Damaged Royals

by Hazel Parker

  “How are you?”

  “I’m doing okay,” he said, his voice strained. He tried to cover the speaker when he coughed, but I could still hear how deep it was and could already imagine how it wracked his frail, lanky body. Worry slid over me.

  “Have you had dinner? There’s some tomato soup in the fridge, and you can just heat it up.”

  “I was waiting for you. What time are you coming home?”

  That he was waiting for me when he was probably very hungry was sweet. I regretted that we wouldn’t have dinner together tonight, but I took a deep breath at what I had to do.

  “There’s a last-minute thing I really need to do, Kyle. Can you heat up the soup on your own and go ahead and eat? There’s bread in the pantry, too. And some cheese.”

  There was a sneeze on the other line before Kyle spoke, his voice muffled. “Sure. Where are you going?”

  “Just some errands,” I said hastily. I didn’t elaborate, knowing he wasn’t going to like me working a third job tonight just for his medicine. Kyle had this thing about right versus wrong and owing a person too much, even his own sister, and it was fascinating, really. But that wasn’t going to fly, not when he really needed to get well as soon as possible.

  Besides, a little white lie didn’t hurt.

  “I promise to be back before midnight. Will you rest while I’m gone?”

  “Okay. Love you, sis.”

  “Love you, Kyle.”

  We hung up on a positive note, and I took another deep breath as I tried to gather whatever strength I had left. Then, because standing still was just pointless, I got out of there and went out of the newspaper station, knowing every second was precious.

  * * *

  The weariness hit me on my second hour selling watches, but I pushed through as crowds and some tourists roamed the city’s busy area. It was summertime, and the heat wasn’t really heat, but a cozy warmth that made it the perfect night to go out. I admired everyone who walked by in their fancy clothes, tried to cajole everyone I could to check out the accessories I was selling. I also tried not to acknowledge my achy exhausted body that told me I really, really needed to get to bed.

  Thank God it was the weekend soon.

  Gritting my teeth, I stubbornly ignored it all and kept sweet-talking and selling, happy when I convinced a tourist to buy some cheap but fancy looking necklace for his girlfriend—my eighth sell for the day. My stomach growled from all the food odors permeating the air from the night market, but I resisted temptation. I didn’t have enough to buy a meal on top of the bills, and there was already food waiting for me at home, anyway.

  By the time the fourth hour hit, my feet hurt from all the standing, and I was pretty sure I was going to fall over sometime soon if I didn’t stop. I counted my earnings in my head and sighed in relief when I realized it was more than enough, and I even had some to spare to buy Kyle and I a piece of dessert.

  A piece of cheesecake would hit the spot.

  Excitement surged through me as I returned the remaining jewelry and watches to the pawnshop, then took the long walk home. My excitement warred with my tiredness, a push and pull as my mind conjured up images of my bed. To distract myself, I let my eyes wander around my surroundings, thinking up this little game in my head of counting how many couples I spotted along the way. It was too late in the night to buy our favorite store cheesecake, so I was just going to have to do that tomorrow.

  I was already on my fifth couple count and in a dimly-lit area when I spotted it—a glint in an alleyway, followed by grunts. My first amused thought was some couple had decided to head in the dark and quench whatever hunger they had for each other, and that thought remained as I drew nearer—not out of curiosity, but because I really needed to pass by that alley, anyway. I heard more grunts that sounded manly with different tones, and my grin only slid up when I realized the potential that it was a male couple getting it on.

  Just as I nearly passed the alley, a man slipped out of there—tall, gangly, wearing ragged clothes. He didn’t turn my way, instead running in the other direction with that glinting thing I spotted earlier in his hand.

  My smile froze, then dropped when I realized that it was a knife.

  With a start, comprehension dawned as I realized the grunts weren’t sex but something else entirely. I ran over to the alley just as the mugger disappeared on the other end of the street. Then I started searching around the dark corners until I found what I was looking for behind the huge garbage bin.

