Chapter 16
R aphael
Across the desk in the bodyguard’s office, Riss lifted her gaze from her screen. “That’s the full breakdown of the timeline. Any questions?”
She’d walked us through the risk assessment for the afternoon’s event, a charity football match featuring top-tier members of premier league teams. Alex would be there to show the royal family’s support, but her attendance hadn’t been announced. A fact I liked, even if my worries were through the roof.
The risk assessment was as good as it could be for a huge public event. The football stadium seated tens of thousands of people, and though searches were done of attendees with bags checked and pat-downs, they weren’t rigorous. All manner of dangers haunted my mind.
To my left, Johnnie folded his arms. “Why isn’t the princess confirmed as going to this thing today? Wouldn’t it be better for people to know?”
Beyond him, Riss shook her head. “That’s a bad idea for many reasons.”
“Such as?”
She shrugged. “Riskier to give ne’er-do-wells time to prepare.”
On that, we could agree.
I lifted my chin to get Riss’s attention. “We know Princess Alexandra has had unusual levels of interest from the press. Should that change our threshold for pulling her today?”
The acting team leader went to answer, but Johnnie cut her off.
“What increased level of interest?”
I twisted to face him. “The paparazzo who hunted her down to the nightclub and sold her picture? The fact someone leaked her outfit before the botanical gardens event?”
His lip curled. “Sorry to tell you this, but that’s business as usual. Nothing so dangerous that we’d need to pull her attendance. We already risked embarrassment over whipping her out of the botanical gardens because of the fucking birds.”
I gazed at him, a new kernel of suspicion developing. At the start of the meeting, Riss had gone over recent events, covering the two I’d highlighted. I hadn’t been sure if she’d talked to Johnnie and Will about the outfit issue, so I’d watched them for a reaction. Neither had done anything except listen patiently.
“Who would be embarrassed?” I asked.
A smudge of red appeared on his cheeks. “The royal family, obviously.”
“Nothing appeared in the press about the princess leaving early. That wasn’t specifically mentioned. Therefore it’s not an issue.”
He made a rolling motion with his hands. “Just saying that if you get spooked today, that will be two events she’s bolted from in quick succession. It doesn’t look good.” He switched his gaze to Riss. “Right, boss?”
Riss chewed a lip. “We have a set of procedures and we’ll follow them, unless I’m specifically told to adapt them in view of the optics. Even then, I would need a very good reason.”
Johnnie snorted. “Other than her being the only working royal right now? We’re employed to keep her visible, not bury her because this one scares easy.” He thumbed at me. “All I’m saying is we need to be flexible with how we handle these big events or we’re going to do ourselves out of a career.”
I went to retort but a phone chimed, and Riss stood.
“I hear you both, but it’s time to leave. You know the drill.”
Leading us, and tightening her braided hair on her stride down the corridor, Riss directed us outside. At the rear car, I stood at the open door, Johnnie’s challenge playing over in my mind. The bodyguard team’s previous manager, Jared, had been negligent to the point of failure. His bad management outside the art gallery had let the photographer get way too close. Then Johnnie’s lack of interest when we’d seen Alex going into the nightclub did the same.
If anything risked his job, it was pulling the same shite. I didn’t understand him.
Every thought dissolved as the palace’s side door opened and Princess Alexandra emerged. Stepping into the sunshine, she frowned at her phone. Then her focus came to me.
It was a brief touch. Nothing any other person could look at and discern what we’d got up to last night. Instant heat flooded me once more.
I’d dreamt about her soft sounds of pleasure when she’d made herself come to my words. All morning, when I’d been assigned to the gym for fitness training and she’d been in meetings, I’d thought about her.
Nothing could happen between us beyond this…whatever it was. I’d crossed a line when I’d chased her from the palace, then I’d left it in my dust when I’d got down and dirty talked.
Yet I hadn’t been able to stop. Princess Alexandra was in danger of becoming my addiction. I owed her some kind of apology for trying to be hers.
The drivers took us out of the palace gates and into the busy London afternoon. I was alone in the car, Will and Johnnie in the lead vehicle, and Riss partnering up with the princess in the central one.
We tested comms, then my phone buzzed from a different sender. Alex had messaged me. I scrabbled to read it.
Alex: Why so gloomy?
Raphael: Pretty sure bodyguards are supposed to be mean.
Alex: Not when you look at me, though.
I exhaled to control a wave of instant need.
Raphael: I can’t look at you like the way I want to in public.
This was dangerous. If for any reason my messages were read, flirting was grounds for dismissal. Riss wouldn’t give me a second chance. Hell, I wouldn’t if I led the team. It was beyond a conflict of interest.
Even so, I waited on a reply with barely contained excitement.
The bubbles told me she was typing. The message never came. From ahead, a car horn blared, and my driver slammed on the brakes. We shuddered to a halt inches from Alex’s bumper.
