I tripped through the gardens, biting my lip as I scanned the hedges and rose bushes for any sign of Riley. When she’s blurted out the news to me back in that office about Callie, I’d barely had time to process it while also trying to get her to leave. Which meant I hadn’t even been focused enough to ask her where the hell “there” was when she’d said she’d just “meet me there”.

The gardens seemed like a good place to at least start looking though. For one, because people get married in gorgeous rose gardens, right? And for two, because these were the same gardens where I’d caught Riley earlier with King Sven.

Okay, it wasn’t a bulletproof place, but it seemed like a good place to start.

“Lola.”

Something froze in me, and my feet came to a stuttering stop. The cold feeling inside spread, turning to ice as it crept over my skin, chilling me to my core. The voice I’d all but forgotten from my past uttered my name for the first time in six years, and it felt like the world was dropping out from under me.

…It was the voice of my father.

Slowly, I turned, and there he stood, like some sort of apparition.

“Dad?”

It’d never been hard to forget this man. I hadn’t lost him when he went to jail and I went to live with Xavier, I’d lost him years before that. I’d lost him when it became pretty obvious that he’d never wanted to be a parent, and that I was more of a burden than a joy to him. And then of course, he’d gone to jail, and moving on from that had been a sort of relief when I’d moved in with Xavier. When my father had used the last of resources and favors to bribe his way out of jail before his final sentencing and escape to God knows where, I guess in my mind I’d considered that a final closing of that door.

In my mind, after that, he was just gone, and I was okay with that.

But the man standing in front of me was very much there in the flesh and blood. He looked haggard, and a little bedraggled. His hair was longer than I remembered it, and there was a grizzled week-old beard on his roughened face. Dark circles pocketed under bloodshot eyes, and he looked at me with this weird sort of skittishness.

He smiled at me, but it was this forced-looking smile, like he had to put on an act to do it.

“Hey there buttercup,” he said in a haggard voice. I frowned. “Buttercup” wasn’t ever a name he’d called me. He leaned closer, eyeing me, and then I could smell the booze on his breath.

“Dad…” I swallowed, shaking my head at him. “Dad what are you doing here?”

The man in front of me, stranger to me or not, was a wanted criminal. He might have once been my father, but the man he was now was a man who’d actively plotted to blow up a children’s hospital so that he could make sure his power remained in his own hands.

I took a step back, and his bloodshot eyes narrowed.

“The fuck do you mean what am I doing here?” he muttered. “It’s a royal wedding, Lola. And a man of my standing—”

“Dad, what standing?” I balked at him. “You’re a wanted felon, you know.”

“By those lesser than people like you and me,” he hissed. “People who have no birthright to even speak to me!”

I snorted, scowling at him as I shook my head. God, he’d really drunk the kool aid. He, and the others like Xavier’s ex-wife who’d planned the violence they’d almost carried out truly believed that they, as “royalty,” were actually better than other people who weren’t. I mean, it was also clear my father was drunk, or maybe on drugs or something too. But that God-complex thing was still there at his core.

“Lola—”

He reached for my arm, but I yanked it back, backing away from him. His eyes narrowed.

“I’m your father, Lola!” he spat.

“What do you want?”

His eyes darted from side to side, his jaw grinding.

“My, uh, my funds have been frozen.”

“Yeah, that will happen when you escape from jail after planning mass murder and treason,” I hissed.

An anger sparked in his eyes, but he just kept glaring at me.

“You’re my flesh and blood, Lola. And I need you to—”

I barked out a laugh. “Are you here asking me for money? Is that it? You’re back after all these years because you ran out of drinking money?”

“Goddamnit, Lola!” he roared, making my pulse jump in fright. “Maybe I wasn’t father of the fucking year, but you will not turn your back on me right now!”

“Dad,” my voice trembled, my eyes starting to sting. “You need to leave.”

“You don’t speak to me like that!” he snapped. He moved towards me, making me gasp as I stumbled back.

“Get away from me!”

“Or what?” he snarled. And then slowly, a cruel, evil smile crept over his face. “Or are you going to call you new daddy on me?”

I shivered, and he laughed a brittle laugh.

“Oh, a little bird told me all about that,” my father hissed.

“Get away,” I choked out. I don’t even know what you’re talking—”

“You and Xavier.”

My heart jumped, that cold feeling like a knife twisting in my chest.

My father swore and shook his head at me. “You little slut. What, working out your daddy issues by screwing my friend?”

“Get away,” I hissed coldly, fighting back the tears. “Get away before I scream for the fucking police.”

But he didn’t budge. In fact, he just smiled.

“How about we do this instead, hmm?”

He reached into his jacket pocket, and I swallowed thickly as he withdrew a manilla envelope and popped it open. He reached in, and when he pulled out the photographs, the whole world started to tumble around me.

