Chapter Forty-Two
Ryker
C amille is officially my wife .
God, there’s nothing better than those two words now that they’re attached to her. Camille Lewis is mine. Mine to protect, mine to love, mine to cherish. And I’ll do it no matter the obstacles, I remind myself as we walk through a side door to the palace with Mathéo leading the way.
After the ceremony, Theo, Jasmine, and Elio chose to let us deal with things inside on our own, but are waiting in our getaway car so that once we’re done, we can get out of here as soon as possible.
As Mathéo warned us, the guards are on us instantly.
Mathéo holds his hand up, ceasing their impending steps to no doubt remove me from the premises. “Stop. Touch either of them and you’ll lose your job.”
The guards halt, their eyes all fixated on me and my hand that’s holding Camille’s with no intention of letting go.
“Move,” a booming voice projects from behind the barricade of guards, creating an open path between them, and I instantly know who it is .
King Antoine De Beaumont.
Rage simmers beneath my skin at the sight of him, for all that he’s done to Camille.
He stomps toward us with purpose, darkness filling his eyes when they lock onto mine. I smirk back, not giving him the angry outburst I know he’s expecting from me.
The king stops in front of us, while who I’m assuming is her mother comes jogging toward us.
“What do you think you’re doing here?” he says through gritted teeth.
“Taking back what’s mine.” My voice is sardonic, and he hates it if the reddening of his face is any indication.
He rips Camille’s hand out of mine and pulls her toward him.
I move just as quickly, gripping his wrist hard and yanking it off hers and stepping between them. “Get your hand off my wife ,” I grit out, my jaw clenching as anger threatens to take over.
The guards are on us instantly to protect their king, and I pull Camille into me in a protective stance, but Mathéo stops them again.
“Back off. He won’t hurt my father. He’s protecting the princess,” Mathéo huffs, stepping between his dad and me.
Queen Marie’s hand flies to her chest as she looks between the two of us. “Wife? What is the meaning of this?”
“She’s not your anything. She will be married in less than twelve hours to someone else,” her father informs me, utterly clueless.
Camille smirks, reaching into the pocket of her robe to retrieve the paper we signed that Theo printed off for us prior to the ceremony. “Actually, I’m not. You can’t be married when you already are to someone else.”
Mathéo takes it from her, holding it up so that her parents can read the fine print.
Her mother’s face pales while her dad’s explodes with fury. “ I am the king!” he shouts. “I can have you down that aisle if I so please.”
“You can’t. It was a legitimate wedding with a registered minister and witnesses. There’s nothing you can do,” Mathéo explains while he hands the paper back to Camille, who tucks it safely in her pocket.
“I will ruin you,” her father seethes, looking at me. “Say goodbye to baseball, because you’ll never play a game again. I’ll make sure no organization would dare sign you on.”
I shrug, tightening my hold on Camille. “Go ahead. This right here is the only thing I need.”
He balks at that, squinting his eyes as he tries to figure out what game we’re playing here. He then turns his anger to Camille. “What about Lorsica? Are you going to let your people suffer? You knew how important this merger was for us!”
“Speak to her like that again and I’ll make sure it’s the last time you ever speak to her at all,” I threaten him, ready to do whatever it takes to keep her safe.
“Stop,” a voice yells from behind us, and we all turn to see Idris storming through the palace.
“Idris,” Camille whispers, her eyes wide with shock.
“You never listen, do you?” he says quietly to her as he passes us. He turns his attention to the king as he stops and stares him down.
“I should have you thrown in jail. My best employee quits to secretly work for my son, then protects my daughter whom he knows I’ve been looking for?” The king’s voice drips with disdain as he faces off with Idris.
“Wait, I thought you said you knew where I was this whole time,” Camille calls her father out.
“A lie, like everything else he said,” Idris confirms as he looks over his shoulder at us, then back toward the king. “Isn’t that right, Your Highness ?”
Fear passes through the king’s face so briefly I nearly miss it, but it’s in that split second of truth that I know he’s been lying this whole time.
“How dare you call your king a liar?”
“Because you are. We have concrete evidence that you only recently found out where Camille was. Most importantly, you lied about needing her to marry to save our country.”
Silence falls upon us as we wait with bated breath to see what happens next.
“I wanted my daughter back.” He tries to appear genuinely distraught as he looks at Camille. “And the country is indeed struggling. That wasn’t a lie,” her father defends, proving it truly wasn’t about missing his daughter, looking more and more like a coward as the seconds tick by.
That’s when Idris drops a bomb no one saw coming. “Ah, but she’s not the solution, not when this country is facing struggles because of your gambling problem.”
Her mother gasps. “Tell me that’s not true.”
