Five Masks of Sin

by Kelli Callahan

  “I heard one of the police offers talking over near the door.” Lenny motioned with his head. “They’re planning a rescue mission when they find out where he’s being held.”

  “The news isn’t even mentioning Lyric anymore. It’s all about Prince fucking Harland.” Simon sighed angrily.

  “Yeah.” Lenny nodded.

  “This will be an international disaster.” I looked around the group. “A Southern Isles prince kidnapped on American soil by a group of terrorists? They’ll do anything to secure his release, but I don’t think they’ll give two shits about Lyric.”

  “Fuck!” Dane balled up his fists. “What can we do? We have to do something. Wait... I know someone.”

  “You do?” I blinked in surprise.

  “Yeah. Hold on. I need to call my father.” He closed his eyes and I saw tears forming in the corners. “Let’s find a quiet spot.”

  We really didn’t know much about Dane. Based on the conversation we overheard, it sounded like his father was extremely unhappy to hear from him. I heard something about safety and ruining everything through screams on the other end of the phone, but his father settled down and they started talking. He mentioned something about a hacker, a woman named Violet, and some other stuff I didn’t completely understand, but when he hung up the phone, I felt like there was more to him than any of us realized.

  “Okay.” He exhaled sharply. “Look, I’m putting a lot on the line here. I know her life is in danger, but that call could very well send me to prison for the rest of my life.”

  “Holy fuck.” Lenny stared at him. “What the fuck did you do?”

  “Nothing, but it’s about what people believe I did. I met a hacker once. She gave me a new identity. If there’s anyone that can get inside a computer and figure out what is going on, it’s her.” Dane sighed. “I’m no expert, but she seemed to know her shit.”

  I don’t have time to figure out what name I should be calling Xavier-Dane now; we’ll figure that out later. Right now we just have to save Lyric.

  Chapter 16: Lyric

  I blinked until I could see when I regained consciousness. I was in a room that had metal on all sides. The metal looked to be new. It even smelled new. I was laying on a small cot and across from me was an empty one. I was naked except for a thin sheet that I recognized as the one I wrapped around myself at the hotel. I tried to sit up and I felt a weight around my ankle. I looked down to see a chain that had the same new reflection as the room I was in. I reached down and tugged on it, finding that it was connected to the floor. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that it was attached to a metal plate that was bolted to the floor. The floor was made of the same metal as the room. I put my head in my hands because the world was spinning, but after a couple of seconds, I realized the room wasn’t spinning, it was just rocking back and forth like it was suspended from something.

  Where the hell am I?

  I searched my thoughts. I remembered meeting Harland the night before. I remembered being in his suite. I even remembered the morning and the explosion. Fog had stung my eyes and made me choke. It must have been tear gas. The men that took us called Harland a prince, so they must have been after him. It was unlikely that I was important enough for such a dramatic kidnapping. It definitely wasn’t how my fantasy about Prince Harland unfolded in my diary. In my dreams, we woke up the next morning to begin a beautiful life with a happily ever after that Disney would have been proud of. I certainly didn’t wake up chained to the floor. I heard voices and then footsteps. The doors opened and two men walked in. They were dragging Harland’s unconscious body with hands under each of his arms.

  “Who are you? Why are you doing this to us?” I sat up straight, feeling the hairs on my neck begin to rise.

  “Shut up bitch, this ain’t about you.” I heard a gruff voice and then a hand was coming at my face. “One more sound and you’ll wish the only thing you had to look forward to was being shark food.”

  It wasn’t enough to knock me unconscious, but when the back of the man’s knuckle collided with my cheekbone, I tasted blood in my mouth. I spun and hit my head on the metal wall behind my bed. I was stunned for a second and my head started to ache. I turned back towards them and they were walking to the door. Harland was swearing nothing but a pair of black pants and he was bleeding. His nose looked to be broken, his gorgeous face had been gashed and pummeled. A few of his teeth appeared to be shattered and one was jammed into his bottom lip. He groaned and I knew he was alive, but I wasn’t sure how bad his injuries were. His upper torso was battered and the skin was broken in several places.

  “Harland! Harland, can you hear me?” I spoke in a whisper, hoping that wasn’t enough to upset the men that entered the room.

  “Prin-princess?” His eyes opened slowly.

  “It’s Lyric. I’m the girl you were with last night.” I whispered a little louder.

  “Lyric...” His head nodded slightly and when his eyes opened, the glazed over look suggested he had a concussion.

  Harland was in and out of consciousness for several hours. I couldn’t do anything to help him. The metal chain was long enough for me to reach the middle of the room, but that was as far as I could go. I could have touched Harland if he met me in the middle, but he didn’t seem to be moving. There was a noise—the sound of metal scraping on metal, and then I saw a beam of light in the shape of a square at the bottom of the door. A plate was pushed in with a metal jug of water and a few morsels of food that I didn’t recognize by feel or smell. I pulled them near me and dipped my hand into the water. I spent several minutes flicking water at Harland, finally seeing movement. His eyes opened and he leaned forward with a loud groan. I pushed the food and water towards him, hoping it would entice him more than it did me.

