Page 20 of Mercenary Princess

Chapter 7

Royal Grounds, Porenza

Sophia’s majestic chocolate mare carried her through the deep green canopy. The creature had grace and was truly beautiful. When she rode, she always took a different beast and didn’t ask for a name. It was safer for the animals if she never expressed a preference. It also helped prevent her from getting attached, as she was wont to do.

“What did Irina say? I’m guessing you told her about Viktor being in my room?” Sophia cringed, having thought of nothing else for the last thirty hours and counting. At least she’d been able to draw Jen aside last night and tell her what had happened so she would know to watch the other guards.

Jen sidled her mount next to Sophia so that the beasts clopped slowly together now that the path had widened. “I filled everyone in. We have a new safety procedure for hotels.” She could feel her friend’s tension. Jen hadn’t liked any of what Viktor had done. The security breach was personal to her. So far, the guards hadn’t said a word, but it had only been a day.

“You would tell me if the asshole threatened you?” Jen asked. Again.

Sophia sighed. “No. I told you everything.” Jen was well aware of what had happened. She hadn’t wanted to share quite so much, but the guard had been damned relentless.

Soon enough, the pinks and blues of the sun rising over the crystalline sea came into view. Porenza was a small country, a small island with a large tourist trade. Its popularity lay in the quant cobbled villages and plethora of spas that catered to the wealthy. One entire side of the island could be accessed only via private mega yacht.

“She said she needed to speak to you ASAP. I’m not sure if Viktor is the topic of the call or if it has to do with Jean Luc,” Jen said in answer to Sophia’s earlier question. For Irina to be secretive and want her to call immediately set her on edge. She normally didn’t talk to anyone while in Porenza. All messages were relayed through Jen.

Sophia nodded. They were almost to the clearing that would drop down to the crashing sea below. This was as private as she could get on the palace grounds. Off the grounds, she’d have Antony and Marco watching her as well as Jen. This was as far as she could stretch her cage—a cage that felt stifling, especially surrounded by water. And she’d only been in Porenza one night of her weeklong stint.

She took a deep breath of the salty air. The humidity from the storms of the night before still saturated the air, even though the only clouds were making for an admittedly beautiful horizon.

Sophia swung down to the soft tufts of grass with ease. Jen did the same before pulling the private cell from her pocket. They set the horses to graze, and Sophia couldn’t help sliding her hand down a sleek flank as she accepted the phone from her guard.

It was already ringing with a video call, and Irina’s face popped up after only a second. The look on her friend’s face ratcheted Sophia’s tension. “What happened?”

“Everyone’s alive. But a few things came up. I debated waiting to tell you until you got to London, but I know you’d hate that.” The heiress sighed and rolled her neck before continuing. “This was what the Belgian got from Jean Luc.” A photo of a paper filled the screen. Sophia couldn’t see it all, but she didn’t have to. Her heart stilled, and all the air left her lungs.

Shoulders tense, she demanded, “Why would he have that?”

Jen was at her side, looking at the image. “What exactly am I looking at?”

Irina’s face came back on the screen, and she answered tightly as Sophia caught her breath. “We don’t know how Jean Luc got it or who the buyer is, yet. And it definitely sounded as if it was a buy on the audio from the club. Before you ask, no account numbers were written on the sheet, so we don’t have a money trail to follow. Kate did say we’re looking at a copy, not the original. The absolute only good news from Paris is that we were able to get the bug back.” Irina’s eyes shifted to Jen as she answered the guard’s question. “This is a sheet from the ledger.”

That admission caused a rigid air of silence before Jen asked, “The infamous ledger from your old boarding school?”

Irina nodded. “Yes. This is a single page, the accounting for the crime that started everything we’re doing. You’re looking at a record of the cover-up our dean implemented after a Saudi prince killed a local boy when we were sixteen.”

Their teams knew of the ledger and had vague knowledge of the history and why it was important to Sophia and her friends. It was a pet project of theirs, monitoring and taking down one elite every year from all the records they’d photographed. They didn’t want to draw any attention to a pattern, so one a year was all they allowed themselves. Besides, not all the bad guys in upper society had gone to La Couronne school. They found others in their day-to-day lives. Even more marks came through DGF Mercenary Group, the front one of the operatives, Cade, headed. The teams took all kinds of jobs that no one else would touch.

“Who would want that information?” Jen asked.

“We don’t know yet. Kate’s team is doing the surveillance on the Belgian. So far, they haven’t seen him make a drop, but he just flew home yesterday. I thought you’d want to know.”

“Yes.” Sophia hated being out of the loop. She couldn’t do anything from Porenza, but knowledge was power. “Has anyone gone to La Couronne?”

“Cade went in last night. The ledger was gone, and a brand-new one was in its place, one with only a few recent entries. He and Sean didn’t see any clues to where it went. La Couronne has a new dean. Apparently, old Chadwick died earlier this year. Cade’s going to check with his widow and search her house tonight. We don’t have a clue why the new dean wouldn’t have the old ledger with the new one.”

She, Irina, and Riot had left the ledger exactly where it had been after taking photos of every page eight years ago. They hadn’t wanted Chadwick to know it had been found. Since their names weren’t anywhere in that tome, they’d never been worried. She’d assumed, as they all had, that one day they’d check it for new potential bad guys. Unfortunately, they’d never had a shortage of power-abusing men and women to go after, so going back hadn’t been high on the priority list.

Sophia blew out a breath, feeling her hands tremble. “What about the Saudi family?”

“James has been monitoring everyone related to Fahd for years. Nothing’s pinged. Cade’s making calls to contacts in the region, but why look into what the bastard did a year before his death?”

“Fahd’s old friends?” Sophia ground out. “Weren’t their initials in the margins as witnesses?” She was going by memory.

“Neither has any apparent link to Jean Luc. Not that we’ve found. They’re still being monitored, but we’ve got tails in place now, too, in case they’re digging into the past. One is working in Dubai and doesn’t have any plans to head to Belgium, and the other is in New York. Same thing—no plans to hop over to Belgium. I doubt either is our buyer.” The two men had been on James’s watch list for years because of their friendship with Fahd. So far, they’d kept their noses clean or they wouldn’t be doing so well in their business ventures. Forde would have seen to it.

When it seemed there was nothing more, Sophia shook her head. “I don’t like this.”

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