Chapter 15
KYLE
Iwrapped my hands around the thick metal bars and rattled them again. My heart thudded hard against my ribs as I glanced up at the ceiling, searching for some escape.
I couldn’t be restrained by these bars right now. I needed to be out there, searching for Nattie.
We had come so close, only to be stopped just shy. And now, we may never be able to find her.
Every second that slipped away worsened the odds. Whatever danger she was in could…
I stopped myself before I finished that statement with a scary reality that I didn’t want to face.
I grabbed the bars again, gritting my teeth as I tried to pull them apart.
“Give it up, Doc,” Ava said as she rested her head against the block wall behind her. “I don’t think they made the bars bendable.”
I slammed my hand against them, my irritation boiling over. “I have to get out of here.”
Alex slid his arms through the bars, leaning against them. “No kidding, bro. Sadly, though, they don’t seem to be interested in hurrying along the process.”
“Maybe we should demand our phone call,” I answered.
“Not sure that’s going to work, Doc,” Ava said. “We have no idea what legal processes are in place in Belvaria. Maybe they don’t give you a phone call.”
My heart skipped a beat. Could that be? What if we were stuck in a foreign prison with no way out?
I let my forehead fall against the cold bars, a sigh escaping me as I squeezed my eyes closed. I’d led my two best friends–my only two friends–right into trouble. And it was trouble we may never get out of.
“I’m sorry, guys,” I groaned as my fingers tightened on the bars again.
“Don’t sweat it, Doc,” Alex said, his voice only slightly strained.
“I’m sure we’ll get out of here…or we’ll end up stuck in a dank cell like this one for the rest of our lives after a rushed trial in which we have little to no ability to defend ourselves.
A parasitic bug will lodge itself in my ear, and I’ll die a slow horrible painful death while you and Ava plan a daring escape that falls flat and are both executed. ”
I screwed up my face. “Whoa, what the hell, Mav? That took a real turn.”
“Yeah, Ace,” Ava said with a grimace, “where did that come from?”
“Come on, you never saw that movie?”
Ava stared at him for a minute. “Wasn’t that in Thailand?”
“So?” Alex asked.
“This is far cry from Thailand,” she retorted.
He pulled away from the bars and crossed to pat the stone against the wall. “Uhhh, looks pretty archaic to me.”
I ran a shaky hand through my hair as I paced the floor, suddenly worried about spending the rest of my life stuck here. If we could get at least one phone call, I could call my dad. Maybe he has a connection here that could help us.
“Okay, we have to convince them to let us call someone. My dad may be able to help us out.”
“Does he know people in Belvaria?” Alex asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. When we were trying to get rid of Julia’s ex, he said he knew a foreign dignitary who owed him a favor, so maybe.”
“It does us no good if we can’t get a hold of him,” Ava said. “Do you think he’ll eventually start looking for you?”
“No,” I answered. “He’s probably glad I’m gone.”
“What about Julia? She usually checks in on you,” Ava asked.
I shrugged, scrubbing my face. “I don’t know, maybe. But Sierra probably has her so booked up with their step-mommy, step-daughter event calendar that she’ll never have time.”
I let my head fall back between my shoulders with a loud groan that echoed off the stone walls. “Ugh, this is the worst. How can this be happening?”
“Because we flew into a foreign country illegally?” Ava suggested, crossing her arms as she rose to pace the floor of her cell.
“Did we?” I asked. “I mean, all we did was land. We weren’t even off the plane. They had no idea what we were doing. Doesn’t it strike anyone else as odd that the plane was stormed and we were just hauled off with little to no explanation?”
Alex shrugged, his fingers tapping a frenetic rhythm against the bars. “I mean, maybe. It seemed like overkill, but this place could run under as tight a regime as Thailand or something, I don’t know.”
“Yeah, we really have no idea since we didn’t read that much about the place before we were suddenly arrested and hauled off to rot in prison.” Ava huffed out a sigh.
My mind spun out of control. What if this had happened to Nattie? Was she also stuck in a prison cell? She’d been on a private plane–at least that’s what we assumed.
What if she’d been arrested, too? If I ever got free, would I be able to free her?
“This is a nightmare,” I murmured as footsteps echoed, growing closer.
I rushed to the bars, grasping them as my heart sped up. Voices approached us. I twisted my head, straining to catch even a word of the conversation.
I shifted my gaze to Alex. “Can you hear this?”
His eyebrows knitted as he pressed closer to the entrance. “Uhh, something about the Americans.”
“Americans? That’s us,” I said, my voice breathy. “What are they saying about us?”
“I can’t hear. It’s all murmurs.”
I flung my hand in the air with a sigh.
“Maybe they’re going to let us go. Maybe this was all a big mistake,” Ava said.
A sharp laugh escaped me as I failed to believe it would be that easy. Something else was going on here. I didn’t know what, but I didn’t think things were going to be as simple as a big misunderstanding.
“Da,” a female voice said, echoing off the walls. “Spasibo.”
I crinkled my brow, my gaze going to Alex. “Was that Russian?”
