Chapter 26
LUCIAN
Hiding in a trash can isn’t something a prince should have to do. But this is how love gets a man. This is what dedication, perseverance, and affection look like. Hiding in a trash can out of duty, out of a dogged and admirable need to be there for my woman. My sweetheart.
When I hear the car pull away, I climb out, glancing at the mouth of the alleyway. That was close. It turns out the cop car pulled up to grab something from a nearby diner, but I didn’t know that.
It could’ve been the end of everything.
I walk down the street, cross over, and grab my backpack from another alleyway. Quickly pulling on the wig, the hat, and the glasses, I change my jacket and make my way across the city.
I always knew there was a chance for me and my sweetheart.
Maybe she finally realized that all my games, the following and the surprises, and everything else, are part of my love for her. Maybe she’s finally seeing sense.
In my second car, my cellphone rings. It’s Henrietta, the woman I had sitting at the restaurant bar, feeding me details about the date.
“Yes?” I grunt.
“They’re talking to the cops,” she tells me.
“She has to,” I reply. “No choice. It would look strange if she didn’t. My sweetheart is no fool.”
“There’s something else,” she says.
“Spit it out, then.”
“After you left, she seemed different. Like she was relieved you were gone. And she and her date hugged like it was real. Like she was, I don’t know, sort of seeking comfort in him for whatever you said to her.”
I close my eyes for a moment, wishing I’d stopped by the bar on the way out and smashed her face in. “Perhaps she’s trying to let him down gently.”
“It didn’t look that way to me,” my spy grumbles. “I’m sorry, Mr. Conti, but you asked me to watch and see if this thing between them was real. After you left, it looked real.”
I drive out of Peaks, toward the forest, thinking how easily Elle agreed to meet me. But… but she just had a change of heart, right? She’s finally seeing things my way.
But what if this woman is right?
What if Elle is trying to trick me?
I almost think about calling Father again, but he’s pissed at me for not leaving the country. That was a condition of helping me break out of prison. But he doesn’t understand that I couldn’t leave, or even think about leaving, without my woman to back me up.
“She wants this,” I murmur.
“I can’t tell you what to do, sir,” Henrietta replies. “My job is to tell you what I saw, and this is what I saw.”
I hang up, keep driving, keep thinking. This is supposed to be exciting, real, a new adventure. Finally, finally, she’s seeing my attention and my little games for what they are.
Signs we belong together.
But what if…
Fuck.
If she’s trying to trick me, she’ll play. I won’t enjoy it because she’s the one thing I never wanted to hurt. The first time I laid eyes on her, I wanted to own her. No, no, that’s not right. The second I laid eyes on her, I knew I already owned her.
But if my spy is correct, none of that matters.
It will break what’s left of my heart, but I’ll have to send her to her parents.