Page 104 of A Girl and HER Prince
Sucking in his breath, he stumbled towards where he’d last spotted that radio. Bris’s security team had concentrated on the heavy artillery, but had left the mostly useless piece of equipment behind. Scraping up the radio, Venice clicked down on the speaker and spoke into it: “I’m still alive… Achilles isn’t going to be ruling Tirreoy. Let him go.”
It took a moment for his uncle to respond. “Is that so? Maybe we can make a deal.”
Bris clutched harder to him. “No, no, don’t you meet him!” Why would he do that? It took too long for her next words to sink into his brain. “We’ll figure out how to get to Livvyafterwe find help,” she said.
Livvy? He’d left her safely at the watchtower. Swinging around, he saw the remnants of smoke coming from the imposing ruins silhouetted across the way. Not a soul was in sight.
His sister nodded, her usually arrogant face streaked with tears. “We just saw what happened on the livestream!”
So, they were up to date on everything?
“Livvy’s got Deedee’s phone,” Bris said. “Livvy gave her everything to warn us, and I was so… so mean to her. Deedee won’t stop crying.”
He suddenly realized someone critical was missing from this scene. “Where’s Deedee?”
“She went running with one of our security team to see if she can head them off. But… but…”—Bris wiped at her eyes—“but… what can she do? I told Phil to bring Deedee back before she gets killed.”
The cold hand of panic clutched at Venice’s heart as it began to dawn on him that something was seriously wrong. “Bris? Tell me what you’re not saying!”
“You should’ve tied up Turner.” Her lip trembled. “He woke up.”
The world no longer felt steady around him as all the fear he’d been holding inside became reality.
His sister’s eyes watered as she studied his face. “Venice, I told you not to do anything stupid. I don’t want to lose you again.”
His whole body was shaking in fatigue and pain. After all their effort, after all their sacrifice… he just wanted to hold Livvy. He tried to focus on his sister. “What happened?”
“Turner’s taking her to our uncle!”
Venice’s grip on the radio tightened. He was surprised that he hadn’t crushed it yet. He lifted it to his lips, unable to keep his voice steady. “What do you want, Atreus?”
“Come to my fortress for a spot of tea. We need to chat.”
Bris wailed and hugged him in a bone-crushing grip. “No! You’re staying right here!”
“What am I supposed to do?” His stress gave his words a hard edge. “He’s got Achilles too!”
Her hold loosened on him as she stared at him in horror. At last she understood. “Stay here,” he said. She shook her head and stood in his way. He let out a growl of frustration. “We don’t have time for this!”
“You’re not going, Venice!” Her searing voice held the passion of molten hot lava. “Not without me you’re not.” He tried to argue and she held up a finger. “Look at you! You’re barely holding yourself together. Well, I’m not some useless princess, you know! I’m nastier and tougher than you think.”
Venice actually knewthat, but… studying his little sister’s fiery gaze, he couldn’t bring himself to put her in danger too. He shook his head.
“I’d like to see you try to go in without me,” she said.
Ah, there was his royal brat! He clenched his teeth and tucked the radio into his jeans next to Atreus Mnon’s waterlogged ledger. If they went in, they’d have to go in smart “Okay, Brisius. If we’re doing this then you’re following my lead.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The cable car jerked and swung over the green fringe of treetops in a far more uncomfortable ride than when Livvy traveled up this mountain with Venice. She’d been freezing and exhausted after their night in the Greek aqueducts, but she’d felt safe with her prince.
Turner leaned against the side, breathing hard as he stared over at her. He tossed the rock he’d threatened her with earlier onto the seat. It had been a fight to get her to come with him, and he’d used everything in his arsenal to force her into the cable car.
That meant he wanted her in alive.
It wasn’t too hard to figure out why. She’d somehow become the key to getting to Venice. She’d let him down.
Her lips trembled and she tried not to cry. Turner jerked the phone from her that she’d been using to livestream and chuckled darkly. When he’d discovered it earlier, he’d been darkly amused and refused to turn it off.“I like it.Axiolýpito! Let’s show these soft viewers of Deedee’s what sort of world they really live in.”
