Royal Line

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  “My team. I sent Sparrow and Olly to look at the site from last night. We don’t know who was shooting at you, but it looked like a professional job. So you’re not safe. We’re going to make sure you’re safe. I’m going to make sure you’re safe.”

  “Sure. While you do whatever it is you do, I need to contact my brothers.”

  “We will. But first, you’re going to give me your phone.”

  My gaze widened, tension crawling up my spine. “Okay, now this sounds like you’re taking it. Once you have it, what’s to stop you from just abducting me? You can’t have my phone. You can’t have anything. I’m going home.”

  Home, where apparently, I was supposed to marry a duke and have babies and never have a choice in my life.

  That option sounded better than being dead, sure, but there had to be a third option. One where I wasn’t in a room with a man who was prowling around me like a caged lion. One where I wasn’t hurt because I’d been shot at and run off the road.

  I scrambled off the bed, this time with Kannon letting me do so.

  “I need to call my brothers.”

  “We’ve got that handled. And I’m sorry, but you need to give me your phone.”

  I whirled on him. “Why? So you can call for ransom?”

  He gave me a beleaguered sigh. “No, so we can make sure that nobody can trace where you are.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I’ve been taking care of business like this for a long time. In cases like these, people like this, they don’t give up. They’ll be back. Which means they feel confident in their ability to find you again. And the easiest way to find someone is to track their phone.”

  “And I’ve dealt with security professionals before. For my entire life, actually. So no, I’m going to call my family, and they’re going to take care of me.”

  His sharp blue gaze narrowed. “You like that? People taking care of you?”

  “You’re trying to do the same thing to me!”

  “Maybe, but it’s my job.”

  “I didn’t hire you.” I was yelling now. I didn’t want to yell, but my panic was rising.

  “No, you didn’t. But me getting shot at? That kind of puts me on the job no matter what. And I’m more than a little pissed off that someone took shots at me. I’m not a fan of someone trying to take a piece out of my ass. Like it or not, I’m going to figure out who shot at you, and you’re just going to have to deal with it.” His voice rose to match mine.

  “Stop yelling at me!”

  “You’re yelling right back, princess.”

  “You don’t talk to me like that.”

  “What are you going to do about it, princess?”

  “I’m going to leave. I’ll take my chances. Worse comes to worst, I’ll go back to the airport and go home.”

  “If you do that, someone’s going to find you, and they’re going to shoot you. Just like they tried to last night.”

  “Don’t you try and scare me. I’m already there. It can’t get worse. What do I have to lose?”

  “I’m not trying to scare you, princess. I’m just telling you the truth.”

  “Stop calling me princess.”

  “It’s what you are. A precious little protected princess who’s never seen the real world. And suddenly someone’s shooting at you. I get it. It comes with the job. Well, my job is to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Now, give me your damn phone so I can make sure they can’t find you. And then we’re going to call your brothers and see what they want.”

  Un-fucking-believable. “And what about what I want?”

  “You want to stay alive? Then give me your phone.”

  He pushed to his feet and loomed over me. I could feel the waves of heat emanating from his body. What the hell? It was just the adrenaline spiking through me, the confusion of everything.

  I was not attracted to this man. He was a caveman. A bossy one at that.

  But someone had shot at me, and someone had known where I was and tried to kill me. He wasn’t wrong. You need to trust him.

  Bile filled my throat, my hands started to shake, and I cursed at myself. I was just hungry. It was just a blood sugar issue. That was it. I refused to let fear take over.

  Kannon gave me a pitying look, and I wanted to hit him again. I wanted to scream and to thrash and to just make everything go away. Because I didn’t have control here, and that was the one thing I’d strived for all of my life. The control to do something. But every time I turned around, someone kept stripping it away from me.

  “Let me help you with this, and we’ll get you home. Then you never have to see me again.”

  I didn’t really have any other choice. “Fine.”

  “You can relax. I’m not going to hurt you. Right now, I’m whoever you need me to be.” And with that line, he moved past me, riffled through my purse, and pulled out my phone. I wanted to throw something. I wanted to say something. But instead, I just stood there, my hands fisted at my sides, glaring at him.

  “You’re taking a lot of liberties.”

  “I’m trying to save your life.” He turned away to look down at his phone as if I hadn’t spoken. Jerk. “We’ll contact your brothers, and we’ll see what they say.”

  “And I don’t have a choice?”

  “When it comes to your safety? No, not really.”

  I hadn’t felt safe in a long while, and the last twenty-four hours were just one more step into that inevitable cage that was my royal throne.

  Chapter 6

  Kannon

  This is going to be a problem.

  Scratch that.

  She’s going to be a problem.

  * * *

  Walking away had been for the best, or I would have turned that princess over my knee.

  Fury surged through me, but I did my best not to pay attention to it as I looked down at London’s phone. Lock it down. Every emotion. Tuck it away.

  I was good at that. There was no need for me to let emotions influence what I needed to do. Alden’s Princess might not have hired me for this job, but I’d be damned if I let anyone else down on my watch.

