Chapter 24
R aphael
I hated the morning light. Usually, dawn saw me leaping up and heading out for a run, happy to start my day and to get to work with my crew.
Not today.
At most, I had a couple of hours left of Alex’s time. I’d take her home and drive away. Then probably plot ways to see her again, none of which I could do because she was a princess and I was…me.
She rolled over in my arms, blinking up at me so prettily. “Morning.”
I wanted to steal a kiss. Then linger in my bed. Picturing that was an exercise in torture.
Forcing myself to move, I faked a smile and disentangled myself from her to climb from the mattress. Space. I needed space. “Sleep okay?”
Alex tracked me as I crossed the room to tug on my jeans. She didn’t speak, so I tried again.
“If you’re hungry, I can fetch us some breakfast. Or ye can run the gauntlet and meet Gordain’s family.”
She unfurled her legs and threw back the blanket. “I’d like to meet everyone. If we have time before…”
“Ye leave.”
She dropped her gaze. “Yeah, that. I should call my dad.”
“Use my phone. I’ll go out into the hall.”
“No, don’t go.”
She accepted the device from me and dialled, her eyebrows pinching in. “No answer. He can’t still be asleep. He’s an early riser, and it’s after ten. I’ll try the house again.”
She called a second number, and a male voice answered this time. Alex greeted him then frowned. “What do you mean Sarah’s there? Was he expecting her?” She listened again, and her gaze shot to mine, incredulity in her brown eyes. “Seriously? I mean, I’m glad he’s feeling better, but that’s a big surprise.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. “Okay, no problem. If he surfaces, can you please tell him I’ll speak to him later? I’ll stay out of his way. On that matter, I’ll hide out in the summerhouse rather than take my usual room down the hall. Also, if anyone calls for me, can you say I don’t want to talk?”
The faint voice of her father’s butler or whoever Alex was talking to made it to me. “Very good, ma’am. I’ll ensure the summerhouse is ready and ask that no one interrupt your solitude.”
She thanked him, hung up, and gaped at the phone. “Get this. My sick father invited his girlfriend to stay without telling anyone. She arrived this morning, and apparently, he’s asked not to be disturbed. He left a message for me saying he’s fine. Yeah, sounds that way.”
“He has a girlfriend?”
“He’s always had girlfriends. This one is a woman he knew from his university days, Sarah d’Farnacee. She was always kind to me when I was little. I like her.” She exhaled a short laugh. “He’s throwing me over for her.”
A rush of hope elbowed its way into my psyche and made a home. “How long does she usually stay?”
“She lives in Portugal with her husband. Yes, she’s married. So I can’t imagine it would be a short visit. That’s why I said I’ll stay out of their way and hole up in the summerhouse.”
“If he’s locked himself away with his lady friend, do ye really want to go there?”
“Not at all.”
“Then you’re free today.”
“I…am.”
“Spend it with me.” My heart thundered. I’d never wanted anything as much as this. Not for myself. I’d wanted good things for others, often. I worked hard for my pilot’s licence and to excel as a bodyguard. But for my heart? I’d never indulged it. It was too risky. But in this moment, the need wasn’t mine to own. I was completely in its grip.
Alex’s shoulders rose and fell. On my bed, she appeared small. “Won’t I be in the way?”
I acted out balling up paper and throwing it away. “That’s any plans I had, happily binned off. Tell me, if the week ahead is yours to do as ye want, what does that look like?”
“I suppose I need to tackle what happened in London and with my team. I also want to track down my best friend.” Her gaze lifted to mine, something cautious in her eyes. “Top of that list? I like your company.”
“I like yours, too.” I was first on her list. First.
She watched me for a long moment. “You don’t have to look after me anymore.”
“Then it’s your turn to take care of me. It’s dangerous around here.”
That world-ending smile flickered, returning. “How so?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say loneliness. She’d been here one night, and the thought of her going away opened up a gaping chasm in my life. One I’d tiptoed around and never acknowledged. I was lonely, even in a house of family, even with the closest of friends. When I closed the door at night, I was alone. For a little while longer, I didn’t want to be.
“The dangerous beasts who are going to tease me mercilessly for bringing a princess home.”
A beat passed, then Alex’s slow smile spread. She was so beautiful my heart ached and ached some more.
“Meeting your friends? I can hardly wait.”
