hounded by the press, and everything you say or do or even wear will be put under a microscope. I think you could handle it, Charlie, and the job managing the kitchens. You’re a very strong woman, and Nate wouldn’t love you if you weren’t.”
Charlie digested that. Most of it were things she’d already considered, but she picked out the one thing she hadn’t. “You mentioned Coco’s job. Does that mean you’re offering it to me?” The Queen nodded. “Are you offering it to me because Nate loves me, or because you feel guilty for the way you treated me earlier?”
“I’m offering it to you because you’re the very best person for the job, and you earned it and deserve it.”
Charlie nodded; she’d be a fool to turn it down. She glanced over at Nate, whose eyes were open and on hers. “Nate!”
The Queen immediately went to Nate’s bedside while Marcello called for the nurse.
Charlie wasn’t sure what look she had on her face, but he said, in a hoarse voice, “I’m okay, Charlotte-mine.” He smiled dimly at her and she just wanted to reach out and hold his hand.
The doctor came in with the nurse and they shooed everyone out of the room. A curtain separated Charlie from him while the doctor examined him, but she could hear the low rumble of his voice all the same.
“Will he be okay?” Charlie asked the doctor as soon as the curtain was pulled back again.
“He’ll need to stay in the hospital for a few weeks, which is longer than you’ll need to be here. His wound was deeper than yours, but he’ll be just fine,” the doctor said with a smile. “You know, you both have remarkably similar injuries, though you wouldn’t notice it at first glance.”
She looked at Nate. His eyes were closed, but she knew he wasn’t asleep. She drank him in, from his scruffy chin and chiseled jaw, to his full lips, and to the sweep of hair that had fallen over his eyes that she longed to push back. Yes, they both had scars, both physical and emotional. The doctor was right – they were remarkably similar, if only she hadn’t been so afraid to see it.
After the doctor and nurse left, she inched out of bed. She was down to just o
ne IV line, which she used as a cane as she scooted across the floor.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Coming to see you.”
“You can see me just fine from your bed. Go back and rest.”
She finally made it to his side and sat down on the bed, facing him. “No.”
“Don’t be stubborn.”
“Don’t be an idiot. Of course I’m going to sit with you.”
“I do love that smart mouth of yours.”
Charlotte & Nate (Royals of Valleria #4) Page 22