“Baby bump,” Thomas told her, and even though her mouth dropped open, she immediately understood.
She made a sound that was half outrage, half laughter. “Hendrake thought I was pregnant, so he was trying to kill what he thought was Ted’s heir?” She’d hit it squarely on the head, but she was still missing pieces of the bigger, crazier picture. “But then what? That doesn’t bring him any closer to the throne. I mean, unless he was also planning to kill Ted, his little brother, and the queen.”
Thomas nodded, and her eyes widened again. “Seriously?”
“Their plane was going to crash—not right away,” Thomas told her. “That might’ve been suspicious immediately following your death, but in a few months, yeah. Apparently, his plans changed when he got a tip from some oligarch buddies in Russia—about the coming attacks in America. He decided to use the chaos to kill the royal family in the ski lodge—it was supposed to burn with them in it. Of course, the queen got a tip, too, and when they escaped, he was back to hunting you down. Thankfully the mercenaries he hired were bush league.”
“Not all of them,” Tasha pointed out. “Did Hendrake actually confess?”
“No, but one of his top advisors kept records and made audio recordings. Great-Uncle H is in custody. The FBI is rounding up the rest of his New England army right now,” Thomas said. “You—and Ted—are safe.”
She slowly sat down on the edge of the bed as the reality of what he’d just told her sank in.
“I tried asking Ted why he came back,” Tasha told him, her eyes huge in her face. “I mean, why didn’t he just tell someone—my uncle or you know, the FBI—about the bomb shelter, and that he believed we’d be hiding there. He was pretty loopy, but he told me that he didn’t know who he could trust—or who’d be listening in on the phone call.” She laughed again—a hard exhale of air that had little to do with humor. “God, maybe he’s known about the threat from Hendrake for a while. He was always so worried, and I... I teased him relentlessly. I used to sing him the theme from Game of Thrones, and pretend I needed to taste his food before he ate anything.” She took a deep breath and exhaled hard again. “I owe him an apology.”
“I’m pretty sure he’ll forgive you,” Thomas said. “Look, I’mma go find a shower.”
“Why don’t you just use Ted’s?”
And yeah, this room had a door that led into a bathroom. “This room’s got a shower?” In his experience, which was mostly from VA hospitals, the rooms usually didn’t.
“We’re VIP, baby,” Tasha said.
That was one hell of a borrowed use of Ted’s royal we. Even if they both squinted, Thomas was not in that subset. Not even close. “Yeah,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
“I know he’d be fine with it,” she tried to reassure him.
But really, would he? He sure as hell wouldn’t, if he were Ted.
And now Tasha was looking hard at him, as if she were really seeing him for the first time since he’d come into the room. “Are you okay? I know this is supremely weird.”
Thomas didn’t get to answer—although he wasn’t sure what he could even say, considering their conversational restrictions—before the sudden sound of voices from the hallway made Tasha look over at the open door.
She rose from her perch on the bed. Thomas turned, too, to see a petite, gray-haired woman in a black pantsuit entering the room.
“Hallo!” she said cheerfully. “You must be Lieutenant King.” She pronounced it the British way—Lefftenant King. “I’m Andrea.”
Thomas forced a smile. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
“Goodness,” she said as she looked from him to Tasha. “Shall I run back to Lord & Taylor’s to get him trousers and a jumper? Perhaps an overcoat?” She checked an expensive-looking wrist watch. “The shop closes at eleven—but I’ll call and asked them to stay open.”
“That’s really not necessary, ma’am,” Thomas said. He held up his clean clothes. “I’m all set.”
From the look that Andrea gave his rolled up jeans and T-shirt, it was clear she didn’t agree. “Well, you look like you’re on your way out, so bon appétit.” She handed him the bag from the steakhouse.
“Oh,” Thomas said. “Thank you. I’m... Thanks.”
Andrea immediately got to work cleaning off the bedside tray.
“Oh,” Tasha said. “No, Andrea, I’ll get that.”
“I didn’t want to wake you before, dearie.” Andrea didn’t stop. “It’s already done.”
