Chapter 13

London, England

“You going to tell me what happened last night?”

Sophia started at the sound of Forde’s cultured voice behind her in the dark bat cave of the hideout home. Britain’s most notorious aristocrat looked like he hadn’t slept all night. Forde had to have passed Jen as she’d left the house to get some rest after discovering the blocker hadn’t collected even a minute of data.

The guard hadn’t liked that information any more than Sophia had, especially after testing the jammer and finding it worked fine. That meant Viktor’s security systems were very advanced, as advanced as Jen had assessed. She felt a sliver of unease at the idea he might even be privy to what the blocker was used for.

Sophia had quickly gone to the other house and ordered food up to her room. After making an appearance to her guards, she’d spent the last two hours in the bat cave, enjoying Riot’s surprise appearance.

She hugged Forde as she tried to get her thoughts in order. “You missed Riot. I thought you were stuck in New York.”

“The plane is still there, covered in snow. I arranged for another to pick me up in Pennsylvania.”

She grinned. “You were worried?”

“You expected less?” He put a hand to his heart as if hurt. His antics fell short with the dark circles beneath his eyes and the day of stubble on his usually clean-shaven jaw. When he spoke, she felt his guilt. “I underestimated Mother Nature. I should have been here when you left to meet him.”

“I wasn’t in any physical danger. We knew that. And Cade and Sean were here in case of emergency. No one could have gone with me into that house. I was fine.”

He grew serious, and his piercing gray eyes drilled into hers. “Were you fine?”

“Yes.” She was still warmed by his efforts and Riot’s surprise visit. Being seen with the wild socialite would have been disastrous for Sophia. They all knew that. But Riot hadn’t cared. She’d forgone the little sleep time she had to fly from Milan to be in London when Sophia got home. Unfortunately, her friend had been up all night waiting for her. It was a very good thing Jen had been able to get the okay signal to Cade and Sean.

“Riot said you’d fly in tonight, once the airport reopened.” Riot had been right in the middle of preparing for an upcoming fashion show. It had been one of the worst times for her to leave her business, with a cover life as the obscenely wealthy socialite slash fashion designer daughter to one of the most famous rock stars in the world. Riot would have a lot of covering to do for her absence. Yet she had dropped it all to fly to Sophia’s side. It seemed Forde had moved some mountains as well, while Irina was stuck in Los Angeles, dealing with complications from Mischa’s knee surgery.

She was incredibly grateful to have them all.

A smile tilted her lips as she remembered how Irina had chimed in with a video chat while Riot was there, and the two friends managed to drill out every single dirty detail of Sophia’s night, while Jen did nothing to stop the interrogation.

After a moment, she realized Forde hadn’t answered. “You didn’t tell anyone you were fighting through a storm to get here, did you?”

He arched a brow. Of course he hadn’t, and the man had left his jet in New York for her. She felt a pang in her chest. This was her family.

“Don’t get that look,” he warned her with the slightly horrified look of a man worried she was going to talk about feelings. “It wasn’t difficult.”

That was enough to make her lips twitch. “Thank you.”

He shook off her words, and after a second, his gaze grew harder. “I know you stayed with him last night. Was that your choice?”

“Yes, Forde.”

He studied her closely. “You wanted to be there?”

“Yes.”

Forde stayed silent, assessing her.

Sophia explained what had happened, sans the dirty deeds she’d shared with Riot, Jen, and Irina. “I know my judgement isn’t the best where he’s concerned, but I don’t believe he’d tell anyone about Paris or what happened last night. But he did manipulate me into coming to him.”

Forde seemed to be weighing the situation, and the chill in his gaze said he wasn’t pleased by Viktor’s tactics.

After that charged silence, Forde finally spoke. “I know you’ve always had a thing for him. I heard it enough when Riot and Irina teased you. But…” His silver gaze grew glacial. “If it was different, you can tell me. If you felt forced to stay in any way, I will take care of it.”

His words, containing a hint of danger, caused her throat to clog with emotion, and she had to clear it before answering calmly, “I promise I wasn’t forced to do anything. I wanted to stay… and I’m going back tomorrow.” She tried to lighten the mood with a smirk. “Go ahead, judge me.”

He snorted. “That would be hypocritical.” Forde’s playboy reputation and wealth made him front-page news more often than not.

“I’ll be fine.” She sighed. “I need this.” She assessed her friend for a moment. His current look was calculating, the strategist at work. “If I think our secrets are in danger, I’ll stop.” She’d do it in a heartbeat. No matter how much she wanted more of the Russian, she would never risk her family. Her saving grace was that no one would suspect her of being in a covert organization. She was certain their secrets would be safe.

Though, things pertaining to Viktor? She sobered. “If you’re planning on digging into his life and having him followed, it’s best I don’t know anything about that.” She hated to admit weakness, would hate being out of the loop, but she could be a liability where those details were concerned. “He sees through my expressions.”

She’d worried her guilt had given her away when she took the jamming device. She was royal though, so that type of equipment wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

Forde seemed to consider her for a moment. “You know you are allowed to be happy and have a life, Sophia.”

He wasn’t just talking about Viktor now, which sobered her mood. “I have access to more marks as the crown princess of Porenza. You know that.”

“That’s no reason to stay a prisoner in your own home… or palace, as it were. Seeing him wouldn’t be as big a challenge if not for your family.”

After a long moment, she finally asked. “How do I let it go? How do I turn my back on family and country?”

“I’m only going to say this once.” Anything to do with feelings was not Forde’s forte, yet he was forging ahead, which meant whatever he had to say was important.

“It’s time to stop punishing yourself for things you had nothing to do with. You don’t have to be a princess to do good things for Porenza. You have money of your own, and there’s no way in hell your brother or mother will cut off the money to your charity projects if you leave. It would not be viewed well by the public if they did. And as far as family goes, they aren’t going to change. They’ll eventually demand too much from you because your brother has kept the monarchy in the dark ages. You can choose to be miserable following old rules, or you can break away and live the life you want, at least somewhat. Remember, you do a lot of good, and none of it requires a crown.”

She’d started chewing her bottom lip at some point in his out-of-character tirade and forced herself to stop, whispering, “Thank you.”

“Now that I’ve solved world peace, I’m going to bed.” The words were meant to be funny, but his joking tone still held a serious quality to it. After bending down to kiss her head, he turned toward the door, saying, “I’ll be here for the next week in case you need me. Cade and Sean will stay close as well.”

She curled back into the heavy leather office chair, thinking about what he’d said. Her intentions to audit the mercenary accounting books seemed far too daunting as her mind filled with Forde’s words.

Had she stayed in her position just to punish herself?