by Katee Robert
“Nothing,” he replied smoothly. “I was just congratulating Noemi on her new position.”
“Really? Because it sure as fuck looks like you’re planning on doing a lot more than congratulating her.”
Noemi held up her hands. “Consort, I can explain—”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Meg made a slashing motion and turned on him, hazel eyes blazing. “I put up with so much, Theo. So. Fucking. Much. And this is how you repay me?” She shook her head, looking sick to her stomach. “No. Hell no. I didn’t sign up for this—for any of it. I’m out.”
It took everything he had not to reach for her. Theo affected a bored look. “That’s your call, Consort. No one is forcing you to stay.”
“Yeah, I got that. Loud and clear.” Her bottom lip quivered and she spun on her heel. Every eye in the room watched her disappear out the door, slamming it behind her hard enough to shake the walls.
Noemi made a move to go after her, but he caught her arm. “No.”
“No? Are you out of your goddamn mind? She’s your Consort,” Noemi hissed, so low there was no way the words would carry. “You let her believe a lie.”
He matched her volume and lowered his head, giving the impression of an intimate conversation. “Leave it alone, Noemi. I have it under control.”
Understanding dawned and her lips parted in shock. “You… I’m going to kick your ass to Istanbul and back when this is all over.”
“When this is over, you’ll have permission.” He glanced over his shoulder to find Galen lounging in the chair Meg had abandoned. He’d poured himself a tumbler of bourbon and stared idly into the fire as if he wasn’t fighting against the same need to chase down Meg now coursing through Theo’s blood.
Lord Bakaj sent the door a significant look. “Do you need a moment?”
No going back now.
He smiled. “Not at all. Shall we move on to the throne room?”
Meg couldn’t draw a full breath. She marched down the halls, not sure if anyone was watching her, but not willing to let her facade of anger wilt just in case. And, if she was perfectly honest, she was angry.
Theo and Noemi simply weren’t the source.
How dare they make us jump through these hoops? We should be ironing out our life behind the scenes and moving forward into the future I can actually see, but instead we’re playing games hoping to tempt someone into trying to murder me again.
Isaac Kozlov had an entire team of people watching her every move right now. There were cameras in most halls and rooms in the palace, so as long as she stayed out of the Families’ wing, everything should be fine. Even if somehow she ended up there—not a choice she’d make lightly—they would know where she’d gone and react accordingly.
She just had to…
Footsteps echoed through the halls, mirroring her. Meg stopped short, but the sound didn’t cease. She turned to find Alys hurrying toward her, trusty tablet in hand. The woman looked as exhausted as Meg felt, circles creating dark smudges beneath her eyes and her hair rumpled, rather than in its customary sleek ponytail. Even her clothes were slightly out of whack, her skirt wrinkled and her shirt buttoned up incorrectly.
Meg couldn’t help wondering how much of her going MIA had to do with Alys unraveling before her eyes. The woman had her schedule and her routine, and Meg had blown it all to hell half a dozen times in the last week. It was no wonder she looked like a woman teetering on the edge.
Alys bobbed a little bow when she got close. “Consort.”
“What can I do for you, Alys?”
“You shouldn’t be out in the hallways alone, Consort. With the attacker still at large, it’s important that you’re with someone at all times.”
She opened her mouth to inform Alys that she was fine, but Meg hesitated. “I’m just heading to get some coffee and then back to our private suites. The king and I had words, and I won’t be attending the ceremony for Lady Huxley.”
Now it was Alys’s turn to hesitate. She clutched her tablet to her chest. “Is everything okay?”
Telling the truth wasn’t an option. Theo had only brought in the select few people he trusted beyond a shadow of a doubt, and Alys didn’t number among them. Meg liked the woman well enough, but that didn’t mean anything in grand scheme of things.
She gave a shrug. “I don’t know. I think he’s going to replace me.”
Did she imagine the sharpening interest in Alys’s eyes?
She couldn’t be sure.
The woman reached out and gave Meg’s shoulder an awkward pat. “I’m sorry. He’s always been changeable. You couldn’t have known it wouldn’t last.” The movement dislodged her locket, and the silver necklace tumbled to the ground. “Oh, dear, the clasp has broken.”
“I’ve got it.” It was the least she could do. Meg bent over and scooped it up. The second her hand closed around the locket, she flinched. “Ouch. I think it might be broken. It pinched me.”
“I’ve been meaning to get it fixed.” Alys took the necklace back and slipped it into her pocket. “Thank you, Consort.”
A wave of dizziness rolled through Meg. She swayed on her feet and pressed a hand to her forehead. “I… What?” Focus. You have to focus. But someone had switched out the solid floor beneath her feet for a ship on stormy seas. She reached for the wall to steady herself, and nearly fell when it was farther away than anticipated.
“Consort?”
“I’m fine.” She most definitely wasn’t fine. Another wave rolled through her, strong enough to make black dots dance across her vision. Oh god, I’m going to pass out.
“Consort?” And then Alys was there, slipping beneath her arm and hoisting her away from the wall. For such a small woman, she held surprising strength.
Meg tried to move with her, to stay on her feet, but she lost her heels within seconds and then faced the impossible task of navigating her gown. “Get Galen.”
