Chapter Four
ALEXANDRE WAS NOT his father. He reminded himself of this as he made plans to find his runaway wife.
He would not track her down like prey. He would be civilized.
They would be civilized, even if her running away was decidedly not. Even if every time he thought about her sneaking out of the palace with that cousin of hers, something hot and mean erupted inside him.
But he would control it. All of it. He summoned Gabriel to his office so that it was clear it was official business.
So that he could have a reminder that he was a good, calm, controlled king here in his minimalist office—the opposite of his father’s gaudy, gilt one that Alexandre had gutted and turned into a soft, feminine office for Ines.
History be damned. His father be damned.
Gabriel came into the office, settled himself on a chair casually. “Evelyne told me Ines has…disappeared.”
“Yes, I’d like to hire your company to find her, but this cannot be official business—for the palace or for you.” Perhaps it was royal business to track down the country’s queen, but Alexandre didn’t love the optics of that.
Gabriel ran a security company for many royals and wealthy people.
He had contacts all over the world. And maybe finding a runaway wife wasn’t security, but it was something Gabriel’s outfit could no doubt handle, especially now that he wasn’t just Gabriel Marti, but Lord Gabriel Marti, the title he’d been given upon marrying Evelyne.
“Luckily my company specializes in off-the-books,” Gabriel replied.
“Yes. Well.” Off-the-books left him feeling a bit…oily. It was not how he operated, but…sometimes a king had to go against the grain. As long as it was for good, for the right reasons, it had to be okay. As long as it was handled appropriately, and not at all like his father.
“I’ll need to ask you a few questions before I can decide how to proceed,” Gabriel said, watching Alexandre carefully.
And since they had been friends since they were boys, Alexandre knew Gabriel saw too much. Still, he ignored what was in his friend’s expression. Concern. Perhaps, worse, understanding.
“Why would Ines run away?” Gabriel asked, his voice very neutral. None of Evelyne’s commentary on his stomping about, as she called it.
“I have no idea.”
“Alexandre.” Gabriel sighed, leaning his elbows onto his knees.
“I do not know your wife nearly as well as I know you, but she has never once struck me as someone to just…fly off the handle. Even if she was, there would still be an inciting incident.” His gaze was direct.
“It would help if I knew it. It’s easier to find where someone has run away to, if one knows what they’re running from. ”
Alex supposed it was his friend’s directness, and lack of blame, and the fact that they understood each other as few others did that allowed him to relent a little.
“There was…nothing. A small disagreement, I suppose, about what our future was to look like. But there were no…dramatics.” Unless wild sex on this very desk counted. But much as he might like to convince himself that was what had sent her packing, he knew it had been his reaction to it.
Much as he’d like to pretend it was the opposite.
“I…” Gabriel shifted in his seat, a sure sign of discomfort that Alexandre found very off-putting. “I did hear you and Ines arguing the day Gabri was born.”
Alexandre could only blink. He had argued with Ines briefly before it had turned into…well, something he hadn’t quite been able to put out of his mind, particularly with how often he was required to sit at this very desk.
He shook his head. “The matter was settled. She made no threats. There was no discussion of leaving.” Just him sending her away…
“Perhaps you thought the matter was settled, but this points to…well, her feeling otherwise. Don’t you think?”
Alexandre shook his head because it did not make sense. “I simply could not give her what she wanted. She understood this. She said—” No, she had never come out and said she understood. He had taken her usual quiet distance as her customary agreement.
“So you disagreed on…personal, marriage matters? For your future?”
“Yes, I…” Alexandre cleared his throat. If there was anyone he could be honest with, it was Gabriel.
Gabriel knew that the marriage had been arranged by his father for the most part.
And if explaining the truth would help find Ines, help fix this whole situation, there was really no harm in Gabriel knowing.
Besides, Ines running away because of this was… She was in the wrong. “I did not think we needed to pursue having a child since the heir has been taken care of. She…disagreed.”
Gabriel did not say anything to that. For a moment, his study was done in utter silence, and Alexandre could not see through it. Could not read his friend’s expression. Something he had always been able to do…
At least, before Gabriel had fallen in love with Evelyne and married her. Something about that seemed to open up another dimension of Gabriel that Alexandre could not fully comprehend.
