Page 15 of Crowned For The King's Secret

One of his security team leaned in to him.‘Quindici minuti.’

It sounded like a countdown. If she could just keep the plane on the tarmac maybe they’d miss their window... Sandro looked at her, blank and unrecognisable.

‘That would be inadvisable but, no matter what you decide for yourself, Nicolai will be coming with me.’

‘You can’t.’

‘As you see, I can and I will. He’s been kept from me long enough.’

‘Kept from you?’ His arrogance and entitlement astonished her. ‘You’ve had no personal interest in your child throughout my pregnancy or for the first twelve months of his life other than receiving reports you haven’t even read. Now you think you have the right to just take him?’

Sandro’s eyes narrowed, and he seemed to hesitate. ‘It’s a compelling act, but an act none the less.’

‘Had I refused to come with you in the car this afternoon...’ if Nic hadn’t reached out to this man and saidDa, meaning she wouldn’t deny her son getting to know his father ‘...what would you have done?’

‘Every contingency was planned for.’

The clinical way he spoke almost froze her to the spot. All that conversation was to keep her occupied so she wouldn’t notice what they were doing. Bile rose, burning in her throat. The incontrovertible fact was that she’d wanted more from Sandro. The sad little girl who had never been loved, studiously ignored for the most part by her own father, desperately wanting Nic’s father to give him the attention she’d craved as a child, so he didn’t always wonder what he’d done wrong, as she had.

‘Dieci minuti.’

‘I speak with my brother most days. He might not be a king but he’s friends with one and he’ll be looking for me.’

‘As of this moment your brother’s been informed that you’re planning to take a brief holiday with Nicolai on my royal yacht in the Mediterranean.’

Her mouth went dry; no words would come. The planning this would have involved... This was no whim...

Sandro turned away from her and leaned into the back of the car. Was he going to unclip Nic from his seat? No. He wouldn’t touch Nicolai ever again. She grabbed Sandro’s arm. Immovable. As strong and muscled as she remembered.

‘You will not touch my son,’ she hissed.

The crowd of men in dark suits collectively stilled, then stiffened. Her sense of threat ratcheted up. There was complete silence, only the warm breeze over the tarmac giving her any sense that the earth hadn’t stopped turning. A few of Sandro’s security moved forward. He held up his free hand and they stilled.

Sandro turned and stared at her hand gripping his arm. ‘You have no friends here.’

She released him.

‘I’ll fight you to the death to protect Nic! Can you say the same?’

‘Yes.’

That word again. Chilling and calm. In the back seat, Nic let out a wail.

‘Get out of my way,’ she spat.

Without thinking she pushed past Sandro and leaned in, unclipping Nic’s harness. He’d have heard raised voices. Having lived a life with no conflict, only love, he’d be scared. She’d failed him in every way. He came into her arms, crying. She wrapped her own around him, rubbing his back as he buried his head in her neck.

‘It’s okay, Nicci. It’s okay.’

It wasn’t. She knew she had no chance here. They could take Nic and be gone and she’d be simply...left.

‘Cinque minuti.’

‘Are you happy with what you’ve done?’ she said.

Sandro seemed to grow in stature. At her home he’d seemed large but it was as if he’d been holding something in, something back. Making himself...less. Not now. She couldn’t help seeing how tall he was, how broad. How he had her under his total control, and always had had.

He tore his phone from his pocket.

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