As I headed home with Haley, we had a friend in the backseat of the car: an enormous teddy bear with a sweet grin and big brown, glass eyes. Haley kept turning around to stare at the stuffed animal, managing to get ice cream all over the back of the seat. I didn’t really care. I was just so happy to see her happy.

“Thank you so, so much, Papa James!” she said again. “I love him! And I love you.”

Tears stung my eyes. I blinked them away, taking a sip of my melting milkshake to give myself a chance to hold myself together. “You don’t have to love me,” I said. “We can just be friends.”

“But I do love you. I don’t love you like I love Daddy, but I love you like a Papa. And I think that’s okay,” she finished.

Damn this pure, sweet child for making me cry.

This time, nothing I could have done would disguise the wobble in my voice, so I just nodded. “I think that’s okay, too.”

We were nearly back at the palace by now. I let my mind wander a little, thinking on all the things I’d seen that I would love for the baby to have. Reid seemed to think we had enough stuff, but I didn’t think that was possible.

Maybe if I got Haley in on it, we could gang up on Reid and convince him to come over to the dark side. “Hey,” I started.

“Look out!” Haley shrieked.

I looked up in time to see a bright red car lurching down the middle of the road, heading straight for us. “Fuck!” I shouted, and yanked hard on the steering wheel. The car slashed past us, and flakes of paint drifted up into the air like snow.

My car came to an abrupt stop on the shoulder of the road.

I realized I had flung an arm across Haley. I swiveled to face her, staring into her eyes. “Are you okay?” I demanded.

Haley blinked at me. “I dropped my ice cream,” she said, sounding close to tears. She blinked some more and pulled in a shaky breath. “I’m okay.”

“Sweetie, don’t you worry. We can have more ice cream when we get back to the palace.”

I replied automatically, though my thoughts were racing far ahead of me. The red car had been going so fast that I already couldn’t see it anymore in the rearview mirror. It had been a Tesla Model S, if I was correct.

Lesandra drove that type of car. In fact, as the car had blasted by us at top speed, hadn’t I seen a blonde woman behind the wheel?

This wasn’t good. No, it wasn’t good at all. Why would Lesandra be driving away from the palace as fast as possible, unless something had come up to drive her away?

“Is your seatbelt on, Haley?”

“Yes,” she replied in a small voice.

“Good. I’m going to drive a little faster, so you just hold on and we’ll be home soon enough.”

Without waiting for an answer, I stomped on the gas and drove as fast as I dared. Not as fast as Lesandra had been going, but fast enough that I probably wouldn’t have time to react if anyone or anything jumped out in front of us again. My heart pounded in my chest, beating to a double rhythm. I really hoped I could chalk this feeling up to adrenaline and nerves, but I couldn’t really convince myself of that.

Something was wrong.

I had the wrongness confirmed for me when I reached the palace gates and I found it standing open wide. That never happened. It was a breach of protocol, a safety hazard.

Fuck. What is it? An assassination? Terrorists? A fire?

But it couldn’t be any of those, because Amalienborg would be completely blocked off in those events. If it was a fire, I’d have seen the smoke from a very long way away.

Rather than being reassured, I only felt a much more urgent need to get back and find Reid. If this wasn’t a big disaster, something smaller and much more personal must have happened to someone.

That could be even worse. If Reid was caught in the middle of it…

I stomped on the gas again, pushing my car as far as I could until I reached the garden. Cursing the narrow maze-like nature of the garden for the first time in my life, I jumped out of the car and ran around to the side to grab Haley. Picking her up, I started to run through the garden.

Just before I disappeared around the first corner, I saw something I had missed before in my rush. A square, blocky vehicle sat off to the side, but very nearby.

An ambulance.

I raced through the garden and ran up the front steps of Brockdorff castle. Several EMTs and doctor ran past me, and I slammed my shoulder into the wall before managing to get in through the door.

I saw a guard standing immediately inside the door. His eyes flew open wide and he grabbed for me, holding onto my shoulder. “Sir!” he cried out.

The breach of strict protocol told me exactly what I needed to know. Reid was in trouble.

Grabbing Haley, I handed her over to the guard. Both of them stared at each other, as if wondering how they had come to be in this position. “Take her to one of the smaller living rooms,” I commanded. “Don’t let anyone take her out unless it’s myself or Reid.”

“Sir…”

“Protect her at all costs. Go!” I snapped, squaring my shoulders and thrusting my body at him.

The guard fled down the hall. Haley popped her head up over his shoulder, staring at me with her eyes white rimmed and huge from fear.

Spinning around, I searched for someone else to grab so I could get more information. I didn’t see anyone. It was like the entire palace had been evacuated, or everyone was in hiding. That made sense if something bad had happened. The rest of court could not be put at risk in this eventuality.

I decided to head to where I knew Reid had been last and took off running, racing for the little living room in my private quarters. As soon as climbed up the stairs, I saw guards stationed all over the place. None of them bothered to stop me as I bolted past them.

Staggering to a stop, gasping, I thrust myself through the doorway and stared in at the scene.

Reid lay on the couch where I’d left him. Through a cluster of doctors and emergency workers, I saw that he had been stripped of his clothes. He writhed around, letting out pained shrieks.

Blood foamed on his lips like garish makeup. There was more bloody bile on the couch, on his chest, on the floor.

“Reid!”

One doctor in particular barked out an order, then broke away from the pack. The others filtered in to take his place as he came over to me. “You can’t be in here.”

“Fuck that,” I snarled, shoving at his shoulder with my hand, causing him to stumble. “What happened? What the fuck happened?”

“If you’re going to stay, you need to keep your voice down,” the doctor replied. He lowered his voice as if in demonstration. I growled, shaking hard and trying to resist the urge to drive my fist into his face. “From what we can tell, he was poisoned.”

“Poison? But he … he’s pregnant! The baby!”

“We know,” the doctor said. “The police have already been called. They’ll take samples.”

Samples of…

I saw, for the first time, the tray tipped over with tea splashed all over the floor and the platter of tossed tea cakes.

“You don’t have any idea what he’s been poisoned with?” I demanded. “Not at all?”

“We suspect rat poison, judging by the vomiting. We have a strong suspicion as to what another of the poisons might have been.”

I turned away from the doctor, raking my hands through my hair. My heart felt like it was being ripped in half. “Is he going to die? Is the baby going to die?”

“We can’t risk moving him,” the doctor said. He glanced over his shoulder, clearly eager to get back to his work. “We’re going to have to induce labor right here. I will save him.”

“Save both of them.”

The doctor didn’t say anything, and my heart tore in half for real. I clutched at my chest as he turned away and went back to join the fray. More EMT workers filtered into the room, carrying a variety of equipment and bottles. Watching them, I felt rage wake up inside me and overtake my fear.

Lesandra had done this. I was going to fucking kill her.

Storming out of the room, I grabbed the first guard I saw and told him about how Lesandra had seemed to be fleeing from the palace. He asked what vehicle, what road, and then he raced off.

I wanted to run with him so I could be part of the investigation, but I knew all that was out of my hands.

I went back into the room and held Reid’s hand, squeezing tightly as he was given a shot to get his body working for the labor. Ready or not, this baby was coming.