Her father falls silent, answering her without saying it outright.
“That’s what I thought,” Idris says. “So you won’t be blackmailing Camille into anything. If you dare to try, I’ll be breaking it to the press that you’re gambling your citizens’ money away. Your only option here is to let her go and leave her alone for good while you do something to figure out how to save the country you are indebted to.”
The queen begins to rub at her temples, seemingly overwhelmed by the news, while the king quietly seethes as he glares at Idris, knowing he’s lost.
“My wife and I are leaving., I suggest you don’t try to stop us,” I warn, gently tugging on Camille’s hand as we exit through the side door.
“I hope you figure it out, my king , because it won’t be us who will save you,” Idris calls out before he too follows us out, along with Mathéo.
“I can’t believe he’d do this,” Mathéo murmurs as we approach the SUV with our friends inside.
Camille sighs, turning to her brother. “I can. My heart breaks for these people, but I don’t know what we can do. I’ll do anything except sacrifice my own happiness. It’s far too precious to gamble.”
“I wouldn’t want you to, sis,” he tells her earnestly. “I’ll figure something out. I’ve always loved helping. No better time to demonstrate that than now.”
“We’ll all help you. Q. We’re family.” I extend my hand out to him, and he takes it instantly, giving me a firm but welcoming grip.
“I’m glad she has you. Take care of her for me.” Mathéo places his hand in mine, giving it a firm hold then releasing it.
“You can always count on that,” I tell him, but my eyes are on her.
“Our team will do some more digging, see what we can find and how we can help,” Idris cuts into the conversation. “And you.” He faces Camille. “I should’ve expected you to run, especially when I told you to stay.”
Camille sags against me for comfort I’m more than willing to provide as I wrap my arm around her shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t see any other way and I wasn’t risking anything happening to Ryker.”
“As soon as we found the information, I hopped on the next flight out. It of course helped that I knew Ryker would be saving you from going through with the marriage, but I still needed to get here to make sure your father didn’t manipulate you any further,” Idris explains, looking exhausted from the days of nonstop investigation.
Camille’s eyes water, nose sniffling with unshed tears. “Thank you, Idris, for being the dad I never had. ”
Idris cracks a smile, his head shaking. “Thanks for being the child I never knew I wanted. And for never listening, making the experience of parenting that much more real.”
We all chuckle at that, and I feel gratitude toward Idris more than I ever have. Knowing there’s someone who cares about Camille and has her back like this is everything she deserves.
“I should get back in there and do some damage control. We’ll talk soon,” Mathéo says, then hugs all of us, lingering with Camille as they whisper to each other in French.
He leaves, and we all climb into the getaway car where we explain everything that happened inside to our friends.
“Wow, Ry guy, you told off a royal member? That’s ballsy, even for you.” Theo chuckles from the very back seat as Elio drives down the path to the gate.
“Yeah, well, when he put his hands on my wife, I didn’t give a fuck who he was,” I grumble while my fingers gently trace circles on her thigh.
“Shut up!” Jasmine turns from the front passenger seat. “You’re a wife now. I’m so jealous.”
I don’t miss the look Elio gives her, and I’m sure he’ll be saying those words much sooner than Jasmine might know.
“I sure am.” Camille looks up at me and it makes my heart skip in my chest because she’s beautiful and mine to keep. Forever.
I lean into her, my breath hitting her ear as I speak.
“Just so you know, I would’ve asked you to marry me even if Idris told us about the blackmail first.”
“Really?”
“You leaving made me realize I never want to be without you,” I admit, kissing her cheeks that pinken from my words.
“ Moi aussi, mon amour. ”
“Pussy? Baby, we can’t talk about that right now,” I groan, already halfway hard thinking about it as I kiss her neck .
Camille shoves me playfully. “I said aussi , as in me too, my love .”
“I love that y’all are in love and what not, but do you think we could tone down the PDA just a tad? I got Jelio holding hands up front and Rami nearly making love in front of me,” Theo pipes up.
“Jelio? Rami?” I shoot him an annoyed glare.
“Yeah, your couple names. Cameron and Aurora are Cora,” he says all too happily.
“And yours and Marcela’s would be…?” Cami asks.
His enthusiasm fades as he sits back in his seat. “That’s not happening. She’s taking a break from dating after everything that happened, and I think she sees me only as a friend right now.”
“Maybe you should move on, find someone else to have fun with.” Idris shrugs beside Theo.
“Maybe,” Theo mumbles back, staring out the window.
I don’t think Theo is the type to do that, because once he has his mind set on something, he doesn’t waver from it. Which means if he has his sight set on Marcela, I wouldn’t be shocked if he waited for her…
Well, for forever.