Page 97 of Royal Caleva: Luis

“No!” Now she was terrified. The relentless Mikel would not hesitate to lock her up in the CárcelMax prison, with psychopaths like Odette. She fought down her fear and tried to think rationally. She couldn’t tell Mikel that she wouldn’t poison Luis because she was crazy in love with him. She hadn’t even told Luis that.

The simplest truth fought its way through her panic. “I could never harm Luis, because of Grace, whom I love more than anyone in the world. To take Luis away from her would hurt her deeply.” She looked directly at Mikel. “You have a daughter. Wouldn’t you do almost anything to protect her from pain?”

The silence stretched as Mikel’s gaze rested on her face. When he finally spoke, it was in a low voice. “What I have done to protect my daughter is beyond anything you can imagine, so I accept your reasoning.”

Relief flooded Eve, and she let out a shaky sigh.

Mikel did not stop asking questions, though. “Did you notice His Majesty handling any objects more than once?”

“Objects?” The change in subject threw her off-balance again.

“Something that might have carried the thallium,” Mikel said. “We are going through the registry of gifts he has received recently, but you could help narrow down the search.”

As she considered his question, Eve’s cheeks flushed again. Mostly, Luis had been touching her when they’d been together in private. She banished that from her mind and closed her eyes, trying to conjure up her memories of each time she’d seen him alone. “I can’t think of any—wait! I never saw him pick it up, but he had the same book at Casa en las Nubes and in his room at the palace. It caught my eye because it had a picture of fencers on the cover, and Luis said he likes to fence for exercise.”

Mikel pulled out his phone and scrolled for a moment. “Fencing Strategies Through the Ages?”

“I didn’t read the title.” She had been focused on more important things…like Luis looking at her as though he wanted to tear her clothes off and taste every inch of her body. The memory sent a flicker of heat through her veins.

Mikel tapped at his phone for a few moments before he looked up. “We know who presented him with the book. If the thallium came from that…”

Eve shivered at Mikel’s malevolent expression. She hoped he never looked at her that way.

“Gracias, señora,” he said. “Your help has been invaluable.”

Eve had whiplash. First, he accused her of trying to murder Luis, and now he was praising her?

He must have seen something in her expression because he said, “I had to ask. It is my job.”

And he made no apology for it.

“I will need to speak with Grace as well,” he said.

The mother bear in her rose up. “If you accuse her of trying to murder her father, I don’t care how scary you are, I will make your life hell.” She didn’t know how, but she would find a way.

He considered her for a moment. “I believe you.”

“So you won’t accuse her?” Grace was upset enough about her father. Eve didn’t want her daughter to go through the same wringer Mikel had just put her through.

“I will do my job.” He stood. “But I have no reason to believe your daughter was involved in the attempt on His Majesty’s life.”

Relief swept through Eve, and she blew out a breath. “Thank you.”

Mikel went to the door, opened it, and waited until she followed him. “To be clear, I would not hesitate to accuse even the prince if I thought it was necessary to the investigation,” he said, waving her into the reception room.

Luis had said he trusted Mikel with his life. There was a reason for that.

CHAPTER 23

Eve sat on the edge of the sofa in the waiting area, staring at the door to what she thought of as Mikel’s interrogation room. When Grace emerged, she looked concerned and upset, but she didn’t have the shattered look of a daughter who had just been accused of murdering her own father. The security chief remained in the conference room.

“No word from the doctors?” Grace asked as she sat beside Eve.

“Not yet,” Raul said before he resumed pacing between the reception desk and the windows.

Eve did not attempt to soothe him with empty words. They all knew that Luis was receiving the best, most focused care available in the country of Caleva. They knew he was healthy and strong. But none of them knew how much poison he had absorbed.

Eve considered Mikel’s suspicion that Luis might have come into contact with the thallium via the fencing book. She worried that Luis had possibly been handling the book over several days, which could mean that the thallium had been building up in his organs and causing them damage, even before today.

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