My father looked up with red-rimmed eyes. “There’s been an accident. The king and queen are dead.”

  “Sonofabitch.” Accident my ass. I knew with every fiber of my being that if the king was dead, it had not been an accident. My heart beat painfully as I began to pace. “What happened?”

  “There was a meeting of the special council at the palace.” My father sighed, swiping at his eyes. “Members and immediate family were called in to vote on…” He cleared his throat. “Isak wanted to award Casey the title of princess as part of your wedding present. There was to be a brief discussion and the vote. We spoke last night, I gave him my verbal vote, and he didn’t expect any resistance from anyone. He’d already spoken to Anwar, who’d reluctantly agreed so everyone was called in to make it official. Anwar, Rafael, Yolanda, Yusef, Vardan, Miriam, and Daniil.”

  “Oh god.” I fell into a chair at the thought of something happening to Daniil.

  “There was a bomb.” Dad took a breath. “It wiped out the east wing of the palace.”

  “How many?” I asked through clenched teeth.

  “All but two.”

  “All…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “All but Anwar.”

  “And Daniil.”

  “That bastard. That no-good, conniving, piece of shit…” I let out a string of expletives in my native tongue.

  “Daniil was suspicious when Anwar got up in the middle of the vote, claiming to need to use the facilities.” Sandor looked as furious as I felt. “He followed him. Anwar and his two closest aides went into the safe room where the jewels are kept.”

  “Which is made of concrete and steel,” I grunted.

  “Daniil knew something was wrong and ran back to warn the others, but the bomb went off before he got there. He’s banged up, but okay. I spoke to him about twenty minutes ago.”

  “Sonofabitch!” There was a crystal candy bowl on the table next to my chair and I flung it across the room, watching it shatter against the wall, brightly colored candies flying in every direction.

  My mother approached me and leaned down to wrap her arms around me as I fought off tears. The king and queen. Vardan, whom I’d been close to. Rafael and his young wife. Studious Yusef. Innocent, oblivious Miriam. Even Miriam’s husband, quiet Uncle Harold, had been in the room, even though he didn’t have voting rights.

  How the fuck had Anwar gotten away with this? The loss of life was unfathomable to me, and the damage to the palace was heartbreaking. The west wing. Where my suite was located. Skye’s suite. A second home to me. Gone.

  “Thank god Elen was already here in Vegas,” my father said. “Daniil and the others were planning to leave tomorrow.”

  “I have to go to my brother,” Sandor said. “I fear he’s in danger. If Anwar’s goal was to eliminate the rest of the bloodline…”

  “I should go,” I said automatically. “Technically, you’re next in line after Anwar because of my father’s abdication. I’m the logical choice because as long as you and Daniil are alive, I’m no competition to him.”

  “Cousin, you are his greatest competition,” Sandor said. “He knows you are the rightful ruler, the one who should ascend the throne. I gave up my place in the succession when I took the oath of Bodyguard to the Royal Family. He also knows the people of Limaj love you and have embraced your future wife as well. His attempts to discredit her in the press fell flat, and poisoning his father’s mind against her didn’t work either. You are his greatest rival and it’s you who has to be careful.”

  “Whatever he perceives as a threat has no bearing on reality,” I said impatiently. “I’m not in the running unless and until every one of you is dead, and that’s not happening on my watch.”

  “Be that as it may, where you go, I go.” Sandor faced me with his arms folded across his chest.

  Someone brought coffee, tea, and pastries, though no one had an appetite. We were glued to multiple televisions and websites, scouring the news for updated information even as my father had the jet prepared for a trip to Limaj. There was a lot to do, but I had to talk to Casey. Even though I’d been unconsciously preparing for something to happen, reality was jarring, and I was out of sorts. She would ground me; she always did, though we’d never gone through anything like this in our short time together.

  She was in the bathroom when I got to our suite and she looked up in surprise as she came out.

  “Hi. I was just going to look for you.”

  “Something’s happened.” I reached for her and pulled her onto my lap as I sank onto the edge of the bed.

  “Oh no.”

  I told her what I knew, and the tears that filled her eyes caused my own to come to the surface. “I have to go,” I whispered against her hair.

  “I know.” She pressed her face into the side of my neck. “Promise me you’ll be back, Erik.”

  “I’ll never leave you for long,” I whispered, kissing her temple. “Come on, don’t cry.”

  “We should cancel the wedding.”

  “No. Absolutely not.” I pulled away slightly and lifted her chin. “I’m not letting that bastard take this away from us too.”

  “It’ll be considered in bad taste.”

  “No, it won’t. We’ll add a special tribute to the family members we lost, maybe a photo collage or something, make it a celebration of their lives as well as the beginning of ours. We can’t cancel because that’s what he wants. He wants to disrupt everything, throw the royal family into turmoil and the country into chaos. I won’t allow it. The people will need something as beautiful as a wedding to help them heal after such a loss.”

  “If we go ahead with the wedding, then we have to address why, because it really will look gauche.”

  “We’ll hire a PR team and set up an interview for when I get back. My plan is to go and meet with Anwar. I’ll pay my respects, feign interest in the funeral arrangements, perhaps even pretend to pledge my support and allegiance. I have to know what’s going on, what his plans are.”

