I dragged my eyes from Charlotte.

She was still alive, still breathing, but her gown was quickly turning crimson with her blood.  I’d ditched the robe in my pursuit of Charlie the moment I’d seen Ian take her to the tunnels. Convincing Oliver that I’d be safe with Ian, I’d ordered him to get Sophie out.

What a day to be wrong.

I’d slammed the door shut to the tunnel, abandoning Xander and the cumbersome crown outside the entrance, when I heard Charlotte scream my name. Xander was about to be a father, there was no chance I was risking his life. But I’d never thought I would find this waiting for me.

Charlotte needed help immediately.

“What do you want?” I asked Ian, who stood between Charlotte and me, his gun pointed at my chest.

“For you to die,” he answered with a shrug.

“Apparently, but why?”

It took every ounce of my self-control not to look at Charlotte, to keep my eye trained on him.

“Because this has to end. The monarchy. What right do you have to lead? When there are so many people more capable? There is nothing special about your blood, other than the fact that you were bred like a thoroughbred horse. I’ve been in the Palace long enough to know you have no right ruling us. Your brother walked away from our country, you defile every woman you come in contact with, and your sister is nothing better than a whore.”

The hair on my neck stood up, but I held steady.

I just needed to stall him another couple minutes. That was all.

“A bit harsh to call Sophie a whore, isn’t it?’

He laughed, the sound not quite insane, but definitely not all there.

“You know I mean Gabrielle. Sophie, now she’s the only Wyndham worth anything. And believe me, we have plans for her. With you dead, she’ll have to take the throne. She’s so sweet, so...trusting. It will be all too easy for him to get to her.”

“Him who?” I asked, stepping forward.

As if he remembered he had a gun on me, his wrist tensed, and his focus was back on that trigger.

I immediately stopped, putting my hands up. My gaze darted to Charlie, where the blood had covered her entire chest and was pooling beside her on the ground.

“She’ll never agree to anything. Sophie is stronger than any of us.” Her strength was in her quiet resolve, her integrity, her unshakable faith in the good in people.

“It won’t matter once she’s dead. Peanuts, right? That’s what she’s allergic to, oh, and Penicillin, if I’m not mistaken. No worries, she’ll only be around long enough to be useful.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw movement in the tunnel. Just a few more seconds. I had to keep him distracted. Every second we waited, Charlotte was bleeding out, dying within my reach.

“Then why not just shoot me?”

“Just having a little fun. Figured you might want to see her die,” he nodded his head toward Charlotte. “Besides, I’ve never had a King at my mercy. It’s kind of fun.”

“And you think you’ll get away with this?”

He grinned.

“Katherine is waiting for me, keeping the door safe, don’t you worry. Man, we had such better plans when we thought you might marry her. That whole I-don’t-want-to-marry-you act had you going for a while, kept you interested. But then you had to go and marry that one.”

“I love her.”

Xander appeared behind Ian at the fork of the tunnels, his eyes wide, still holding the crown I’d all but thrown at him. The way he clung to the shadows told me he’d heard what was going on and understood all too well.

I deliberately looked from him to Charlotte.

He followed my gaze and grimaced, then shook his head in my direction.

What the fuck did that mean? Could he not get to her? Was she already dead? Panic shot through my system as Xander crept closer. He stopped to feel Charlotte’s pulse, but his face didn’t tell me a damn thing.

“Good for you. You can be buried together and everything. It will be very Romeo and Juliet. Now, I’d hate to run, but I have a feeling we’ll have security on our heels at any moment. Now, if you don’t mind dying, I have a rebellion to lead.”

With a war cry, Xander charged Ian.

Ian spun, firing the gun. The round caught Xander in the shoulder, sending him to the ground just in front of Charlotte as the crown tumbled and hit the stone floor, rolling toward Ian.

Adrenaline flooding my system, I seized my opportunity. There was no thought of the first step, I was simply there, on Ian. I slammed his head against the stone with a sickening thud and then took him to the ground.  The gun skid across the stone, but he twisted in the fall, landing on top of me.

My head smacked into the ground with a shot of sharp pain, the air rushing from my lungs. The wind knocked out of me, I couldn’t draw air, couldn’t focus.

Ian rose above me, blood dripping from his forehead. I should have aimed for the temple.

Then the side of my face exploded in pain once, then twice, and when Ian brought his hand back, it was covered in my blood.

Sweet air filled my lungs as I took another hit to the face.

I reached beside me until I felt ridges of my crown. Then I grasped it and swung, the heavy gold connecting with Ian’s temple. He looked momentarily stunned, then fell over unconscious.

I shoved his weight off me to find Xander stumbling to his feet, holding his shoulder.

“Are you okay?” I yelled, passing him for Charlotte.

“Yeah. Just… damn.” He picked up the gun and handed it to me.

I took the pistol, sliding it into the pocket of my dress uniform. Xander had never been comfortable with guns, despite our military years. Then again, he’d spent his in the office with the other lawyers. I’d been on the front lines—spares were expendable like that.

I sank to my knees next to Charlotte.

“Charlie, baby. Wake up,” I said, stroking her pale face. Then I turned my attention to her chest, ripping the bodice of her gown to expose the gunshot. Blood ran freely, draining the life out of the woman I loved.

For a moment, I saw life without her. Bleak. Gray. Impossible. Her laughter brought me life, her soul kept me strong, her unwavering moral compass kept me on the straight path. I simply couldn’t live without her. She was oxygen, and I was suffocating.

“Oh, God,” Xander dropped next to me. “What can I do?”

I blinked, the world coming back into focus. With a quick move, I ripped off my jacket and pressed it to her chest. I couldn’t move her. I needed a stretcher. I needed fucking help.

