Her Prince (Twisted Royals #2)

by Sidney Bristol

  As good as the FBI were, she didn’t expect to live long even in their care.

  “How’s Jax doing?” she asked.

  “They put him up in a hotel room with room service. I’m pretty sure he’s going to thank us.” Kade stroked her back.

  “How about in here, guys?” Rusty opened up the door to the master suite. Besides the folding table and chairs at the foot of the bed, it was an otherwise normal bedroom, minus personal touches.

  Shelby skipped the cold metal chairs and perched on the foot of the bed, wrapping the throw blanket back around her shoulders.

  “What do you want to ask her?” Kade planted his hands on his hips, frown firmly still in place.

  “Mind calling off your guard dog?” Rusty thumbed at Kade.

  “She’s tired.” Kade came to a stop between them.

  “Kade.” Shelby patted the bed. She was tired, but it wasn’t a normal kind of tired.

  She’d spent the last few years of her life working toward this. Hoping that they’d get their break. Finding out they’d missed the mark completely knocked more than the wind out of her sails. She was off-balance. Scared. Vulnerable. Exposed.

  What was worse? She was afraid.

  Ogden knew who she was.

  He’d planned this, of that she was certain.

  “I’m recording this.” Rusty pushed a portable recorder to the very edge of the table.

  “Why?” Kade asked.

  “Because…” Rusty sighed and jabbed at the recorder, cutting it off. “Because some people don’t believe Shelby’s story.”

  “What? Why—”

  “Of course they wouldn’t,” Shelby said. “It looks like I’ve been working for Ogden this whole time.”

  “How?” If looks could kill, Kade would have slain the whole house in that instant. How a guy like him, with brothers like Anton and Sasha, had turned out this good was beyond her. Kade was a one-in-a-million type of guy. She had to protect him from herself.

  “We’ve spent all this time trying to catch him. I just proved that he’s miles ahead of the closest FBI investigation. He has nothing to worry about from us because we can’t pin anything on him.” Shelby shrugged. “Is that about it?”

  “Yeah.” Rusty frowned. “But that’s not what happened. I believe in you, Shelby, and that’s why we need to start from the beginning. The very beginning. We must have missed something pretty big if you were a target all along.”

  “I know. You want to start when my parents died?” If she weren’t so numb this might hurt.

  “Before then. I’m sorry, Shelby. We have to go all the way back.” Rusty clicked his pen. He never liked dealing in sorrow or regret.

  “Let’s get started.” She sighed and rubbed her face.

  Rusty really did start from the beginning. He asked her many of the same questions he had on earlier interviews, about her parents, Ogden’s involvement in their art business, what she could recall. The birthday party. Investigations over the years. Jobs she’d worked. The details leading up to the case. She did her best to answer, though it felt like she was wringing the last drops of her soul out of her body.

  Her answers were the same. From beginning to end, they hadn’t changed. She’d turned every moment of her life over again and again.

  “This is getting us nowhere.” Rusty threw his pen down sometime after midnight and rubbed his face.

  Shelby didn’t so much as make a noise, her throat hurt that bad.

  Kade squeezed her.

  “Is…did someone grab my bag from my apartment?” he asked.

  “Yeah, it should be somewhere.” Rusty jabbed at the recorder.

  “I’d like to try something unorthodox.” Kade turned, pinning her with his gaze.

  “I think at this point we’re out of other options.” She shrugged.

  Kade turned without another word and strode out of the bedroom. Both Shelby and Rusty watched him go.

  “He likes you,” Rusty said.

  Shelby didn’t respond.

  What was the point?

  “You know, with his Romani connections—”

  “Stop.” Shelby closed her eyes. She’d already considered that, too.

  The Romani could make a person disappear, for the right price. She didn’t want to hear that future from Rusty’s lips. Not yet. She didn’t want to think about having to run for the rest of her life. She wasn’t built that way.

  Kade’s footsteps thumped outside in the hall. He pushed the door open, a sort of nervous excitement clinging to him.

