“Mama.”
“No, Nathaniel, I’m sorry. That’s my decision, and I’ll make it when I’m good and ready and that’s not today. Come see me later, Nathaniel. I’ll be in my offices.” She faced Charlie. “I am sorry.” Even Nate could tell she meant it, and he squeezed Charlie’s waist to let her know that, too.
Charlie swallowed. “Apology accepted, Your Majesty.” Charlie curtsied once more and Genevieve left the room.
He pulled Charlie into his arms again. “Are you all right?”
Charlie nodded, but he could see the hurt lingering there. She cleared her throat. “I’ll be fine.”
“Don’t pull away, not yet,” he said as she squirmed in his arms. “I want you to know, Charlotte Wyler, that I don’t believe a word my mother said or implied.”
“But, Nate.”
“Furthermore,” he said, cutting her off, “I fully intend to keep seeing you, starting with dinner tonight. However, I’ll understand if you prefer not to see me, or my crazy family again. They’re usually not this horrible, I assure you.”
She sighed and rested her head against his chest, a feeling he was growing to crave. “Are you sure, Nate? Are you sure about me?”
He tilted her chin up and saw the uncertainty floating in the depths of her bright blue eyes. “Oh, yes, Charlotte. I’m sure.” Just as his lips lowered to meet hers, his phone began ringing. He brushed his mouth against hers before pulling back and checking his phone. A message from Marcello asked him to meet in the Situation Room; Nate knew there must be something serious going on for that to happen.
“I’m sorry, it’s my family. I have to go.” He stepped back, already lamenting the loss of her in his arms.
Charlie nodded and stepped back, too. “I understand. Let me know if you can’t make it tonight.”
“Nothing can keep me from you tonight, Charlotte. Nothing.” With a last searing look, he turned and walked out.
***
After nodding to the guards outside the Situation Room, Nate underwent various security scans and entered. The room was the hub of all military or clandestine actions for Valleria and boasted the latest technology. Nate stepped into the main conference room, where a long, polished table sat mostly empty and several screens around the room flagged locations and dossiers for men and women Nate recognized as Royal Council members.
Marcello was standing at one of the touch screens, flipping through various images, and Alex sat pouring over some documents. Nate had expected to see his father there as well, but perhaps it was best that he wasn’t there; Nate was still raw from their morning argument and it was sometimes easier to forgive a brother than a father.
“What’s going on?” Nate asked as he took a seat across from Alex.
Marcello turned after finding what must have been the image he wanted. “We wanted to discuss the suspects.”
Seeing no reason to belabor the issue, Nate said, “Since I’m one of them, you might as well start with me.”
Alex and Marcello exchanged glances before Marcello nodded and shifted to another screen. Nate’s professional picture – done when he’d joined the Royal Council – flashed on screen. It was odd staring at a picture of himself from only months ago; for some reason, it was like looking at an entirely different person.
“What evidence do you have against me?”
Alex pushed some of his papers across the table. “These are copies of the wire transfers you approved.” After a pointed glance from Nate, Alex corrected himself. “Allegedly approved.”
As Nate took a look at the forms, his lips thinned. He could easily tell it wasn’t his signature, though someone had certainly tried to make it so. The forms were also confusing; though they bore the logo for the Treasury, he’d never seen them or anything similar in his life. “Have you confirmed these are fake, yet?”
Marcello’s voice was even when he questioned Nate. “What makes you think they aren’t real?”
He tossed the papers back across the table. “That’s not my signature for one thing. Any decent handwriting expert can tell you someone was faking this, and the forms are completely bogus. Hell, even I can tell you, if you’d bother to believe your own brother.”
Alex held up a hand. “Nate, we do believe you.”
“Actions speak louder than words, big brother,” Nate said to Alex, then turned to Marcello. “Well, little brother, what do you say?”
Marcello kept his face passive; as a former intelligence officer himself, he had perfected the look. “I believe you, Nate. So does Alex, and Papa.” Nate longed to let out a sigh of relief but held back; he still felt pain from their reactions this morning.
“However,” Alex interjected, “we can’t ignore the fact that this was planted in the first place. Who knows what else they may have planted. I’m worried they may try to plant stories in the press next, just to bring some doubt on you, before pinning you with the whole thing.”
Nate nodded; given his past, that wasn’t surprising. “So, who else is a suspect?”
Marcello slid his finger across a screen and a set of photos appeared. “Some of them we’ve already discussed: Byron and Tim, Ministers of the People and Labor, respectively.”
Marcello clicked on Byron’s photo first, bringing up a set of documents that stretched across three screens. “Byron’s agencies, except for Immigration Services, typically have fairly small budgets. Both the Housing and Urban Development Agency and the Social Services Agency are always understaffed and underfunded. Calvin had been intent on keeping it that way, as he’d always favored giving more money to our various Defense agencies.”