“Thank you,” Tasha said. “Um... Would you mind checking on the prince? I know the queen’s going to want an update.”
“As long as you’ve got everything you need,” Andrea said, but she was already halfway out the door with the trash.
“I’m good,” Tasha said, and the woman was gone—leaving that door still wide open.
Tash gently took the bag with the food from Thomas’s clutches. “Why don’t you sit down and eat?”
He looked at her. If she honestly thought that that—whatever that was from Mrs. Potts—had made this any less bizarre...
“I’m so sorry,” she started but then cut herself off. “Shit! I’m not sorry. I shouldn’t be sorry!” She took a deep breath. “Thomas. I know this is weird. Let’s get out of here.”
Words he’d been dying to hear.
She led the way out of the hospital room, past the stern-faced guards at the door and was beelining it toward a bank of elevators when Mrs. Potts—Andrea—called after her.
“Don’t go too far, dearie! The prince will be back in his room in a flash. He’s awake and asking for you.” The woman was standing further down the hallway at a nurse’s station and she waved cheerily at Thomas. “Thank you again for keeping our Natasha safe, Lefftenant.”
And okay. So now they were gonna have to stand here, in front of the elevators, out of earshot, but in sight of the guards and Andrea.
Nope, not Andrea. She’d disappeared down the hall, no doubt to relay to the queen whatever information the nurses had given her about the prince. Who would be back in his room in a flash.
Tasha, being Tasha, jumped right in. “You’re freaked out,” she said with her usual point-blank approach, her voice lowered even though the guards couldn’t possibly hear them from here. “Because I haven’t talked to Ted. You still think... What?”
He cleared his throat, glancing back at those watching guards. “I don’t just think it anymore,” he said. “You seem to believe that Ted’s playing a game but—”
She cut him off. “I know Ted’s playing a game—”
“He’s not.”
Tasha sighed. Heavily. “Thomas.”
He waited.
It was her turn to glance at those stony-faced guards. She sighed again. “Okay. Look. Remember when I was in the hide and we both saw that it was Ted who was being chased, and you said... Do you remember what you said?”
“Trust me.” It still made him a little weak in the knees to think what might’ve happened if she hadn’t trusted him.
She nodded emphatically. “Well, it’s my turn. You need to trust me. You just need to give me a little time to talk to Ted. You need to trust that I know what I’m talking about when I tell you that he’s going to be happy for me. For us. He is. But I can’t have that conversation while he’s stoned out of his mind or if there’s a crowd of guards and staff-members hovering around him. I can’t.”
“I just keep thinking, what if you didn’t?” Thomas said slowly. “Talk to him. Just yet. I know you don’t believe me, Tash, but he loves you.”
“Yes. He does. I do know that. We’re very close friends.”
“I... don’t think that’s what Ted thinks.”
She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Welp, you’re wrong. Guess you’ll have to trust me.” But then she faltered. “Unless this is where your doubts and regrets kick in?”
“No,” he said, absolutely. “But...”
“Oh, good,” she said. “There’s a but.”
> Thomas struggled to explain. “Tash, I’m having doubts for you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means...” He cleared his throat. God, his stomach hurt. But he made himself say it. “I think I should give you some time. And some space, too.”
“Space?”
“Look, I know you see things differently than I do, but what I see is a man—a prince—who is crazy in love with you. And I don’t want you to throw away a life like that—like this...” he gestured around them, but at what? The expensive clothes she was wearing? That was no big thing. He had money saved, he could buy her whatever she needed and wanted. This hospital corridor they were standing in? Nah, as a SEAL, he was more likely to bring a unwanted hospital stay into her life than the prince was in the future. The essence of Andrea that still echoed in the hallway? Yeah, maybe that’s what he was talking about. The staff, the guards, the title, the fairy-tale happily-ever-after.
The incredible pain in the ass that came with a too-public life.
Somehow it didn’t seem as if she’d be missing all that much. And yet...
She was silent, eyebrows raised, just waiting for him to finish.