  “What’s that?” She peered at his hands.

  “It’s a tarot deck.” Kade held up his other hand. “I know what you’re thinking, but—just let me try?”

  “You want to do some woowoo shit?” Rusty tossed his pen on the table.

  “The cards aren’t going to be able to tell the future or anything like that. But…sometimes they help.” Kade shuffled the worn deck, a motion that seemed habitual, comfortable.

  “Okay.” Shelby slid off the bed. “I’m willing to try it, if you are.”

  “What are you? A fortune teller?” Rusty leaned an elbow on the table.

  “My parents taught me, but I don’t do bujo. Anton and Sasha didn’t have the knack. It’s not just flipping over some cards. My mom’s better at reading them than I am, but…sometimes they help.”

  “What do I do?” Shelby sat in the cold, metal chair.

  This was part of Kade he hadn’t shared much with her. This window into him was…she couldn’t resist the opportunity.

  “Just sit. Close your eyes.”

  Shelby took a deep breath and did as he asked. The sound of the cards whispering against each other was rhythmic, hypnotic.

  “Usually, I’d tell you to clear your mind and focus on one thing, a question or something you wanted to learn more about. But your head’s jumbled. That’s the problem I’m seeing. We’re focusing on the big picture instead of little pieces.”

  “What are you going to do, then?” Rusty asked.

  “Shelby, when you feel like it, I want you to tell me to stop. We’ll do this three times—beginning now.”

  Was she supposed to feel something?

  A static charge?

  Should she hear a voice?

  “Stop,” she said—because why not?

  “Okay.” Kade’s voice…smiled. Why? Had she done something right? “Again. Whenever you want to say stop.”

  Shelby folded her hands in her lap. What if she’d gone too soon? Maybe she needed to wait a moment.

  She tapped her toes and laced her fingers together, but still didn’t quite sense or feel or hear anything.

  “Stop?”

  “All right. Once more.”

  “Stop.” If she wasn’t going to get a clear sign, why waste more time?

  “Okay. Open your eyes.”

  She peered at three cards, face down. Their backs had once been a purple pattern, but they were worn with time and use.

  “Why only three?” Every time Shelby had seen someone do a tarot reading there’d been a lot more cards.

  “This is a past, present and future reading. This card, it represents the past. Everything that’s happened to you.” He flipped the card, revealing a robed figure…standing in flame with some sort of staff.

  “What the hell is that?” She frowned at the card.

  “This is the King of Wands. Typically, this card represents someone, or something, that has helped others to live their passion and realize their potential.”

  “That’s a crock of bull.” Shelby sat back in the chair. Her life was nothing but a series of mistakes.

  “Yeah, but if the card is reversed, it represents someone who has used their charm to control others. To feed ego.”

  Ouch.

  That sounded about right.

  How many times had she done something just to prove she could?

  “Okay,” she said slowly.

  “Do you want me to go on?” Kade asked.

 
“Sure. The next one is—what? My present?” What kind of fucked up card would he reveal now?

  Kade flipped the middle card.

  A cat-like person held a cup, her head surrounded by cups.

  “This is the Seven of Cups, and in the present position it represents forces operating now.” Kade didn’t look quite so pleased about this card.

  “What’s it mean?” Rusty asked.

  “Unfulfilled promises, an error made. Mom always said it meant losing your beginning advantage in a new deal.”

  Yeah, she understood the frown now.

  They’d completely lost whatever advantage they’d had.

  “What’s the last card say?” She stared at the back of it, as if it might have her future written on it’s face.

  Kade slowly turned over the last card.

  Two women stood surrounded by…pentacles.

  That couldn’t be good.

  “Do I want to know?” She studied the card, but didn’t get any warm-fuzzies looking at it.

  “Well…” Kade sighed. “It could be good or bad. Here are two figures, huddled in the snow. They have these birds protecting them and a bright light above, maybe it’s guiding them. Judging from this card… Things aren’t going to be easy, but there is hope.”

