If the council learned she had refused him, he wouldn’t be able to protect her from the Arcano. He cursed himself for not lying to her when he had the chance. His love for her had made him weak.
He had to keep her away from everyone until he found a way to fix this. If the stubborn expression on her face was anything to go by, she wasn’t going to change her mind and profess her love before the council.
He needed a new plan, and he needed one fast.
He took out his cell phone and called the one man he trusted more than he trusted his own family.
Simon.
Chapter Twelve
Xander stormed into his family’s advisor’s bedchambers. Simon was seated in a chair near a lit fireplace. Before him was a pot of coffee and two cups.
“I’ve been expecting you,” Simon stood and said in his usual calm manner. “Coffee, Your Highness?”
“Do you know why I’m here?” Xander growled.
“Yes.”
“Does my father know?”
Simon gestured toward the empty seat across from him. “I am an advisor, not a snitch. You have a limited time, though, to set this right before people who would not be as understanding hear of your situation.”
Xander paced beside the chairs rather than taking one. “The council? You know everything, Simon. Who will come for me if I send Reanna back to the states? Who will I need to protect her from?”
“I’ll need to sit for this. These old legs get tired.” Xander nodded his permission and Simon sank into one of the chairs. “We are a small country. To survive we have had to sometimes be a brutal one. Everything you have today is at least in part due to the sacrifices and decisions of those who came before you. The Arcano have a place of honor in our history. A place born in tradition and forged in blood and loyalty. They are not the enemy, even though they may be your executioners.”
Xander slammed a hand down onto the back of the chair beside him. “Stop talking in riddles, Simon. Do you know their names? Can you help me fight them?”
Simon rubbed one of his hands against his thigh as if it ached. “I had this conversation once with your father. Long ago. I thought I knew the answer to that question, but I sent your father chasing shadows. When he returned, his choice was dead.”
“Mother wasn’t my father’s first choice?”
“No. Like you, your father thought he was above our laws. When he discovered he wasn’t, it changed him. I gave him what I thought was good information, but the Arcano are like a multi-headed snake. While you cut one off, another delivers a deadly bite.”
“If my father lost a woman he loved to this law, why wouldn’t he abolish it himself? Ridding our country of it will be my first act as king.”
“Your Highness, I say this with the deepest respect for your father. He was scared. Your family wields great power. Losing his choice was the first time your father felt vulnerable. Powerless. It’s not an easy thing for any man to face. Your father had a choice. He could fight his father, his brothers, and a nearly invisible enemy until he tore down the monarchy or he could accept his role within it and his punishment for failing. There are battles that should not be fought, young prince, and your father understood that.”
“I am not my father, Simon. I will not accept this.”
“Does Reanna know of the law?”
“Yes.”
“They will not let her live.”
“I will not let her die. There are many who are loyal to me, above even my father. I am not alone.”
“How far would you go for this American woman? Would you kill for her? Would you wage a war against your own family?”
“It won’t come to that. My brothers will stand beside me when they know the truth, and father will have a choice of standing with us or against us.”
“I put forth a humble suggestion, Your Highness. If you choose this path, do so only after you have sent what you’re fighting for somewhere safe. Memories of your father the night he discovered the lifeless body of his choice still haunt me. I don’t know if you can win this fight, young prince, but if anyone can, it’s you.”
Xander turned to walk out of the room, then he paused, “Simon, do you know why my mother killed herself?”
“What I know would not help you here, Xander. I would tell you if I thought it would.”
Xander assessed the older man as he asked, “Will you speak to my father tonight?”
“No one reaches my age by engaging in the battles of others. I wish you luck, young prince. You will need it.”
Xander assembled his most loyal guards and gave them the task of taking Reanna to the airport. He instructed them to always be in pairs and to keep Reanna within complete view of them at all times. Transparency was how he would keep her alive. One of his guards might be an Arcano plant, but not all.
He wished he could tell Reanna of his plans, but there was no time. He considered involving his brothers, but they would be safer if they didn’t know, at least until after he had spoken to his father. If a punishment for defiance was to be extracted, it would be his price to pay, not theirs.
Not Reanna’s.
No matter what happened to him, she would be safe.
Reanna paced the length of the sitting room in Xander’s suite. It had been hours since the guards had unceremoniously dumped her there. She was frustrated and more than a little angry.
Xander said he loved her. What kind of love allowed a man to treat a woman the way she was being treated? He’d known that taking her to his country might be her death sentence. That didn’t fit any definition of love she knew.
He said she’d never been in danger because he’d known he wouldn’t fail. What kind of man went through life with that level of arrogance?
Someone used to making life and death decisions for others.
A prince.
No matter who he was, or how his country was run, he was going to get an earful of her opinion on both the next time she saw him. He can’t keep me in here forever. Can he?
Relief was short-lived when Reanna heard the door to the suite open. She rushed toward it only to halt mid-step when she saw it was two of the Royal Guard and not Xander at the door.
Reanna turned to bolt, to where she wasn’t sure, but one grabbed her arm. She swung around, punching and kicking, but it had little effect on her assailants. One lifted her off her feet as if she were a child while the other secured her hands behind her back. Reanna opened her mouth to scream, but was gagged before she’d made a sound. She was thrown over the shoulder of the taller of the two men and carried out of the suite and down the back staircase of the castle.
Had Xander sent the guards? Were
they saving her or taking her to her death?
She was deposited in the back of an SUV with dark tinted windows and sandwiched between the two guards. When she whimpered at how her arms were caught behind her, the guards exchanged a look and untied her hands. She removed her own gag.
Although still terrified, she was confident of one thing — these men didn’t want to hurt her. As she looked back and forth at their cold-as-stone expressions, she amended that thought. She was reasonably certain they meant her no harm.
A third guard drove the SUV down a service driveway and out a gate. The lit windows of the castle disappeared in the night.
Xander, if you love me, now would be a good time to prove it.
It was almost midnight by the time Xander charged into his father’s chambers. He’d assembled those loyal to him and felt ready for whatever fight was to come. His father was not pleased when he announced he wanted to speak to him, but Xander didn’t care. He couldn’t give his father time to betray him.
His father was still putting on a housecoat and blinking away sleep, when Xander said, “I have come to give you a chance to abolish the death clause to our marriage law.”
The king sputtered, “A chance? Remember who you’re talking to.”
Xander advanced on his father. “Oh, I know you, better than I bet you wish I did. A lot of things make sense to me now. We were never good enough for you — I was never good enough — because we were not the sons you wanted to have, were we? You settled for our mother, and therefore, were forced to settle for us. No wonder Mother killed herself. She knew, didn’t she? She knew what kind of man she’d married.”
“That’s enough, Xander. Have you been drinking?”
“I’m not drunk. I’m furious. I have spent a lifetime looking up to you and trying to be half the man I thought you were. Now I see the truth of who you are, and I am disgusted to be your son. When I told you I couldn’t go through with the marriage law, you spoke to me of God and country. It was bullshit. What you should have told me was my father is a coward who couldn’t save the woman he loved and is still too afraid to protect his own sons from the same fate.”