  I knew she was scared. But she didn’t understand. If I wavered for even a moment, she could get hurt or worse.

  Memories of screams echoed in my head, a woman calling my name. I dug my hands into the sides of my head, trying to push those images and sounds out of my mind. There was no use dwelling on them.

  I wasn’t that person anymore.

  Also, fuck those memories.

  I needed to deal with the London situation, and then I’d be back to even. She was right; she wasn’t a client. I’d do the minimum to make her someone else’s problem and walk away. Get her to safety. That was all.

  I had Olly and Sparrow at my disposal. Olly was still dealing with scrubbing Lilith from any footage. You want to call Sparrow for what? To talk? Bullshit.

  She’d worry about me and wonder what the hell I was doing.

  Somehow, in a business where we were supposed to be about security and taking care of other people, I had a mother hen on my team. What was worse was if she sensed I was having any residual memories; she’d call the whole team back to Paris. And I didn’t need them all clucking.

  I groaned before I made my way back to the bedroom. Our bedroom.

  Fuck. Nope. Just the room that was available.

  It hadn’t even crossed my mind to put London in any other room but mine. It didn’t matter that I could have put her in Sparrow’s or found a way to keep her out of my bed. But as soon as she had winked at me the night before, if I was honest with myself, all I had wanted to do was make sure that she was in my sights at all times.

  The problem was, I liked her. She had a quick, sharp wit and she’d managed to make me laugh last night…before all the bullets.

  As if I had time for that kind of bullshit. She was in my bed, but I sure fucking wasn’t.

  There was no way I was going down that road.

  Sh
e was a princess, and I was just a guy who had shown up in the right place at the wrong time. I hadn’t even been hired to keep her safe, but I’d be damned if I let her get hurt. I’d get her pert little ass home, then I’d be done.

  Then deal with her.

  I knew that twisting feeling in my gut. The one that kept me in the suite’s living area… It was fear. I was losing my goddamn mind.

  Sac up. She’s a princess. She can’t hurt you.

  Lies. But still, I went back into the room and pierced her with a grim, determined expression. In response, she scowled back. She had her arms wrapped around her knees, and it looked like she was counting to herself, probably to hold back that temper. How often did she do that? I had to admit that I liked it when she spit fire though.

  Because even though I knew that she had that fear within her, she still had a temper on her and wasn’t afraid to match me. And if I was capable of caring about another human being like that, I probably would have thought it was hot.

  But no way.

  “Okay, we’re calling your brothers.” I held up the device I’d retrieved from the other room. “This device will scramble our location. But you still need to be brief. Do you understand?”

  She nodded enthusiastically and scrambled off the bed, and I reached out to steady her as she tilted to the side. I was worried about that. She should be steadier, shouldn’t she? Max was the one on my team with the real medical training, and I wondered if I should give him a call.

  She was warm to the touch, and she pulled away as if I had shocked her. And maybe I had. Perhaps it was just static electricity and not whatever the fuck else was going on between us.

  Because there sure as hell wasn’t anything going on between us.

  She let out a breath, probably annoyed with herself for moving too fast after getting hurt, but then she was all regal business again. “Is this phone safe? Because you seem to think mine isn’t.”

  “Your phone might be safe, but why risk it? Between using this sat phone and the IP relay, this should be safe.”

  She stared at me, unblinking, before shaking her head. “Whatever. I’m calling my brothers. We’re going to end this.”

  “Sounds like a plan, princess.”

  “Stop it,” she whispered while dialing numbers on the phone.

  I was surprised she knew any of their numbers. Most people these days didn’t know phone numbers off the top of their heads. But then I realized most royals knew to memorize specific numbers to get where they needed to go.

  I was surprised she hadn’t had a panic button on her.

  Maybe she had and just hadn’t pressed it.

  I didn’t know much about her, only what the tabloids told me and what little she’d told me about herself.

  I was intrigued by her. That fierce personality and the way she’d told me that she was a photojournalist with such passion and excitement. Maybe I could have believed it if I hadn’t seen her face on a tabloid in a supermarket stand.

  She was beauty personified, sex with curves and pouty lips.

  And I refused to even let my mind go further down that path.

  “Roman.”

  She only said her brother’s name, the King of Alden, before she held the phone back, a deep grumble of a voice shouting back at her.

  “Are you done?” she asked and then pulled the phone away again.

  I stalked over to her and tore the cell from her hand.

  She reached for it, but I held it up above her head. And when she jumped, pressing her body against mine, we both froze for a minute. And then she took a staggering step back. I ignored the ache, or whatever the hell I was feeling, and put the phone to my ear. “Stop yelling at your sister, or I’m going to hang up.”

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  “I’m the man who contacted you last night,” I said, and I could practically feel the daggers from London.

  “Kannon?” Roman asked, anger in his cultured voice.

  “That’s me. And here’s your sister back. We’re going to put you on speakerphone. Don’t fucking yell at her.”

  “I’m her king, you asshat.”

