Chapter 29

London, England

It had been a long night and day. Viktor had slept through the day so he would be ready to see his princess. After interrogating the Frenchman all night, he’d finally ended it. He had men at Jean Luc’s residence, searching for the man’s secret torture chamber, and Viktor still had video files to scour. He would bet Pavel was going through the non-Sophia files now. His man had been on a mission. Jean Luc held more than his share of dirt on the prominent and wealthy.

Viktor buttoned his shirt as Ivan stalked in. The frown on his face said something was wrong. “What is it?”

Ivan clicked on the television. The middle-aged news anchor appeared excited as she delivered the report.

“In a shocking turn of events, Crown Princess Sophia Helena Loredan of Porenza formally abdicated her title yesterday afternoon. A source shared details from the legal document indicating she has relinquished all rights to her assets. One unsubstantiated report states she refused her family’s choice of husband and was cut off. There has been no formal comment from His Majesty, King William.”

During the reporter’s delighted narration, a video showed Sophia walking down the palace steps and getting into a dark SUV with a team of older men. His jaw tightened at the way she held her head high, her features fixed in that mask of composure she wore for anyone who was not him. What the fuck had happened in their day apart?

Another video cut in, this one of her surrounded by paparazzi. He noted her female guard was with her, and there seemed to be a couple of male guards. Recognition flared to life and deepened his scowl. He’d seen them before in the surveillance videos Jean Luc had been accumulating. Was that who her guard, Jen, had signaled the first night he’d had her? A simple ping when Sophia had decided to spend the night. What would have happened if Jen hadn’t gotten the message out? Would the men have come to rescue her from him? A part of him was pleased that she’d had backup, but the other was furious at who the men were and what she was involved in.

The words of the continuing news report filtered slowly into his brain. “This afternoon, ex-princess Sophia Loredan was seen laughing and shopping here in London. Will this be her new residence?”

Hell yes, it would be her new residence. If he’d felt protective of her before, it was nothing compared to what he felt after all he’d learned. The violence of the previous night still sang through his veins.

“I want to know what the hell really happened in Porenza.” She hadn’t been scheduled to return until the weekend.

He already knew from video clips and what he was able to get out of Jean Luc that the man had made an elaborate plan to extort all her secrets in order to own her. Had he already set things into motion to get her brother to call her home? The bastard hadn’t divulged that information before his death.

The whole situation was a damned nightmare. They had so much information that his eyes hurt from watching, yet he couldn’t stop. Some was incriminating, and some was very subtle, but he’d pieced together enough with Jean Luc’s logs to know Sophia and her friends were vigilantes of a sort, with mercenaries in their employ. In the end, Jean Luc had taunted him over and over with the fact that he’d been hunting Sophia, that he’d surveilled her so that he had enough information to make her his. He leaked a little information so that he could video her people breaking and entering. He’d been compiling records on her. The hunted had become the hunter until his final play had been to collect a princess.

Being the Frenchman’s would have meant pain and misery for Sophia. He clenched his fists, furious at the thought of that man anywhere near her.

Viktor wanted her badly. He wanted her in his bed, beneath him, writhing and begging, but he couldn’t trust himself now. He was still seething with fear of what could have happened to her.