Chapter 7
R aphael
Leaving Alex in the car went against every single one of my instincts, but when I made promises, I kept them. Inside the club, the scene had taken a shift to dark and dangerous. Still, the music played, but a fight had broken out near the DJ’s stage, and a crowd formed a tight circle around it, clubgoers hooting at the action.
I threaded my way to the VIP area steps. Halfway down, Dori struggled under the grip of two bouncers, his arms restrained behind his back.
Fuck. I jogged the rest of the distance, spotting an older man in a suit waiting for the party to descend. Had to be the club’s manager.
I whipped out my ID. “Bodyguard service. I’ll take him from here.”
The older man scowled. “Too little, too late. The police are on their way.”
I resisted the urge to close my eyes in frustration. I wasn’t sure who Alex’s friend was, but it was a safe bet that he was of the same social set as her, and an arrest made bad headlines. I needed to resolve this fast. “I sincerely hope you don’t mean to detain my client for defending himself?”
The man’s eyes widened in incredulity. “Your client assaulted another patron and damaged my furniture.”
“My client disarmed a photographer your staff took a bribe from. I’m happy to tell that to the police when they get here. I’m sure your patrons will love hearing how ye give zero fucks about their privacy.”
The two bouncers escorting Dori reached the bottom of the steps. Alex’s friend glared at them from under a floppy blond fringe. His shirt was torn and missing buttons, and sweat gleamed on his chest, his black mask around his throat. For fuck’s sake. He was the very picture of a spoiled playboy. I needed another incentive.
Tightening my jaw, I came back to the club manager. “If the prince is arrested, ye can kiss goodbye to any of his friends or associates coming here again.”
The man’s hostile expression dialled back a degree. “He’s a prince?”
For all I knew, he could be. “Aye. Hand him over and we’ll go.”
The manager stared at me for a beat longer then turned to his staff. “Release him.” To me, he added, “Get him out of here, now. You can leave by the side exit.”
It meant we’d be half a building away from Alex, but with the fight on the main dance floor, I’d take it. I nodded, and the bouncers released Dori with a shove. The young aristocrat swung around, but I neatly hooked an arm around him and towed him after the manager. A short hallway took us to an exit, and we spilled out into a dark and dirty alley, the door slamming behind us.
The second we were outside, Dori shoved me off. “I’m not a fucking prince.”
I heaved a sigh of relief. “Then who the hell are ye?”
“Count Sonderburg.”
“All the same to me. We need to get to Alex.”
The count pulled his phone from his pocket, the screen lit. “She’s calling me.”
My stomach did a strange flip. “Answer her.”
He curled his lip but obliged, putting her on loudspeaker.
“Are you out of the club?” Alex gasped.
“I am. You didn’t need to send your attack dog in to fetch me.”
She audibly exhaled then replied, “Is Raphael okay?”
“Ask him yourself.”
“All good,” I quickly said so she knew I could hear.
A tyre screech came from her end of the line. My heart thumped. It didn’t come from nearby. I could hear the road at the end of our alley just fine.
“Alex, where are ye?” I asked.
“Someone tried to take pictures through the taxi window. I had to leave. I’m so sorry for abandoning you.”
Dori paled and handed me the phone. Whatever was in my expression had infected him.
“You did the right thing,” I told her. “Are they chasing ye?”
Her voice came out small. “I don’t think so, but my driver is going fast just in case. I’m almost at the palace. Can you please bring Dori back?”
“Of course I will. Stay on the line.”
I gave the phone back to Dori and fished out my own, summoning the nearest taxi. It was only a minute away, but that felt too long. My strategy to separate them had been a sound one. I got my principal out and away safely. Had I been part of a team, she wouldn’t be alone right now. But the shite setup designed for her protection was failing hard.
On my phone’s app, the car neared, and we left the alley to find it. At the roadside, I scanned the crowd outside the club, anger brewing inside me all the more. This was a disaster from start to finish.
Dori rolled his shoulders, a bruise revealed on his collarbone.
“Are ye hurt?” I asked.
He shook his head. A black cab pulled up, and we climbed in, leaving Hell behind.
The cab moved out, and Alex’s friend put his head in his hands and muttered something down his phone. I held my tongue. He’d made the night a hundred times more dangerous. Alex had encouraged him. Neither would want to hear what I had to say about it.