  It was a man, he was blond and looked tall wearing some of the finest clothes I’d seen. They weren’t really flashy, but I knew enough about clothes to know that these were high end. Heart in my throat, I looked around to make sure the mugger had indeed fled, then knelt down beside him, I spoke with no response, already dreading the thought of that knife puncturing a hole through some vital organ.

  To my relief, I only spotted what looked like a flesh wound on his stomach area, which was bleeding slightly. I looked over his body and determined that the mugger didn’t slice through him anywhere else, then checked his heartbeat and found that it was beating regularly. He was unconscious, which meant he was probably knocked out before the mugger took whatever he could from him—in this case, a wallet and any sort of ID, because I couldn’t find anything on him. He didn’t even have any shoes on, and worry slid over me as I realized that there was no way the private hospital nearby would accept this guy without any form of payment on him.

  And I couldn’t afford to pay for him, either.

  The decision played in my mind. My place wasn’t far off—two minutes away, to be exact. I wondered if my neighbor was still up and about and if I could ask him for a favor without having to return one anytime soon, considering I really didn’t have anything to return. I had some background in first aid due to my stint being an assistant in hospital ambulance calls, and really, it wasn’t like I could leave him alone here.

  I sighed, suddenly forgetting my own weariness at the thought of the long night ahead of me.

  Then I whispered for the guy to hang on and rushed over to my neighbor, hoping he would be okay.

  Chapter 3

  LIZ

  My neighbor, Marlon, wanted a date in return for helping me carry the unconscious man to my living room couch. Because I couldn’t be rude and couldn’t really hurt the young man’s feelings, I decided to humor him and promised him I’d cook him some really good food someday—not exactly a no to the date, but a good enough evasion to keep him happy for now.

  When he was gone, the first thing I did was check on Kyle. He was already fast asleep in his bedroom, and I decided not to wake him up since his next medicine intake was early in the morning. I then boiled some water, got some towels ready and took out my first aid kit, which I hadn’t really used in a while.

  Then I carefully unbuttoned the disheveled dress shirt from the unconscious stranger and began to clean the wound on his stomach before it could get infected.

  Thankfully, the wound wasn’t deep, and it wasn’t long before I was dressing the wound with some gauze and patching him up. I re-checked every part of his body except what was under his boxers, ignoring the sleek muscles and concentrating on being completely professional. There was no other wounds and his heart beat felt good. His head had a large bruised lump on it. Probably where he was knocked out.

  It seemed he was going to be fine.

  Finished with my patching task, I finally went to the kitchen to heat up the soup and slice some bread, which I took on the kitchen counter while observing the man lying on the couch. He was a handsome man—movie-star handsome, in fact.

  I was just washing the dishes when I watched him stir out of the corner of my eye. Drying everything up, I walked over and quickly knelt beside him, waiting as his eyes fluttered open. He had the clearest gray eyes I’d seen, just as beautiful as he was, but blurred. I waited for them to focus in my direction before giving him a soft, cautious smile.

  “Hey there.”

>   He blinked. He squinted at me, almost like he was trying to recognize me.

  “Hey.”

  I opened my mouth, about to introduce myself and tell him what happened—that was, until he started leaning forward, his hand reaching out for my head and pulling me towards him. His eyes fluttered shut, and to my horror, his lips puckered—

  My hand went up almost immediately, connecting on his cheek right away. I did it a second time, making him groan as he clutched his face and complained about some headache. Guilt entered me at being so reactive, and I realized he must have been delirious.

  But a woman could never be too safe.

  I steeled my voice. “If you do that again, you’re going to get a kick in the groin. Is that understood?”

  There was another groan, one of assent this time. Pitying him, I softened my next approach. “I have some aspirin and tomato soup. Do you want some?”

  There was a very distinct nod from his end, and I decided that now was the best time to explain everything. He quietly listened as I did so, taking my time as I served him the hot soup, some bread, some orange juice and the aspirin I promised. He sat down gingerly and eyed them before taking the pill and biting on the bread.

