by Nana Malone
I needed a place to stay. This hotel was fine for one or two nights but I needed something permanent and cheaper. And soon. There was one option, but I wasn't sure it was the best choice. At the same time, he'd said I could call him if I needed anything. But that puts you back in Sebastian’s orbit. Shit, at this point, I didn't care. I needed help.
I stared at the phone for a moment before finally dialing the number.
"Hello, are you single, hot and available? If not, you might have the wrong number."
I laughed. “I’m glad to see nothing has changed, Lucas.”
“Penny! Hello, gorgeous. You finally decide to leave Sebastian for me.”
His voice made me smile. "Hearing your voice is like old times again."
"What's a girl like you doing back in my life?"
I hesitated for just a moment. "Well, funny you should ask that question. Remember that time on the balcony you said if I ever needed anything, I should call you because even if Sebastian didn't know what he had, you're not an idiot?"
Lucas paused for a moment "Why do I get the impression I'm being reminded of this because you have a favor to ask?"
"Because you are being buttered up."
"Okay. Well then, ask and it shall be yours if it's within my power to give you. What's going on? Are you and Sebastian having a fight again? Do you need me to come down there and kick his ass?"
"As entertaining as that would be to see, no. I'm not actually on the island."
There was a momentary pause, and then his voice dropped an octave. "Penny, where are you?"
"You mean at this very moment? Uhm, I'm on a bed, in this crappy motel, somewhere in Battery Park City."
Lucas cursed under his breath. "What the hell are you doing down there? That's not the best neighborhood."
He was right. While some areas of Battery Park City had been built up, there were pockets that hadn't yet been revitalized.
"Well, it was what I could afford. And even at this place, I'll run out of funds if I don't do something soon."
"What? Penny, give me the address. I'll come get you."
"Well, you haven't let me ask my favor yet."
"You need a place to stay? Done. You’ll stay with me until you get yourself sorted out."
Stay with him? Lucas? When I wanted to ask him a favor I'd thought he'd have a friend. I hadn't quite meant that he should be the one to provide shelter. I was just hoping he had a friend or two, someone who wouldn’t mind me crashing for a little while. "You don't have to do that. I was mostly hoping that you had a friend with a spare bed. You're always saying that you know a guy.”
"Seriously? Penny. You're Sebastian's girl. You need a friend, and I'm the one you call. There's no way in hell he would forgive me for not doing this."
“Actually, maybe one more favor.”
“Name it.”
“Please don't tell him where I am.”
"Well, my brother’s an idiot. I told him as much to his face, and I won't tell him where you are. I swear it. Besides, look at this as temporary until you get your feet under you. Now where are you?"
Damn, the last thing I wanted was to stay with Lucas. But I really had no other options. It was either take his offer or go home. Like hell I was going back, so I gave him the address.
28
Sebastian
“Ready, mate?”
I stared at myself in the mirror. The royal dressers had just left. Never once in my adult life had I used one of the royal dressers, but this was one of those traditions you didn’t balk at. It was customary that the royal dresser should dress the king before his coronation. I had my cloak, a fucking scepter, and all the military pins, and I had to say that shit was heavy. “Um, I guess I’m feeling fine.”
Roone chuckled low. “And by guess, you mean you don’t think you’re ready?”
“No, I’m ready. I know the deal is complete. I just always thought that my father would be standing here giving me some sage advice. Or more recently, I thought that Penny would be here. I don’t know. I just—None of it feels good. Even Lucas isn’t here.”
Roone clapped me on the shoulder. “You know why Penny isn’t here. And you know why Lucas can’t be here. We need to protect his anonymity, especially with all the other shit going on, at least for the time being. Besides, this is really about your people, your public, and your subjects. It’s not about the people who aren’t here, and more importantly, it’s not about you. So it’s time to do what you need to do.”
“I know. I just wish this was all different.”
Roone nodded. “I get that. We all do. Your old man … ” Roone shook his head and blinked his eyes rapidly before turning away. “He was one of the good ones, mate. He took in a kid with no home and no people, just some meager beginnings and no direction in life, and he gave me a cause. I’ll always remember that about him.”
“He liked you. He thought me being friends with you calmed me down. Little did he know you were the one getting me in trouble half the time.”
My friend chuckled. “Good on you, mate, for never telling him any different. It’s much appreciated.”
“Yeah, well, it was the least I could do. After all, you have probably saved my life more than once.”
Roone grinned. “You know, once or twice, but who’s counting? But to be honest, you saved mine too. That day you were leaving, you turned back to me and said, ‘Want to come hang out at the beach?’” He shook his head. “Best day of my life. I didn’t really have much aim or know what I was supposed to do, and it was just me and my mom, so that could only have gone very, very wrong. You were a king before you even knew you were supposed to be. Don’t fuck this up, mate.”
“And here I thought you were supposed to make this shit easier for me.”
“Nah, mate, I’m just here to keep you honest.” He quickly sobered. “Look, I don’t really want us to have to deal with this today because you’re about to do some seriously heavy-duty shit, but my men have located Ashton. He’s at his usual haunt in Prague. We don’t think he’s staying though. It seems like maybe it’s just a stopping point. Do you want me to detain him now or wait and see if he does anything?”