“I just want to make sure you’ve thought this through,” he told her. “So, yeah. Space. I, uh, was thinking I should drive back to San Diego tonight, with Rio and Dave.”
She took a step back from him. “Oh, my God. You’re serious.”
“Flights are still impossible and you said yourself that you need time to talk to Ted—”
“I said that, yes,” she said. “But time as in a few hours. Another day at the most.”
“And I think you’ll need longer than that,” he said.
“Well, you’re wrong,” Tasha told him. “You’re doubling down on your incredible wrongness and—oh, shit, you’re in a hospital.” She rubbed her forehead as if she had a sudden, severe headache. “Of course you’re freaked out and everything feels wrong. But please, please, please Thomas, trust me.”
Tasha could feel her eyes welling with tears as she stood there, a polite three feet away from this man she loved with all of her heart, unable to throw herself into his arms and beg him not to be stupid.
“Yeah, I’m freaked out,” he said quietly. “Yeah, I hate hospitals, but... Tash, I really think it’s a good idea. Not just for you, but for me, too. I’ll go with Rio and Dave. That way we’ll get back to Coronado as quickly as we can. I think it’s best if we leave tonight.”
“Please just wait until tomorrow,” she said. “Andrea got us all rooms at a hotel that’s just down the street—”
“The admiral needs us in California.”
“Bullshit,” she said. “It can wait twelve hours. You haven’t slept in days.”
“I can sleep in the car.”
“God, you really want to go, don’t you?” she asked, turning her head so that the guards couldn’t see that her tears were about to escape.
“I want you to be happy,” Thomas whispered, and when she looked up at him, she could’ve sworn that he was going to start to cry, too.
“Great,” she said. “Fantastic. You will make me instantly happy by trusting me. Just give me a few hours—get out of here, go take a shower at the hotel, then wait for me in the hotel lobby. I’ll be there as soon as I talk to Ted.”
He was already shaking his head, like he couldn’t even muster up enough faith and trust for a few short hours, when the elevator bonged.
And the doors opened.
“Tasha!”
It was Jeff Willems. He was alone in the large elevator but he burst out of it as if he’d been physically expelled.
“Jeff!” Tasha said. “Where did you come from?”
It was possible he didn’t hear her, he was vibrating on such a high frequency as he looked wildly up and down the corridor—from Thomas to Tasha and then to the guards at the end of the hall.
“Is that his room?” He looked bedraggled and rumpled—a far cry from his usual impeccably groomed self. Apparently he’d stolen one of the queen’s jets and piloted it back to the airfield near the ski lodge, all to create a diversion so Tedric could make the trip by car. Jeff had been arrested and spent at least part of the day in a local lockup. “Tasha, my God, they said Ted got shot, but no one would give me any details—just that he needed a CAT scan of his head before he gets an MRI. Was he shot in the head?”
He was so frantic, he was shaking.
“He’s fine,” she told Jeff, even as she pushed Thomas into the open elevator—even though he still hadn’t promised to wait for her at the hotel. “He was not shot in the head. Teddy didn’t even hit his head—the queen’s just being the queen and insisting the doctors give him every medical test available, out of an abundance of caution. His head is fine. Trust me, okay?”
Jeff nodded gratefully. At least someone trusted her. “But they said he was shot.”
“He was, in the leg. It’s not bad, but when he fell, he messed up his ankle. The MRI’s for that—they’re checking for torn ligaments. Really, though, he’s gonna be okay. We’ll help him with the PT—I promise, he’ll be back to hiking mountain trails in no time.”
Thomas was holding the elevator door open to keep it from leaving with him in it. Tasha could tell from the growing realization in his eyes that he was doing the why’s-this-guy-so-upset math and coming up with a very accurate Jeff plus Ted equaled Ted absolutely didn’t love Tasha the way Thomas thought he did.
“Tasha,” Thomas said.
“I can’t,” she told him curtly. “Not right now.” She gave her full attention back to Jeff. “That’s Teddy’s room, with the guards outside. Go in there, there’s a bathroom—wash your face and breathe. Andrea just told me that Ted’s coming back soon. He’s awake—that’s good—but he won’t be alone, and he’ll probably be loopy. So pull yourself together for him. Can you do that?”
