Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 141385 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141385 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“Don’t finish that sentence if you want to keep your tongue,” I say darkly. “Find out what’s been happening in the Sinclair household over the last two years. If you cross paths with Harriet, keep your hands and your eyes to yourself.”
He smirks, tilting his head to the side. “As you wish, Your Royal Highness. Do you think the lady is aware of your devilish possessive streak?”
“Alec,” Oscar groans.
He laughs in response. “I’m only asking.”
“She’ll find out soon enough,” I reply. “Not that she has any room to talk with how boldly she declared I belong to her.”
“What a woman. She’s wasted on you and your gilded cage.” He shakes his head. “All right, I’ll see what I can find out. Anything specific?”
“When she came back and how the secrecy came about. I want to know what her life has been like for the last two years. Leave no stone unturned.”
Oscar’s gaze snaps to me. “What her life has been like?”
I nod. “The first time I saw her, she was taking photographs in the park. She’s a freelance photographer. Why is the legitimate eldest daughter of the Sinclair family with access to a trust fund working? And if she insists on working, why is it not in the family business?”
“Maybe she’s a rebel,” Alec says dryly.
If only he knew.
“We all know why she was kept secret,” he continues. “Jasmine Sinclair is obsessed with you. There’s no way she’d allow her cousin or sister or whatever they are to come in and take what she believes to be hers.”
“Mm. Even if she is of Sinclair blood, she’s still adopted, and the Royal House’s preference will always be Harriet. Even without the element of deceit.” I run my hand through my hair and sigh. “I don’t know. Something tells me we’re missing information. Harriet has too much hatred towards her family—there’s something going on.”
Alec pulls out his phone. “All right, I’ll get onto it now.” His thumbs fly across the screen, and he puts it down a second later. “If the Sinclairs are hiding something, I’ll find it. They can’t keep anything from me.”
Oscar eyes him. “Are you telling me you have someone on the inside in the Sinclair household?”
Alec’s smile is as chilling as his next words. “The palace is the only place I don’t have eyes, my friend. I know what you had for breakfast this morning.”
“I’d be scared of you if I didn’t know that already.”
I laugh, finally relaxing a little. “Well, I’m glad for your extensive network of spies.”
“I prefer to refer to them as researchers,” Alec says, a small smile tugging at his lips.
He can call them what he wants, but they’re still spies at the end of the days. Spies that benefit the Royal Family, along with everything else he does for us.
If Oscar is the brains, then Alec is the muscle.
Where Oscar moves in the light as my right hand, Alec is my left one, dancing through the shadows.
If there’s something to be uncovered in the Sinclair house, he’ll have it in front of me before I can blink.
“How long have I got?”
I meet his dark gaze. “She’s given me a week to answer her.”
He snorts.
“So, you’ve got less than that. But keep your eyes on them even after that. I want to know everything that happens in that house, from what time they wake up to how many leftovers there are at dinner.”
“Understood.”
“Get eyes on Harriet, too.”
Oscar pauses. “You’re going to have someone watch her?”
“No.” I look at them both, taking a moment to meet both of their gazes. “I don’t want her watched. I want her protected.”
“As you wish, Your Royal Highness,” Alec says, pulling a cigarette out of the box and toying with it between his fingers. “I assume you don’t want her to know.”
“No. Keep it secret.”
A tiny smile appears on his face. “And if something happens to her?”
I hold his gaze. “If something happens to her, Alec, the same thing will happen to you.”
The unlit cigarette stilled, pinched between his two fingers. “My, my. She must be special if you’re even threatening me.”
“I’m not playing around,” I say firmly. “I can’t protect her yet, so I’m trusting you to. If so much as a hair on her head is harmed, I will take all of yours. For every scrape or cut she gets, you’ll feel it tenfold.”
“I hear you loud and clear,” he replies, his gaze intense. “Nothing will happen to her. You have my word.”
***
“Well?”
Alec throws a manila envelope on the table between us. “She’s something, that’s for sure.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I grab the envelope and slide out the singular sheet of paper inside it. It’s the world’s shortest report with absolutely zero information in. “What the fuck is this?”
“I was trying to type it up when you demanded I get my arse over here, so here I am.” He holds his hands out. “Who am I to defy an order from my esteemed crown prince?”