“We have no treaty with the Czech Republic. They won’t return him, and we can’t go in and get him. So we’re better off if he comes out on his own. Have someone keep an eye on him. If he heads to anywhere in Scandinavia, the UK obviously, Luxemburg, or Italy, pick him up.”
Roone nodded. “Of course. We’ll get him, and you’ll get Penny back.”
I nodded then took a deep breath. Even minus the crown, I looked every bit a king. It shook me a little that I looked like the younger version of my father. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. “Well, I guess we’d better get the show on the road.”
Then Roone did something that I was going to have to get used to. He bowed low and muttered, “Long live the king.”
29
Sebastian
I was tired of this. I'd been looking for Penny for weeks. Her father had told me he didn't know where she was. Just that she emailed about once a week. Getting messages passed through her father made me feel like a lovesick teenager.
My mother was right. I'd been a complete and total idiot and I’d done this to myself. I'd pushed her away.
I had to find her. After the tape Roone had shown me, I couldn’t just sit on it. I had to do something. Anything.
That day in the hallway when she’d all but run away from me, I had seen the footage. Just thinking about the way Ashton had his hands on her made me want to hit something. Preferably my cousin's face.
Thanks to the guys at Blake Security, I knew she had eventually landed in New York, but thus far, her name wasn’t on any lease anywhere so it might be hard to find her. Didn’t matter how long it took though, I was going back to bring her home, if she even wanted to come. So far, the job was hard, but I was making it work. I’d been making good use of my advisers and was able to carve out three days away, which wasn't very much
time to find her in a city like New York. Luckily for me, I knew the one place to go to get started: Blake Security.
I strode into the office to find Noah waiting for me. "Mr. Blake.”
Noah inclined his head "Your Majesty. To what do I owe the visit? Usually, you're telling me and my men to go fuck ourselves. So you can imagine my surprise when you called."
I had to fight to suppress a smirk. "Well, I understand that I might have been a bit of a jackass."
Somewhere inside one of the men called out, "A bit?"
"Fair enough. I've been a major jackass." And I had been by constantly slipping security detail. I'd been a royal brat. "I'm sorry about that. I was a prick. And I know my words don't mean anything, but I really do need your help. I need to find Penny Marsh."
Noah blew a low whistle. "You want us to help you find her?"
Again the voice from somewhere in the loft called out, "You voluntarily want to find her?"
I frowned. "You know her?"
Noah chuckled as a woman came from behind him carrying a baby. She had dark curly hair, wide gray eyes, and a smile that lit up the room.
"Noah, you did not tell me we had royalty in here. My God. You are so rude." She turned her attention to me with a smile. "Your Majesty, I’m Lucia, Noah’s wife. You'll have to forgive my husband. He doesn't know how to act sometimes.” She handed Noah the little girl. "Please, come into the living room. Would you like a drink?”
I liked her. And from the looks of it Lucia kept him hopping. "I'll take a bourbon, especially if you tell me that Penny's already been here."
Noah rolled his eyes. "No, not recently. It was at the end of the summer. She came with a friend of hers. They dressed down Oskar and put me in my place. It was very unsettling."
So she'd come here before they’d met. "So you knew she was Royal Guard."
The big, blond German I remembered from another visit stood in the doorway, his finger gripping the lips of the crown molding above his head. "Yeah, it was pretty clear. Sorry to hear about your father."
Shit. Any mention of Dad still burned like fire.
"Thank you. But right now, I need help finding Penny."
Noah chuckled. "Oh, I get it now. His Royal Majesty has fallen in love."
"Yes, it would seem that way. But of course, I fucked that up and didn't realize it until it was too late. So I've come with my mea culpa and my hand out. Can you help me locate her?”
Noah shook his head. "Nope. My men and I would like to keep our balls, if you don't mind."
His wife smacked him on the arm. "Yes, of course he'll help you." She turned her gaze to her husband. "Won't you, Noah?"
He sighed. "Fine. Give us a day. We'll see if she's using credit cards, or we’ll track her phone.”
"Thank you. I need to find her."
Noah grinned. "You've got it bad, huh?"
He had no idea. "Yeah. Yes, I do."
Shortly after leaving Blake Security, Noah called me. His hacker already had a place for me to go check out. On my way I called Lucas.
"Hey, Sebastian. What's up man?"
"Hey, Lucas, I'm in the city."
"Aww, you missed me already? I've only been gone a couple months. I mean, you gotta let me miss you first before you turn up on my doorstep."
"Jackass. I'm here looking for Penny, actually. I know that she came to the city, but I've no idea where to start looking. I only called you to say hi."
“Don’t make excuses. If you missed me, at least be man enough to say it.”I found myself laughing as I headed toward the sleek, black Bentley at the curb. Trenton Moss, my new personal guard, opened the door for me, and I nodded a thank you. "Yes, I miss you. You have time for dinner tonight or something? I only really have two days. I've already spent part of it to try and track her down."