Jeff nodded.
“Good,” she said. “Go.”
As he went, she finally turned back to Thomas. The elevator was starting to beep because he’d held the door open for too long.
She stepped forward, pushing him back and holding the door open with her hip as she reached in to jab the button for the main lobby, because that noise had to stop.
Of course, it didn’t. It wouldn’t until the doors shut.
“Tasha,” Thomas said again. “I didn’t know.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
“I’ll wait for you,” he said, “in the hotel lobby.”
“Wow,” Tasha said. “Now you’ll wait. Now that you don’t have to trust me. That’s just great. Good to know.” She glanced down the hallway, because she knew she had to be in the room before the hospital aides brought Ted back. “I gotta go make sure Jeff doesn’t... I gotta...” God, she was so frustrated, her tears were back. Damn it.
“Tash,” he said again, this time reaching out for her.
But she stopped him with an upheld hand. “Don’t even.”
He stepped back.
“Maybe you should just go with Dave and Rio,” Tasha told him. “All you had to do was trust me, all I wanted was a few hours. But you wouldn’t or you couldn’t—and I’m not sure which is worse. God, Thomas, I don’t know what this is between us, if it doesn’t include such a small, almost miniscule amount of trust. It’s definitely not what I thought it was, so... Yeah. Go back to California. I could use a little time—and space. Right now, my friends need me, and I’ve got to go.”
And with that she stepped back, and as the elevator doors slid toward each other, Thomas stood there looking back at her, his heart in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Me, too.” As the doors closed with a clunk, she turned away, heading back to Ted’s hospital room, brusquely brushing away her tears.
Chapter Thirty-One
Early Thursday
It was hours later, nearly two in the morning, before Andrea dropped Tasha off at the hotel.
It had been a long, long night, but she was still marveling ove
r the fact that, essentially, she’d nearly died because the internet thought she wasn’t skinny enough.
“You’re all checked in, room 508,” the queen’s assistant briskly said as she handed Tash the key card and three of the shopping bags. “That’s pajamas, fresh undergarments, an outfit for tomorrow. The room is equipped with toiletries, but if you need anything else, just give me a call—wait.” She dug into her handbag and pulled out a phone. “New phone—your old number. Your contacts have been uploaded. Don’t forget to set a passcode.”
“Thanks, Andrea.” Tasha got out of the car.
“Call me if you need anything,” the woman reiterated.
Tasha had to hit a buzzer to get the doors to open via the tired-looking person who stumbled out to the front desk. Andrea waited until she was safely inside before she drove off, heading back to the hospital, no doubt.
The hotel lobby was nice. It was decorated in clean lines and bold colors. At this time of night it was empty, save for the sagging front desk clerk.
And Thomas.
Her always-hopeful heart skipped a beat.
He’d been sitting near the entrance, clearly waiting for her, because he stood now as she came in.
He’d showered and changed. He was wearing a pair of nicely worn jeans and a Coronado T-shirt under a Patriots hoodie that he must’ve picked up at a gas station nearby.
She didn’t wait for him to start. She dove in, headfirst, herself. “I know you love me. You said you do, and I believe you, so what was that? I also know you hate hospitals, and maybe being there started you spinning, but on what planet do you think, after everything that happened, after everything I told you, after the way we made love, that I’d suddenly go Huh, looks like the prince is into me after all. Guess I’ll choose him instead of the man I’ve loved forever.”
Thomas had the good sense not to try to argue. He just nodded. “You’re right.”
“You didn’t trust me,” she continued. “I asked you to and you didn’t. Give me one good reason I should listen to anything you have to say.”
“Okay,” he said. “Okay. How’s... I believed you thought you were right about Ted. I didn’t doubt that for an instant, but I thought you were mistaken because I was projecting. I couldn’t believe that someone who knew you as well as Ted did wasn’t completely, head-over-heels in love with you. Like I am.”
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