by Nana Malone
Is that what Roone was? Or was he a killer? Or something else entirely?
But I’d never been in danger with him. At least, none that I felt. But I had no idea who he really was, so what the hell did I know?
After the third man took an opposite corner of the first and the second one sat closer to the women, a pretty black girl jogged up the stairs. There was something about the way she moved too. Her smile was easy, relaxed. But she still moved efficiently. That was until she tripped on one of the stones on the patio and went flying. Bodyguard number two was up out of his chair as if he fully expected this and caught her easily. When he placed her back on her feet, she smoothed her skirt, tucked her blouse back in, and then beamed him a wide grin.
Wow, that smile was full of sunshine and light.
She’d also dropped her purse, so the contents spilled everywhere. The two women at the table jumped down to help her pick them up. One of the tubes of lipstick rolled toward the bar though, and no one noticed it.
The woman wore enormous shades that completely covered her face, but from the looks of it, she was Queen Penelope Winston, my supposed brother’s wife. I’d been surprised to learn that there was a brown princess. Well, I supposed England had one now, so it must be good enough for everyone.
And she was beautiful, if not exactly princess-like. Her hair was a wild disarray of curls, and well, there was just something inelegant about her. She was extremely clumsy. Over the course of the last day, I had watched her trip, nearly fall, get her clothes stuck on hooks, and generally need assistance on all manner of things. But she was also strong, not a complete disaster.
A car had backfired the day before, and her bodyguards dove for her, but she had jumped to cover a little boy who had been walking behind her. With zero care for herself, she’d fully covered him, tucked him in her protective arms, and rolled to the ground with him. But it hadn’t been whatever kind of threat she’d thought it was, just a backfiring car. When she stood, she’d checked him over to make sure he was okay, and then her guards tucked her under their arms and she fought them the whole way.
I didn’t know her, but I liked her already. I knew who the other two were as well; her soon to be sister-in-law Bryna Tressel, and Bryna’s best friend, Jinx. It wasn’t like I had a full dossier on the women like I did on the men, but a question or two around town and the gossip magazines told me exactly who they were.
I knew I probably wouldn’t get straight answers from the king or the prince, not that I’d be able to get anywhere near them, but these three… these three were up for the taking.
I finished my drink, stood up from my seat, walked over to the bar, and picked up the tube of lipstick. Then with a deep breath, I marched over to the girls. “Excuse me, I think you may have dropped this when you dropped your purse.”
I had taken off my sunglasses so that she could see my eyes and sense my sincerity in them. The blonde’s gaze flickered up, and then she coughed. “Oh my God. I love your skirt.”
I had worn a floral, A-line paneled skirt with a petticoat underneath it. I don’t know, it sort of felt islandish. I was taken aback by the compliment. “Oh, thank you. Uh, it’s vintage.”
Bryna smiled widely at me. “My God, your skin is amazing. What do you use?”
“Honestly? Cheap soap and water. Mostly good genes from my mother.”
My gaze landed on the princess, or rather, the queen. Her dark eyes were smiling, and her lips faltered a little but then broke into a wide grin. “Sometimes you’ve just got to use what works. Thank you for grabbing my lipstick.”
She looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn’t. And I had no idea what to do at that point.
I was so stupid. Had I thought I’d just walk up to them and invite myself to sit down? I should have had a better plan, and if I didn’t do something quick, I was going to blow this opportunity.
Well, how can I turn that table?
As I turned to go, it was Jinx who called out. “Wait, someone with a sense of style that good, I need in my life. As you can see, I could use the help. Do you like fashion?”
Fashion, no. I never really had the time for clothes. I got one of those services that deliver clothes to my door, because well, I’d spent most of my time taking care of my father and working. But I was happy to fake it.
“No. I just sort of wear whatever I like.”
Jinx nodded. “Yeah, me too. Except, the things that I like never seem to go together, so I always look a little crazy.”
Bryna tapped her arm. “Don’t listen to her. She always looks great.” There was a bit of silence as if none of them knew what to say, and there I was, awkwardly standing there stalking them. Ugh, I’m the worst at this.
It was Jinx who came through again. “Well, um, I accept all the shopping help. I feel like I haven’t seen you around town before, and the Winston Isles is so small. You must be a tourist.”
“Um, sort of. I’m thinking of moving,” I said noncommittally.
Penny beamed at this. “Well, it is a beautiful island. If you would like some tour guides, we got you.”
“Yeah, I’d love it. And as payment, I can pick you up something in a boutique,” I said to Jinx.
She beamed at me. Bryna watched me carefully, but she was friendly. Her body language was open. She just seemed quieter. Did she know?
She gave no indication that she knew who I was. And she really shouldn’t, but I didn’t know anything for sure. I needed to tread carefully. “Yeah that seems great.”
Finally, Bryna perked up. “Well, if you are here as a tourist, then you need to join us. We’re having some drinks and dinner.” She reached out her hand and introduced herself. “I’m Bryna.”
I hadn’t thought this through, I didn’t have a fake name to use, so I pulled one out of my ass just in time. “Hi, I’m Jessica.”
