Chapter 6
There’s something to be said for seeing a familiar place through someone else’s eyes.
I’ve been an RIA agent for nearly eight years and have become incredibly comfortable in the life my job has given me, but as I unlock the door of Starlight Security, the business that acts as a front for the agency, and gesture for Hex to go inside ahead of me, I’m suddenly self-conscious.
This man is a prince. He’s lived his life in a castle, surrounded by opulence and wealth, and he has spent the last decade training with the Palace Guard, the best soldiers Candora has to offer.
Compared to what he knows, the RIA is pitiful.
There’s no point in delaying the inevitable, so I lead Hex to a door marked “Supplies” at the back of the small office. Behind the shelves of paper and cleaning products, I use a hidden fingerprint scanner to open another door, this one designed to blend into the wall.
And beyond that is the place I spend most of my time.
Headquarters looks so small compared to the larger-than-life prince beside me.
The office is well-lit and clean, but with only half a dozen agents currently staring at us from their cubicles because most of the external team is with Director Torvik on the European continent, it’s not very impressive.
As I lead Hex toward Virek’s office at the far end of the room, I keep my eyes on his face to try to judge his reaction. We don’t get far before he winces and glares up at the fluorescent lights, and his expression quickly shifts into disgust.
I roll my eyes. “I know you’re uninterested in leaving the Guard to join us, but you could at least pretend you don’t have a bad smell under your nose.”
“Do you like working here?”
Of all the things he might have said, I didn’t expect that. “What?”
He raises an eyebrow, waiting for me to answer the question.
I don’t know why he cares—Hex tends to only care about his own things—but I answer anyway. “I’ve wanted to be part of the RIA since I was in secondary school.”
“Why?”
“Storme!” Virek’s voice cuts across the space, making me tense up.
I don’t bother looking in his direction, knowing he’ll be scowling at me. He already dislikes me, but I went behind his back when I invited Hex to the gallery tonight, and no doubt he’s convinced I’ve ruined the whole investigation.
Why else would he want Hex here as well? Virek probably wants a witness so he feels better about himself when he suspends me for insubordination.
“Well, he looks like a delight,” Hex mutters and puts a hand on the small of my back, nudging me forward.
I freeze, every ounce of my focus dropping to that point of contact. To the warmth of his palm through my dress. He touched me there at Markell’s party, but that was in front of an audience. Why would he…?
“Er.” He drops his hand and clears his throat. “Force of habit.”
Embarrassment rises in a wave of heat up my neck to my cheeks as I imagine the many women he’s dated over the years. “Right,” I croak. I can still feel him, even though he’s no longer touching me, and I hate that my reactions to him are getting worse the more I’m around him.
“Storme!” Virek growls.
No more delaying my doom. Sighing, I cross the rest of the room and ignore the way none of the other agents make eye contact with me as I pass, like they know as well as I do what’s coming.
I’m the first to enter Virek’s office, followed closely by Hex, and I debate the merits of standing instead of taking one of the chairs.
At least then Virek wouldn’t be able to look down on me if he sits at his desk.
Once he closes the door, Virek settles heavy in his chair and glares at me. “Sit.”
Hex plops into one of the chairs and leans it back on two legs. I was hoping he would stand in solidarity with me, but based on his carefree, disinterested expression, he’s not feeling the pressure like I am.
I reluctantly sit next to him.
Virek exhales in a huff. “First, I commend the two of you for making headway at the gallery tonight. Blackmere is all but walking right into our hands.”
Blackmere is absolutely not doing that. If anything, he’s curious about my sudden appearance among the aristocrats, but he still hasn’t given us any proof that he might be involved with the anti-royalists.
“Second,” Virek continues, and there’s a harder edge to his voice now.
He probably knows how much I want to argue with him right now.
“I feel the need to remind you, Prince Hendrik, that you are not a trained agent, and under no circumstances should you be making decisions that could derail this investigation.”
Hex tilts his head, something he’s been doing a lot. Has he always had that quirk, or is it just coming out more now that he’s not actively insulting me or avoiding me? “Considering I got us one step closer to the truth, I doubt I’ve done anything to dera—”
“I wasn’t done speaking, Your Highness.”
