Chapter 23 #2
He rolls his eyes, chuckling lightly. “I wasn’t that drunk.”
“Your state this morning would beg to differ.”
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” He cracks that crooked smile that has gotten more familiar over the last week, but it doesn’t last long. And when his gaze shifts to Virek’s closed door, I know exactly what he’s going to say.
I’d rather not discuss the way I was just officially pulled off the investigation, so I speak first. “Blackmere really gave you nothing useful?”
“He holds his liquor better than I do.” He sighs. “Mostly he wanted to talk about how I feel about you.”
I raise an eyebrow, doing my best to tamp down my interest. “And what did you say?”
Chuckling, he shakes his head. “I believe you got the rundown from Fennor this morning.”
But how much of that was true to how he really feels about me?
The Hex of a week ago never would have been interested in me, but so much about him has changed over the last several days.
Whether he has actually changed or I’m seeing him through new, less biased eyes, he’s not the same frustrating man I was pining over for years.
He’s the sort of man I could fall head over heels in love with.
I’m pretty sure I already am.
“Speaking of Fennor,” I say before I get lost in that thought, “he decided he likes me and warned me to be careful of what I’m getting into.”
Hex snorts. “So you’re saying you were far more successful than I was?”
“Fennor may have told me more than Blackmere told you, but none of it helps us.” And then there’s the lovely little fact that I’ve been benched, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Virek keeps a close eye on Callum for a while as well.
With no RIA resources, there’s only so much I can do on my own without risking my job more than I already have.
But my hands aren’t completely tied. As long as I avoid the official investigation…
“You’re still planning to dig,” Hex says, apparently following my silent thought process. His eyebrows pull together. “But where? We don’t have any leads.”
Groaning, I push myself up to my feet and start heading for the door, knowing Hex will follow. No point in hanging around here if I can’t do my job in the open. “I know. But we can’t give up just because the path ahead is dark. We can’t sit by while Candora falls apart.”
“It won’t fall apart.” Hex grabs my hand, slowing my pace but not stopping me. “We won’t let it.”
Gratitude, warm and calming, blossoms in my chest, bringing back more of those pesky tears as I pause inside the supply closet and look up at the prince.
Frustrating as he can be, he really has his moments where I can’t help but fall for him more.
If only I was brave enough to ask if he will ever feel the same about me.
His eyebrows dip low. “Something wrong?”
Overtaken by a sudden rush of bravery, I rise up on my toes and press my lips to his cheek, holding the other side of his face with my palm. “You’re so much more than a frivolous prince, Hex.”
When I pull back, his eyes are closed, his expression almost pained. “Was that ever in question?” he asks, somewhat breathless.
I snicker. “Never by me, but I think you don’t hear that enough.”
Looking at me and lifting an eyebrow, he tilts his head to the side and seems to be trying to read my thoughts as he studies my face.
“You don’t think I’m entirely too driven by my ego?
” His jesting tone doesn’t quite hide the seriousness of his question.
Nor has he pulled his cheek away from my touch.
“No,” I say, though my answer would have been different a week ago. “I think you pretend that’s the case, but I know you better now.”
“Do you?” He leans into my palm, and my heart soars with the thought that he might actually want our relationship to be more than part of the mission, no matter what he said this morning. He has the same look in his eyes that he did last night, but without the panic.
My thoughts return to that moment in the closet, when we were entirely alone and the prince was vulnerable with me in a way he’s never been before. When I thought he might kiss me and I might enjoy it more than I ought to. If Crowell hadn’t interrupted, where would we be now?
If Crowell hadn’t interrupted…
Why was Crowell opening random closet doors in an estate that isn’t his?
Unless he was looking for me. Looking for us.
He said he heard voices, but we weren’t talking loudly.
He shouldn’t have been able to hear us unless he was listening at every door.
That wouldn’t be the actions of a man taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity.
He wanted to find me and have that conversation about my time as the queen’s bodyguard.
“You’re thinking,” Hex says and wraps his fingers around my wrist, pulling my hand from his face. But he doesn’t let go.
“You pretended I turned you down, even though Crowell found us in the closet.”
