Page 57 of The Billionaire's Royal Crown

“Yes, of course. I got my license over a year ago.” The teen swung the car from one lane to the next on the highway, a horn blaring behind them.

Elena winced as she shot a glance over her shoulder. In the backseat, a wide-eyed Caroline clung to the seat. Elena caught sight of a driver waving a fist in the windshield of the car behind them. “Perhaps we ought to slow down. Chloe’s apartment building isn’t going anywhere.”

Maddie barked out a laugh. “If you don’t go at least this speed on the highway, people will get mad at you.”

“Maybe we should have employed a driver,” Elena suggested.

“There’s no way my dad would have let us go if he knewwhat we were doing. I had to drive. It’s fine. Here’s the exit we need.”

Elena blew out a sigh of relief as Maddie weaved through traffic onto the off-ramp. The GPS shouted an instruction at them, and Maddie swung the car to the left at the end of the ramp.

“Only three more minutes,” Elena murmured, rubbing a hand against her forehead as she blew out a shaky breath. “Thank heavens.”

Maddie eased the car onto the marked street, reducing speed as they approached the building, scanning the windows as they slowly rolled past. “That’s her place.”

Elena ducked to study it through the windshield. “Where is her apartment?”

“Uhh, fifth floor.”

“Hmm,” Elena murmured, her brow knitting. “I wonder…”

Maddie turned down a side street and swung the car into an empty space. “I don’t know if we can get up there, but…”

“Well, we shouldn’t go through the front door. We’ll be on camera, like your mother.”

Maddie shifted in her seat, her lips tugging into a frown. “Yeah. And no one else after her. How is that possible?”

“Let’s find out. Is there a back entrance?”

Maddie lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I was only here once when Nate was dropping her off, and she made me wait in the car. It took forever, too.”

Elena screwed up her face. “She actually made you wait in the car the entire time?”

“Yeah.” Maddie’s voice dropped, a hint of resentment flickering. “She was furious Nate picked me up. Kept complaining about how I’d ruined her evening. And when we got here, she basically begged him to go up to her place withher. She was all sweetness with him, but daggers in her eyes when she looked at me.”

“And Nate told me to wait in the car, and he was gone forever.”

“That’s awful,” Elena answered. “How rude. She could have invited you up there with them. It wouldn’t have hurt for one evening.”

“No one liked her except Nate…oh, and Stephen.”

“It is amazing to me how buffaloed men can be by a woman,” Caroline said from the back seat.

“Incredible,” Elena agreed. “Let’s get out and look around.”

Caroline leaned forward, her eyes wide. “Your Highness, are you certain?”

“We’re only looking,” Elena answered. “It won’t hurt.”

She popped open her door and climbed from the car, adjusting the large sunglasses she wore and tightening the scarf around her head. “No one will even notice us like this.”

Caroline, in a matching get-up, pulled her sunglasses down her nose. “Are you certain? I feel as though we stand out more like this?”

“No. Everyone wears this sort of thing while sleuthing. Now, come along, let’s scope out this location.”

“Scope out the location? Your Highness, where did you learn such language?” Caroline asked as they crossed to the building and began to circle around it.

“The movies. Americans always say things like this when they are sleuthing.”

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