Page 3 of A True King

“We’ll be landing in thirty minutes,” our pilot’s voice permeates the silence of the cabin. The only other humans on the plane are Cain and Vince, my bodyguards and two of my closest confidants.

“Anything?” I turn to Cain, who’s been on his laptop this whole flight.

“Not yet, sir. I don’t have any footage of her recently. She may not have left her parents’ home,” he says as his fingers fly over the keyboard.

It’s been less than two weeks since I last held Mia in my arms, but that might as well be two years or two decades because each second has felt like a lifetime without her. I reach inside the satin lining of my suit jacket and feel the letter I tucked away. I was going to mail it. I wasn’t sure if she would want to see me. She hasn’t taken a single call or answered a single text from me in over a week. So, here I am, flying across the North Sea to England because I’ll be damned if I let the greatest thing that ever happened to me disappear from my life.

Only, I fucked up by letting her go in the first place. I just hope that I’m not too late.

Chapter Two

Christian

I’m not sure what I expected. Mia had told me about the small English village where she was raised by her parents, Marilyn and Max Edgewater. Marilyn is a retired pediatrician. Max still has a small practice as the town physician. She had one half-sister, Naomi, from her mother, who fell pregnant while in college, but never married Naomi’s father. Naomi lives in Scotland now and the two aren’t particularly close. Her mother had complications at her birth, and they were never able to have more children after Mia. She didn’t even have cousins. All her grandparents had died before she was born. It was essentially just Mia and her parents for most of her childhood. She was close to them, calling all the time. They had even come to visit a few times over the years.

I exit the limo and walk up to a small stone cottage. It sits near the end of the town center, which isn’t much more than a pub, post office, and bank. Tucked away behind some trees, it abuts fields with a few meandering horses and sheep. A hedge-lined road that’s nothing more than a glorified trail, leads to the humble home.

I raise the brass knocker and tap it against the wooden door. I can hear the sound reverberate throughout the inside of the dwelling. It is quiet. I knock again.

The door finally opens, and Marilyn stands there looking quite surprised to see me.

“Your Highness!” she exclaims, giving a small bow and opening the door farther. “Please come in.”

I nod and lean down to walk through the small doorframe. I tell Cain to stay by the car.

“What can I help you with?” she asks as she motions for me to take a seat in a cozy little sitting room. I sit on a sofa and look at her. “Can I get you something to drink?”

I shake my head. “No, I am here to see Mia.”

Her facial expression tells me that what I have said makes no sense to her.

“Mia is here, isn’t she?” I ask.

She slowly shakes her head. “No. She had popped in for a visit almost two weeks ago, but then she left. I thought she was going back to you.”

I frown. If Mia isn’t here and isn’t with me, then where the hell is she?

“Marilyn, did she say where she might be going?”

Now it’s Marilyn who frowns and shakes her head. “No. Now that I think about it, it was quite odd. She spent the night and then the next afternoon she went outside for a bit. A few minutes later, she popped her head in the kitchen and said she needed to be going but would try to come back for a visit soon. I just assumed that you needed her, and she would visit us the next chance she got.”

I frown again. “Do you have any idea where she might be? Have you spoken to her since then?”

Marilyn shakes her head. “No. I hadn’t a reason to. Should I be worried?”

She reaches for her phone, and I see her sending a text to Mia, I presume.

“I don’t think so. Mia was not happy that we had sent her away. Everyone was sent away for security purposes,” I explain, but even I don’t believe the words as they leave my mouth.

“Oh, OK. I just texted her to make sure.” She pauses as she checks her phone to see if there is a response. She looks back up at me. “Sorry, can’t help being worried. How is everything? I heard there was another attempt to assassinate the royal family.”

Nodding, I fist my hand and then unclench it. It’s one of the few things I do when I’m stressed. The last time I saw Mia, she was shoving clothes in her suitcase and muttering under her breath. Saying she was angry is an understatement.

“Fucking stupid asshole. Like I would do anything to hurt anyone here,” she mutters as she zips her suitcase closed with such force, I think it might break the zipper.

“It’s just for a few days,” I say. I walk over to her and take her face in my hands. “I promise. Just a few days. Let everything calm down here and I will send for you.”

Her eyes glisten. “Fine,” she grumbles in a soft voice as her shoulders slump. It is unlike my girl to not put up a fight. She is a spitfire, always has been. “I’ll go see my parents, but so help me, if this lasts longer than a week.”

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