“I didn’t want you to be trapped in something you didn’t want to be in.”
“Right, but that was your reasoning for getting drunk with Blackmere, yeah?”
He nods. “In part. But what—”
“And Blackmere didn’t give you anything useful during your drunken camaraderie.”
“Like I said.”
“But did you give him anything useful?” Loosing myself from his hold but keeping my other hand laced with his, I pull him through the supply door and back into the dark Starlight Security office front, going up to the windows and peering through a gap in the closed shutters.
Just as Hex said, there’s a man across the street, casually leaning against a wall and just barely visible in the moonlight.
If the skies weren’t clear, I wouldn’t be able to see him.
Hex growls as he peers through his own gap. “Define ‘useful.’ Do you think it would be a bad idea for me to go pummel whoever that bloke is?”
“No pummeling.” Though, I quite like the idea of him getting into a fist fight to protect me.
“And I’m thinking there’s a reason we have a tail now instead of before the weekend.
I hardly talked to any of the lords at the retreat, and yet…
” I nod toward the man in the alley. “You thought you accidentally got drunk, but what if that was Blackmere’s goal the whole time? ”
The prince groans and drops his head against the window, swearing under his breath. “Of course it was.”
“And you waxed poetic about how you’d follow me to the ends of the earth.”
He tilts his head without lifting it from the window and squints at me. “Not in so many words, but yeah.”
“And I told Crowell that you and I have the same goals.”
“Did you?”
“And now we have a shadow,” I finish, feeling like we might be getting somewhere. “If we wanted a sign that we’re on the right track, this is it.” My excitement dims as quickly as it came. “But now I’m benched.”
“A technicality.”
A healthy dose of rebellion bursts to life inside me, something I really shouldn’t be feeling if I want to prove to Director Torvik that Virek is wrong to sideline me.
But when I first joined the RIA, I swore an oath to protect Candora and its crown, and a few words from my narrow-minded boss aren’t going to stop me from fulfilling that oath.
“You’re thinking again,” the prince says, his smile growing.
“We’re done observing.” Standing tall, I take a deep breath and turn to face him. “We’re done waiting for the antis to let things slip. We know enough of the players, and now we need to take an offensive strategy.”
“Absolutely.” Hex frowns. “But how do we do that? You’re the one who said we don’t have any leads.”
“Yet.” Glancing at the window, I quickly run through the information we have, growing increasingly more irritated that there isn’t a clear step forward.
I have to be missing something, and I need to let my instincts take over.
But to do that, I should probably get more than a few hours of sleep.
“First, we need rest.” I brush my thumb under the prince’s eye and shake my head.
“You, especially. And no more drunken declarations of love unless it’s part of the plan. ”
“Agreed.”
But a thought clicks into place, and I instantly wish I hadn’t said that. “Although, we should play into the story that you and I are involved.”
“I knew you were into me,” he says and smirks in a way that sends my heart racing.
I laugh and shove his chest, inwardly squealing when he immediately moves in close again. “The more we can exhibit your devotion to me, the more the antis will know you’ll be on my side.”
“And what makes you think they believe you’re on their side?
” His question feels genuine, but it has a teasing lilt to it that makes concentrating difficult.
Or maybe I’m distracted by the way he’s tracing his thumb along mine and gazing at me intently.
I must take too long to respond because he answers his own question.
“Greywick hired you for Fennor’s retreat, which brought several of the players together in one place, and now you have a tail. ”
“Which could very well mean they’ve decided I’m a threat, but…
” I trail off as doubt creeps in. What if Hex is the real player in this game, and I’m just a tagalong allowed to play because I once worked for the queen?
I don’t think I would have been invited to that retreat without Hex there.
But would he have gotten this far without me? I don’t think so.
Crowell didn’t ask for a conversation with Hex.
The prince squeezes my hand. “But you’re following your gut on this, and so far your instinct hasn’t been wrong.”
Except when it comes to him. “Yeah,” I breathe. “And my gut is telling me we need to be in this thing together.”
Smiling warmly, he lifts a hand and tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Then that’s what we’ll be, Astrid. How do you suggest I broadcast my love for you?”