Oh God.

I knew what they were before he even showed me.

…They were of me. Me and Xavier, to be exact — shot by either an insanely sneaky photographer or a drone or something. Pictures of us kissing, and of Xavier holding me so tightly and so possessively. They were pictures of me at my happiest, but there in my father’s hands as photographs, they were the opposite of that.

In those pictures, they were poison.

“How about this, daughter of mine. You free up my funds and pass them my way, and if you can do that, these won’t hit the newspapers.”

I swallowed, fighting back the tears as I squared my jaw and scowled defiantly at him. “Go for it. I don’t care.”

He chuckled. “Sure you don’t.”

I took a shaky breath, and closed my eyes. I breathed again, and then slowly, it hit me. Slowly, I realized it wasn’t just calling his bluff.

…Slowly, I realized it was true.

I didn’t care. I wasn’t ashamed. I wasn’t concerned with what anyone had to say about Xavier and me. What could anyone say? That the man I loved was older than me? That it was “inappropriate”? So fucking what? Hell, one of my best friends was supposed to have been marrying a total creep that day because of some arranged debt-settling bullshit. Who the heck was going to say that was “appropriate” but me falling for Xavier wasn’t?

I didn’t realize that I was laughing quietly until I realized my father was staring at me like I was crazy.

“Tell the papers,” I spit back at him. “Tell anyone who will listen to you. I don’t actually care, and I’m not giving you any mon—”

I gasped as his hand suddenly shot out, grabbing my wrist tight and yanking me close.

“Yes you are,” he hissed, his eyes narrowing violently at me as his grip tightened. Fear shot through me, even as I tried to fight, and tried to yank my arm back.

“Let go of me!”

“My own flesh and blood!” he roared. “Denying me help!”

“Let go of—”

My father grunted, his grip on me going slack as he suddenly went toppling over and crashing into the hedge next to me. A new hand grabbed me, pulling me back and into a familiar chest and a familiar smell.

Xavier.

My heart jumped, and the relief washed through me as his strong, loving arms went around me, holding me tight and pulling me back from my ranting, unhinged father.

“Stay right there, Jeremey.”

Xavier’s voice was edged, but also almost breaking with emotion. And I got it. Things had been different back then, but I knew they’d once been close friends. Hell, it was the reason Xavier had taken me in in the first place.

My father whirled though, ignoring Xavier’s words as he took a step towards us, his face snarling with rage.

“You,” he hissed, jabbing a finger at Xavier.

“I’m warning you, Jeremy,” the man I loved said quietly but firmly. “You will keep your distance from her.”

My father laughed a cold, cruel laugh. “You piece of shit. Putting your hands on my daughter? Really, Xavier? Were you just so fucking eager to lend your testimony to put Shana, and me, and the others away just so you could get your fucking mitts on my Lola?!”

I felt Xavier’s hand tighten on me, and I watched the anger ripple over his face as his muscles clenched tight.

“I was there for her when you left her, Jeremy.”

“You were my friend!”

“And you were mine,” Xavier hissed back. “Before you decided you wanted to blow up children.”

“The cause was greater than any of that bullsh—”

“What cause?!” Xavier roared, pulling me behind him, like he was shielding me from the rantings of my father.

“The cause of bringing back a corrupt system where those with money rule everything?”

“Yes,” my father spat. “The way it’s supposed to be. King Rian with his nonsense about elected officials? Commoners in positions like that? It couldn’t be stood for!”

Xavier shook his head in disgust. “You’re delusional. Is this why you came back? To corner her like this and spew your lies and anger at her?”

“She knows why I came to her.”

I snorted. “He wants money.”

“And I’m not fucking leaving here without it, Xavier,” my father growled out. He waved the envelope and then reached in to show Xavier the photos. “Don’t think for a second that I won’t let the media see this scandal.”

I felt my heart sink again, but the Duke — my Duke — just started to smile. He turned away from my father, looking right at me as that smile on his face grew bigger.

“Do what you want, Jeremy,” he said quietly, looking right at me. “I know what I want, and I know that there’s nothing you could say or do to stop me.”

“Keep your hands—”

My father lunged at us, when suddenly, Xavier whirled on him. He roared, his big, powerful hands grabbing my father and stopping him cold before shoving him back into the hedges behind him.

“Keep your mouth shut, Jeremy,” he hissed, pinning my father with one hand on his neck. Xavier reached into his jacket pocket and passed me his cell phone.

“Your choice, Lola,” he said quietly, turning to me. “We can call the guards, or we can walk away. Let this piece of human trash go where he wants, but I can promise you, he won’t ever hurt you.”

I swallowed, my heart racing as I held the phone in my hand.