Ten minutes on, we were dressed and heading down the corridor to Braithar’s interior and into the great hall. Ella crossed the room, a folder of papers in her hand, and her hair frazzled. Like her famous son-in-law, she was a musician and typically distracted by her music.
She smiled briefly at me then stalled, shock registering.
I grinned. “Els, meet Alex. Alex, meet Ella, ma of the house and Gordain’s wife.”
After a brief chat, where Ella confirmed Gordain was already out somewhere, we continued to the kitchen, finding Viola and Leo at the breakfast bar with their kids.
All fell silent and stared our way, even baby Torran.
Grinning, I again made the introductions and tried not to laugh as the family tried and failed to hide their shock. And to work out how to use Alex’s name without some added honorific.
“We’ve met, actually,” Alex told Leo.
The blond-haired rock star blinked and tilted his head. “We have? Oh, wait, I remember. A variety performance?”
“That’s the one. My cousin was there, too, so I get why you’d overlook me.”
How could anyone not see her, when in any room, she shone?
Leo grimaced. “Shit, sorry.”
At the end of the table, seven-year-old Finn picked up a triangle of peanut butter toast and waggled it like it was talking. “Shit, sorry.”
Viola growled and poked her husband in the arm. “Quit swearing in front of the kids.”
Leo eyed his son. “Like Valentine hasn’t taught him a ton of swear words anyway.”
“I know, but there’s a princess present. Besides, I don’t want Torran’s first words to be rude ones.”
Alex laughed. “My dad swears like a trooper and never moderated his language for me, and he’s a prince.”
I turned to the second youngest among us. “Finn, what’s Val been teaching ye now?”
Finn pursed his lips. He was the sweetest kid. A while back, we’d been supporting Leo on tour, and Valentine had been hurt in the line of duty. Apparently that was the first time Finn had picked up on an adult swearing and decided it was the thing he could do to be grown up.
“If someone does bad driving near us, he calls them a…” He searched for the word.
We all leaned in.
“Fuck nugget.”
Everyone cracked up, Viola included. I left Alex at the table to make us breakfast, loving how relaxed she appeared and how easily she got into conversation with the family, picking up a toy Torran threw and making the bairn grin and therefore his parents dote.
I struggled to hold my attention off the lass to cook up bacon for sandwiches.
When we were done, we headed out to my car, the sun high and warming the land.
“I like the people you live with.”
“I do, too. Gordain basically adopted Gabe, that’s my older brother, then me and Ariel, our sister, when we made the break to get here. His family accepted us just as easily.”
None of us had been little kids, but the impact of being around people who actually gave a damn had been a stark change from our violent user of a father.
My heart shrank as a fact made itself clear. I lived under Dad’s shadow still, at least partially. I acted in ways that were dictated by what he’d done, and what he still could do. The danger the man presented never left, even if the McRaes opposed that in every way.
Sunlight fell on Alex’s loose hair. “Do I get to meet your siblings while I’m here?”
“Maybe. Are ye staying the night again?”
Her flash of a shy smile drove away my gloomier thoughts. We’d reached my car.
“Are you inviting me?”
“If I could, I’d keep ye.”
Her cheeks flushed pink, and she ducked inside, hiding her face. “Then yes.”
It took everything in me to get in the driver’s seat and not just kiss the hell out of her where anyone could see. Inside the cooler interior, I pushed my luck.
“How about a few nights? While the dust settles. If you’d just be hanging out in a summerhouse otherwise, it could be more fun to stay here.”
Alex blushed deeper. “I’d feel bad relying on Gordain and Ella’s hospitality.”
“If that’s the only obstacle, I can fix it.”
“Then yes, I’d love to.”
Didn’t that just send my pulse into orbit.
On the road, I left a voice message for my sister. “I’m cooking dinner tonight, either at Gabe and Effie’s, or at yours. I’m bringing a guest, so behave.”
Alex grinned, her gaze drifting from the gorgeous forest view passing us and back to me. Ariel’s reply came in quickly, and I hit to play it so my sister’s voice came over the car speakers.
“Oh, I already know. Viola messaged me with a bitch-be-cool warning.” A second appeared just as fast. “Also, are you for real? No girlfriend for years then a goddamned princess? Please don’t screw this up. The bragging rights are to die for.” She laughed. “Though if I know you, you’re already head over heels?—”
I killed the message and swore.
Alex’s grin turned into a giggle. “You can cook?”