Didn’t want to.
“Perhaps she simply needed a break from the palace and its fishbowl quality after such a disagreement,” Gabriel said. “It’s quite possible she will return all on her own after a nice holiday. Still, I will handle tracking her down, quietly and carefully.”
“I…” Alexandre was at war with himself. What did he want out of this? He wanted to drag her back to the palace, lecture her for such a dereliction of duty, demand…something. Something.
But all of these reactions felt like ones too close to King Enzo. And still, he could hardly let his country know his wife had found fault with him and run away. Queen Ines was beloved. Alexandre had not yet been hailed the hero to his people that he’d hoped to be.
Because he would not be his father. “I want to be assured she is okay and safe. I do not wish to…” He did not know how to find the words, but Gabriel stood. He put his hand on Alexandre’s shoulder.
“Understood.”
And Gabriel had to understand. He had also lived in fear of King Enzo as a boy. He had helped Alexandre save Evelyne from one of his father’s plots.
So Alexandre sat back and let Gabriel handle this. He did not ask for updates. He did not demand action, though days dragged on with none of those things.
It took nearly a month—between Gabriel carefully choosing the right man to track Ines down to making sure the investigation was quiet, careful and involved no threats.
Finally, Ines had emailed Evelyne at one point to assure her she was fine, and it was the break Gabriel’s man needed.
They’d traced her to a small Italian village, living out of town a ways in a cabin with her traitorous cousin.
“I can have someone bring her home,” Gabriel said, his voice devoid of any emotion, but Alexandre knew there would be judgment based on how he responded.
Alexandre shook his head. “No.”
“Evelyne and I could handle things here for a day or two if you’d like to collect her yourself.”
“Not yet.”
Gabriel’s eyebrows rose. “You want her to…stay there?”
He did not. He wanted to drag her home, lecture her, demand to know what the hell she had been thinking.
He wanted his mouth on her—and this was the main thing that made his decision for him.
All of these overly emotional responses were not acceptable. So perhaps it would be best if she just…stayed where she was. This was, essentially, his plan. Get her away so he could think.
So let her hide. Let her think she’d done some great runaway. What did it hurt? It got him exactly what he’d been planning on anyway—though he would have done it with more tact and a PR plan in place. Still, it wasn’t so different.
That idea almost got through the red haze of anger.
“Yes, for the time being. Let her have her runaway. As long as I know where she is, what she is up to, that is enough for the time being.” He could rest. Relax. And be safe from losing his hold on everything with her an entire country away.
While he got everything sorted—determined if an annulment was even possible, this was better.
“All right.” It was not approval. If anything, there was a tinge of disapproval in his tone.
But Alexandre knew this was the right way to handle it, whether Gabriel approved or not. Ines would be too far away to tempt him, to needle him. But he would know she was safe and he wouldn’t worry that she would chafe under his demands. She would think she was in control.
Let her.
“I need someone to watch her though. Completely hands-off. Just keeping tabs.”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
“Thank you.”
But Gabriel didn’t leave. He hesitated, which wasn’t like him at all. So Alex braced himself for whatever Gabriel would say.
“Eventually your country is going to want to know why they haven’t seen their queen for so long,” he said softly, gently even.
“Yes,” Alexandre agreed.
But today was not eventually.
Nor would tomorrow be.
Ines was miserable in so many different ways she couldn’t even catalog them all. She’d stopped worrying about Alexandre finding her. Maybe it was foolish to let her guard down, but she couldn’t seem to muster the mental energy.
She was tired. Achy. Nauseous. A flu that came and went, ebbed and flowed, but never disappeared. At least, she kept telling herself it was the flu. Even though she began to suspect something else.
She couldn’t let herself engage in that possibility, though. It was too hopeful a thought. Too awful a thought. All mixed together into one big fat mess.
Impossible messes were not new to her. She’d been in what had felt like a few in her life. Being promised in marriage to a man she didn’t know, a prince she had no concept of, had been her duty. That had felt like a potential sticky mess at the time.
Then she’d been introduced to Alexandre. He’d been so handsome and kind. Not as aloof as he could be now. No, in the beginning he had been almost warm. He had at least always tried to put her at ease, tried to engage in some charm.