by Kat Mizera
“Why?” I asked in confusion.
“Trust me.” He looked towards the front door and to my astonishment, King Erik came through it.
“Oh my god.” My mouth fell open. “You should have warned me! Look at me. I’m in jeans.” I let out a string of Limaji curse words under my breath.
“He didn’t want this to be a big deal,” Axel said softly, his hand at my back. “Trust me. Let’s go say hello.”
That’s when Mrs. Freela screamed and fainted again.
“She really has to stop this,” I muttered in irritation, hurrying in her direction.
My parents helped her into a chair and I dipped a cloth in cool water to press on her head. She did this at least once a month, but of course, the appearance of our king was something none of us had expected. He was fawning over her now, which was what she wanted, and I kept my distance because I was a little uncomfortable with the whole thing.
Looking around, in addition to the locals, there were half a dozen unfamiliar faces, which told me they were part of the Royal Protectors. Xander was gone, but Prince Sandor was still here, along with a brunette who looked pretty badass and a redhaired man with a military haircut.
“That’s Lennox over there,” Axel said under his breath. “She’s Sandor’s fiancée.”
“Oh, she looked familiar but I didn’t put two and two together.”
“And that’s Ace, another member of our team.”
“I can’t believe the king is here.”
“You want to meet him?”
“Later. Right now, I want this meeting to get started. Papa’s pacing like he’s expecting a baby and everyone gets up early here, so we need to do this.”
Axel made some kind of gesture to Sandor, who nodded and then let out a low whistle to get everyone’s attention. “I want to thank everyone for coming tonight. I’m Prince Sandor Gustaffson, and King Erik and I are here to listen to your grievances and figure out what we can do to make things better. Please, everyone take a seat.”
It took another few minutes, but finally everyone was seated and looking at King Erik expectantly.
“You all know who I am,” King Erik said, walking to the front of the room. “But I’d like to get to know you. Can we go around the room? Tell me your names, what type of business you own, and approximately how much the Brat have been taking from you.”
They spoke one by one, telling him who they were and what they did. The amount of money being extorted from these families was exorbitant and it made me so angry. Everyone was frustrated, and though they didn’t blame the king, he probably hadn’t had any idea how much they would count on him to fix things.
“Your Majesty, we understand you’ve inherited a mess,” the owner of the mill, Mattias Linblom, told him. “But this cannot continue. We won’t make it through another winter giving up twenty-five percent of our profits. And even if you eliminate them, we may not survive another winter anyway. The highways can’t withstand the snow, and once the blizzards come, no trucks can get in with supplies. We’re stranded usually from December through March and that’s too long.”
“So the highways need to be… What? Repaired? Expanded?”
“Both.”
“Can someone show one of my men exactly where the problems are? Where the pass is usually blocked?”
Mattias nodded. “Of course.”
“Unfortunately, we have a wedding next week, so it’ll be a couple of weeks before I can send a team here to protect you full-time but—”
“I’ll stay.” Axel spoke up. “It’s okay. I’ll keep an eye on things here.”
King Erik glanced at him. “We can discuss it. Thank you.” He turned to the townspeople. “Is there anything else? Other issues?”
“The schools.” Mama joined the conversation. “We need teachers, supplies, money for heat in the winter.”
“We’ll make sure it’s on the list, and once the wedding is over, I’ll send a team to handle everything.”
People lingered to talk to the king, as if his presence brought them a kind of comfort. Even my parents seemed caught up in his aura, the idea of being so close to royalty. Prince Sandor was holding court on another side of the room and I started cleaning up, throwing out cups and napkins, putting away the cream and sugar, and wrapping up what was left of the pastries everyone had brought.
“Don’t you want to meet the king?” Axel asked me, carrying in a garbage bag.
“I suppose.” I shrugged. “Everyone else seems to be enjoying meeting him so much, I don’t want to take that time away from them.”
“Do you always put everyone else’s needs before your own?” Axel asked, putting down the bag of garbage.
“Usually.” I closed the cabinet and turned to him. “There’s no point in being selfish. Most people here have nothing, so little pleasure in their lives, something like this is such a big deal. I’m happy to have the power to do something for them.”
“Who does nice things for you?” He moved closer to me, his dark eyes boring into mine.
“I, er…” I didn’t understand why I was so tongue-tied with him this close to me, but I couldn’t seem to think of a single thing to say.
“Axel.” Sandor came into the room and Axel turned quickly.
“Yeah?”
“Erik wants to meet Solange.”
“Come on.” Axel took my arm. “Don’t worry. He’s really great. And no, you don’t have to curtsey or anything.”
I followed them back into the dining room nervously, noting that everyone had left except my parents and the king’s guards.
“Solange, this is King Erik.” Sandor drew me forward, as if he knew how nervous I was.
“It’s great to meet you.” Erik shook my hand and smiled.
“It’s an honor, Your Majesty.” Sweet Jesus, he was even better looking in person than on television and his eyes were as green as emeralds. I wanted to stare at them but managed to keep my face neutral.