“Pride myself on it.”
I had to change the subject to save face, but also because with the day spread out before us, I needed to handle the sense of urgency inside me in a way I knew best.
“Quick question, I’m not your bodyguard anymore, so tell me to mind my own business if ye want me out of it, but all the shite we left behind, Riss and the bodyguards, the photographer, the palace, I want to talk to my team and get their take. I tried to do that with Riss and got nowhere, but it’s what I know and what works for me. Either way, I need to talk to Ben so he knows I’m back.”
“You trust them?”
“With my life.”
“Then I trust you. Let’s do that first.” She took a deep breath. “Plus from all I’ve heard about Valentine, they’re a force to be reckoned with.”
She wasn’t wrong. I’d set our tracks for the aircraft hangar where I expected my team to be, but when Ben answered the call, he gave another location entirely.
“We have a quiet week. Leo has no meetings and is sticking to the recording studio. I was waiting for ye to come back to start training.”
“Where are ye all?”
“Daisy and Mia have a huge house-clearing project on their hands. We’re using the downtime to help out. Come to us, and we’ll take five for a debrief.”
I remembered the cleaning job Daisy was trying to win. I also remembered that she’d asked after me, probably for this reason.
“We’ll drive over. Give me the address.”
Ben paused. “And by ‘we’, I assume ye mean yourself and the princess? Explains why Barrington Bray has been blowing up my phone.”
“I’ll explain everything when we get there.”
I hung up, a ping coming in as my boss sent his location, so I turned the car around.
Alex sighed. “I was enjoying trying to forget about the drama.”
I reached for her hand. She laced her fingers through mine.
“One meeting, then we’ll forget about it for the rest of the day.”
The squeeze of her fingers and the faith she put in me was all I needed to be certain I’d put it all right.
Forty minutes later, we pulled up to the gate of a sizeable house at the edge of a pretty Cairngorms town. Down a long drive, it was surrounded by trees, and private enough that I wasn’t going to worry about Alex being spotted. I parked between Ben’s and Jackson’s vehicles, and a good part of the stress I’d been carrying dissolved. I was a pack animal through and through. I needed my team around me.
Near the front door of the Victorian house was a huge skip, and Jackson and Valentine emerged from the open front door, struggling under the weight of a black bin. They upended it into the skip, the contents clattering down. All around were pieces of furniture in various states of distress and piles of household goods, grouped by type. Glass jars and crockery in a collection, stacks of papers and books.
At our exit from the car, Jackson raised his head and slapped Valentine on the chest in obvious delight. The two jogged over, and I braced myself for hard hugs, thumping each on the back in turn. Then I pushed them away, my grin growing by the minute, and made the introductions to the woman at my side.
“Mia,” Val hollered then winced at Alex. “Sorry, but my lass is dying to meet ye.”
On the drive over, I’d explained that Mia and Daisy were Valentine’s and Ben’s better halves, and the two women appeared with Ben close on their heels. While Ben came to me with quiet enquiry in a single raised eyebrow, Alex handled the onslaught of new names and faces well, even complimenting the lasses on their matching blue tabards with Highland Housekeeping embroidered on them. The right thing to say.
Daisy preened. “I know it’s silly, but this is my little business, and I’m so proud of it.”
“No! I love it. You look so smart. Owning your own company is enviable. I’ve never done anything half so important.”
Daisy’s eyes widened. “You’re a princess,” she hissed. Then she clamped her hand to her mouth. “Sorry. You know that. I just mean…”
Mia took pity on her and finished her sentence. “Everything you do is important, right?”
Alex’s shoulders sagged. “For other people, maybe.”
I side-eyed her, but the moment passed, and Ben fixed me with a stare.
“Debrief, now.”
I gave a short nod. “Where can we go that we won’t be overheard?”
“Grab a chair and follow me.” Ben hoisted up a dining chair from the pile and led us to a shaded patch of the garden, nothing around but shrubs and moss.
With my team gathered, I placed down a seat for Alex and one for myself, looked to her for approval, then at her small but grim smile, launched in. As succinctly as possible, I walked them through all I’d seen and experienced while working on her team. Parts of it they knew, such as the nightclub where she was in disguise yet the paparazzi found her, but other elements I’d only shared with Ben or were new entirely, like her leaked movements in the stadium.
Valentine pointed his hair tie at us, halfway through pulling his long hair back into a man bun. “Points to inner circle, aye?”