  “What the fuck does that tell us?” Shelby wanted answers, not fortune cookie platitudes.

  “I don’t know. Let’s find out.” Kade swept the cards back into his hands. This time, he dealt them out quick and fast, with no input from her.

  He arranged five cards in the shape of a cross. One in the middle, one to each side.

  “What does this mean?” She gestured at the cards.

  “We’re going to find out. It’s a reading about our current situation.” He flipped the first card.

  A child played in the sun.

  “Hm.” Kade tipped his head to the side.

  “What?” Shelby felt like she was trying to read a foreign language.

  “This is The Sun. In this position, it’s telling us about our physical situation or the people involved. It basically means clarity, dispelling confusion. We’re going to figure this out.” Kade reached for another card, working counter clockwise for her. “The Hermit. In the air position, don’t take too much stock in the words of others. Maybe we can’t trust what Brent said?”

  “It’s not like we can ask him.” Even Rusty was leaned forward now, interested in the cards.

  “What does this, with the sun card mean?”

  “Let’s look at them all first, hm?” He flipped the next card in the circle.

  “The Devil?” Shelby frowned. That couldn’t be good.

  “Not necessarily,” Kade said slowly. He flipped yet the next card without offering further comment. “Three of Wands.”

  Again, he didn’t divulge any more information.

  The Elder.

  Shelby stopped looking at the cards and focused on Kade’s face. The tilt of his head. The wrinkle between his brows.

  “It’s not good?” she asked.

  “It’s not bad. It’s…optimistic.” He folded his hands. “The Sun card is your earth card, it’s the physical. The Hermit is your mental card, the air card. The Devil is your fire card, it’s…strength of character, power of a situation. Not necessarily bad. The Three of Wands in the Water position is emotions. And The Elder is the spirit card, which is mostly about you.”

  Shelby stopped breathing the moment Kade’s eyes met hers.

  He wasn’t done yet. That much she could…feel.

  “My mom’s better at reading this than me, but my gut feeling is that we’re being too complicated. It’s all so much simpler than we’re making it. The pieces are all here, we’ve talked about them, we just aren’t seeing them for what they are. “Tell me when to stop.”

  Kade kept shuffling, shuffling, shuffling, never once blinking or looking away from her.

  “Stop, I guess?”

  He flipped over another card.

  “The Chariot. We can beat this.”

  25.

  Kade could feel the subtle energy in the room vibrating. Mom liked to call it his intuition. It was why she’d taught him how to read the cards instead of Anton. His brother could charm a dollar out of a statue, but he couldn’t sense things the same way Kade could.

  He set the deck aside.

  They were close, but they couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

  “What do we know? Without a shadow of a doubt?” he asked.

  “I am in deep shit.” Shelby leaned back, shoulders slumping.

  “When you were hired for this gig, who did you talk to?” he asked.

  “Gil. Sort of. He used someone else to initiate the conversation and vet me before I met Gil.”

  “Who was that?”

  “Just—this guy. No one.” Shelby shrugged.

  “This guy.” Rusty pulled a photograph out of a folder. “Shit.”

  “What?” Shelby glanced at Rusty.

  “His name is Kurt. Kurt Lyons.”

  “Any relation to Brent?” Kade asked.

  “I’m about to find out.” Rusty pulled out his phone, thumbs working in double time.

  Kade reached across and grasped Shelby’s hand. She held onto him, her eyes on Rusty.

  “Kurt is Brent’s cousin,” Rusty proclaimed.

  “Okay—you said Gil wasn’t thrilled with having you part of the team. What if Ogden had you vetted and hired himself? Going around Gil?” Kade focused on Shelby’s face, the minute twitch of muscle, the flare of her nostrils. Sometimes people forgot what they knew, willingly or unwillingly.

  “Possibly. Yeah. That could be it.”