  “The wedding is in ten days, Erik. How are you going to do all this in ten days?”

  “I don’t know, but I have to try. Do you trust me?”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m going to meet with Anwar, get a feel for what’s happening, and come home.”

  “Be careful, Erik. He’s so much more dangerous than we imagined.”

  “I know, but someone has to go.”

  “Won’t people think it’s strange that the whole family isn’t going to mourn, plan the funeral, all that stuff?”

  “Perhaps, but at this point, my concern is getting Daniil out of the country and seeing if I can find out what Anwar is planning. He’s going to be king now unless we can prove that he murdered the family, and I’m probably the only one who can do that.”

  “He’ll kill you too.”

  “He might try, but I’m not stupid, and both my father and I have allies within Parliament and the rest of the government.”

  “I don’t like this.” Her eyes were watery as she looked at me.

  “I know.” I brought her fingers to my mouth and kissed each one. “I don’t either, but I have to do this. Please say you understand.”

  “I do.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and held on for dear life.

  33

  Casey

  Erik left for Limaj the next day, promising to be home as soon as possible. I’d had a full schedule finalizing wedding plans, but most of it was done, leaving me time to be was nervous now. Instead of dwelling on it, though, I spent the day at my condo, preparing it to be put up for sale. We weren’t going to live here, after all, so why keep it? I tossed a pile of catalogs and old magazines into the recycling bin and emptied the guest bathroom medicine cabinet. My mother and the personal security guard Erik had hired had come with me and it was nice having company. I could have hired someone to do it, but I wanted to go through everything myself. Everything for the wedding was taken care of, but selling my condo, formally moving into Ben and Kari’s, and packing for the honeymoon were still on the horizon.

  Today was one of the last days I had left to pack up my personal belongings and get them out of the condo, so I was making the most of some very rare down time. I’d already emptied the closet in the spare room, moved all of my guitars to my dad’s new recording studio, and made arrangements for a charity organization to come pick up my furniture since Erik and I wouldn’t need it at Ben and Kari’s and we would buy new things once we found a house. As excited as I was about marrying him, saying goodbye to my old life felt strange.

  “Casey, should I just throw out everything in the refrigerator?” my mother called.

  “Yes, please. Thank you.” I’d slowly been picking up clothes from my condo each time I thought of something I needed, so my personal belongings were sparse. I’d packed a few boxes of picture frames, photo albums, books, and childhood memories, and my mother was going to handle the linen closet at some point, which left very little for me to do. More than anything, I was trying to keep busy so I wouldn’t have a panic attack over the thought of something happening to Erik in Limaj.

  “Are you all right, Ms. Hart?” My new bodyguard, Joe Westfield, was a retired Marine who’d come highly recommended.

  “Just kind of stressed,” I responded, smiling. I sank onto the edge of the bed and rubbed my temples.

  “You’re a little pale,” he said quietly. “Let me get you a bottle of water.”

  I wanted to protest, but he was right. In fact, today was the first day I’d felt anything but sleepy with the pregnancy. I was eleven weeks along now and felt great in general, but today I’d been queasy and rundown, as if Erik had taken all my energy with him when he left this morning. It was odd to be so in tune to another human being that their absence impacted you physically, but that’s how I felt.

  Joe brought me a bottle of water, and I opened it gratefully. “Thank you.” I took a long pull and sighed. “I guess I’m more nervous about Erik being gone than I thought.”

  “Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen to you on my watch, and I sent one of my men with Erik as well. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  “Thanks for the reassurance, but we have no way of knowing what’s going to happen. Anwar is crazy.”

  Joe nodded. “Perhaps, but I know I’ll die before I let anything happen to you, and the man I sent with Erik is former Special Forces. They don’t get any more badass than that.” He squeezed my shoulder. “It’ll be okay, kiddo.”

  I wanted to believe him, so I forced myself back to my feet and the task at hand.

  I didn’t hear from Erik until the next day, and by the time he called me I was beside myself with worry.

  “Where are you?” I cried when I answered the phone.

  “Hello, love. I’m okay, and we have Daniil. We’re at a safe house not far from the city, a place no one but my father, Sandor, and I know about. Things in Limaj are deteriorating rapidly so we’re taking care not to let our guard down.”

  “I saw on the news there’s going to be a memorial service tomorrow for everyone that was lost and that there aren’t enough remains for there to be a proper funeral.”

  “Anwar wants to sweep this under the rug as quickly as possible to get on with his own coronation. He’s an embarrassment to our family and the whole country. Parliament is in an uproar, there are protests in the streets, and when we left this morning, he was threatening to turn off access to the internet for the general public.”

  “Turn off access to the internet?” I echoed in shock. “Can he do that?”

  “As a dictator-style monarch, he can do whatever the hell he wants once he officially takes over.”

  “Erik, you should leave. Get out of there.”

  “I’m meeting with Anwar tomorrow to get a feel for what’s going on. There wasn’t time to gather the government today, so Parliament and the royal assembly are meeting tomorrow at ten o’clock. Hopefully, by evening we’ll be in London.”

