Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
An almost virgin.
A bodyguard tied up on my couch.
A tangle of deceit.
And a headache the size of Iceland. What a cluster fuck.
When I said ‘I do,’ I didn’t have a clue who I was marrying or what I was getting myself into.
Dickhead’s still slumped on the floor when I return. I yank the belt off his wrists. He rubs at the dents in his skin before he unties his own feet.
“So, Kate tells me that you’re her so-called bodyguard. And you’re telling me you’re her fiancé. Who am I supposed to fucking believe?”
The guy defiantly glares at me. Oh, so, he’s feeling big now that I let him lose. “Believe whoever you want.”
“What kind of bloody bodyguard are you, anyway? She’s been up a creek and you haven’t shown your face.”
“Fuck you. She paid me to stay away from her. I didn’t know she had gone to Isla Rosa.”
“What kind of dirtbag loser gets paid to stay away from his client?”
He literally bares his teeth at me. “Kate can take care of herself. I made sure of that. And I took the money because she insisted. But I keep a closer eye on her than she knows. And she is going to be my fiancé. Just ask her father.”
The anger that’s been simmering in my blood rises to fill my whole chest.
“Stop!” Kate, now dressed, storms into the room. “Leave him alone.” Fisting her hand in her hair, she asks, “Mikail, why are you here?”
“I’m here to get you. I’ve been worried sick about you.”
Kate gapes at him, “I’m not leaving with you, Mikail.”
I shake my head and scrub my face with my palm. “Give me the number to the palace. We’re getting to the bottom of this.”
Kate shakes her head as she backs away. “It won’t do any good.”
“Give me the number.”
Dickhead snarls at me. “Fuck off.”
“I’m not bloody dicking around here. If you don’t get me the number, I’m going to tie you up, asshole, shove you in the back of my car, and drop you off on the side of the highway, somewhere. Should be fun. Maybe someone will stop before you turn into a human block of ice. Maybe not.”
The man snaps, “You wouldn’t.”
I lean in as my chest swells with annoyance. “Do you know me or what I’m capable of?”
The only answer I get is a narrowed eye glare.
“That’s what I thought. Now, if you want me to have any mercy on your sorry carcass, you better give me that number now.”
He slowly pulls out a phone, punches in a code, cues up a number, and passes it to me. The air in the room turns electric as Kate stomps toward me. “You’re not calling my father!”
“Oh yes, I am, luv.”
She shoves a hand in her hair. “For the love of God. I’m a grown woman. Can’t I do anything without a bunch of men running my life? I’m leaving, and not with either of you.”
“Do you really have any idea how dangerous your recklessness is?”
For a dozen beats of my angry heart, she just stares at me, looking down that perfect, aristocratic nose of hers. “Yes,” she finally says in a low voice.
“A Princess of a small, very wealthy island nation is the perfect target.”
“I am not. And you might be my husband, but you do not own me.”
I yell after her, “We’re calling him now. Me and you. So, get ready.”
She sighs as her shoulders slump. Her foot’s tapping too but not from nerves. She’s letting off steam. “I have nothing to say to him. Or you.”
Why the fuck that stings so much, I can’t explain.
“So, all the things you said to me were lies? I’m beginning to think nothing you say or do is true, Kate.”
If I was aiming to sting her too, it looks like I did. The line of her lips presses flat as her color lightens a few shades. “It’s not like that.”
“Yeah? What is it then?”
Folding her arms across herself, she seems to shrink back. “I don’t know how to make you understand…” She glances at the guard who’s watching us with open disbelief.
I shake my head. “You withheld the most important fucking details about yourself during all those hours we talked. It might not have been lies, but omission is just as damning. So, guess what, Princess. You fucked up, and I’m not just mad, I’m bloody furious.
So, don’t blink those big eyes at me like you can make me fall all over you again. Because I’ll never touch you again.”
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t like that…”
I jab the send button on the guard’s phone. A soft, crisp, very formal voice answers after a few rings. “Office of the King.”
“Let me,” Kate says behind me. I shake my head.
“I’ll get you put through, I promise.” She pulls the phone from my hand. “Penelope. It’s Kate. Thank you. Yes, I’m fine. Can you please ring my father?… I need to speak with him.”
Her eyes fall to the floor. “Oh, yes. We are fine. No, I wasn’t kidnapped. It’s all a mistake. I know. I just need to discuss something, um… about my security detail with him.”