“Got to be.” I gave them my lowdown on the other bodyguards. Starting with Jared who’d been fired, then Will, Riss, and lastly, Johnnie.
“Johnnie was pressuring Riss to keep Alex visible and not pull her from events. He also told me last night that Alex’s role was for the public to see her, and any antics that caused sensational headlines weren’t a bad thing.”
Valentine snorted. “On the make, that one. He’s parroting someone else.”
“That was my guess. What I don’t know is who.”
Alex raised a hand, speaking for the first time since I’d begun. “What do you mean parroting someone else?”
Ben answered for us. To this point, like Alex, he’d sat and listened. “Any security team worth their salt doesnae give a damn why you’re at an event, only for your well-being. We typically clash with organisers and managers who have an opposing objective. They want ye there and visible, we want ye safe.”
She followed his explanation. “Then it’s Johnnie leaking the information? He’s been a bodyguard for a long time, I remember him once saying, so it’s not like he’s new and getting things wrong.”
I nodded agreement. “Probably, but we shouldn’t jump to a conclusion yet. And that brings me onto the reason we left London in a hurry last night.”
I told them about the photographer disguised as a waiter and how Alex had been delivered a drink she didn’t order. The mood shifted across my team, any levity leaving and replaced by a sharper edge.
Jackson looked between us. “That’s an escalated tactic. Work backwards. If we’re running with the theory that Johnnie basically confessed to, that you’re supposed to be visible and creating headlines, something happened which means they aren’t trusting that you’ll do it on your own.”
Alex paled. “Maybe the fact that my best friend isn’t around? Wait, maybe that one of the bodyguards thought I was going to a friend’s place after the gala rather than a club?” She hung her head. “Or that I wasn’t enjoying the work and wanted to quit? My cousin’s private secretary laid it on thick that he needed me picking up the pace or else. I have no clue how I’m going to tackle that.”
Without thinking, I reached for her hand, shock stealing over me. “He threatened ye?”
Her gaze clung to mine. “He implied that if I don’t step up, my father will have to. Which is ridiculous with how poor his health is.”
My thoughts collided, and I brushed my thumb over her knuckles. “That banquet that was stressing ye out, did ye tell anyone that ye didn’t want to do it?”
“Sir Reginald. That’s the private secretary. I also mentioned it to the two women who came in with my dresses.”
Fuck. I shot my gaze to Jackson. The grim set to his lips told me he understood and felt the same.
“What did you just work out?” Alex asked.
“Ye rejected the work then someone followed your steps around the palace, freaking ye out. Ye stopped giving them headlines and they tried to create one.”
“You think the private secretary to the king is doing this?”
“What would be his motive? Why does he need ye doing the work in the first place?”
She studied our joined hands. “I don’t know specifically. Other than it’s always in the royal family’s interest to be in the press.”
I forced a soft smile. “Which brings us back to ye creating headlines people love to read. I don’t want to jump to conclusions without evidence, but based on probabilities, that feels like a good fit.”
I tore my gaze off her to regard my team, Valentine and Jackson both appearing convinced.
Ben studied me and dropped his gaze pointedly to where I still held Alex’s hand. “Barrington Bray rang this morning with a demand to talk to ye. I said ye weren’t here—at the point of speaking, ye hadn’t called so there was no lie. He is adamant that I contact him the moment ye show up.”
Alex shivered. “Will you?”
Ben rested his forearms on his knees, his expression one of incredulity. “I don’t answer to him. I imagine he’s concerned either for your health, and I can see you’re fine, or his reputation and his contract, and that’s his problem for not managing his team better. However, I get the sense that ye cannae disappear for long without people worrying. Especially not if they are seeking to use ye. That gives us an opportunity.”
I sat taller. Ben had a way of pulling together information and creating a plan. I was learning from the best.
“First, we need to put to bed some of these assumptions. By now, the police will have tested the drink served last night. If it was drugged, that shows us the lengths the people behind this are willing to go to.”
Alex shivered. “I could call Riss. It means turning my phone back on.”
Ben asked, “You’ve had it switched off?”
“Raphael told me to last night, which I’m glad about or I’d probably be panicking over missed calls or searching for my name online just to check any headlines.”
My boss’s lips pursed. “It wasnae for that purpose, I’m sure. Tracking phones is child’s play.”