  “Lyric.” He repeated my name, but he had more strength behind his words. “I’m sorry you got mixed up in this.”

  “Mixed up in what, exactly?” I leaned forward on the edge of the bed.

  “Hold on...” He sat up, groaning as each inch of his abdomen bent forward. “I need water.”

  “Here.” I moved to the middle of the room and pushed it closer.

  “Thank you.” He drank from the jug and then put it back down on the tray.

  “What the hell is going on, Harland?” I exhaled sharply, still whispering my words.

  “It’s my fucking brother.” Harland grimaced as he spoke. “The fucking asshole kidnapped me and is going to kill me when he’s tired of beating me for his amusement.”

  “Your brother? Prince Rohr? Why would he do this?” My eyes opened wide with confusion.

  Harland’s words were slow, but he managed to tell me everything. He told me about Princess Aria and how his brother took her from him, thanks to his father. He talked about the history of the Southern Isles, things that I had never read in a book. He left the Southern Isles in search of a woman to marry, a woman that would eventually sit on the throne beside him as queen if he successfully challenged his brother to Mortem Coronam. Death for the crown, crown or death. It was an ancient right of any male son, originally instituted to ensure that only the strongest son ruled when the father was gone. That was important in ancient times when a weak king would have brought down their empire.

  “You would really fight your brother to the death?” I gasped in shock, bringing my weary hand to my lips.

  “My brother is just like my father. The Southern Isles needs to change.” His words were still weak, but he seemed to be gaining strength as he nibbled on a piece of food.

  “It still seems a bit... drastic.” I blinked, trying to process the idea of two people fighting to the death over a throne.

  “My brother has the chance to abdicate the throne once he’s challenged. He doesn’t have to actually fight me. Our kingdom is nothing more than a tourist attraction now, and that is the majority of our economy, yet my father treats his court like it is the Middle Ages. He’s allowed my brother to take so many wives that our family is a disgrace in
the eyes of the world.” He coughed and sipped the water again.

  “Yeah, I stopped watching after the third or fourth royal wedding.” I nodded and exhaled sharply. “I would have watched yours, though.”

  “If my brother takes the throne, it’ll just set things back even further than they are now. I’ve heard the whispers. He’s secretly talking about legalizing prostitution, buying girls on the black market to sell them off at a premium, and he doesn’t even care about their age. I’ve always known I would have to challenge him for the throne at some point, but I didn’t mean to actually say it out loud until I was married.” He sighed and groaned. “I let my emotions reveal my intentions too early, and this is the result. I should have built an army first. There are those that are loyal to me and they would have fought for our kingdom, even if it resulted in civil war.”

  “Fuck...” I shook my head back and forth. “I never realized there was so much drama in a royal court these days. Surely the government would step in. I mean, your family is in charge of a few islands off the coast of New Zealand. You’re technically under their rule, right? I mean, I know you get soverienity by right, but you’re their vassel”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “But the government doesn’t care. We bring in too much money for them to interfere. They’ll just let it all play out and then collect taxes from the winner. Those taxes cripple our economy and I was secretly negotiating for a better deal once I took the throne. Trust me, the government of New Zealand would like nothing more than for me to take the throne instead of my brother. They know what he has planned, but the treaties prevent them from stopping it.”

  “I guess we’re not getting out of this alive, are we?” I looked down at the floor and felt tears well up in my eyes.

  “No. Judging by the rocking that isn’t in my head, we’re on a boat.” He grimaced and sat up straighter. “They’ll probably try to ransom me and then kill us both once it is paid. I heard one of the guys mention something about terrorists when he was crushing my ribs with his fist.”

  Definitely not the fairy tale ending I expected...

  Harland and I continued talking, mostly because I didn’t want him to go to sleep if he really did have a concussion. I told him my story, from my dreams of meeting someone at the World Ball, to the incredible men I met once I arrived. He seemed shocked to hear what I had been doing before he took me to bed. It didn’t seem to bother him, but it did capture his interest enough to keep him talking. He told me more about the Southern Isles, the life he lived there that the media never covered. By the time we were done talking, there was nothing to do but sleep. I hoped I had kept him awake long enough to keep him out of danger. If we were going to die, I wanted us to die together, in a watery grave—hopefully not in the belly of a shark.

  Chapter 17: Maximo

  Two days passed. The news didn’t just forget to mention Lyric, they simply ignored her. The story was about Prince Harland. The Southern Isles royal family was distraught. They were on every news channel begging the terrorists to spare their son. Other world governments were willing to step in and pay the ransom, but the American government was refusing to allow it because they didn’t negotiate with terrorists. They started issuing threats against any nation that tried, citing it being in their jurisdiction because it happened on American soil. Protests were breaking out in some of the major cities, including New York where we were staying. If the American government didn’t bring Prince Harland home alive, there was a good chance that we would be in the middle of a civil war and World War III at the same time.

  “I told you not to call me again.” A woman glared at Dane, or whatever his name was, from across the table.

  “Lady, we’re in the middle of a fucking international crisis.” I growled and leaned forward. “I think this is worth more than whatever deal you had with him.”