“I’m sorry, Consort. I truly am.” Before she could process that, Alys turned them toward the private suites. “We’ll get you shaped up in no time.”
Had she misread the regret in the other woman’s voice? She didn’t think so but… Nothing made sense right now. Meg tried to dig in her heels, to slow their forward motion, but the move made her palm twinge.
The same spot where the locket pinched her.
“You…” It took her three tries to put her words in some semblance of order. “You drugged me.”
“A necessary evil, I’m afraid.”
Meg tried to look up at the cameras stationed along the ceiling, but she couldn’t do more than loll her head. “Help.” The word emerged as a rasp, barely above a whisper.
“It won’t make a difference. Right now, there’s is a car crashing through the front gates of the palace and the security team is so distracted with that, they won’t have noticed that the camera feed glitched the tiniest bit before starting a loop.” Gone was the hesitant woman who hid behind her tablet and other people’s schedules. The Alys holding her upright was as cold and impenetrable as an ice wall. A stranger.
An enemy.
Meg lot her ability to speak. Time fluctuated in time with her frantically beating heart, compressing when she most needed it to expand. Between one blink and the next, they’d left the halls of the palace behind and approached a set of doors Meg had never seen before.
Alys shouldered through, dragging Meg behind her. It spit them out into a secondary hall, which led to a loading dock. Meg let her weight go completely limp, though she couldn’t say for certain if she’d done it intentionally or if the drug had finally taken her strength to walk along with her voice to cry for help.
If she thought that would slow Alys down, she was sorely mistaken. The woman barely paused long enough to haul her into a fireman’s carry and then she kept going, hurrying to a car that had pulled up just out of the reach of the lights in the area.
One of the back doors opened and a large man emerged. For one breathless moment, relief nearly made Meg
sick to her stomach.
Galen came. He’s here. I’m safe.
But then the details hit her. His three-piece suit that he wore like a second skin. His jaw too refined. Silver at his temples.
Not Galen.
“Good evening, Consort.” He smiled as Alys dumped her at his feet. “Allow me to introduce myself.” He crouched down until he was at the same level where Meg sat, swaying place. “I’m Dorian Mikos, and I think you’ll find we have a significant amount of things to discuss.”
15
There was no sign of Meg as Galen followed the group of nobles down the hall to the throne room, but he hadn’t really expected it. He slowed his pace, idly walking along and flipping through his phone as if he couldn’t care less about the goings-on of this event.
It was the truth, albeit for different reasons than most of the attending people would expect.
None of them peeled off to follow Meg, but Galen hadn’t really expected them to. In such a small gathering, a Head of Family or an heir coming up missing would be a giant smoking gun. He might not have a high opinion of nobles, but none of them were stupid enough to try something tonight.
No, they’d wait until they felt Theo’s attention lay elsewhere, and then they’d move.
It meant keeping up the appearances of a fight for a while, maybe even for setting Meg up in different rooms, but they’d handle that as things fell out. In the meantime, Kozlov was interrogating Huxley, and his people were keeping an eye on Meg.
Galen’s phone buzzed, and he stopped short. There wasn’t a single goddamn reason for Kozlov to be calling him right now. He waited a few seconds, letting the group of nobles slip farther away, and then answered. “Yeah?”
“We have a problem.”
Adrenaline kicked him in the stomach, but he forced himself to hold still, to not jump to conclusions. Kozlov was the head of security. A problem could be anything. It didn’t have to mean Meg.
Yeah, he didn’t believe that shit for a minute. “Tell me.”
“I just got a call. Some asshole decided to ram the front gates. My men took care of him, but they didn’t realize someone had slipped in a back door to the security system.”
“What? That’s not supposed to be possible.”
“No shit. I don’t know how they did it, but the fact remains that they did do it. I’m headed there now to ensure we shut them out. Do you know where the other Consort is?”
Galen’s stomach dropped. “What the fuck do you mean, do I know where she is? You know the plan. Your people were supposed to be watching her.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He moved away from the phone, but his voice still came through the line clearly. “Find the Consort. Find her right fucking now and escort her back to the private suites, and get a goddamn detail on her.” And then he was back. “Where are you? I’m coming.”
Galen’s thoughts went terrifyingly blank. They hadn’t been lax in security tonight. It was the one night they could have extra people involved without raising any eyebrows since every single Head of Family was here. There should have been no damn way for Meg to disappear. He looked around. The group of nobles following Theo had turned the corner, but he could still hear them talking softly as they headed for the throne room. Meg had barely left ten minutes ago. She couldn’t have gotten far. “No, fuck that. Go to the security hub and get our eyes up and going again. We can’t find anyone if we can’t see them. I’ll start searching.”
“Yes, sir. Keep your phone on you.”
“Find her, Kozlov.” He hung up and sprinted after the nobles. A breach in decorum, but Galen didn’t give a fuck. Every instinct he had screamed that something had gone wrong, that they’d been outmaneuvered. That Meg was in danger and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it. He bypassed the group easily and caught Theo’s arm. “It’s Meg.”