She switched her alarmed gaze to me. “You think they’ll come after me?”
“Better safe than sorry.” I wanted to hug her. Drag her to my side and erase the sadness in her eyes. They’d tried to drug her. Fuck knew what else they’d stoop to.
Jackson pulled out his phone and typed something.
Valentine shook his head. “Don’t turn it on. While it’s not impossible to track a phone that’s off, I’d leave it that way if ye want your peace. We have spare phones. I’ll set up a safe one ye can use.”
Alex managed a small smile.
“No headlines about the incident,” Jackson reported. “Only that ye went to the gala and links to buy knock-off versions of your dress.”
She blinked at him. “No one reported the fact I left early? Or the fuss inside the theatre? I don’t know if anyone would’ve overheard, but they definitely witnessed Raphael leap across from the next box to reach me. They would’ve seen the police turn up, surely?”
Jackson shook his head, though interest shone in his eyes at Alex’s reveal of my acrobatics. My best friend slid his phone back into his pocket and tilted his head at me in silent question I knew I’d have to eventually answer.
But my attention needed to remain fully on Alex. “We left in a hurry, and Riss took the wine with us, so the police would’ve collected it from the palace. At the theatre, I imagine the photographer scarpered, so they might not have carried out a search if they were able to ascertain that, though they would’ve interviewed staff, surely. Let’s find out. I’ll speak to Riss. She’s rang me several times already this morning so she’s obviously desperate.”
With Alex’s approval and gruff agreement from Ben, I placed the call and put it on loudspeaker.
Riss answered immediately. “Raphael, where the hell have you been?”
“Where do ye expect me to be? I was fired.”
“After what happened last night, I need you to be present for the investigation.”
“Have the police caught the suspect?”
She clucked her tongue. “I can’t answer that. It has been taken out of my hands.”
Well fuck. “Who by?”
“If you come back in, you can find out for yourself.”
“Not happening. Not when ye and the team think I’m paranoid.”
I was winding her in slowly.
There was a pause, then the team leader returned. “You were correct. The wine contained traces of MDMA. That’s a party drug. Tell me where Princess Alexandra is.”
Every face in our little huddle reacted, Valentine and Jackson grimacing, Ben wincing, and Alex closing her eyes.
I swallowed bile. “Who’s taken over the investigation? Someone at the palace?”
“The private secretary to the king. That’s how serious this is. He needs the princess back. That’s his only priority. Now tell me where she is.”
“She told me to take her to her father’s.”
Riss exhaled a gust of breath. “Thank God. She isn’t answering my calls. If you could?—”
“I don’t work for your team anymore, remember? If she’ll speak to me, I’ll tell her ye called, but ye let her down. It’s too late to be sorry now, and I can’t imagine she’d want to chat without there being something worthwhile for her.”
A voice sounded in the background, male and angry. “Tell him right now that?—”
Alex snatched my phone and hung up. Silence held around us, interrupted only by the chatter of birds in the trees.
She handed it back, pale. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’ll take a wild guess at that being Sir Reginald listening in, aye?”
“It was. Then that confirms it. Whoever tried to drug me hasn’t been caught, and Sir Reginald, a man who wants me as his puppet, is only interested in tracking me down. Did I get it wrong, or is that what you all heard in that brief conversation?” Alex dropped her face to her palms.
The urge to hold her grew to unbearable proportions.
I fought to stay professional. “You’re right. Riss repeated what he’s told her to say. Not any update on the paparazzo, but the fact that he needs ye back there.”
Opposite us, Ben’s expression turned even grimmer. “I suggest lying low for a few days. That will mean calling off the dogs that hunt ye.”
Alex nodded without looking up. “Meaning I need to reassure him that I’m out of his reach?”
“Exactly. Text this Sir Reginald and say you’re safe but won’t be back until the police investigation concludes and the aggressor has been caught. We can operate your phone in a way that it can’t be tracked. Then turn it off again so he gets the message that his calls won’t get through. I’ll talk to Barrington as Raphael’s representative and demand he solve the mystery of the leak in the team, as reported to me by the bodyguard I lent to him.”
Finally, Alex raised her gaze. “Please say that’s enough. I just want to hide.”
Ben’s eyes showed his determination. “You’re the asset. Don’t doubt that they’ll expose themselves to try to get ye back, and Raphael gave them the opening to do it. All we have to do is sit and wait.”