Page 57 of Ruthless

“Because if he’d had a romantic relationship with you before then, he would have been honor-bound to tell you about his agreement with me. You would have then insisted he break said agreement, and then you would have been extremely unhappy.”

“How so?”

“Because I would have sent someone else to protect you.”

“Papa, I know you love me, but I am a highly skilled, trained individual who can take care of herself.”

“You’re still my daughter.”

“But I—”

“Lina, you know as well as I do that you are more important than just being my daughter. You belong to this country and her people. I’ve given you leeway—more than I ever believed I could—simply because I knew Gideon would watch out for you.”

Gideon had told her this, and while she’d known what he’d said was true, the hurt of his betrayal had been too great. Now she could see that he had been in an untenable position. If he’d told her the truth, she would have demanded he get out of her life. Keeping the secret allowed her the ability to be free.

“You put him in a difficult position, Papa.”

“Yes, I did. But he felt it was worth it.”

Her heart fell to her feet. Those words were the epitome of Gideon Wright. He sacrificed for others. For her. He’d said he hadn’t given anything up, but she knew that wasn’t true. But she knew he also felt it had been worthwhile.

She drew in a shaky breath. “We need to help him, Papa. You need to help him.”

“I’m going to do everything I can, Lina. But I can’t appear to influence our judicial system, even for a family member.”

Even through her worry, her heart smiled to hear him describe Gideon that way.

“There’s got to be something we can do. Don’t Nicolas or Alex have some friends in the police department?”

“Of course, but again, there is a process, and we must trust it to work. Gideon did not murder Clement and will be proven innocent.”

Her father was right. The police in Amelie were ethical and fair.

“While we’re waiting for Gideon to return, perhaps we could look at what you’ve found out so far about the possible leak in the castle.”

Pushing aside her worry about Gideon, she led her father into her office. They talked daily about the investigation, but it had been over a week since he’d been here to see her progress. She was going to suggest something that she wasn’t sure he would go for, but it was the only way she could see to get the intel they needed.

Since he’d seen most everything already, she took him to a board she’d created a few days ago.

“We know of two recent incidents where secrets were leaked. I put together a list of the people who were aware of both of them.”

She watched his face, knowing that he wouldn’t like what he was seeing.

“These are your suspects?”

“Yes.”

“Lina…no. None of them would have leaked the information, especially not about you. I would wager my life on the honesty of each one of these people.”

“Papa, I don’t want it to be any of them either. I know you trust them. I trust them, too. But one of these people, intentionally or inadvertently, revealed at least two closely guarded secrets. Fortunately, nothing detrimental happened, but if we don’t find out who it is, who knows what else might be revealed?”

“It couldn’t be two different people?”

“The language in each text is too similar. It’s just one person. I’m sure of it.”

They stood together and looked over the suspect list, which included her brothers, her uncle, her father’s personal aide, his secretary, and his bodyguards.

“Then we need to determine what their motive is.”

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