Chapter 12
“What did you say your name was?” I ask, my pulse pounding in my ears.
I had just gotten home and was about to take a shower when my phone rang.
The second I saw Jazmina’s name on the screen, every muscle in my body tensed.
I had to ask the girl on the phone to repeat the story three times, and even then, she’s so nervous she can barely string a coherent sentence together.
“Josephine. I’m Jazmina’s friend.”
“Josephine, I need you to tell me calmly what happened.”
“We’re at a party on the university campus. Jazmina grabbed her phone to call a cab for both of us, and suddenly . . . she just collapsed.”
“What do you mean ‘collapsed?’ Is she breathing?”
“Yes, she is, but she keeps mumbling incoherently . . . calling your name.”
“Do you know if she drank anything?”
“Just soda. Oh God, do you think someone put something in her drink?”
“Send me the location,” I say, feeling acid burn a hole through my stomach as I bolt out of my apartment.
“Do you know the university?”
“Yes.”
“We’re on the North Campus, on Orange Street, at the X-Ray fraternity house.”
“Do me a favor. Don’t leave her side. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“A friend of mine is here too. He’s a second-year med student and said she’s okay, just semi-conscious.”
“Don’t leave her alone, Josephine. Give me your word.”
“You have it, sir.”
I text the head of my security team, telling him where I’m going. I’d dismissed them earlier, since I was planning to fly to Kindubh tomorrow morning, but now I have no idea how long I’ll have to stay in London.
As I drive like a madman through empty streets, I wonder how the hell Jazmina is at a party without any of her bodyguards alerting me.
She must have snuck out. One way or another, they failed.
When I park in front of the fraternity house, my nerves are firing so violently it feels like electric shocks running through my veins.
Only then do I really let myself think about what the girl on the phone said.
Someone may have drugged her.
Fuck.
I grab my phone. “Josephine, where are you? I’m at the main entrance.”
“Mr. Rodrick, the friend I told you about is coming to you. He’s wearing a red T-shirt.”
Less than two minutes later, a long-haired kid approaches, and not wanting to waste time, I rush toward him. “You’re Josephine’s friend?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Take me to them. How is Jazmina?”
He runs a hand through his hair. “Please don’t kill me for saying this. I’m not part of any fraternity, but I’ve seen plenty of cases like hers at the campus hospital. I think someone gave her a ‘roofie,’ if you want my honest opinion.”
“Fuck!”
“I know, it’s messed up . . . and unfortunately way more common than people think.”
I want to kill someone, and the urge only grows when I spot the girl, presumably Josephine, with Jazmina’s head resting on her lap.
My heart slams against my ribcage, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m her assigned guardian or that I’ve failed Kaled. It's knowing she’s vulnerable. Thinking that if it weren’t for this girl, someone might have taken advantage of the princess makes my blood boil.
I crouch down and brush a strand of hair away from her face. “Jazmina, it’s me. Rodrick.”
She answers with a faint groan.
“Is it safe to wait and call a doctor at home?” I ask the guy.
“Yeah. If it’s what I think it is, she ingested very little. Otherwise, she’d be totally knocked out.”
“Must’ve been in the soda. That’s the only thing we drank at the party,” Josephine says.
I’m preparing to pick her up when a mocking voice asks, “Something wrong over there? I didn’t think she was that drunk.”
“Drunk my ass, you scumbag!” Josephine jumps up and marches toward two guys who look barely older than her friend. “I don’t have proof, but I know you drugged her. It was the only moment I left her alone.”
I don’t wait for his reply. Before he even understands what’s happening, I slam a punch into his stomach, then another straight to his face. His buddy runs for his life, and only another groan from Jazmina pulls me back. She’s my priority.
“This won’t end here, you piece of shit. You messed with the wrong girl.”
“You’re crazy, man! I didn’t do anything! She wouldn’t even dance with me!”
“Time to back off, bro,” the med student warns. “Just get out of here.”
“Mr. Rodrick,” Josephine calls, snapping my attention back. “Andrew said she seems okay, but we should go. I’ll only relax after a doctor checks her.”
I crouch down and scoop the princess into my arms.
“Rodrick, you came . . .”
“You’re going to be fine, Jazmina. I’ve got you.”
She rests her head against my chest, and I hold her tight.
My rage hasn’t subsided. I’ve always carried too much anger inside me, but now I have to focus on Jazmina to keep myself from going back inside and putting that bastard in a coma.
“Can you sit with her in the back? I’ll ask my driver to take you home afterward,” I tell Josephine.
“Of course. I live on campus anyway. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to stay with her until the doctor says she’s okay.”
Once they’re settled in the back seat, I get behind the wheel. In the rearview mirror, I see Josephine’s face. She looks terrified as she whispers softly to the princess.
On the way to my apartment, I call a doctor friend of mine on speakerphone, and he says he’ll meet us there in thirty minutes.
When we arrive, my head of security is waiting in the garage.
I lift Jazmina into my arms again, and as we enter the private elevator to the penthouse, Josephine and Lamar follow close behind.
Jazmina groans now and then, and something foreign and deeply unsettling twists inside me.
I’ve always been protective of my friends and of Athol, but I’ve never had bonds strong enough to feel something like this. Yet seeing Jazmina in such a vulnerable state sends me into a spiral of fury and a desperate need to keep her safe.
My bodyguard enters the door code, and while I carry Jazmina to the bedroom, I ask Josephine, “I’m getting a robe. Can you change her?”
If it were any other woman, I’d do it myself, but knowing how Jazmina was raised, the last thing I want is for her to wake up feeling violated in any way.
“Of course,” she replies as I lay her friend on the bed.
“Call me if you need anything,” I say, handing her the robe. “I’ll be in the hallway.”
I leave and close the door.
“What happened, boss?”
“She was drugged. I’m giving you an address. I want every student who lives there identified. Photos and full records. And I want a complete investigation on past drugging or assault cases linked to that fraternity.”
My phone lights up with a message from the doctor saying he just arrived.
“One last thing, Lamar. Find out why Jazmina wasn’t being escorted. Her security team should’ve warned me she’d left.”
“I can answer that right now,” he says, pulling out his phone and showing me a recording. “Her Highness slipped out through the back door of her building.”