“What the fuck?” I snapped.
The driver craned his neck. “Road’s blocked. That red Fiesta’s facing the wrong way.”
Shite. I popped the door and climbed out without registering my actions, my heart thumping and adrenaline flooding my system. A roadblock was a tactic I’d been trained in by Ben, though wasn’t a common one we saw in action.
Down the street, Will had also left his car. He called something to the other driver who I could barely make out behind the windscreen.
Riss’s voice came over our comms. “Will, report in.”
“Just a doddering old gent who’s made a wrong turn.”
He approached the other vehicle. My level of alarm didn’t lower. Not as Will spoke through the window, and not as he went to clear a space in the junction so the gentleman could go the right way.
Alex was just sitting there. Anyone could make a run at her car.
I performed checks in a standard pattern. The nearby buildings, a car coming the other way, rubbernecking but not presenting an obvious danger.
Johnnie should have been out and doing the same, but Riss hadn’t ordered it, and the man worked only as much as he needed to.
It was on the tip of my tongue to make the suggestion myself, but just like that, the Fiesta reversed carefully and the road was cleared.
Our lead car cruised on.
For a beat, I stared. I’d expected more. My muscles were loose and ready to throw down, but it wasn’t needed.
“Sir?” the driver called.
I dove back inside and fought to calm the adrenaline rush as we caught up with the procession.
Fucking hell. I’d overreacted. Not badly, and probably without anyone else noticing, but I knew the signs that something was off with me. Later, I’d take the time to work up a solution.
If I was at home, I’d head out on a flight. That was my go-to method for stabilising my brain chemistry. I’d never got the chance as I’d jumped straight back into service, but a local airstrip with helis for hire was exactly what I needed.
A little voice in my head told me sex would be better, but that wasn’t happening.
I couldn’t imagine it. Not on the job.
Definitely not when I was already confusing my motivations in my head.
Thirty minutes on, we arrived at the stadium, our convoy passing crowds in long queues and in bright shirts that announced which team they supported. At a covered entrance, we disembarked and whisked Alex into a lift and up to a busy corridor, the duo of the stadium’s coordinator and the director of a charity walking with her.
A conference room with views across the green pitch and tall stands packed with sports fans hosted a welcome party, and we saw Alex inside then took positions in the hall while Riss held a quiet conversation with the coordinator.
When she’d finished, our boss called us in. “Penny Allen was offered the choice of seating between the royal box and another which has been bought for the occasion by the Kensington Hospital Trust.”
That was one of the beneficiaries of the match, I’d noticed. I grimaced at the continued use of the same codename Alex had used for years. My suggestion to change it had gone unheeded.
“Which did she pick?” Johnnie asked.
“The charity box. There are some public appearances she said she needs to discuss. I’ve suggested that she make her first appearance in the royal box, however, for the sake of pictures and the TV crew finding her. We’ll cover both.”
Riss split our resources, allocating Will and Johnnie to the hospital’s box while she checked out the royal one. There was security everywhere, but we had protocol to follow and checks to make.
Protocol which meant Alex needed a bodyguard nearby at all times, and that was assigned to me. Which was perfect as I didn’t want to let her out of my sight.
During our team briefing, we’d kept eyes on her through the glass doors to the entertainment suite. I entered the room and prowled the edge. There were maybe fifty well-heeled people in here, with staff circulating with drinks and food.
Alex held court with the group she was here to meet, but her gaze touched on mine.
A smile flirted with her lips.
Today, she was the picture of a working princess. Her purple dress was elegant yet demure, and no doubt chosen because it matched the colours of no team that would be playing today so therefore she couldn’t be taking sides. Her heels were mid-height. Her chestnut hair flowed down her back in her classic waterfall style.
But that mouth… It was the curve of her perfect lips that gave away the real woman under the polished surface. The girl who sabotaged events so she could leave early. Who disguised herself to run through a city and jump off a boat to swim in a lake. One who’d take a late-night call from her bodyguard so he could talk her through an orgasm.
I swallowed a hit of lust and parked myself in a corner where I could simply watch her.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, the stadium had filled, and the pitch was being cleared. A quick check of the time told me the game would start soon.
I just wanted it over so we could get Alex out of here.
There were too many people, which had made it impossible to screen them ahead of time. Too many opportunities for something to go wrong.
Alex excused herself from her group and moved over to me. I stood taller.
The princess tilted her head. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Her eyes flared. I’d never called her that in public, though I was supposed to.
That twitch of her lips reappeared, and her mischievous expression drove fresh need through me.
She leaned in. “You know, this is a big place. Plenty of corners to hide in.”
My heart thumped. Either she was propositioning me or teasing me with a threat to disappear. Whichever was true, we couldn’t talk like this. Not now.
Subtly, I gestured to my mic and mouthed, “This is on.”
