Royally Benevolent (Resplendent Royals #4)

63. Watchful Eye

63

WATCHFUL EYE

ODETTE

R ick beelined for me. I wasn’t sure why he looked so concerned, but I saw the worry spread across his face. We’d been focused on Theo’s party. The kids were having a lovely time together. However, he was in full concerned dad mode, and I wasn’t prepared for what would come next.

He kept his voice low, “Don’t panic, but I just spotted a camera over the hedge.”

“What? Where?” Ingrid overheard. She was angry and unwilling to back down or take the easy way.

“What part of don’t panic don’t you get?” I asked, annoyed. “Where?”

Rick nodded. “I sent our detail to check it out. I think they will pull all of us.”

“I cannot leave Theo,” I protested. “He needs me to stay.”

“Odie, it will be obvious as hell that you’re with Wyatt if you don’t go.”

“Let me talk to Wyatt,” I said.

There was no good choice. If I left, I might salvage whatever plausible deniability I had left. I’d also hurt Theo and maybe Wyatt. Either way, Wyatt was about to be upset with me. We had purposefully not wanted to get caught. We’d not gone public. This would only hurt him.

I tapped Wyatt on the shoulder. He was watching Theo open his gifts. His mother was taking all the photos.

“I have to go, I think,” I said. “We have an incident.”

“What?”

Wyatt instinctively stepped back so we could talk alone.

“There are press. One climbed up to take photos over the fence. Rick spotted him and sicced our detail on him, but… I have no idea how long he was there, and… it’s a risk we take if I stay and don’t leave with my family.”

“Babe, you did a lot of this. You should stay. It will break Theo’s heart if you go. If you’re told you must go, that’s one thing. If you’re told?—”

“If they connect us, we will have no way to deny we’re together, Wyatt.”

He kicked the neatly manicured grass beneath his feet. “I love you, Odette. So does Theo.”

“Would you rather me stay or protect Theo?”

I could tell he didn’t want me to leave. We had no good option.

“Protect Theo.” Voice pained, Wyatt did the responsible thing.

“I will wait until he is finished with presents and then tell him.”

Theo was on his final gift—a remote control robot. It was Wyatt’s gift.

“I will set it up so you can play with it,” Wyatt offered, sounding deflated.

Feeling guilty, I knelt next to Theo. I whispered to him in my mother tongue, knowing he expected that from me by now.

“Sweetheart, I need to go,” I said. “I have an emergency, and my family needs to leave.”

In a sad, baby voice, Theo pleaded, “I don’t want you to go, Odie.”

“I know, my darling. I cannot avoid it, though. It’s the orders I have.”

He looked near tears, which killed me. I gave him a big hug and kiss. “I promise you beyond the shadow of a doubt that I will do something special with you the next day I see you, alright? ”

“Okay.”

I kissed him on the cheek and left. I didn’t know that I’d not get to make good on that promise despite fully intending to do so. I’d regret those words for the longest time in the most painful way.