“The honor is mine,” he said. “Though I’m sorry for what your family has gone through, I’m glad it brought some of the issues plaguing your area to my attention and afforded me the opportunity to meet your family and neighbors.”
“I’m grateful Axel was able to come and save us last night. I don’t think we would be here now if he hadn’t.”
“I plan to eliminate that threat,” he said firmly.
“Thank you.”
“I’ve contacted a distributor in Hiskale and will have a shipment of everything you lost to the Brat delivered next week. I’ve also arranged to have new windows installed, the door replaced, and then Axel is going to put in a top-of-the-line security system.”
“That’s very generous,” I told him. “But a security system is only useful if someone comes when you call. The police here are more afraid of the Brat than we are.”
“Sandor is going to pay them a visit in the morning, before he heads back to Hiskale. But we’re going to take care of this. I give you my word.”
I wanted to believe him, but in my experience, nothing was ever that easy. More than likely, things were going to get worse and I was going to be smack in the middle of it.
6
Axel
“Axel, you can sleep in Kostya’s room again,” Nadia said once everyone else had left. Sandor was sleeping in Kostya’s hospital room and Xander hadn’t come back from Braksa, so I was the only one who needed a place to stay.
“Thank you,” I told Nadia. “I appreciate it.”
“Well, good night.” Nadia and Samuel made their way to the stairs and I watched Solange puttering around, wiping down counters that had already been cleaned.
“You okay?” I asked her. “Those counters are pretty clean.”
“I’m not even a little bit tired, so there’s no way I could sleep.”
“You want to go for a walk? Burn off a little energy?”
“Sure.” She wiped her hands and grabbed her purse, slinging it over her shoulder.
“What do you guys do here at ni
ght? Are there any bars? Nightclubs? Anything to do?”
“There’s nothing like that. We have to travel to Ferdinbrag if we want any kind of entertainment like a bar or club or movies.”
“That’s what? An hour?”
She nodded. “Mama and I usually go twice a year. Once in spring and once in fall, before the weather gets too bad. We stock up on things we need that we can’t get here, things that might help us get through the winter.”
We walked down the dark, quiet main street and I noted how deserted it was.
“Life here is pretty hard, huh?” I said, walking along beside her.
“Life here is…difficult,” she whispered, staring down the street at nothing.
“So what do young people do?”
“They drink and have sex.”
Well, that sounded like a lot of small U.S. towns too. “All of them?”
“Some finish school and join the military or move to bigger cities.”
“Has the population been dwindling?”
“Not really. Everyone who stays has a lot of children and many come back with wives from the cities, because this is a nice, safe place to raise a family. Or it used to be. The Brat has only been a threat the last few years. Before that, it was boring, but safe and quiet.”
“What would you have done if you’d had options?” I asked curiously.
“Gone to university,” she said with a faint smile. “Backpacked through Europe. Lost my virginity in Paris, preferably beneath the Eiffel Tower.” She giggled and it was the sweetest sound I’d heard in a long time.
“You haven’t been saving your virginity for that, have you?” I asked with a laugh.
She turned to me with an impish smile. “Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t.”
I nearly stumbled in surprise; she had to be fucking with me. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.” She gave me a little grin. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-five.”
“Still holding on to your virginity?”
I snorted out a laugh. “Not hardly, no.”
“But have you had sex in Paris?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Not under the Eiffel Tower, but yes, I have. What made you ask that?”
“When I was so upset last night, you whispered to me in French. Are you French?”
“I’m American, Texas-born, but my mother was French.”
“Was?”
“She passed away about five years ago. Cancer.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks.” I hadn’t talked about my mother in a long time. Hell, I didn’t even remember speaking French to Solange.
“Is your father American?”
“Yes. He was military and stationed in Germany. He met my mom while she was there on vacation. They got married a week later and were together for thirty-five years before she died.”
“That’s lovely. Is your father remarried?”
“He is. It’s been about a year and I’ve only met her once, at the wedding. He’s lonely. I get it. My sister says she’s not bad, and I’m too far away to worry about it.”
“You don’t see your family often?”
“I talk to my sister every week or so. My niece and nephew are five and seven, and they’re pretty cute. My sister and her husband and the kids might come for a visit in August.”
“What’s her name?”
“My sister? Alicia.”
“That’s pretty.” She paused. “So you’re close.”
“We are. I mean, we’re both busy, and the time difference is a bitch, but I do my best to catch up with her on Sunday nights.”
“Kostya and I are close as well. He’s younger than me, three years, but we share a lot. He had a girlfriend for four years and her family moved to Hiskale last year. He’s been angry at the world ever since. He wanted to go. Her father said he could, that he would give him a job, but my parents guilted him into staying. Without us, the café would go under.”
“That’s a hell of a burden for parents to put on their kids.”