To my shock, Hex lowers his chair to all four legs and looks almost…
chagrined. But no, that’s not right, because this is Hex Alverra, and he is nothing if not confident in everything he does.
Maybe he’s shocked that someone spoke to him like he isn’t a prince. Has the man ever been truly criticized?
“Your stunt at the gallery,” Virek says and points at Hex, “however successful it might have been, only strengthens my reservations in having you on this team, even temporarily. We don’t need overconfidence and flashy displays of carelessness, Your Highness. What we need is cooperation.”
What he wants is a puppet and for everyone to follow his lead without questioning him, but Virek has been in this role less than a year.
He hasn’t earned that kind of respect yet, and I’m pretty sure he knows it.
I just hope he doesn’t focus so much on being right that he loses sight of the real issue here.
“Sir,” I say, wishing I sound more confident than I do, “Prince Hendrik’s rapport with the nobility is why we’ve gotten as far as we have. Yes, he overstepped tonight, but he—”
“Yes, he did,” Virek says, narrowing his eyes at Hex. Then he turns back to me. “And so did you. And not just with that risky bid. When I told you to get invited to that dinner, I didn’t expect you to throw yourself at the prince.”
Hex chokes out a laugh that does nothing to help my low confidence right now. “Trust me, there was no ‘throwing herself’ at anyone.”
Virek ignores him. “You’ve made yourself a point of interest with Lord Blackmere, Storme.
Use that. If Blackmere is at this dinner in two days, take advantage of that interest and encourage him to get closer to you.
With what he’s already revealed, you should be able to convince him to open up more if you encourage his curiosity to grow into desire. ”
The last thing I want to do is cozy up to Alaric Blackmere when there are other players in the game. “Virek, is that the best—”
“Men like Blackmere lower their guards around pretty women.”
Another laugh escapes the prince, and he shrugs when we both look at him. “Men like Blackmere tend to only act to benefit themselves. He wouldn’t show his hand simply because someone beautiful smiled at him.”
Virek studies him. “So you think he isn’t funding the anti-royalist group and we’re wasting our time? What, exactly, qualifies you to make that decision?”
Oh, I don’t know. He’s just a member of the royal family and has spent his life among the nobility.
Wait, did Hex just call me beautiful? I get so caught up in that thought that I almost miss the shadow that passes over the prince’s face.
It’s the same look he had when Blackmere threw his little barb at the gallery.
I don’t even know where the insult was, but Hex certainly seemed to take it as one.
Was it when Blackmere told me I could do better than Hex?
Of all people, Hex would be the one to let something like that roll off him.
He knows what he is, and there are few people in the world who can beat him at anything he does.
“I think…” Hex says slowly, glancing at me for half a second before dropping any emotion from his expression and looking at Virek again. “I’m too biased when it comes to Alaric Blackmere to have an opinion you can trust. He and I have history.”
Cursing under my breath, I try to think back on any other times Hex has been honestly humble like that, but I’m coming up blank. If he keeps surprising me with all these good traits, my heart isn’t going to survive these two weeks of working with him.
“But it’s difficult to imagine him wanting to destroy the monarchy when that would put his status at risk,” Hex adds, then clenches his jaw.
“It’s difficult to imagine any member of the aristocracy wanting that,” Virek agrees, “yet here we are.”
A beat of silence leaves the room thick with tension.
There are so many things I want to say right now—to Virek, to Hex, to the universe in general—but what would be the point?
Virek is never going to trust my instincts, and Hex is most likely going to revert to how things were between us as soon as we stop the anti-royalists, and my chances of actually stopping the antis are getting smaller and smaller as time goes on.
We need to be doing more.
But I can’t do more if Virek is going to block me at every turn. He hasn’t suspended me yet, which is a miracle unto itself, and I need to be careful with what I say. I have to push, but not so hard that he shuts me down.
“I know you’re upset with Hex—er, Prince Hendrik,” I say slowly, hating that I blush at my use of Hex’s nickname, “but he got us into that dinner party because he bought that painting.”