“He’ll be out there, though. Free.”

And then there was the other part. The part that reminded me that even if I knew in my heart Xavier would always protect me, it might not be me my father hurt later. He’d shown his colors, and shown what he was capable of. What would happen if I just told him to get lost and he went out and actually hurt someone, or children, just because of his hardcore and shitty beliefs?

Time held still for a second as I just stared at the phone.

“It’s your choice, angel,” Xavier said quietly.

“I’m your father!” my father screeched.

And I think that’s what did it. That’s what made me snap.

“You were never a father to me!” I screamed, the anger and the rage and hurt from being left the way he’d left me when I was younger coming right to the surface. “You abandoned me!”

“Oh take your fucking daddy issues somewhere else! All this emotional bullshit!”

Xavier had stepped back, but he growled as he moved between my father and me, like he was shielding me. But my dad just kept right on blabbing.

“You know, your mother was the same fucking—”

I started to dial the number for the royal guards, and his eyes went wide before he scoffed.

“You’re really gonna turn in your old man, huh?”

“Yes,” I said quietly. I looked up into Xavier’s eyes — into the strong but caring, fierce but kind eyes of the man I loved.

“I’m standing up for what’s right.”

I hit the call button.

My father bellowed, and he lunged for me, but Xavier was faster. He caught my father fast, spinning him and sweeping his legs and dropping him to the ground.

“Stay down,” Xavier hissed at him. “Don’t make me hurt you, Jeremy.”

* * *

It wasn’t long before a whole troop of the palace guards barreled around the corner, quickly surrounding my father and cuffing him. Yeah, they knew who he was. And this time, there wasn’t going to be any escape. I knew part of me should have been more upset, but like I said — he’d left me a long time before. And the only family I considered my family was standing right at my side, holding me close, kissing the top of my head, and telling me it was all going to be okay.

…Like he always had.

“I know it is,” I said quietly, smiling as I turned to him as the last of the guards headed back up the path. I leaned up, and before he could say a thing, I kissed him — slowly and softly at first, but then deeper and hungrier, until I was right where I knew I always wanted to be: lost in him.

It was the loud sound of a helicopter that pulled us apart, and I looked up and saw that it was coming in for a landing right on the front lawn of the palace.

My brows knit. “That’s an interesting spot for a land—”

Suddenly, I realized that the decal on the side of it was the royal crest of King Hayden Anders, and it all clicked into place. While I’d been busy dealing with my father, something told me Callie had gone ahead and done something very un-Callie-like.

...Like marry King Hayden.

Xavier cleared his throat. “We should go. Hayden—”

“Is running off with Callie, I know.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Well, the ride’s been offered to us, too. I think it’s safe to say there’s going to be a shitstorm when King Milton realizes that my friend’s run off with his bride-to-be.”

He held his hand out, and I grinned as I took it. “Let’s go home then.”

He started to pull me with him, when suddenly, he stopped short and turned back to me, taking my hands.

“We have to do something first, angel.”

“Oh?”

He smiled, his fierce eyes blazing right into me. “I wanted you covered in jewels. A princess, Lola, like you deserve to be.” His jaw tightened. “Now, I can give you jewels, baby girl. I can give you all of my love.”

He took a deep breath, his eyes burning fiercely.

“But I can’t give you the title you want. The one you deserve to have. I can’t make you a queen, and with me, you’d no longer be a princess. You’d lose that title.”

“Who says I want it?” I said quietly, shaking my head as my hands tightened in his.

“You’re a princess, Lola. And I can’t be the one who takes that away from—”

“And you’re the man I love,” I whispered fiercely back, biting my lip and looking up into his eyes as I pulled him close. “You’re the man who showed me more love than I’ve ever known. You’re the only man who’ll ever have my heart.”

Xavier took a long, slow breath, his eyes never leaving mine.

“You’re sure about this.”

“One million percent.”

He grinned, nodding his head. “That’s funny, because I’ve was thinking the exact same way about this.”

When he dropped to his knee, my heart jumped into my throat.

When he reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring, I didn’t realize I was screaming in joy and throwing my arms around his neck until he hugged me right back, holding me so tight like he’d never let me go.

“I have to ask first, baby girl,” he purred into my ear.

“Well hurry up and ask already!” I squealed.

“Marry me.”

“That doesn’t sound like a question.”

“It’s not.”

The heat bloomed through me, and I threw myself into his arms again, melting into him as I kissed him again and again.

“Yes,” I gasped, moaning into his lips as he picked me up and spun me around. “Yes yes yes yes yes!”

He spun me once more before dipping me low and kissing me slow and deep, until I was out of air and not even caring.

“Now,” he purred into my lips. “I think we have a helicopter to catch.”