Nate scoffed. “So you think Byron did this to compensate for that? These funds weren’t funneled back into the agencies, they were funneled to unnamed private accounts over the border.”
Marcello nodded. “You’re right. However, leading underfunded agencies means your own salary is typically lower, too.”
“I can see greed as a motive, but not for billions,” Nate said.
“There are unsubstantiated rumours,” Alex said as Marcello tapped on one of the documents on screen, enlarging it.
“Aren’t all rumours unsubstantiated?” Nate asked, speaking from his own experience.
“You know what I mean. These rumours have to deal with an underground group.”
Nate’s mouth flattened into a thin line. “Terrorists?”
Marcello shook his head. “No, at least not yet. They’re an anti-monarchist group. They want to get rid of us.”
“Rid of us or just rid of the monarchy?”
“Fair point,” Marcello agreed. “Yes to the latter, and we’re still investigating the former.”
Nate’s phone rang and he pulled it out. He scowled at the name flashing – Katya – sent it to voicemail, and turned the phone screen down on the table. “I don’t understand. Hasn’t there always been some kind of group like this since forever?”
Marcello nodded. “There has been. We’ve got extensive files on the ones that we’ve discovered since ‘forever’ as you put it; some of our notes go back decades, but other than protests or lobbying the Royal Council, no one’s ever become violent.”
Alex sat back in his chair. “And you think that’s part of their scheme?”
“You know me: I plan for the worst and hope it won’t happen. This document,” Marcello said, pointing to an image he pulled up, “was found on a remote server. It had been bounced around several times, but it originated with Byron’s email. It’s a coded message, related to an upcoming meeting for the Vallerian Patriots, which is a newer anti-monarchist group.”
“When is the meeting?” Alex asked.
“We missed it. This one was about a month ago. There’s no details as to when another one might be, but I have some people combing through Byron’s other messages. We might get lucky.”
“Why don’t you just have him followed?” Nate asked.
Marcello shook his head. “Too risky. I’m actually trying to plant someone in his
offices, and in the offices of the other suspects, as it’s less suspicious.”
“Even mine?”
Marcello nodded, unapologetic, and gestured between himself and Alex. “Our asses are on the line here, too. We need to show we’re investigating you just as thoroughly as we are the others.”
Nate said nothing. What his brother said made sense, but he didn’t have to like it. “Even if you planted someone, it would take months to uncover information; we don’t have that long. Who are the other suspects? And do they have ties to the Vallerian Patriots?”
Marcello touched a photo of Tim and brought up another set of documents. “Tim, who you already knew was a suspect. What you may not have known is that he’s in deep debt, almost a million by my last count.”
“Which doesn’t make sense to me,” Alex said. “If he’s been embezzling billions, why wouldn’t he pay off his debts first?”
“Too suspicious?” Nate suggested. “As a Royal Council member, he would be scrutinized as to where the funds came from. Part of the Treasury department keeps tabs on things like that, to ensure nothing illegal is going on.”
“Who’s responsible for that?” Alex asked.
“Department of Commerce, run by Jasper Kelly. Technically, the DOC falls under my purview.”
Marcello made a few notes on his tablet nearby. “I’ll do a run on him, see if anything comes up. How many people work in that department?”
Nate tilted his head while he considered the answer. “Maybe a dozen or so full-time, another dozen or so contractors, and maybe fifty or so part-time year round? Some of what they do is just reviewing trade agreements with the Department of Justice and working on plans to help small businesses. Most of the time, their work is statistical based: they’re completing economic analyses, reviewing technical data. They also complete Valleria’s census every ten years, for which we hire several thousand part-time temporary workers.”
“Could they manipulate the analyses they’re doing as a way to game the system in their favor?” Alex asked.
Nate shook his head. “They could certainly be reporting the wrong results, but I don’t see how it relates to the embezzling.”
“I don’t, either,” Marcello admitted, “but I’m not giving up just yet.”
“Any news on whether Tim is related to us or not?” Alex asked.
Marcello shook his head. “We did manage to get a DNA sample, and it’s being run now. I’ve asked them to rush it, but it could still take a week or more.”
“Any other suspects?” Nate asked as his phone rang again. He picked it up, saw that it was Katya again, sent the call to voicemail, and this time turned the phone to vibrate. Nate fleetingly wondered if he should mention her insistent behavior to Marcello, in case he was at risk, but decided against it. Katya may have trouble taking no for an answer, but she was fairly harmless overall.
“Do you need to get that?” Alex asked with a pointed look to Nate’s phone.
“No. Who else is a suspect?”
“Who keeps calling, Nate?” Alex asked.
