Page 7 of A True King

And with a flourish of her hand, she curtsies with a wink and leaves. I’m not sure if I want to slap her or hug her, but I know she’s right. She will find Mia.

I’m about to head back to my apartment when my phone buzzes. It’s Pete.

“Yes?”

“Can you come up to Mia’s room, Your Highness?” he asks, but the tone of his voice and the fact that he didn’t use my given name or codename says he’s not asking.

“On my way.”

I stick my phone in my pocket but not before looking at it in case Mia has called. There are a dozen missed texts but none from her.

I step into the hallway and nearly slam into my brother.

“Shit, watch it,” Auggie scoffs.

“What are you even doing here?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.

“I live here.” He rolls his eyes. My siblings spend entirely too much time rolling their eyes.

“I mean, shouldn’t you be with Kate?” I ask, referring to his girlfriend who also happens to be the daughter of the U.S. president. They haven’t officially announced their relationship yet, although the rumors are running rampant. There is a constant deluge of magazines with covers talking about how the straightlaced first daughter has tamed the playboy prince. It’s me who should be rolling his eyes.

“She’s busy with some charity thing. I was just going to see if you wanted to grab a coffee.”

“Can’t. Pete needs me for something,” I state as I start down the hallway that goes to the staff quarters.

“All work and no play…” Auggie calls out as I disappear around a corner. I extend my hand and flick him off before pulling it back toward me. I hear his laugh and I sigh as I climb the steps to the third floor. I managed to strategically pick Mia’s room. While it’s in the old staff quarters, it also has access to one of only two secret passages that I’m aware of in this part of the palace. And conveniently, the tunnel from her closet leads to a main tunnel that is accessible from the hallway outside my apartment in the east wing.

I push open Mia’s door and find Pete standing in front of the closet.

“What’s going on?” I inquire as I glance inside the closet. It looks like it’s been ransacked.

“This is going on,” Pete states as he holds up a phone.

I reach out and take it, turning it over in my hand. “Whose phone is it?”

Pete shrugs. “That’s a great question.”

“Where did you find it?” But I already know the answer to that before he speaks. My eyes dart to the closet.

“It was in a shoebox in the closet. A staff heard it vibrating and was concerned it was a bomb. Security found it.”

“What? There was a bomb scare, and no one alerted me?” My voice booms in the small entry hall of the closet and bathroom of the suite.

“We didn’t have a concern about it, or you would have been. Security found the phone within ten seconds of entering the room because it was still vibrating.”

I press the side button and the phone’s screen comes to life. There is a slew of missed calls and texts all from different phone numbers.

“It just looks like spam calls,” I state.

Pete presses the phone screen. “I managed to unlock it. Those aren’t spam calls.”

He presses in a code on the phone, and I open a text message.

Unknown: Encrypted message attached.

I try to click on the message, but nothing happens.

“It no longer works. It must time out at some point,” Pete explains. “I have Jack working on the encryption on the latest one. I managed to get it to him before the message was erased.”

---