It was only Alex’s quiet, “I’m safe,” that finally let me take a deep breath.
A short while later, we rolled up to the palace gates, our driver stopping but the armed police keeping to their posts.
“They won’t let the cab in,” Dori informed me.
We made the rest of the trip on foot, our IDs checked and Dori weaving as we crossed the courtyard to the archway and through. He stumbled. I braced him with an arm around his back. This time, he allowed the support, even as a second guard checked our IDs at a side door.
I warred with myself over how to handle this. I’d have to tell Jared about intervening tonight, which didn’t worry me as I assumed he couldn’t care less, but more, I was afraid for Alex. She was the one I needed to warn.
Dori led the way down a hall far more opulent than the ones I’d walked half a night ago with Jared. Huge paintings of pastoral scenes were interspersed with portraits of long-dead royals, the gold leaf on the frame glowing dully in the low light. There was no one else in sight, and our footsteps thudded on the floor.
“You’re a real one for the help,” he slurred.
“If you’d left when I asked instead of getting into a fight, it wouldn’t have come to two bouncers strong-arming ye down the stairs.”
Dori shrugged. “Fuck your judgement. If I hadn’t doused that asshole and trashed his camera, he would’ve been sneaking more pictures.”
“And the riling up of the crowd?”
“If they all took pictures, it’d devalue his.”
We reached an entry hall. Any further questions I had died on my tongue at the image ahead.
At the foot of a marble staircase, and in a shaft of moonlight, Alex sat, her knees together and her arms wrapped around her white dress with her delicate lace mask in her fingers. The wig had vanished, and her brunette curls fell in waves. She was an angel from a grandmaster’s painting. A vision. At our entry, she peeked up.
She looked so vulnerable I wanted to hug her.
That was never going to happen.
Dori pushed away from me and dropped to a sprawl next to her. “Your bodyguard is a grouch. He claims I made things worse tonight.”
She sighed. “Didn’t he have to pull you from a fight?”
“It was already over.”
“I’m glad you’re back in one piece. Can you wait upstairs for me?”
He grumbled agreement then shot me a glance, his lip curled in obvious dislike before he gave Alex his parting line. “See you in bed.”
His disappearance left me alone with Her Royal Highness. I wasn’t jealous. There was no way that emotion coursed through my veins at the thought of him stripping and waiting for her in a four-poster bed.
Alex twisted her fingers together. “Thanks for getting him out of there. You were off the clock. You didn’t need to do any of that.” Her gaze turned curious. “I still don’t understand why you got involved.”
I wasn’t entirely sure either. I raised a shoulder. “If I hadn’t, that could’ve ended badly.”
She tilted her head in question.
I elaborated. “More than one photographer tracked down your location. Your friend decided to fight rather than just leave. We could’ve got out of there much easier without his escalation.”
“It isn’t his fault he got into a fight.”
I gave her a sigh of disbelief.
“God, fine.” Her voice cracked. “Then it’s mine because tonight was my idea. I just hate that I can’t go anywhere without things like this happening. But I can’t and won’t sit at home and do nothing for the rest of my life. They’ll hunt me and write stories about me no matter what I do.”
“I never said ye can’t go out. Just take security.”
She made a sound of frustration. “I can’t. The team is only available to me for events when I’m representing my family. You won’t get paid for what you did tonight.”
“I don’t care about that. But what are ye talking about, only a few events?”
“The team is shared with other members of my family. You wouldn’t know as you haven’t been here long enough. If I’m working for the Crown, I get cover, but in a personal capacity, rarely is there the money, hence why I stay here when I’m in London. Ossington Palace is one of the most protected buildings in the country. Outside of that, I’m on my own.”
That lack of service couldn’t be right. “You’re expected to take care of yourself the rest of the time? How is that fair?”
“It’s my lonely reality. Why should I expect the princess treatment just because of an accident of birth? If I want it, I have to earn it.” Alex stood, her bare feet on the polished floor. She picked up her heels by their straps and moved into my space.
Two soulful brown eyes peered up. “However things work in your regular job, it’s different here. But just know I’m more than grateful for the assistance. Goodnight.”
Like I was in some kind of dream, the princess pushed up on her toes and put her hand to my chest, gifting me the lace mask. She kissed my cheek.
Then she turned and disappeared, off to join her boyfriend in her bed.