  “I’m sorry for trying to kiss you,” he said, and he really did sound sorry. “My name’s Benjamin. Ben for short. You can slap me again if you want.”

  I urged him to eat some more. Then I smiled. “My name’s Elizabeth. Liz for short. Twice was enough.”

  * * *

  “So you really called in sick from work because of me?”

  I shrugged, trying not to dwell on it as I made breakfast for the gang—scrambled eggs, with a touch of butter to make them extra special. It was two days after I took Benjamin in and he asked for time to recuperate, and I felt I had no choice in the matter. Kyle woke up and was introduced to him, and I asked my brother to be extra vigilant before I left that Saturday for work and for some extra hustling on the streets.

  Imagine my surprise when I found my brother and Benjamin laughing their asses off as they took over the kitchen and made what appeared to be a mess of fried rice and chicken noodle soup. My brother’s flu was gone, something that had me sighing in deep relief.

  They hit it off. Now it was a Sunday, and they were still hitting it off, laughing over something in the living room and looking like they were in their own world. It was amazing how Kyle acted like an adult sometimes, despite his young age of thirteen. Benjamin seemed to be fascinated with him, too, and I could tell from that gesture alone that he was a nice man.

  One who probably had a family looking for him.

  “Aren’t you going to call home, wherever that is?”

  “Have I overstayed my welcome?” he asked politely.

  “You can stay here as long as you want,” Kyle piped up solemnly.

  I inwardly groaned, already thinking of the extra expenses that would take. But I didn’t want to sound rude, so I forced a smile out and joined in on their jokes, thinking that I might as well use my sick day to have some fun.

  We played some board games. I redressed Benjamin’s wound and watched him carefully. He had a fever last night but it had broke and was gone in the morning, but one couldn’t be too careful. I resisted the urge to ask him questions, instead washing our lunch dishes and leaving them alone to continue the game.

  A few minutes later, footsteps sounded behind me. I gave out a startled sound when I found my body being turned around and my hand taken by a pair of big ones. Benjamin was standing just a few inches away, his expression earnest and rather intimate. I resisted the urge to step back.

  “I want to tell you something,” he said.

  “Yes?”

  “I’m a very influential man in another city.”

  I blinked. That…wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I knew he was wealthy but…

  “Are you a politician?”

  He frowned. “Not necessarily, but I promise you I have power. And I would like to express my gratitude to you by offering you a good job at my home.”

  I winced. “We look that poor, huh?”

  A stricken expression crossed his face, and I knew he didn’t mean to offend. I sighed and squeezed his hands back, then let them go. “This is why you shouldn’t be running away, wherever you’re from. You’ve got family and a home. That’s more than we can ever ask for.”

  “I realize that now,” he said soberly. “And I’m calling home to get them to fetch me.”

  “We’ve got a phone. Knock yourself out.”

  “Thank you, Liz. You’ve been very kind. I promise you that job.”

  I shot him a grin, not necessarily believing it. To be honest, I didn’t expect anything, and I was pretty sure Kyle and I would be back to the grind by Monday—him with some self-studying and selling hotdogs on the streets, and me with all my jobs. But I decided to humor Benjamin, anyway. “Oh, yeah? And how much would that job pay?”

  He spouted off an amount without missing a beat, and I stared as the numbers started making sense in my head. Huge numbers. Humongous numbers to me anyway. It was about four to five times what I earned right now, maybe even more.

  “What type of work?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

  “As a maid for our pala—home.”

  Was he just about to say palace?

  I eyed him warily, still unable to believe it. Sure, I didn’t think Benjamin was being deliberately deceitful, but instincts told me he wasn’t telling the whole truth, either.

  Those same instincts told me he wouldn’t harm me and Kyle if he could help it.