  “I’ll get someone to question Gil.” Rusty once more focused on his phone. “Gil wasn’t talking before, but maybe we can scare him a little into saying something.”

  “Ask my brothers.” Kade shrugged. “They likely won’t talk, but it couldn’t hurt. Do they know about the deal?”

  “Not yet, but it might get them to open up.” Rusty continued to tap on his screen.

  “Okay, so maybe—just maybe—Ogden had you sourced for this job intentionally. He has a history with his assistant, the assistant asks his cousin to do a job for them…”

  “Which brings us back to—we missed something.” Shelby sighed and stared at the table.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. What else do you remember about the times he called you Sharon?” Kade squeezed her hand.

  Shelby’s shoulders twitched.

  “It was weird. It was like…” She sat back. “It was like…he stopped seeing me and only saw Mom.”

  He felt her hands twitch.

  It was there. They were close.

  Rusty kept fiddling with his phone.

  Kade dipped his head, watching Shelby’s eyes.

  She wasn’t here, she was in her memories.

  He held his breath, waiting for her to come back to the present.

  Had she found it out?

  Shelby tipped her chin up, eyes shining, practically vibrating with whatever she’d hit on.

  “Mom,” she whispered. “Is this about her? Me? My family? What?”

  “I’m grasping at straws here, but you said your mom was supposed to meet someone, that your dad and her weren’t supposed to hook up that night, right?”

  “You think she was supposed to meet Ogden, don’t you?”

  “The pursuit of love and women have been the downfall of many a man.” Hell, look at what Kade was willing to do for Shelby. “Think about it. Did it make financial sense for Ogden to run your parents into the ground? What about how he’s treated you, the few times you met him? What about when he offered me money for…”

  Kade couldn’t bring himself to speak about that. He still wanted to ram his fist into the guy’s face for that alone.

  Shelby held up her hand.

  Kade’s jaw clicked together.

  She picked up The Chariot card. It was an old, Romani stylized deck, but the elements were the same.


  “Mom was wearing a black and white dress. Color blocking before it was a hot trend. I was…what was I doing? I was supposed to be going out with a friend, but I’d forgotten my bag or something. I went through the garden door because it was open. They were talking…”

  Shelby’s brow furrowed.

  Rusty sat forward, phone forgotten.

  Kade held up a finger. He could see Rusty’s mouth working soundlessly.

  Shelby had to remember this on her own.

  “Guys always hit on Mom. She was beautiful. Charismatic. She didn’t try, it just…happened. Sometimes, dad got jealous… I just thought, I mean, it wasn’t unusual…”

  “What?” Kade whispered.

  Shelby set the card down.

  “What if Ogden did know mom? But…what if he wanted her? Like that. What if he made an offer to Dad, like he did to you?”

  “Given how much your dad resented Ogden, that’d be something worth fighting over,” Rusty said quietly.

  “Ogden said he didn’t blame me.” Shelby turned her head and stared at Rusty. “What if he knew all along that I was working with you? What if we’ve been a worm on a hook all along?”

  Rusty opened and closed his mouth.

  Kade’s recent experiences with the FBI had left him with a bad taste already. The bureau was made up of people. And people were fallible. Everyone had weaknesses, and someone like Ogden lived to exploit others.

  “If I’m reading you right—you think we have someone feeding a wanted felon information?” Rusty leaned forward and shook his head. “And—why? Because he had a thing for your mom?”

  “A lot of men have done a lot of stupid things for the woman they wanted when they should have walked away.” Kade should heed his own advice. He should have at least considered walking away a bit more. He was in too deep now.

  He’d already crossed lines and blown through promises he’d made himself without no hesitation. When it came to her…he was all in. Like it or not, Shelby was in his life, his heart, and he’d kill for her.

  Ogden had better be on the other side of the world, because if it turned out this whole thing was nothing more than a game to him, that putting Shelby through hell was an amusement—Kade had no qualms about forgetting his morals.

  Shelby crawled up the bed and burrowed under the blankets.