  “And I don’t give a flying fuck.” I put the phone on speaker and laid it on the bed between us.

  London just blinked at me before her cheeks went red and she picked up the phone. She didn’t, however, turn off the speaker.

  “You knew? They called you?”

  “Of course, they called me. You were run off the road? Jesus Christ, London. I’m sending men to you right now.”

  “The accident was just a one-off thing. And for all I know, the shooters who came later could have been after Kannon.”

  I didn’t know if she actually believed the lie or if she was just trying to make sure her brother didn’t worry.

  “They weren’t,” I said. I had already cleaned up the messes that would have come after me. There was enough blood on my hands that nobody needed to worry.

  “We already looked up Kannon Security. They’re likely who we would have called in that situation if we couldn’t bring our own people,” the king said, surprising me.

  Maybe I would like her brother. Not that it mattered.

  “I’m fine. I just don’t know why any of this happened.”

  “We’re going to figure it out,” Roman soothed. “But the reason you left is still an issue here. I’m working with the council, but I’m getting pushback. If you show up right now, it’s going to be an issue, and I’m not going to be able to get us out of it.” He paused, and I looked at London, wondering what the hell the king was talking about.

  “London, if you came home, I’d never force you into that situation, but it’s going to take away our options.”

  “What are you saying?” she asked, and I wanted to reach out. I wanted to tell her everything would be okay. Because I knew she was so damn strong, and yet she looked nothing of the sort standing there in front of me at the moment.

  “I’m saying I’ll send my people to get you if that’s what you want, but Wilder gives a thumbs-up on Kannon. He’s been vetting him while we’ve been talking. He’s good to protect you. As long as he watches his fucking tone.”

  I ground my teeth together, but I didn’t say anything. I did what I always did; I swallowed what I wanted to say for the greater good. Besides, me shouting just then would probably end up with my neck in a guillotine or some royal shit.

  “You can’t just hire random people. I’m fine. I just need to get to Rian.”

  “Do you honestly think going to your vapid actress friend can keep you safe? You’re going to put Rian in the middle of everything and endanger her. She’s likely to drag you to a party and expose you.”

  “First off, Rian is so much more than a ‘vapid actress’ as you called her. You know that. I don’t know what you have against her.” She held up a hand as I opened my mouth to say they were getting off the subject, but she shook her head. “That has nothing to do with this, other than you’re an asshole.”

  “I am, but that isn’t new.”

  “I don’t want to put her in danger, and I won’t. When she rescheduled her flight, she told me to head out to her place in the country. You remember she had a stalker five years ago? This house is where she hid out. It comes complete with a panic room.”

  As her brother railed about how he didn’t know the specs of said panic room, London bit her lip and started to pace the room, though the space wasn’t all that big for her to move around. Every time she went past me, her arm brushed against mine, and I bit back a groan.

  Focus, man. Lock it down.

  I did not want this need, this urge to put my hands on her and tell her everything was going to be okay. Besides, I knew better. I knew what happened when someone slipped by my carefully constructed defenses.

  And I wasn’t that man anymore. I was a liar. I had lied the last time I told someone everything would be fine and that we’d make it out alive.

  I had lied, and she had burned, taking every good p
art of me with her. I’d relearned those hard lessons. Focused on what I could control. On what was ahead of me. Emotion clouded the mind and ripped out the heart.

  I wouldn’t be that man again.

  “I need to be able to handle myself, Roman,” London said, and I could practically hear the plea in her voice. Maybe not to her brother but begging for herself.

  “I know that, London. But we both knew your freedom of movement was going to be a problem. Especially when it seems that someone wants to hurt you.”

  “It just doesn’t make any sense,” she whispered.

  “I know, but we’re going to find out who’s behind this. You know Breck and Wilder are already on it.”

  She ran her hands through her dark chocolatey hair. “Maybe it’s mistaken identity. That’s possible, right? I’ve done nothing to warrant someone trying to kill me. Fair enough if they wanted to kidnap and ransom me, but kill me? Who in the world hates me that much? It has to be some kind of mistake.”

  “I’m going to assume that anyone shooting at my baby sister wants to hurt her. Therefore, if I have to wrap you up in cotton wool and put thirty armed guards around you to protect you, that is what I’m going to do.”

  “Roman.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Just… Tell Aunt Rebecca and Kate that I’m okay. That they don’t have to worry about me. Lie if you have to, but they don’t need the stress.”

  “I can do that, but London? I’ve left you on your tether long enough, and now you’ve pulled too far. I’m going to officially hire Kannon Security to protect you until you can come back home. Listen to him. Do what he says. If you must go to Rian’s, then I want Kannon vetting that house. Stay safe.”

  “Roman,” she shouted, turning off the speaker and putting the phone to her ear before running to the bathroom to lock herself in for some semblance of privacy. She whispered so I couldn’t hear her, but I knew she was probably ripping her brother a new one.

  There was a knock on the door. I looked through the peephole and opened it a crack after seeing it was Sparrow.

  “Olly said we might have a job?” she asked.