Page 109 of A Girl and HER Prince
His head smashed against the ledger and he shouted in frustration.
Livvy snatched it from him, flipping through the pages and finally folding down a page. She pushed her curly dark hair out of the way. “This was where the photograph was,” she said. “Most of this page was saved, and I noticed that…” Her finger dug into the bold writing. “There!”
Faint hope turned into a tsunami as he read the passage—yeah, his uncledidhave every reason to be afraid.
Venice pushed down the radio’s button. “Clysta’s been hurt enough,” he read aloud. “She must never know what happened the night Peleus died. If anything should happen to me, Peter, you must destroy the contents in my safe box. You’ll find…”
“Stop!” Atreus Mnon panicked. “No more! I’ll give you what you want. Destroy those records now!”
Venice’s eyes flicked over the rest of the words:“You’ll find the location where you find her heart.”He didn’t have a spare second to read more. The Greeks were closing in on the Myrdons, and soon, Atreus Mnon would have no choice but to leave without giving in to his demands. “You know what you have to do,” he told his uncle.
“You’re going to have to prove to me that you’ll go through with this,” Atreus Mnon spat. “No more games. Get out here.”
There was no way Venice was going out in the open for his uncle to play target practice on him. That only left one option. “Tell Achilles to put on Deedee’s live feed for you.”
Atreus Mnon snorted. “How much time do you think we have? Stop playing around.”
“Make it happen!” Venice growled. This would take the performance of a lifetime. Swinging around to Livvy, he motioned urgently to her. “You have any more of those matches from earlier?”
She nodded, digging her hands into her pockets. “Deedee,” she called over to her friend. “Put on a live feed.”
“What?” Deedee’s reddened forehead wrinkled in confusion. “Now?”
“Yes,” Venice shouted. “Take out your camera and push record!” He never thought those words wouldeverleave his mouth.
Deedee quickly went to work while Bris watched on with a pale face. Her bodyguards took position on either side of them. The iconic Greek statues made up the background of this shot, which would compromise their position in a serious way.
Seeing a fountain close by, Venice tossed the ledger onto it and wrenched up a Tiki torch from the ground. He lit the wick, and the kerosene oil did the rest, crowning the torch with a fiery blaze worthy of any barbaric priest.
Deedee had better be getting a good shot of this. She trained her camera phone on him like the expert she was. “Let him go,” Venice hissed through the radio, “and I’ll burn it.”
“Youdestroy it now and I’ll meet your demands,” Atreus Mnon returned.
Just like they’d faked him out with the marriage proposal? Fat chance!
Livvy shook her head. “Don’t do it.”
Venice listened to Achilles’s mother shout out in the background of his uncle’s feed: “Forget this! Why do you care about this ledger? We must go.”
The helicopter lifted and then lowered with Venice’s stomach.
“No! No!” Atreus Mnon roared to his driver.
They were in a battle of wills between good and evil. Venice peered past the gargantuan statues, watching the aircraft’s doors for any sign that they’d been successful. Nothing was happening. “Release him!” he shouted to his uncle.
“If that ledger doesn’t go up in flames,” Atreus Mnon warned, “he’s dead! I’ll shoot him in the back myself.”
Again, Achilles’s mother wailed out her protests.
Venice felt himself go numb at the danger. The Greeks could mistake Achilles as the enemy when he launched from that helicopter; but if he went with Atreus Mnon now, they might never see him again. “Done!” Venice shouted. “Get him out here.”
Achilles stumbled from the aircraft with his hands up. His shoulders were stiff, and his usual jaded expression was torn with rage. The Greeks shouted, though the Myrdons were doing their best to beat them back.
Two brutish Greek soldiers in combat gear advanced on Achilles from the side. Atreus Mnon peered out the door with his gun trained on his stepson.
Venice lit up the ledger. The flames caught the pages, destroying it more thoroughly than the sea had. Inside might’ve been the proof that his father hadn’t been the one behind Peleus’s death, but they’d done the right thing.
But would his uncle follow through?
