Page 77 of A Queen and HER Bad Boy
“How do you think I know what Mother said?”
They had a spy in the household, did they? “He’s a Myrdon?”
“No, worse!” She turned her temper on her brother now. “We’re walking down a perfectly normal street in London and all of a sudden Dominique is taking down three men like he’s Jason Bourne!”
“They were tracking us,” Dominique cut in matter-of-factly, proving that he definitely wasn’t out of earshot.
“It was so embarrassing! Mom had to come out of where she was hiding and shout him down before he did more damage to the sidewalk!”
Achilles’s eyes widened, just imagining the tearful and startling reunion that would’ve been. Gena had never seen her mother, had only expressed an interest in seeing her once, only to be cruelly silenced by Chises Mnon. He noticed Gena shifting and looking uneasy, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her jacket. “Okay, out with it,” he said. “I’m guessing she had a message.”
“She…” Her eyes veered to Dominique, whose jaw had tightened almost imperceptibly. He sighed dramatically and moved away, far enough to be out of range of hearing, but close enough to come running if his clumsy charge suddenly got attacked by an overzealous garden gnome. Gena leaned closer to Achilles and whispered, “She talked about a ring…”
He silently held up his ring finger, showing her a gold cross strapped across the rubies. “Find my heart; seek the cross. Then you will discover the help you need,” he said in a lowered voice. They could’ve used her assistance when Aggie Mnon was on the loose. “She didn’t happen to pass along a riddle decoder with her cryptic messages?”
“She said you’ll know what to do with it when the time comes.”
That sounded sinister. “Why? What’s happening?” If Aggie was captured then what else did they need to fear?Only the manbehind his sudden reappearance.“If there’s something you’re not telling me, you’d better spit it out.”
“Only…” Her gaze shot back to Dominique who was pretending to be engrossed in an ornate marble statue of some long-dead Tyndarian king with a grotesquely large cranium—well, maybe hewasgenuinely fascinated. “She thinks something is going to happen at the coronation. Something big and something bad.”
Dread shot through him. Now he had another reason to fear that celebration! Bris would be completely exposed, standing before hundreds of people on Christmas Eve, wearing a crown that would make her the ultimate target. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got for me?”
She shrugged, her face drawn in worried lines that made her look older than her years. “Yeah, sorry…”
Four days. They had four days to figure out who wanted his wife dead, and why. Four days to unravel what sort of conspiracy was leading Aggie Mnon. Four days to save the woman he loved from a trap that was already closing in on them like steel jaws.
The coronation wouldn’t be a celebration—it would be a battlefield.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Father?”Brisnoticedthecalculated coldness play across his rigid face as he watched her. Would he never look at her like a daughter?
The study felt suffocating despite its grandeur. Heavy burgundy drapes blocked most of the afternoon light. The massive oak desk dominated the room, its surface polished so that it mirrored the oil paintings behind them of stern-facedTyndarian ancestors watching from gilded frames, their eyes seeming to judge her every move.
She swallowed, gesturing at a mahogany chair with ornate golden embellishments that looked more like a throne than comfortable seating. “Please sit.”
“I’d rather not,” he said.
The rejection stung more than it should have. Even this small gesture of courtesy was denied her. No way would she take a seat before him like a wayward child. Pretending that this was just another business meeting, she pointed to the papers on the table. “Okay, well… we have drawn up emergency relief plans for the flood cleanup. We thought we could start at the village center, provide medical supplies and temporary housing to the displaced fam—”
“I didn’t come here for flood cleanup.” The ice in her father’s dangerously low voice froze her to the spot. “You think just because you’ve been here for longer than a month that you know everything now?”
His words were like physical punches. The dismissal, the contempt—it was all there in his tone. She felt herself shrinking back into the sad little girl who’d spent her childhood trying desperately to earn just one word of approval from this man.
“I thought we could at least set aside our differences to help our people,” she said.
“I see how you watch him!” he snarled, dropping all pretense about why he’d summoned her. He could only be talking about Achilles. Her stomach clenched. “You’ve turned into a pathetic schoolgirl!”
The accusation hung in the air like smoke. Heat flooded her cheeks as she realized how she’d betrayed their love with a look. Her father had read everything she’d tried to hide in her face.
“I told you to put him under your thumb, not the other way around. You haven’t done something so stupid as to fall in love with him… have you?”
The question felt like a trap. Every possible answer seemed to lead to disaster. Her throat closed up, words dying before they could form. In the heavy silence that followed, she could hear her father’s breathing, could smell his expensive cologne mixed with the musty scent of old books.
She didn’t know how to answer without betraying what she shared with her husband, but apparently her silence was enough to make her father’s face twist into an expression of such fury that she instinctively stepped backward. “I thought of anyone, I could trust you to have some sense where Achilles is concerned… you think he will be loyal to you? He will betray you the second your back is turned. Don’t fall for his pretty words and wandering hands. My spies have told me of Charisse and how they’ve been carrying on.”
The name made her cringe. Charisse. Beautiful, sophisticated Charisse with her perfect pedigree and family fortune. Yes, Achilles couldn’t leave her alone, but that was before… before he’d told Bris he loved her, before he’d nearly died protecting her. And she couldn’t say any of this or risk her father tearing apart her fragile hopes.
