Page 29 of A True King

“Best second first date, ever,” he whispers. It’smylips that turn up in a grin this time as I open my eyes and look up into his. He’s perfect. And I want him to be mine so badly, but I’m also scared to death. Can this really work?

I bite my lip.

“What?” he asks, as he brushes my hair away from my eye.

I shake my head. “I’m just happy.”

“And?”

My eyes search his as I contemplate my next words. “I don’t want to lose this feeling. I don’t ever want to lose you,” I admit.

His hands come to cup my face as he kisses me again. “That’s not going to happen, Mia. You’re mine and I protect what’s mine. I’m never leaving you.”

“How can you be so sure?” I ask as I feel tears threaten.

He presses his forehead to mine. “I can’t explain it. I just know. No one is going to pull us apart.”

“OK,” I whisper, but deep down, I feel like his words are a mere foreshadowing of trouble ahead. I only hope that I’m wrong.

Chapter Sixteen

Christian

I take Mia’s hand in mine as we walk into the palace. We need to figure out what is going on and that starts with a call to Jack.

I walk into my father’s study and shut the door. “I’m going to call Jack.”

“Shouldn’t we…I don’t know…set up an appointment or something?” Mia asks as she takes the seat next to me at a large conference table.

“We could but I have a feeling Jack will answer. If not, we’ll call Anna.”

“OK,” she agrees, but her voice is filled with apprehension.

I press call on my phone. It rings twice before Jack picks up.

“Everything OK?” he answers.

“Fine. I have Mia here. Do you have time to talk with us?” I ask.

Jack’s silence might as well be an answer, so it surprises me when he says “yes.” I hear a door shut and then he asks what we want to know.

I look over at Mia. “Is there any chance that King Ivan or Prince Gilbert are involved in The 44?”

“What do you think?” Jack answers.

“Jack, no games. Yes or no.” I know he’s pumping me for information, but this time, I have nothing.

“I see no evidence of that at this time. Mia, I believe I tracked down the man at the coffee shop, but I need you to confirm it for me. I was going to wait to speak with you both tomorrow after I ran some facial recognition on this, but since you’re available now, I’ll send it. Can you get online?”

“Yes, one moment,” I say as I walk to my father’s computer and log in to the secure network. “I’m in.”

“Coming through now,” Jack says as we wait. A moment later a message pops up on the screen. I click on a link and a photo appears. It’s a bit grainy. It appears to be a security camera footage of the coffee shop.

Mia leans in closer and studies the image, her finger reaching out to increase the size, but it only blurs the still photograph. Zooming back out, she looks at it again.

“I…maybe. I can’t tell. It’s not a very good image.”

“It’s the best we have. I have other security feeds being checked, but it’s much harder to pull security footage from several years ago.”

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