“Or a very close dialect,” Alex said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
We exchanged another glance, both of us looking more worried than we had only moments ago. Were we about to be the Americans made an example of?
I licked my lips, my stomach twisting into a tight knot as heels reverberated on the concrete floor, getting closer to us with every step.
My stomach fluttered, my heart following along with it. Breathing became more difficult as my chest constricted.
I peered toward the exit, waiting to see who would appear. Would they be our savior or our worst nightmare?
A flicker of dark hair was the first thing I spotted before more of the figure emerged from the shadows. Leather-clad, the woman walked with a confident stride.
My breathing hitched as light finally revealed her face. My jaw unhinged. “Nattie?”
The woman strode closer, her eyes shifted to Alex and Ava, a slight furrow to her brow, before she focused on me again.
Her lips curled into a slight smile as though she was amused.
“Not exactly,” she answered, her accent British.
I studied her, those dark eyes cold as they bore into me. My jaw clenched. This was exactly how it had been the night we’d found her at the motel. There was no connection between us whatsoever.
What was this?
The woman reached into her leather jacket and removed her phone.
“Would someone mind telling us what’s going on here?” Alex asked. “And, uh, if it’s not too much trouble, could we get a phone call?”
“Sadly, Mr. Stone, that is too much trouble,” the woman answered as she scrolled on her display.
I narrowed my eyes at her. Was this some other personality of Nattie’s? Was that the danger she was running from?
“Uhh, I mean, we only let you stay at our house, so it sort of feels like you owe us a little,” Ava answered, her features stony.
The woman raised a finger in the air. “Not me, no.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ava demanded, gripping the bars, her eyes wide.
“It means, I did not stay at your house. I am not the woman you are referring to as Nattie.” She fixed her gaze on me. “That woman does not exist.”
My stomach dropped. Nattie was the other personality, the dormant one. This must be her normal personality. Which meant the woman I’d fallen in love with wasn’t real.
Yep, this was going just as well as the rest of my life—I’d fallen for a woman who didn’t exist.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ava demanded, her voice sharp. “Who are you?”
The woman smirked at Ava, seeming to enjoy the challenge. “Nadia.”
She pressed her phone to her ear. The line trilled softly before a man’s voice answered. “Put her on,” Nadia said.
A woman’s voice came next, but I couldn’t make out her words.
Nadia’s eyes shifted to me as she spoke into the phone. “You’re not going to believe this.”
She paused, her lips curving again. “Your doctor is in the dungeon.”
Whoever was on the other end raised their voice, though I still couldn’t make out the words. Nadia winced, holding the phone away from her ear for a second.
“Yes, of course, I will,” she finally said before she ended the call.
My heart hammered against my ribs. What in the world was going on here?
Nadia pocketed her phone, twisting to call over her shoulder. “Strazh!”
A second later, footsteps pounded toward us and two armed guards entered the room. I swallowed hard, trying not to panic, but every fiber of my being screamed at me to lose it.
Nadia twisted on her high heel, striding toward the entrance. “Take them upstairs. We have business.”
The guards nodded in response as she left the room. My eyes widened as they unhooked the handcuffs, asking us in their Slavic accents to step back from the bars.
The creak of the cell door sent a shiver down my spine as it swung open, and the beefy guard stepped toward me.
Seconds later, I had handcuffs restraining me and was being led with Alex and Ava from the dark, dank prison.
The guards marched us through a hall before we ascended a set of winding stairs. The decor changed markedly, turning from crude to stately. The thick red rug that padded the halls muffled our steps as we traversed the majestic hall.
I craned my neck, staring up at the ornate crown molding, the crystal chandeliers, the rich wallpaper hidden behind the tapestries. Where were we?
The guard swung a left and pushed through a set of double doors. Nadia, her feet kicked up on a heavy wooden desk, rocked in the chair.
“Can someone tell us what’s going on here?” Ava asked.
“My sister will explain in a moment, I’m certain,” Nadia said, her eyes never leaving her phone.
“Sister?” I asked, my heart lifting for a moment. Did Nadia have a sister? Maybe there was hope for me finding Nattie yet.
“Will you at least tell us where we are?” Ava retorted in her relentless pursuit of information.
“Belvarian Royal Palace,” Nadia murmured.
Royal Palace? My mind couldn’t wrap around those words before the unthinkable happened.
The double doors behind us burst open. A middle-aged woman in a skirt suit and sensible heels scurried inside. “Her Majesty, Queen Regent Natasha.”
The guards snapped to attention, their salutes sharp and practiced. There was no hesitation, no casual indifference in their movements. This wasn’t just protocol—it was reverence. Whoever Natasha was, she commanded absolute loyalty.
My eyebrows knitted before I shifted my gaze behind her. My features went slack, and the world spun around me as Nattie stepped inside.
My vision tunneled, and the ornate surroundings blurred into the background.
This couldn’t be real. Nattie wasn’t a queen. She couldn’t be. She was just Nattie, the woman I’d…wait…
My stomach churned as the pieces clicked together. Every evasive answer, every hint of an accent she couldn’t quite suppress, every time she’d avoided talking about her past. She hadn’t just been hiding something. She’d been hiding everything.