"Yeah, let's head down to the old place. We'll grab a drink, get something to eat. And then you can tell me all about how you lost your favorite toy."
"She's the love of my life, Lucas. She would be queen if she would have me."
"Queen? Shit, I had no idea."
"Funny thing is I had no idea either until I lost her."
"I wish I could help you. Any idea where she might be?"
"One of Blake Security's guys said that she'd been at a motel in Battery Park City. So I'm headed to check it out now. I don't have high hopes. She hasn't used her credit card for anything other than that, so she's working with cash. I might be out of luck, but I have to try. If that fails, I'll need to break a dozen laws and try recognition.”
"Facial recognition? That's some serious shit."
"Well, I'm serious about finding her. I’ve already lost too much time with her. I'm not letting that happen again."
Lucas cleared his throat. "Well, if I hear from her, I'll tell her to get her ass back home. It's a sad thing to see a man ready to grovel."
All I could do was laugh. It was true. I was ready to grovel.
"Sure, that works."
I’d only just hung up with Lucas when I got a call from Ethan. "Yes?"
Penny's father wasted no time. "Your Majesty, we located Ashton. We found him seeking asylum in the Isle of Wight. We've had him brought back to the island." It looked like my dinner with Lucas was going to have to wait.
* * *
Penny
"So what did he say exactly?"
Lucas rolled his eyes. "I swear the two of you are ridiculous. If you want to know, why don't you just call him? He seems to really miss you."
"I'm not calling him. Besides, he just called and told you he had to go back to the island. So there's no point in calling him anyway. And it's sort of a good thing that he has to go back because I could be weak if I saw him."
Lucas rolled his eyes and flopped back on his couch. "Why not just talk to him? You guys can sort this all out then I'll have you out of my hair. You're driving me crazy, tidying my place up, and making me dinners. I mean you even organized my bathroom. It smells nice in here, and look! There are throw pillows everywhere. What kind of bachelor pad is this now?"
I laughed. He was teasing me. He'd been doing that a lot, trying to lighten the mood, trying to keep me occupied and happy.
He'd cleared me some space in the den area near the floor to ceiling windows so that I'd have somewhere to paint.
And paint I had. It felt good to get back to it again. It was a distraction that I needed from Sebastian, from my life. I hadn't told Lucas about what had happened with Ashton. I didn't know why, really. I guess it was partially because it was embarrassing. I was Royal Guard, after all. I should've been able to handle myself better.
You got away safely. He didn't hurt you. So just don't think about it.
It took me a moment to realize that Lucas was talking to me. "I'm sorry, what?"
"I said how long are you going to keep my brother all twisted up? Not that there's anything wrong with bondage. I don't judge. A set of handcuffs or two, some silk ties or some scarves … I'm down with that."
I laughed. "I am sure you are. I'm also sure I don't want to know all the things that you're down with. I'm not doing this to hurt him or to punish him. I came to New York for me, not because I was running away." Liar.
"And you know, Sebastian, he came all the way from the Winston Isles to find you. He clearly loves you. He didn't want to take on the responsibility of being king. He didn't want to succeed our father. But it was the right thing to do. That's an unselfish motivation if I've ever heard one." Lucas sighed. "You have to see the change in him. And honestly, I don't know how he's doing it. He's taken on an entire kingdom, all on his shoulders. Something else is bothering him, too, but he wouldn't tell me what. Maybe he'll tell you if you would just pick up the phone and call the guy."
"I would, but he froze me out. He made it perfectly clear he wants nothing to do with me, even when I tried to explain. He wouldn't listen. He's certainly not going to listen now."
"Oh, my God. You're just as stubborn as he is. He's changed. I can see it
. He has a whole kingdom to take care of. But still he finds the time to come to this city and look for you. That is a man in love."
"That is not a man in love." I shook my head and refused to believe him. Because if I did believe, my resolve would crumble and I'd be on the first plane back home running into his arms. "Lucas, sooner or later, you're going to need to learn that Sebastian just hates to lose. He's just as arrogant as he ever was. Right now, I'm just something he lost. As soon as he had me back, he’d take me for granted again."
“If you are sure about that, I would hate to see you being stubborn and lose out on love when it barely finds anybody. What you have could be something real. Instead, you're hiding out in my apartment. But wait … You’re not hiding. Isn't that what you told me?"
"I am being who I'm supposed to be. And that person is better off without Sebastian." The problem was I wasn't so sure about that.
30
Sebastian
"Your Majesty, we have him in your waiting room. If you’d like me to—”
I pinned Ethan with a hard glare. "If you're worried about his well-being, after what he did to your daughter, you should be. If you’re worried that I'll take out my personal feelings on him, you should be. But I'm still not letting you go in there with me."
Ethan met my gaze levelly. "Your Majesty. You are not yourself. You are the Crown. You cannot do that.”
And that was the dilemma. As much as I'd come to terms with being king now, not being able to do what I wanted, when I wanted, to whom I wanted, was starting to be a real problem, especially after what I'd seen on that tape.
Ashton had put his hands on Penny, dragged her into the secret panel, and then tried to sexually assault her. And I'd acted like an ass.
This is your fault.