Penny shook my hand too. “Just call me Penny. Nice to meet you Jessica.”
I shook Jinx’s hand as well. It looked like I’d made some friends, in theory. I swallowed the bite of unease as I easily lied to them. But if I wanted answers, I needed to get close. They seemed nice. Stop thinking of them as your friends, because they may be very well be the enemy.
I didn’t normally like to think in those terms, but it was time I started being my father’s daughter, and I needed to be more careful.
Penny
Holy shit.
I could barely keep it together. For weeks, months we had been looking for this girl. And she just strolled up to us and handed me my lipstick?
Everyone, even Jinx, was able to play it cool. And if Ariel were here, she'd be the easiest one of us all. She was a master of effortless nonchalance. Luckily, we’d been able to pull it off. Hopefully I’d come across as nice and charming and hadn’t scared her off.
Hell, we'd even invited her out. The key was to not tell my husband.
Easier said than done because Sebastian was far too interested in gossip.
"So, you're really not gonna tell me what happened at lunch?"
"Why is it even interesting?" I typed in my PIN code on the keypad, opening the door to my office. I knew what Sebastian was here for—an afternoon quickie. As if I had no work to do. He might've grounded me from field work, but I was still an intelligence operative, so I actually had work to do not just royal engagements.
It felt good to do charity work, and it felt good to work on programs that connected youth to the joys of the arts. That work was rewarding. It was the endless dinner parties and planning state dinners and deciding which china needed to go with what that bored me to tears. It wasn't me. Sebastian knew it wasn't me. I was just as likely to get paint on the fine china as I was to get some earl or count's name wrong.
I finally just hired someone to do all the planning for me and to work with my mother-in-law. Queen Alexa was more than happy to still be useful. Sometimes she was a bit concerned that she was stepping on my toes, but I assured her nonstop that she was doing me a favor.
&
nbsp; I loved being queen. Well, mostly I loved having Sebastian. But there were aspects of the job that I did not love.
And the more royal engagements I did, the less time I had to paint.
And at my core, a painter was still who I was. More often than not, Sebastian would join me in the shower and have to wash some streaks out because I'd been walking around half the day with a streak of white paint on the end of one of my curls and no one told me.
He always kissed my nose and then helped me wash it out. Because he was much happier when I was painting than when I was out in the field.
"Seb, you know I have work to do."
"Uh huh." He closed the door behind us. And then locked it. I knew what that meant. "Sebastian, we do not have time for this." I giggled even as I said it.
"I can be quick."
"When have you ever been quick?"
His grin was wolfish. "Come on, just a little taste? I don't know. I've been really needing you since this morning."
"Sebastian, we made love twice this morning. I was late to work."
"I know. But just the thought of making a baby, makes me want you all the time. Well, I mean I basically want you all the time anyway. So not much has changed.”
I rolled my eyes. "Oh my God, all I said was I was going off birth control. It's going to take some time for the hormones to get out of my system. We're not going to make a baby right away."
"But oh my God, the practice."
"You just want me barefoot and pregnant."
He grinned at that. "Just thinking about that gets me so hot."
"There will be nothing hot about me pregnant."
He shook his head. And then leaned in to nuzzle my neck. "Oh, I beg to differ. Your boobs are going be huge."
I glanced down. "Well, that might be an added benefit to pregnancy.” And, a little me and Sebastian. A little boy with his father's eyes. A little too serious, but still full of mischief. A little girl with my smile and wild curls. I could see it now, and there would be a lot more laughter in the palace. Although it worried me with all the danger we'd been through lately. But I knew it was what Sebastian wanted. And I wanted it too. I just wished there was less chaos.
"You are not playing fair. You know how much I like it when you do that."
He nipped at the column of my throat with his teeth. "What? This?" He did it again.
I whimpered. "Not fair."
"Okay, I'll play nice. He backed away a bit. But then he lifted me gently and set me on my desk before he stepped between my thighs and shoved the skirt of my dress up. "Just tell me what you guys talked about today."
"Why does it matter?"
"Well, I want to know if Jinx kicked that guy to the curb or not. Lucas and I have a bet."
"Oh my God, you're ridiculous."
"I know, but still."
"Why are you so nosy? I swear to God, you gossip more than any of us girls do."
"Really, it's Lucas's fault. He bet me a hundred dollars that Jinx keeps that loser of a boyfriend. I said she was too smart.”
"You’ll have to ask her. Can't the queen have some secrets?"
"As long as her secrets involve whatever puts a smile on her face like that. Tell me, is it me that puts that smile on your lips?"
I giggled. "As if I would have time for anyone else? You are on my ass twenty-four/seven."
His brows lifted. "Well, I don't think that's where it's supposed to go to make a baby, but we can definitely try that."
I groaned. "Oh my God, you're incorrigible."
He grinned. "I mean you're the one who said I need practice, so I need to practice all the things to get this whole baby-making thing right. I'm bound to get it wrong once or twice."