  “Call me Violet.” She opened her laptop and pushed her hoodie back. “You’re lucky I like Prince Harland and don’t want to see this collapse our economy, because what I’m going to have to do will require more than simple hacking. This is more than a few database edits; they’ll know what I did. They might not figure it out for a few days, but they’ll trace it back to me.”

  “Whatever you have to do.” I growled again, but there was more anger in my tone. “If you can figure out where she is, we’re going after her.”

  Violet started working on her computer and we waited. Most of us waited impatiently. I had no idea what she could do that would be able to find Lyric that the government couldn’t do, but Dane was convinced that she could. She seemed to share his level of confidence, and I hoped neither of them were wrong. I finally couldn’t take any more of the typing. It was cutting into my eardrums like a razor. I walked outside and took in a breath of fresh air, just letting it fill my lungs for a second before reaching into my pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes. After so long without the vice, it was my only comfort.

  Definitely going to be hard to quit these again. Not that I really give a shit about my health right now if I can’t find Lyric.

  I lit one up and exhaled. It didn’t do anything to calm my nerves. It actually made my stomach turn, but the quick hit of nicotine kept me from losing my mind completely. I thought about Lyric, out there in the world somewhere, likely scared to death. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her, promise not to let her go, and tell her I was a fool for giving her a hard maybe. She was the most incredible woman I had ever met and I would do anything to find her. I even tried to get a social media campaign going to help bring attention to the fact she was gone, but I couldn’t get it to trend. The world was too obsessed with the stupid prince. I felt immense guilt over the whole situation. Lyric was happy with the four of us. I was the one that pushed her to find someone else and explore her budding sexuality. Perhaps the religious nuts that preached abstinence were right. None of it would have happened I had not led Lyric down a path of sin.

  “I want a drink, but I don’t want to start because I won’t stop until I’m face down on the floor.” Simon walked outside and put his hands on his head. “This is madness.”

  “I know.” I exhaled a stream of smoke. “I checked with some of my contacts, though. They say this Violet chick is everything Dane thinks she is. She’s the one that made headlines a few years ago when she made that Soulmate app.”

  “Oh...” Simon raised his eyebrows. “I remember that. Whatever happened to it? It seemed to be taking over the world and then it just vanished.”

  “I’m not sure. PrinceSoft pulled it from the market. Apparently there were complications with the algorithm or something because it started matching people up with more than one person after it collected enough data. I read a story about it, but it never made it to Italy, so I didn’t try it.” I shrugged and took another drag off of my cigarette.

  “I considered it, but I went through a couple of years believing my ex-wife was my soulmate, so I didn’t see a point in confirming my despair.” Simon sighed. “Wouldn’t it have been ironic if it matched all of us with Lyric?”

  “The way I feel right now—I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s like an ache that won’t stop. I’m sorry, I know that doesn’t sound very manly.” I chuckled, even in the face of absolute turmoil.

  “Yeah, I feel it, too. It’s like I lost a piece of myself and I can’t be whole until I know she’s safe. I don’t even care if she ends up with me or married to you. I just want to know she’s not going to get hurt.” Simon clenched his fists and trembled—the older man was fighting back tears.

  “Hey, guys.” Lenny pushed his head out of the door. “She’s got something.”

  “What is it?” I followed Lenny with Simon on my heels. “Did you find her?”

  “I got a lock on something. It’s a long shot, but I think it might be what we’re looking for.” She turned the laptop towards us. “Okay, so a couple of days ago, a boat docked in the New York harbor. Normal, right? Well it’s registered to a shell corporation, but when you dig de
eper, that can be tied back to another company, and the breadcrumbs lead all the way back to James Wentworth.”

  “Oh my god.” My jaw fell open. “That guy does a lot of business with the Southern Isles royal family.”

  “Yeah.” Violet nodded. “But that’s not all. The ship left the very day that Prince Harland and Lyric were taken. I pulled the manifest and guess what—it’s headed to the Southern Isles.”

  “So wait.” Lenny tilted his head in confusion. “You’re saying someone from the Southern Isles kidnapped their own prince?”

  “Yeah, I would have probably overlooked it if I didn’t see this.” She tapped a few keys. “Look right here, this is a line of credit that James Wentworth extended to Prince Harland’s brother a couple of years ago. I checked into it and it isn’t legally recorded anywhere. Imagine what someone like James Wentworth could do with a monarchy under his control.”

  “Human trafficking.” I gritted my teeth in anger. “That’s how that fucker made his money to begin with, even if nobody has ever been able to prove it. He used to auction underage girls to the highest bidder.”

  “I see you’re up to date on your conspiracy theories.” Violet nodded. “I wish that the end of this trail, but it’s not. In the middle of all this hysteria, nobody has really made a big deal out of the fact that the King of the Southern Isles has suddenly fallen ill. They’re calling it a deep depression brought by concern for his youngest son. They’re not going to ransom Prince Harland. James Wentworth could pay that ransom without blinking or feeling the hit in his back pocket. I think they’re assassinating the royal family so Prince Rohr can take the throne unchallenged.”

  “He’s already the heir, right?” Lenny seemed even more confused.