Page 68 of Ruthless

“What’s the succession plan?”

“It’s not been formally announced, but it’s understood that Nicolas, the oldest son, is the crown prince. He already handles many of the daily duties.”

“What about the other brother? If Nicolas isn’t around, isn’t he the next in line?”

“Possibly. It depends upon the age of Nicolas’s children. He has three, who would be in line before Alexandre. Her middle brother would’ve been before Alexandre as well, but he died in a motorcycle crash almost twenty years ago.”

“Accident?”

“That’s always been the story. I never heard differently.”

“So everyone moved up in succession, including the uncle.”

“Yes.”

“So if it is the uncle, and he wants to be king, he’d have to take out, at the very least, the king, his oldest son, and Alexandre.”

“Yes.”

“Is the king aware of the danger?”

“Yes, after you told us about Iris Gates’s warning, Eve warned her father to be on alert. He assured her he would, but I think he’s in denial. He’s got one main bodyguard and two additional for more public events. They’re all on the suspect list, so he’s not necessarily out of danger even when it looks like he’s protected.”

“Is there anyone here who you trust completely? Other than Eve and her father?”

Gideon thought about it for a moment and then shook his head. “No. Not really. Even Nicolas is suspect. Who knows? Maybe he wants the king out of the way sooner so he can go ahead and take over.”

“But why the threat against Eve?”

“That’s the conundrum I’m dealing with. Why her and her father? Why those two?”

“Eve’s not in line for the crown?”

“Not officially, no. She requested to leave her royal duties and expectations several years ago. Even if she hadn’t, there are several in line before Eve would likely even be considered.”

“Then there’s a correlation we need to concentrate on. Who benefits from eliminating just the king and his daughter, who’s not even an active member of the royal family anymore?”

Gideon blew out a frustrated sigh. Ash was right. The motivation to get rid of two people, one of whom had no influence politically, upended what should have been a clear-cut path to a specific suspect.

“Our best bet to get the intel we need is Serena,” Ash said.

“Yeah,” Gideon said. Serena was the most gifted hacker he’d ever come across. Sean, her husband, had once claimed she could find a specific grain of sand on a thousand-mile beach. An exaggeration perhaps, but not by much.

“So what’s going on with Sean? Have you talked to him?” Gideon asked.

“Hell if I know. Every time I tried to talk to him, he shut me down.”

“We need an intervention?”

“Yeah, once he resurfaces, might not be a bad idea. We’re still running on a skeleton crew. Hopefully, in a few weeks, when we’re all back stateside, we can come up with a way to find him and make him listen.”

Rubbing the scruff on his face, Gideon shook his head in doubt. He had a feeling it was going to take something more than just a few words to make the man listen to reason. There was something big going on with their friend, and as much as he’d like to find him and confront him, his first priority was finding whoever was threatening Eve and her father.

“So let’s talk about why Iris Gates would have any knowledge of what’s going on in Ile de la Lune.”

“I can’t decide if that woman is one of the devil’s minions or actually an answer to our prayers,” Ash said. “Every time she gives us some intel, it’s cloaked in so much mystery, half our time is used up trying to decipher exactly what it means.”

“I agree. Have you talked to Olivia lately? Think she might be able to give you some insight?”

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