  That left me confident enough to leave them alone in the late afternoon, so I could sneak in some extra earnings by selling some more jewelry and watches. I walked home carrying three slices of cheesecake and a good amount of money in my pocket—enough to pay electricity and maybe hold off the creditors from the debt I owed them. I had made the mistake of borrowing money for a business gig in the past, one that failed spectacularly and ended with them hounding me. I even had enough to order takeout—my last treat to Benjamin before the guy returned to his old life.

  I entered the apartment in a rather cheerful mood. Everything was going good. We didn’t have to starve for a few more days, Kyle’s flu was completely gone, and I had enough sleep this weekend to sustain me for the rest of the week.

  “Good evening!” I called out once I got inside. “Who wants some pizza for dinner? Or chicken dumplings from the Chinese restaurant nearby?”

  No one replied, much to my puzzlement. I turned around and faced the living room.

  I froze.

  Kyle was standing in the kitchen, looking bright-eyed but uncertain as he looked at the living room, then at me. Benjamin was sitting on the living room couch, looking stiff and serious as he eyed me quietly, his lips clamped together. But he wasn’t alone.

  Beside him sat yet another stranger.

  The stranger stood up slowly, his body unfolding to reveal a tall, muscular man wearing a black suit that enveloped his hard-looking body sharply. I stared at that body for a while, a bit mesmerized, before moving my gaze up to take in a pair of firm-looking lips and hair as black as night, styled in a rather careless manner. He had a nose that looked like it might have been broken at one time, as well as a five o’clock shadow that only emphasized his well-defined jaw.

  Midnight blue eyes stared at me, and I stared back. My stomach jolted at the eye contact, and suddenly I felt my breath being taken away. But for the life of me, I couldn’t look away.

  Benjamin was handsome, yes, with his clean-cut looks and his charming demeanor. But this man…this man was more than handsome, with his rugged good looks and a confidence that told me he knew it. Instinct told me he and Benjamin were related.

  Instinct also told me he was dangerous.

  An alarm sounded in my head just as his gaze turned cold, then shifted away. It was a cold dismissal done so efficiently, and despite how brief it was, it touched something in me that had never ha
ppened before—not even to rude customers. Maybe because theirs were impersonal, while his…well, it felt personal, for some reason.

  It made me feel somewhat insulted.

  Because I had never been rude to anyone in my entire life and wouldn’t be starting anytime soon, I stepped forward and gave the stranger a smile. He didn’t smile back, which had my smile faltering. I straightened my shoulders and pushed on, refusing to be cowed.

  “You must be here to fetch Ben,” I said by way of greeting. “I’m Liz. He was pretty injured, and I let him recuperate for a few days here.”

  He didn’t return my greeting. Instead, he shot Benjamin a look, one Benjamin returned with a sigh. That look meant only one thing: that they were going to talk more about this in private, giving me the idea that Benjamin hadn’t told this man the whole story. Great.

  “Did you want some dinner, too?”

  The man ignored my question and spoke, his voice as cold as his gaze. “Please don’t call him Ben. And we’re going now. Thank you for taking care of him.”

  He may as well have said I am too good for this garbage by the tone of his voice. Now my back was really up.

  I might not be rude, but I certainly wasn’t going to take some stranger berating me inside my own home. I lifted my chin.

  “And why not?”

  I expected some lecture about how Benjamin needed to be called sir, or how poor people like me didn’t deserve to mingle with rich people like them.

  But the next words out of his mouth were the least I was expecting.

  And they had me staring in shock.

  “Because you’re talking to the Crown Prince of Osmerol and will face execution if you disrespect him like that again.”

  Chapter 4

  LUCAS

  The woman’s face paled, and a surge of satisfaction came to me—the first since I came to this too-crowded city and tried locating the address Benjamin provided. I expected to find him at some fancy hotel, lounging the day away in front of a swimming pool and drinking cocktails as he liked to do when he did his little running-away thing. It was a stunt that he’d pulled too many times to be considered alarming, though it still annoyed me every single time.