Alex grinned bigger. Then her hand drifted to her belly, and she winced.
That echo of pain across her features snapped me out of my haze. “Are ye hurting?”
She waved a hand. “Just cramps. No big deal.”
Riss entered the room and came to us. “Time for you to take your seat, ma’am. Are you sure which that will be?”
Alex nodded. “I’ll do as we agreed. Make an appearance in the royal box to wave to the cameras, then once the match starts, I’ll join the charity director. She’s been talking about some visit I’ve not been told about, and I want to find out what’s going on.”
Riss relayed the instruction to the rest of our team, then we were moving.
When we reached the royal box, Alex entered, and the cameras instantly jumped to display her on the live screens. The announcer called out her presence, and she waved to a cheer from the fans.
I watched the people closest by, scanning for trouble.
Beside the box, a man with a camera craned to get photographs of Alex. A hoodie concealed his head, but I recognised something about him that gave me pause. He lowered the camera, enabling me to see his face.
Holy fuck. It was the paparazzo from the club.
On the pitch, the match started with a huge roar from the fans, but the fucking photographer only had eyes for Alex.
There was no reason he shouldn’t be here. It was a public venue, and anyone could buy a ticket. Yet the sight of him sent cold tendrils through my blood.
I went to radio Riss but thought better of it, leaving my position to speak with her instead.
“Malcolm Dennis is a row over in the stands. Perfect vantage point for watching Penny.”
Riss’s dark eyebrows merged. She knew the man’s name as I’d added him to a list of people we had concerns over. “Keep eyes on him. We’ll be moving on shortly.”
I nodded and returned to my watch.
After another few minutes, Alex stood and exited the box, Riss sticking with her on their path around the stadium to the far side where the charity box was located. Few knew the plan, and to any casual onlooker, they could assume she needed the bathroom or refreshments.
Yet the second she left her seat, Malcolm Dennis stood and abandoned his own.
I watched him trot down the concrete steps and disappear into a tunnel. He hadn’t stared after her in surprise. He hadn’t craned his neck to see where she was going.
I radioed the change to Riss and pursued my team, catching up with them to take my position. Will and Johnnie formed the sides of our diamond, and I was at the back.
That same sense of wrongness haunted me. Stadiums and arenas were my bread and butter. We moved Leo through them regularly. Yet every doorway and stairwell had me panicked like we were about to be jumped.
On the far side of the huge venue, we safely escorted Alex to rejoin the charity party, and I could finally take a breath.
Riss positioned Will and Johnnie in the hall, taking me with her into the charity box. A wide room held leather sofas and a catering table, opening out onto a private terrace with seats to watch the match. A railing and a drop protected attendees from others, but as I scanned the audience, my heart stopped.
Malcolm Dennis was right there, that little camera in hand, trained once more on Alex.
How the fuck had he known where she was going?
“Riss, that same paparazzo followed us.” I spoke directly to the team leader through my comms, cutting out the rest of the team.
Across the room, she blinked. “I thought you said he was across the stadium?”
“Aye, he was, but somehow he’s made it here in the same time it’s taken us.”
Which only left one conclusion. He’d known exactly where Alex was going to be.
My mind raced to fill the gaps. It was typical for paparazzi to cover all bases and have multiple tickets for an event with segmented locations. That was a common tactic to be sure they could get into position wherever they needed to be, and Dennis could have predicted that his target would be in the boxes on one side of the stadium or the other. But for him to have followed—no, preceded —her meant he’d been aware of Alex’s movement plan.
The cold crystallised into ice in my blood. How many others knew? Her team, obviously, and the stadium coordinator. Had that rippled out to the wider stadium security team? To the admin or TV crew?
On cue, the cameras briefly trained on the royal box, the huge screens showing it was empty. That was a no, then. The TV crew assumed Alex was still there and had wanted another shot of her pretty face.
Riss appeared beside me and checked out Dennis. Calculation played out in her eyes. “That’s unexpected.”
“Someone told him where she’d be. Exactly like with the nightclub and with how her outfit was revealed.”
I shot my gaze back to the entertainment room behind the seats. Will and Johnnie were in opposite corners, looking bored. It had to be one of them. There was no other possibility.
“We need to leave,” I said.
Riss gave a single shake of her head. “This is unusual, but our principal is not in any danger from one lone photographer.”
“No, but she is if her team is selling her information.”
The team leader’s eyes darkened. “That’s quite the accusation to make without evidence.”
I bit back frustration. “What is this if not evidence?”
Riss observed the photographer one more time then turned. “I hear you, but a risk event has not been triggered. Therefore, we’ll continue as planned. Take a breath, Raphael.”
She left me to stew in my own juices. One thing I was certain of was that I wouldn’t leave Alex’s side. Not while I was the only person who seemed to give the tiniest damn about her safety.