Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Isaac had the grace to look uncomfortable. “I might not agree with Phillip’s way of doing things, but your brother and sister are the royal family and the next in line for the throne.” Another of those micro hesitations. “If there’s a way for you to retake the throne…”
Theo held up a hand. “If there was a way, I wouldn’t tell you what it was because it’d put you in a shitty position. I respect you too much to do that.” He let his hand drop. “Just like you’ll respect our privacy for the next twenty-four hours before you do what you came here for.”
“I’ll respect your privacy.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “From a distance where I can see everything to ensure you don’t bolt again.”
He expected as much. Theo set his mug down. “One last thing.”
“Yeah?”
“Meg stays out of it.” He wasn’t ready to end things with her, but if the alternative was to haul her back to Thalania and into more danger than they’d been in up to this point combined… No. Theo was selfish—he was the first to admit that—but he wasn’t that selfish. “We’re putting her on a flight back to New York. As far as you’re concerned, she was never here.”
Isaac’s eerie blue eyes flicked from him to Galen to Meg. “I have my orders.”
Galen shifted, breaking his line of sight with her. “Phillip’s more concerned with us than with her. He’ll be satisfied.”
“I have my orders,” Isaac repeated. He turned back to Theo. “You know he’ll just send someone to collect her if you try to dodge this.”
Yeah, he would. Theo made a show of looking at the clock over Isaac’s head. “Twenty-four hours. Isaac. I expect you to honor it.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” He stood, gave a half bow, and walked out the way he’d come, scooping up his weapons in the process.
Galen moved to the door and locked it behind him, for all the good it would do. It hadn’t kept him out the first time, and it wouldn’t do it a second time if he changed his mind or Phillip altered his orders. Theo sighed. “Our timeline just got a whole hell of a lot more complicated.”
Meg moved around the kitchen island to frown down at him. She was a vision in her short, white robe, her dark hair tangled around her face, her mouth looking distinctly just-fucked. The robe parted as she moved, revealing a slice of skin down to her stomach that drew his gaze. She snapped her fingers near her eyes. “Up here, Theo.” She frowned harder. “You’re seriously going to toss me onto a plane and ride off to meet your uncle, knowing that he’s planned something nasty for you?”
“I’m going to put you on a plane precisely because my uncle has something nasty planned.” Phillip would use the three of them against each other to obtain what he wanted, and then he’d make them all disappear.
Meg stared for several long moments. “I don’t like this.”
“No one does.” Theo pushed to his feet and took her hands. He glanced at Galen. “We promised not to let anything happen to you, princess. We’ve already fucked that up, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying—that either of us is going to stop trying.”
“What about you? If something happens to you…”
“Nature of the beast.”
Meg reached up and touched his face. “Don’t do that. Don’t act like it doesn’t matter what happens to you. It matters.”
Galen walked over and set his gun on the kitchen counter. “He’s right. There’s a decent chance Phillip will let you go if he’s got us both in his control. We’re Thalanian, exiled or not, which puts us under his jurisdiction. You’re American. If word gets out that Phillip Fitzcharles is ordering American girls snatched off the street, it will be a diplomatic nightmare. He’s too smart to risk that.”
Theo permitted himself a small smile. “I see you’ve been talking to Alaric.” If there was one thing his cousin was good for, it was running his mouth. Theo still hadn’t confirmed one way or another if Alaric was reporting directly to Phillip, but he had quite the internet following by virtue of being related to the late Queen of Thalania and being too handsome for his own good.
Theo just insured that, should Phillip make the wrong move where Meg was concerned, Alaric going public with it would benefit him greatly. He’d go publicly speculating on how very strange it was that Thalania had taken a particularly nasty interest in some poor American girl who just happened to date the wrong guy.
It wasn’t foolproof, or Theo would have put it into play earlier, but if Phillip already had what he wanted, he might hold off going after Meg to avoid bringing more trouble down on his head.