He went to nuzzling my neck, and then kissing, and then his hands slid up my thighs until his thumbs traced the edges of my panties. "Sebastian."
"Yes, my queen."
"You know that queen shit gets me hot."
He chuckled low. "Oh, I know. Your panties are already wet. Is that because I called you my queen? It's just a statement of fact."
I hated to admit it, but something pulled low in my belly whenever he said it. But I think it had less to do with the word than the way he said it. Reverently, like to him, I was everything. Having the total focus of someone like that, someone like Sebastian, on me was its own aphrodisiac. I figured at this rate, I'd be pregnant in a week. "You know what you're doing to me."
His lips grazed mine gently as his thumb stroked over my clit. "Absolutely. And I plan to keep doing it."
"Sebastian, neither one of us has time for this right now."
"Oh, I know." The zik, zik, zik sound of the zipper of his jeans tugging down mingled with the sound of my moans. He had my number. He knew how to make me hum in seconds.
And I knew how to make him happy.
I just hoped I'd be able to bring him the one thing I knew would make him happier than anything else in the world. And I wasn't talking about the baby.
Ariel
I'd fucked up. I'd fucked up big.
What was it about my father that made me ever believe anything he said?
With my teams occupied trying to locate Jessa, I was hard at work trying to locate my father. If anyone could shed some light on what the fuck was going on it would be him.
His passport didn't have any hits, but he had enough friends that he could have easily made it off the islands. He could have chartered a flight from any of the smaller islands in the Caribbean, or even chartered a boat. He could be anywhere.
The father I’d known would have had some trouble with forging a passport, but who knew the kind of people he ran with these days? After all, he’d managed to bypass my security protocols.
Someone had made another attempt to access Jessa’s internal files. But this time the security protocols had been changed. Whoever it was clearly didn't know we’d detected the first breach.
Of course, I hadn't wanted to believe that my own father was capable of that, because in terms of his own skill set, he wasn't. He wasn’t one for computers, never seeing any benefit of them. But if he was working with someone, then I'd basically opened the gate and invited the wolf into the hen house.
Relax. Calm down. Think it through. Start systematically.
I still had a team to manage, so from my work station at Roone's flat, I'd start at the beginning, the date my father had asked me if he could stay with me.
I checked my exit and entrance logs, and all looked normal. He had left and returned about the ordinary time required for employment. How bad was it that I didn't even know what my father did for money these days?
You probably don't want to know.
None of that seemed untoward, so I moved on to camera footage. I had some footage of Dad headed the wrong way to the palace. But when I checked security footage, I hadn't seen him anywhere inside the palace, so maybe he just walked the exterior of the building. Cameras were spotty through the grounds, so it was entirely possible that he just wanted to take a walk, even though he'd promised he would stay far away from the palace.
Before, I’d reviewed the tapes as someone with mild concern. Now, I reviewed the footage with the eye of someone who was being security conscious and not someone who was pissed off at her father. Again, I watched the video playback, laser focused and paying attention to his movements. He went to the left toward the Rose Garden, but thenAriel nothing.
I fast forwarded. I didn't see him come back around, nor did I see him on the new path. Where the fuck had he gone?
For two days, everything had been fine. He’d followed the same path, left toward the Rose Garden and then... disappearance. It was on the third day that I had spoken to Penny. I'd asked her to look out for him. So, a couple of clicks of my mouse, shuffling some screens, and several tabs later, and I was looking at the footage of day three. Again, left. Again, toward the Rose Garden. Then disappearance.
The Rose and Tower gardens were connected, but someone would legitimately have to wal
k through the massive hedges to get from one to the other. And then that someone would also have to know where all the cameras were hidden to avoid being seen. And even with that, it was almost impossible to completely hide from the cameras. At some point along the walk to the gardens, you'd be seen. So how had he done it?
I put a pin in that one and checked the paths that had been accessed. My paranoia had made me put a little alarm on Jessa's file in particular, her whereabouts, just to alert someone if anybody went looking. Everything about her case was so confidential. The files on her whereabouts had been accessed, but I couldn't tell by whom or how, because that server room was down in the tunnels where it was nice and cool and unmonitored. I'd overseen that whole project.
So it meant someone knew to go down there and access them because they knew that they wouldn't be able to access Jessa's files from anywhere else. That told me it was an insider, because no one outside of the immediate group knew that Jessa was alive or where she was. The only problem was that I still couldn't tell who had accessed them because for all intents and purposes, the file logs said I had accessed them.
Me? But I hadn't. I wasn't even home when it happened. And the firewalls I had built, with a little assistance from Matthias Weller of Blake Security, were inaccessible from where I was. So how did this happen? And how had it not tripped a single alarm?
I knew what I had to do, but I really didn't want to do it. Doing it would mean that I'd failed. Doing it would mean that I wasn't as good as everyone thought I was.
Doing it also means that you're protecting the princess, which is currently your job.
That thought alone was enough to get me moving. I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts. I made a call to the one person who would know what to do next.
He answered on the first ring. "Ariel. I didn't expect to hear from you."
"Hey, Weller."