Page 104 of Daniil
I shove Reinhold into the conference room.“Go talk to your king.”
He blanches.
“Mr.Reinhold.Please.”Erik has been standing off to the side this entire time, and he makes a big deal out of motioning for Reinhold to join him in the conference room.
Marcus, Grim, Rage, and a guy I don’t know make their way down the hall, talking quietly.I’m just about to go into the conference room when I spot Joe standing off to the side.He looks shaken, and I’m momentarily taken aback.
Joe is the consummate marine—the epitome of a soldier.Strong, tough, immovable.Yet he looks almost broken now, his face ashen as he stares off at nothing.
“Not your fault,” I say quietly.“You know that, right?”
“But he knows everything I know!”he says.“Or almost everything.Where secrets are hidden.Escape routes and plans.Secret maps—he’s privy to fucking everything!”
“He’s the Minister of Finance, of course he does.That’s not on you.”
“A Minister of Finance who isn’t sleeping with the head of palace security wouldn’t know where all the secret passages are.Or where to find the maps.Jesus, Dan, he could be planning a coup right fucking now.”
I pull in a breath and then turn on my heel.“Sandor.”I call my brother’s name and repeat what Joe just told me.
“I’m on it.”Sandor is already on his phone, speed walking down the hall.
“We need to get the royal family out of the palace,” Joe says to me.
“Sandor’s on it.Come on, let’s go see what else this asshole has to say.”
“Daniil?”Courtney comes out of the room.She looks pale—even more than earlier—and I’m reminded that she desperately needs rest.Probably a hospital bed.But I know she won’t go until we get Micah back.
Fuck.
“Yeah, babe?”I reach for her hand.“You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she lies.“Are they going to get Jesper?”
I nod.
“What will happen to him if he did this?”she asks suddenly.
I hesitate.It won’t be pretty.In fact, Erik has the authority to order him to be put to death.Any direct assault on the royal family is punishable by death.Erik doesn’t like to do that, but I don’t know what he’ll decide in this context.
“Nothing good,” I admit.
She closes her eyes and is so unsteady on her feet I just want to pull her into my arms.But I know better.Her body language has been clear: don’t touch me.I’m trying to respect her boundaries but it’s hard.We should be weathering a storm like this together.Leaning on each other.Instead, she blames me.And that’s fair because if itisJesper who orchestrated this, it’s personal.One hundred percent my fault.
He’s mad or brokenhearted or something else that goes back to our breakup, and the guilt would be crippling if I wasn’t so focused on getting Micah back unharmed.If my son has so much as a scratch on him, I will tear Jesper apart limb by limb.
“I wanted to go with them,” she says after a moment.“But I don’t think I can…” She puts a hand on the wall to steady herself.“Daniil, I need to sit down…”
Before she can protest, I scoop her up in my arms and head for the elevators.
“No…” Her protest is weak.“I want to be close to the action.Please…”
“You will be.I’m taking you to Lennox, who’s with the twins right now.She’ll have a direct line to Sandor, but she’ll also make sure you take it easy.Please, Courtney.A head injury is nothing to mess around with.”
She opens her mouth but then closes it again, her head resting against my chest.
It occurs to me this might be the last time I ever hold her, and it would have gutted me had I not been laser-focused on finding my son.
Chapter42
