Page 71 of Broken Prince

“I did get an allergic reaction, but it was not completely an accident.”

I twisted in my seat, looking at him with horror. “You poisoned yourself?” I asked, hardly believing my own words. “Who does that?”

He sighed. “It sounds way worse than it is really.”

“Does it?”

“It’s still super early. What do you say we stop for a coffee and a muffin on our way back, and I’ll explain everything then?”

My stomach grumbled, begging for food. “Fine! A coffee and muffin to go, and you and I park somewhere and chat in the car, deal?”

We stopped at the drive-through and ordered a vanilla latte and a Nutella brownie for me and a black coffee and a banana whole grain muffin for him.Urgh, gross!

We drove a little and took a side road and parked in the very quiet parking lot of the mountain trail. It was a rainy day, not something the usual hikers would particularly enjoy.

“So, what about your suicide attempt?”

Dom rolled his eyes. “It was not a suicide attempt. I knew exactly what I was doing. It’s not the first time I had an allergic reaction on purpose.”

“Why would some—” I stopped, waving my hand dismissively. “You know what? So not the point right now. Why did you do it this time?”

He took a sip of coffee. “Two reasons. One, Luca is clearly smitten with you and I knew it was killing him to send you off to the ball with me so I thought if I gave him a little push, maybe he would stop being a chickenshit and act on it…which based on your early return and the couple of texts I got from him, backfired.”

“Clearly,” I replied, still mortified at the memory of how he rejected me just seconds before making love to me. “What’s the second reason?”

“I think someone wants Luca to die.”

I froze. Of all the things I expected to hear, that was not one of them. As if on cue, Dom’s phone rang and Luca’s name flashed on the screen.

“I have to take that.” He put it on speakerphone. “Hello.”

“Do you know where she is?” Luca asked, his voice laced with worry.

I would have almost felt bad for leaving like that if my mortification from last night was not so fresh.

“With me, in the car back to the manor… You’re on speaker,” he added quickly.

“Cassie?”

My heart squeezed in my chest at his warm, deep voice calling my name.

“Yes?”

“What happened?”

I looked at the phone with a frown; was he crazy? Didn’t he remember the humiliation from last night?

“I woke up early and didn’t want to waste a day. I decided to go back to work.”

Luca remained silent for so long I almost thought he hung up.

“I see,” he finally replied.

You do?

“Fine, I’m on my way back; we’ll discuss more when I get home.”

No, we won’t. “That won’t be necessary.”

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