  “What if he tries to set off another bomb while everyone is gathered together?”

  “I think security will be tight. If he does something like that before he’s officially crowned King, I think the country will implode, which doesn’t bode well for his delusions. He wants money and power—he’ll have neither if there’s no one running anything at all.”

  “Oh, Erik, I’m scared.”

  “I know, baby, but we had to get Daniil, and I have to talk with Anwar. There’s too much at stake for the people for me to just turn my back. My father has been in touch with several of our allies who are reluctant to allow Anwar to ascend the throne, so there’s still a chance we can turn things around. I just don’t have any answers yet. Tomorrow will tell us what we need to know.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I changed the subject. “Everyone here is kind of subdued and sad, worried about everyone, especially Daniil.”

  “He’s hurt pretty badly, but he’ll survive. We’re going to move him to a hospital in London as soon as we can leave the country tomorrow.”

  “I love you, Erik. Please hurry home.”

  “I love you too, sweetheart. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

  We were a subdued, quiet group that evening at dinner, and for the first time I felt strangely out of place as Erik’s family began to reminisce about Uncle Isak, Aunt Klara, and the others. They told funny stories about them as children, as teens, and as they grew into adulthood. No one said much about Yusef or Rafael, though they mentioned Miriam and Vardan more than once.

  I had nothing to add since I’d only met Isak and Klara a couple of times and didn’t know the others at all, so I excused myself after dinner and went up to our room to call my parents. I’d wanted to stay with them this week but it was a logistical nightmare security-wise, so I’d agreed to stay here.

  “Hi, sweetie.” My dad’s voice almost brought me to tears.

  “Hey, Daddy.”

  “What’s the matter, honey?”

  “I just…” I sighed. “I miss Erik, and I’m worried about him and everything is so sad with what happened in Limaj. I don’t know what to do because I’d never even met most of them so it’s hard for me to mourn people I don’t know. Erik knew them, though, so I’m trying to be supportive, but I’m hormonal and cranky and now I think I’m gonna cry.” I took a shuddery breath, trying to keep my emotions under control.

  “Don’t cry,” he said softly. “But you can if you want to. Then you need to dry your face and keep a stiff upper lip. Erik will be back in a few days and you’re going to get married and everything is going to be fine.”

  “Why am I having a hard time believing that anymore?”

  “Because you’re pregnant and hormonal. You wanna talk to your mom? ’Cause I can’t really help with all the pregnancy stuff.”

  I chuckled. “No. I want you to tell me about the studio and all the stuff going on over there. I need a distraction.”

  “Oh, well, that I can do.”

  We talked about equipment: soundboards, amps, pedals, and specialized computer software. Running a recording studio was a lot more complicated than just playing music, and I realized I had a lot to learn if I was going to be involved.

  “You’re not going to have time for all this with a new baby,” he said. “You should be focusing on your new family, not my retirement hobby.”

  “Retirement hobby? You’ve been talking about a studio most of my life. You finally have the time to do it, and I want to be part of it. Especially if I’ve got a new baby at home keeping me from being able to tour.”

  “You don’t have a band anymore,” he pointed out gently.

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “Well, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to check out musicians when the studio opens in January. We’ve already booked our first band and I’m planning to produce a solo project for…”

  We talked music for another hour, then I talked to my mother for a few minutes before begging off. Limaj was eleven hours ahead of us timewise, so it was eight in the morning there now and Erik was probably getting ready for his big meeting. I ached to hear his voice, so I grabbed the phone and dialed his number.

  “Morning, love.” He sounded tired, and my heart broke a little for him.

  “How are you?”

  “I’m okay. How about you? How’s my son?”

  “Your daughter is fine, sleeping peacefully right now. At least I think so.”

  He chuckled. “He is just waiting for you to fall asleep so he can start bouncing around.”

  “Since I haven’t felt her move yet, I’m not sure how I’d tell.”

  “How long until we can find out the sex?”

  “Probably another eight weeks.”

  “That’s too long,” he protested mildly. “I want to know now.”

  “I’m sorry?” I laughed.

  “I love you, babe, but I have to go. We’re getting ready to leave the safe house and head to Parliament.”

  “I know I’ve said this a hundred times, but please be careful. I don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to you.”

  “I’ll be okay. I’ve got backup, and we have plans B and C should plan A go south.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too. Try not to worry, okay?”

  “Will you call me when it’s over? Even if you wake me up?”

  “We may have to move quickly, but I’ll call you as soon as it’s safe. I promise.”

  “Until later.”

  “Until later.”

  34

  Erik

  We got to Parliament House early, hoping to catch some of our known allies alone before the general meeting, but it was nerve-wracking walking into the building. I could take care of myself and Sandor was a force to be reckoned with, but neither of us could take on rocket launchers or bombs. I was wearing a bulletproof vest and we were all armed, but there was no way to predict what Anwar had up his sleeve.

  “Your Highness.” I turned, knowing the greeting was for me, and I was relieved to see General Martin Sarrano, an old friend and ally of my father’s. He was the leader of our military, a strong, proud man who’d been a staunch supporter of Uncle Isak and his vision for Limaj.

 

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