“No one important.” Not anymore. “But feel free to hack my phone if you don’t believe me. Are we done here?” Nate rose to leave but Marcello halted him.
“Don’t get defensive,” Marcello said. “We were just curious.”
“Curiosity killed the cat,” Nate reminded him and slipped the phone into his pocket. “Who else?”
Marcello sighed but touched on another photo, this one of Nate’s predecessor, Calvin.
“Isn’t he dead?”
Alex nodded. “Very, but if he had something to do with this, and we can prove it, then we can pull any doubt off of you.”
“The people loved Calvin, though,” Nate reminded them. “They aren’t likely to believe he’d be capable of something like this.”
“Maybe not,” Alex reluctantly agreed. “But it’s as good a plan as any.”
“Have you found anything?”
“Just scraps, here and there. We did find some similar anti-monarchist messages on his servers, but there was no reference to a specific group. We’re trying to determine where both his and Byron’s messages came from; they could lead us to the truth.”
“Or just send you on a wild goose chase,” Nate said, playing devil’s advocate. “Isn’t there anyone else? I feel like we’re missing something.”
“We’re still investigating the other Ministers on the Council. Since there are over a dozen of them, you know it will take some time to sort through them all.”
Nate, who had not sat back down, cursed under his breath when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Ready to send Katya a scathing message, his expression became more guarded when he saw it was his father requesting an audience with him. “Keep me updated and let me know if you need anything from me.”
As Nate made his way to the door, Alex said, “We’ll give you an update at dinner.”
Charlie. Even her name was like a talisman to him. “I won’t be at dinner. Just message me.”
“Where are you going now?” Marcello asked. “You dismissed your security detail this morning. Do you need them now?”
He’d dismissed them because he’d wanted to see Charlie, and he had not wanted anyone to know about it. Nate vaguely wondered if his mother had told his father, and if that was why he was being summoned. “Since I’m going to see Papa, there will be plenty of security around.”
“You shouldn’t dismiss them, Nate,” Alex warned.
Nate quirked an eyebrow. “Is that so? Does that make it harder for you to investigate me?”
“No, damn it,” Marcello burst out, an uncharacteristic loss of control. “If something happens, security can vouch for your whereabouts.”
Nate strode over to the table, picked up one of the falsified documents, and gave it a quick glance. “Well, they can’t vouch for me on third day of September last year, can they? I wasn’t in Valleria, as you well know. It doesn’t matter what happens to me now. The damage has already been done.”
Nate waved the paper in the air before slamming it on the table. “I’m still on my own, just like I was ten years ago. It’s interesting that I always jump to help my family, yet they couldn’t even help me when I needed it most.”
Alex stood, empathy and love in his eyes, and spoke softly. “Nate, it wasn’t like that.”
“The hell it wasn’t. And who gives a damn about it anyway? I’ve got to go.” Nate ignored his brothers’ pleas and left the Situation Room.
As he made his way towards his father’s official office, he thought back ten years ago, and the accident that had changed everything. His playboy persona had been born then, out of the pain and numbness that lingered. He winced as he thought about Lorenzo, his younger brother who had too easily taken after him.
He pushed the past aside – hard to do in the hallowed halls of the royal palace. Even harder to do once he entered the royal offices and made his way to the King’s office. In a rare moment, none of the King’s assistants were at their desks. His father’s chief of staff and main advisor, Corrado, was also missing; something was wrong.
Preparing himself, Nate wandered in the open door of his father’s office. Scenes from his youth, when he and his siblings would come to visit, skipped through his mind. More memories, more emotions. He pushed them all back. He didn’t want to feel anything right now.
His father was standing at a far window. The King’s office was situated in a corner of the palace, and thus had excellent views of the surrounding lands and the rest of the capital city of Valentia. He stood regally, stoically, with both hands lightly clasped behind his back as he viewed his domain below. The darkening November sky outside complemented the dark suit he wore, and his salt and pepper mustache twitched as he pondered something – a familiar movement that unexpectedly calmed Nate.
Since they were alone, Nate didn’t address him formally, as his siblings usually did in front of others. “Papa? You wanted to see me?”
Gabriel turned and gestured
for Nate to take a seat at the conference table situated in his office. As Nate approached, he saw it littered with notes and papers concerning the budget. A part of Nate relaxed – if this was strictly a business visit, it would go more smoothly.
“I’ve reviewed the budget you submitted,” Gabriel said as he took a seat.
“And?” Nate said as he sat down as well.
“It’s a good start, given the conditions we’re working with.”
“But?”
“I am concerned with the some of the cuts you’ve made. You mentioned cutting down government salaries and forcing early retirement, but I had no idea you would approach it so ruthlessly.”
Charlotte & Nate (Royals of Valleria #4) Page 13
