Chapter 24

Not Bloody Likely

“Thank you so much for everything,” I say, shaking the gallery director’s hand. He’s looking a little like he’s having a little ischemic activity and I’m beginning to worry.

Finally, he takes a breath and replies, “The pleasure was all mine. Truly.”

Dahlia and I make our final goodbyes inside the gallery and then take time to greet the people who are waiting outside to meet us. We take our time, each taking a side of the path and talking to as many as we can before we crisscross and switch sides for a minute, going back again before we reach the car.

“Princess! Princess!” someone shouts.

We both look back over our shoulders, our hair tossing around us as we do, taking a moment to smile and wave at the crowd one last time as Leo pulls openthe car door and we climb in one at a time.

Leo climbs into the front seat, and the driver begins our slow passage through the crowds. So far, I’ve been able to go to these planned visits with minimal close security. Rhys, on the other hand, needs a police escort to do something like this. He’s already tried to prepare me for a time when we won’t always be able to travel together. When our family grows, a baby and I will travel separately from him to preserve the line of succession.

I’m still me when I attend these events, but a different version of me. I’m on. It’s almost a performance of the version of me they want to see. The wife of the King, the woman who is supposed to be by his side while he rules his nation. And I am her, but the confident, outwardly poised woman is one that I have to work hard to achieve and maintain.

Now that we’re on the road, I feel like I can breathe again and my shoulders slowly relax. Cinderella has left the ball and it’s time to turn back into a pumpkin… only this time the pumpkin is a shy book nerd who wants to wash off her makeup and put on some loungewear—designer loungewear, but still loungewear.

I kick off my shoes and slouch back into the soft leather seat of the SUV. Dahlia is relaxed again too. She worried me earlier. Not that I don’t trust her, but the vice admiral was really pushing her buttons. I know I’m not very strong and tend to take a lot from the people around me, but Dahlia is no doormat. She’s strongand brave, and a little crazy if I’m being honest. She’d never let anyone treat her poorly, but something has her a little shaken. I’m not sure why his disapproval has her so twisted up. I mean he’s hot in an older way. He’s probably the same age as her mother. I guess I shouldn’t judge because Rhys is so much older than I am, but still. It’s not the same.

I want to ask her about it, but I can’t right now because Leo is in the car and I know for a fact there is something going on there. My Spidey senses tell me so. Not to mention that we’re supposed to be classy and demure and definitely discrete. Talking about any dalliance between the vice admiral and Dahlia in front of Leo is not only rude, but it’s, well… icky and I don’t like that. Leo is at work and the last thing I want to do is make his work life hostile while he’s literally protecting me.

Either way, I’m going to have to wait until we’re back at the castle to broach things with Dahlia.

That’s the last thought I have before we stop at a red light on a side street somewhere halfway across the island. On our trek back to the castle on the cliffs, my door is wrenched open and a man grabs me. I don’t even think, I just open my mouth and let out a blood curdling scream. I have survived an orchestrated car wreck and an intentional anaphylaxis, and I didn’t come through all of that alive so that some man could pull me from a motor vehicle.

Before I can think, even before Leo and the armeddriver can act, Dahlia does not hesitate. She grabs me by my arms with both hands as she kicks her feet out over my lap to strike my would-be assailant. She throws her whole body into motion to drive her momentum into him as she pulls me free from his grip And as she does this, she shouts, “Not bloody likely.”

“Drive!” Leo orders as I cling to Dahlia, and the driver hits the gas. The man who grabbed me is thrown from the vehicle as Leo calls in our position. “Kidnapping attempt made on the Queen Regent. She’s safe. The assailant is a male, approximately forty-five, ninety kilos, and six feet tall. Wearing a brown tweed jacket and newsboy. May be armed but did not pull a weapon.”

After a series of twists and turns that are sure to have proven we’ve not been followed, the driver pulls to a stop on a quiet side street. When he slams on the brakes, Leo jumps from the front seat and leans in through my door where the man who grabbed me just was.

“Are you all right, Princess?” he says to Dahlia before realizing his mistake and turning to me. “Are ye all right, your majesty?”

“Yes,” I whisper, still clutching Dahlia.

“We’re going to get you both home safely,” he says. “We’re just going to have to take a longer route to ensure there isn’t another trap lying in wait. We should be fine until we get to the road that leads to the castle. If we should be accosted there, we will go into yourprotocol. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I reply. Dahlia is stubbornly silent as she glares at him.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” he asks me while looking at Dahlia.

“N-no,” I stammer. “No, I think I’m okay.”

Leo only nods and then slams the door shut before climbing back into the front seat. He pulls his door tight and hits the lock button before nodding to our driver to continue.

“Best buckle up, ladies,” the driver says before he does his best impression of a secret spy car chase. It makes me wonder if he is a secret spy. If I weren’t so shaken up I’d make a note to ask Rhys about him later.

Leo just pulls his sidearm from his holster and goes through the process of checking the chamber for a round. He doesn’t reholster his weapon, instead he keeps it in his hand with his arm loose at his side. Both men are a level of alert that has the hair rising on the back of my neck.

Thankfully, the rest of our trip back to the castle is mostly uneventful, other than the driving. No one approaches the car and no one tries to pull me from a moving vehicle, or stopped vehicle, whatever the technical answer may be.

Since we all look a little worse for the wear, we do not arrive at the front of the drive like we normally would after a royal visit, especially a happy one like today’s. Instead, we drive around to the back where theprivate entrance waits for us.

Protection officers with guns in their hands pour out of the building as we approach. Leo jumps out and opens my door.

“Stay low,” he says as he rushes me and Dahlia out of the car and into the building.

As soon as we’re through the doors, Rhys is there, pulling me into his arms and holding onto me for dear life. His hold is so tight that I almost can’t breathe. But I don’t care because with his strong hand cradling the back of my head, holding me to his chest where I can hear the rapid beat of his heart, I know that I am safe.