“It is, but I understand. The café has been in our family for a hundred years. That’s one of many reason my parents are reluctant to start over in a bigger city, so what choices are there?”
“But that’s their choice, not yours.”
“In theory, that’s correct, but in practice, do you abandon your parents to what would be almost certain death? They’d never survive the winter without us, especially now that they’re older.”
“So that’s it? You give up your life so they can live out the rest of theirs the way they want?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But for now, this is the situation.”
“Well, I hope my presence here helps make your life a little easier.”
“It already has.” She reached out and took my arm in a somewhat old-fashioned but endearing move.
When was the last time a woman had taken my arm like this? I had no idea, but I liked it. Hell, I liked her. She was more than a decade younger than me and probably a lot more sheltered, but she was hard-working and sexy and made me smile. Not to mention gorgeous. I had the strangest urge to hold her hand, but this was okay too, so I bent my elbow and enjoyed the moment. It had been a long time since I’d been out with a woman.
Technically, this wasn’t a date, but it was close. As close as I’d get these days. It wasn’t like I had the time or opportunity with my job. I worked seven days a week, and after my screwup with Elen, I’d been taking all the shitty busywork none of the other guys wanted. And even if that hadn’t been the case, where would I find a beautiful woman I was attracted to? There were a few cute ladies that worked at the palace, but most of them were too young. Natalia was in training to be a Royal-Protector and while I thought she was attractive enough, there was no chemistry.
It was a whole different thing with Solange. I couldn’t quite figure it out but something about her had hit me right between the eyes. Now the question was what to do about it. Solange wasn’t the one-night-stand type, not after what she’d been through, which meant I had to be cautious. I probably wouldn’t be here in Vinake more than a week or so, because I’d be needed at the wedding. And according to Solange, she wasn’t going anywhere. Which meant this was dead before it even started.
“This is where teenagers come to hang out,” she said, pointing across the street. “That building used to be some sort of community center and the city stopped keeping it up years ago. But the inside is pretty and you can sneak in through a broken door around back. It’s nearly empty so they bring blankets, alcohol, whatever. If the adults know what’s going on, they don’t care because they’ve never actively tried to catch anyone.”
“Did you used to go too?”
“Used to?” Her eyes widened playfully. “I was just there last night. This morning as well.”
I chuckled and she did too.
“Do you hear that?” I asked suddenly, looking around.
“Trucks,” she said softly. “We never have trucks in town this late at night.”
“They’ve sent reinforcements,” I said abruptly, yanking my phone out of my pocket. I hit speed dial for Sandor, speaking the moment he answered. “We have trouble. How quick can you get back to the café?”
“If I leave, Kostya is vulnerable.”
I was already jogging back towards the café. I stayed on the line with Sandor but turned to Solange. “Is there a back way? It’s better if they don’t see me coming.”
“Follow me.” She ducked down a side street and we went down several alleys before coming out alongside the café.
“What do you see?” Sandor was asking me.
“Two big black SUVs. Turkish plates. They’ve already gone inside. Sounds like they’re busting up the place again. I don’t know how many there are, and now that they know my skill set, they probably sent guys better equipped to handle me.”
“Looks like trouble on this end, too. Call Xander.” He disconnected and I let out a curse o
f frustration. I had to make sure Solange was safe before I did anything else.
“Is there somewhere you can hide?” I asked. “I can’t help your parents if I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “Go help them. I have many places to hide.”
“Be careful, Solange. These men are dangerous.”
“You be careful too.” She leaned up and softly pressed her lips to mine.
7
Solange
I’d cowered in a closet just last night, terrified enough to call a man I’d only met once, for a few hours. It had turned out to be a good thing, but there had been an element of despair before, as if I hadn’t truly had anything to lose beyond my family. For some reason, that wasn’t the case anymore. Meeting Axel, Prince Sandor, and King Erik had shown me that there was actually hope. Maybe not for me, the way there was for others in our country, but they’d shown me that there might be better days ahead.
I didn’t want to be afraid anymore, but this time it wasn’t just my family I was afraid for. If something happened to Axel, after all he’d done for us, I didn’t know what I’d do. Running and hiding in another metaphorical closet didn’t feel right, but I wasn’t a hero either.
Instead, I ran down the street to a place I knew well. I had friends in town and two of Kostya’s buddies lived in an apartment above Mrs. Freela’s bakery. They helped out at the bakery in exchange for a place to live, and they’d help me now because I asked them to. At least I hoped so.
I went up the back stairs and knocked on the door. I knew they were up because I heard music playing, but when they didn’t answer right away, I banged again, this time with my fist.
“What’s wrong with you?” Felix demanded, opening the door in nothing but his boxers.
“Put on your pants,” I told him. “I need your help at the café. There’s trouble.”
“Those thugs from the Brat are back?” He made a face. “No, thanks. I’m going back to bed.” He started to close the door but I put my foot in the way to stop it from closing.
“Don’t piss me off. Kostya’s in the hospital and Axel can’t handle it alone.”