Theo took him in between one breath and the next. His blue eyes went wide and he turned to the people behind him. “I’m sorry, but there’s an emergency. We’re going to have to reschedule.”
Several people in the back of the group muttered, but Noemi stepped forward before anyone could really start shit. “Of course. Is there anything we can do to help?”
“Go back to your suites. There will be activity in the halls and the fewer people out, the better,” Galen said.
More grumbling, but Noemi nodded. “I think it’s time for a nightcap. Shall we?” She moved quickly, guiding the nobles away without seeming to herd them. A dangerous woman, to be sure, but she was in their corner so he had to be satisfied with that.
Theo barely waited for them to disappear to turn on Galen. “Tell me.”
“Someone hacked the security cameras and set up a distraction so the team wouldn’t realize they’d been put on a loop. We don’t know where Meg is.” Saying the words aloud made the whole situation that much realer. Meg was gone. Kozlov might not be sure of that fact, but Galen knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. If he was more into woo-woo shit, he’d say the palace felt different without her in it, but that was impossible.
Her disappearing so quickly should have been impossible, too.
Theo closed his eyes and took a slow breath. “We’re sure she didn’t make it back to the suite?”
“Kozlov had a team check, but it was empty.” Galen paced a tight circle. “They wouldn’t have taken her through the front or out the side entrance. Too many people, even at this time of night. The risk of being seen would be too high.”
Theo snapped his fingers. “The loading dock.”
The only time anyone used that entrance was when they had shipments come in—or the staff snuck off for smoke breaks. Easy enough to time it right, a car driving up, someone ducking out, and then they’d be gone. Plus, it was actually the closest to their current position if a person went through the interior staff halls. Galen nodded. “Let’s go.”
They took off at a run.
Galen fished his phone from his pocket and dialed Kozlov. “Have your men checked the loading dock?”
“No. They were checking the most logical places and it didn’t make the list.” Kozlov cursed under his breath. “I’m working on getting the system purged now. I’ll send some guys your way.”
“Good.” Galen hung up. He picked up his pace, edging out ahead of Theo. If they hit a dangerous situation, better for him to be the first one through the door.
“I didn’t expect them to hit tonight.” Despite nearly all-out sprinting, Theo was barely out of breath. But he had a wild look in his blue eyes that was twin to the panic pressing hard against Galen’s chest.
“Neither did I.” He shoved open the door to the kitchen and bolted through. “We fucked up.”
Fewer than three minutes later, they hit the exterior door to the loading dock. Galen threw out a hand and stopped Theo short. “We go through slowly.” Kozlov’s men would be there at any minute, but charging into an unknown situation was a good way to get shot. It shouldn’t have been a risk on palace grounds, but someone shouldn’t have been able to snatch Meg and walk out, either.
They might not have proof that that’s exactly what happened, but Galen knew it to be true.
Just like he knew that this situation had his old man’s fingerprints all over it.
He edged through the door and then motioned Theo to follow. Even though part of him had hoped for different, they found the loading dock eerily empty. Theo cursed long and hard. “She’s gone.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“She’s gone, Galen. You know it, and I know it. Just like I know it’s our fault.”
A glint of metal against concrete caught his eye. He picked up one of the silver earnings Meg had worn earlier in the night. “We know she came this way.” He was no tracker, but he still scoured the area, looking for signs.
Theo had his phone out. “Isaac? We know this is the way they got her out. Check the traffic cameras and see if you can narrow down the vehicle and a direction.” He hung up.
Galen pocke
ted the earring. “It will take time for Kozlov to narrow down the results into something we can use.”
“I know.”
“You can’t honestly expect us to sit on our hands in the meantime.”
“I don’t expect anything of the sort.” Theo smoothed back his hair and straightened his tux jacket. “We’re going to interrogate the nobles.”
Fear morphed into fury with every step Theo took toward the room where the nobles had gathered for the second time that night. Whether or not the responsible party lay within the palace walls, they were all partially responsible for this nightmare.
So was he.
He stopped outside the door and turned to Galen. “Go to Kozlov and oversee things there. I’ll call you when I’m done.”
Galen’s dark eye flicked to the door and back to Theo. “You sure you want to face them alone?”
“I have it handled.” The worst had already come to pass. His actions, his place in the world, had put someone he loved directly in the line of danger. If they didn’t move quickly… But no, that line of thought only ended in madness. He had to believe they’d recover Meg, had to believe that no permanent harm would be done to her, had to believe that they’d get through this just like they’d gotten through every other challenge up to this point. To do anything else would leave him on his knees and utterly useless.
Galen pulled him into a rough hug. “We’ll get her back.”
“I know.” No time for doubt now. They had to move. “Go. I have this handled.”
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.” He stood there and watched Galen walk away and allowed himself three beats of despair.
One. Meg was in danger.
Two. She might be hurting and scared.
Three. If they didn’t pull this off, they might never see her again.
Fear washed over him in a crippling wave and he closed his eyes and embraced it. Three. Two. One. Theo opened his eyes and shoved every single feeling into a little box inside him. Deeper and deeper, until cold logic encased every part of him. He couldn’t hold this distance indefinitely, but he could manage for the time required to accomplish this particular goal.
