Page 99 of The Prince of New York

“I can’t tell if that’s sad or adorable.”

“Can it be both? It’s probably both. But Terry’s right. I have eternal patience when it comes to watching people paint.”

“I’ll go get the painting kit, but I’m not responsible if Daphne finds me.”

I raised a brow at that. “You don’t like Daphne?”

“I like her a lot, but if she cries she didn’t kill any terrorists today one more time, I might throw something at her.”

Well, some problems were easier to solve than others, and I pointed at the throw pillows on the couch, as everyone in the room might retaliate if I stood without permission. “Take one of those. If you throw it at her, no harm is done, she learns she has to stop whining when she misses an opportunity to kill terrorists, and you feel better.”

For the rest of my life, I would do my best to make Madelyn smile. She grabbed one of the pillows, tucked it under her arm, and said, “I’ll be back soon. Try not to get into trouble, Ian.”

“I’m going to do my best to stay out of trouble until after dinner, but all bets are off after that.”

“That’s reasonable. And from all accounts, you’ve earned being a pain in the ass, so I’ll look the other way, but just this once.”

I waited for her to leave the room before narrowing my eyes and giving Terry my undivided attention. “Explain yourself, Terry. Why did you want her out of the room for at least ten minutes?”

“Her abuser boarded a plane thirty minutes ago, and it’s headed for California. He will be landing at the San Jose airport. Official chargeswerefiled, and the court issued a restraining order. His decision to come to California is a direct violation of the restraining order, which bars him from leaving the kingdom to pursue Madelyn. He has no known family nor friends in this kingdom, nor does he have any business he needs to conduct. As such, as soon as we can verify he abused her here, you can eliminate him with extreme prejudice. When the restraining order was issued, he was given a list of kingdoms where he might be killed if he were found to be approaching or intending to approach Madelyn. He signed off on this, as he did not wish to go to prison. He’s essentially on parole, and as long as he stays away from Madelyn, he can live his life almost normally.”

“Almost,” I muttered. “Mom? Can you give Madelyn a detail?”

“I love how readily you have accepted my edict to become yet another one of my children. I already tricked the rest of your siblings into accepting us as their new parents. Also, I have half of them over in Half Moon Bay learning how to be part of a healthy family. We did notify them that you had been shot by terrorists. We have not notified them that your parents are unfortunately alive and well.”

“And if I find out they were at all involved with these terrorists, they will not be alive nor well for long,” I grumbled. “I’ll even give them a nice pair of urns and store them in the palace mausoleum. And yes, we have a literal mausoleum where we store the urns and ashes of family members.”

Dennis had the nicest of the urns, and I’d handled gathering his remains myself, something I’d asked the RPS to keep quiet.

My parents wouldn’t have understood. In what I still viewed as a miracle, the RPS had.

We all coped with grief in different ways.

“It is a possibility, one we’re looking into closely. We’re already gathering information on the terrorists. Thank you for leaving everything except their bodies intact. It has made cleanup remarkably easy, and they were so confident of their victory that most of them had identification cards on them—their realandfalse identification cards.” Terry sat on the armchair near me and joined me in stretching out. “Your Majesty, I trust you’re aware of the situation with Madelyn?”

“Having raised four boys, two of whom are safely nestled with their partners, I can tell when a young man has fallen in love with someone. Also, you’re hopeless, Ian. If you want to disguise your adoration for her, you’re going to have to have a talk with your face about your expressions. Even dense women are going to be tipped off with the way your face is talking. Terry? Is she just clueless?”

“She is becoming rather suspicious regarding Ian’s behavior, but after her previous home situation, she’s happy to be receiving attention without pressure. She is quite confused on the lack of pressure whatsoever, however. She does not want to be relegated into friends only territory, but she has no idea how to approach the situation. The fact you want to reduce her ex to ash has done a great deal for her general self-esteem.”

“She thought the abuse was in her head, didn’t she?”

“It’s one of the top moves abusers like to do to their victims to make certain they stay,” Terry confirmed. “We’re keeping a close eye on her, and should she become frustrated with your rather meticulous nature when it comes to approaching women, we’ll let you know so you can, perhaps, indicate you have a rather healthy interest in her.”

“I don’t want to scare her.”

“She’s figured that out. And Your Majesty, at least try to resist the urge to matchmake.”

“How about I drop hints that he’s one of the best eligible bachelors on the market? And I won’t recommend those other two sons of mine. They’re useless.”

Poor Mike and Robert. “What did they do now?”

“Robert has been trying to convince Cicely he’s actually worth the air he breathes. Cicely is absolutely not convinced, as she’s gotten glimpses of Ethan doting on Rachel, and she is not sure she’s ready for any sort of doting.”

If heaven couldn’t help me, nobody could. Of all my sisters, Cicely shared an unfortunate number of traits with my mother, although she’d gotten at leastsomekindness and goodness from whomever her father happened to be. However, she suffered from the same problems as most of the family, although by the time she’d been born, I’d mastered the art of drawing our parents’ ire.

Cicely had the gentlest childhood, although that hadn’t stopped her from becoming spoiled.

“Robert’s trying to court Cicely?” I asked, struggling to comprehend my little sister becoming a Californian.

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