“Okay, I’ll get them!” Xander was off, running down the tunnel before I realized I’d even spoken out loud.

“Hang on, Charlie,” I ordered my wife, pressing her wound. “God, I wish it was me. Why wasn’t it me? Why didn’t I see it?”

The tunnel was eerily quiet, and my mind raced. How did I let this happen? How had Ian gotten through our security program? I shouldn’t have married Charlotte. I’d let this happen to her.

It felt like years passed before security rushed the tunnel, Oliver at the helm.

“Jesus Christ!” He yelled, his gaze pinned not on me, but something behind me. As he raised his gun, I spun, whipping the pistol from my pocket and firing in one smooth shot.

Ian grabbed his chest and panic lit his eyes for a millisecond before they closed and he collapsed. Straight through the heart. Get up from that, mother fucker.

“Help her!” I yelled.

A crew with a stretcher appeared, and faster than I could comprehend, Charlotte was surrounded by doctors and hauled out of the tunnels to a waiting ambulance by the palace paramedics.

The sirens, the turns of the streets, Oliver’s tense face next to me, Xander’s sorrow...none of it registered as we sped through Rhyston, toward the hospital.

“She’s crashing!”

The sound of flat-line filled the ambulance, the monitors playing out my worst nightmare. And as if her heart’s beat controlled my own, the pressure in my chest rose to an agonizing level.

“Jameson!” Oliver shouted. “Breathe!”

I blinked and focused on his face. He put his hands on my shoulders and locked eyes with me. “Breathe. She’s going to need you.”

I took a breath as the paddles came out. As they shocked Charlotte. As her chest jolted with electricity.

The ambulance came to a skidding halt, and the doors were flung open by staff. They lowered Charlotte, and we climbed out of the back. The hospital looked like a scene out of a war movie. Bloody, wounded people stumbled in every direction.

“Oh fuck. The bomb.” How many of my people are dead?

“Your Majesty, are you wounded?”

“My wife. You have to save my wife,” I said numbly to the doctor in my face. I tried looking around him to get to Charlotte, but he blocked me at every turn.

“Yes, Sir, but I need to ask about you.”

“My brother. Xander. He’s been shot.” I continued walking as the guy retreated, moving backward to keep up with me.

“I understand, but I need to know how injured you are.”

“I’m fucking fine! Now save my wife!”

Heads turned as we came through the ER and into the trauma room, where Charlotte was surrounded by doctors.

“How do I trust them?” I asked Oliver, who stood next to me, our backs against the wall.

“After what just happened with Ian? I don’t know. You’re going to have to have some faith.”

“I’m all out of faith today,” I said quietly.

“Your Royal Highness, we need to look at that shoulder,” another doctor said to Xander, who stood on the other side of me.

“I’m not leaving my brother.”

“Sir,” he pled. “You’re bleeding.”

“Doesn’t change matters,” he growled. “You got me in a sling, now you can wait.”

“Xander, go.”

“Unless that’s an order, you can fuck off, Jameson. That should be Willa on that table, not Charlotte. That should me my life on the line, not yours. I’m not leaving you.”

“Fine. Bleed out. See if I care.”

“Your Majesty?” A nurse walked over with a clipboard, and I saw Oliver’s hand reflexively reach for his weapon.

“Yes.”

“She’s in very real danger. The bullet tore a hole through her lung, and the exit...she needs surgery.” She pushed the clipboard at me and pointed to two highlighted lines. “I need your consent.”

My consent. Because I was responsible for Charlotte as her husband. I was responsible for what happened to her.

I scrawled my signature as they began to wheel her out.

“Wait!” I yelled, running for the bed. I slid through the doctors, ignored where her chest was flayed open, and pressed a kiss to her cold cheek. “I love you. Then, now, forever. Eternity. Stay with me.”

In a flurry of movement, they wheeled her out.

And I was left in the trauma room, the remnants of bandages and Charlotte’s blood littering the floor.

“So much blood,” I said quietly.

“She’s going to be okay,” Xander said.

“You don’t know that. If I lose her…” I shook my head, then ran my hands over my face. They were red with Charlotte’s blood. “God. Xander.”

He pulled me into a one-armed hug, despite the pain he had to be in.

But that was brotherhood, wasn’t it? No matter the pain, or the utter wreckage we’d found ourselves in the middle of, he had my back.

* * *

“Coffee?” Xander asked, a steaming cup in his good hand.

“No thanks,” I replied. My nerves were still jittery, no saying what caffeine was going to do to them. I kept my eyes on Charlotte’s monitors.

She’d been out of surgery for six hours, and I’d been in her room for five hours and fifty-six minutes. There were perks to being King. Screw hospital rules. This was the Royal suite, and I knew my way around it all too well.

This was where my father had died.

Nearly a year ago, it had been him in that bed. His skin pale, his eyes determined but failing. His words ringing in my ears to always follow my heart, to be the man he knew I was destined to be.

He may have died in this room, but I refused to lose Charlotte the same way.

Her chest rose and fell with steady rhythm thanks to the ventilator, the little line on the monitor showing me that her heart was keeping a good, reliable beat. The doctors said it had been a success. She’d come off the breathing machine in another hour once the meds were out of her system, and she’d be okay.

The town square...not so much.

We had seventeen Ellestonians dead, and dozens wounded. I’d been briefed while Charlotte was in surgery. I’d never been so thankful for Damian’s ability to handle a crisis. With the way our government was set up, the weight of disaster coordination rested on him.

“Everyone is next door,” Xander said. “The coffee was mostly bribery to get you over there.”

I looked at Charlotte.

“It’s a suite, my man. One way in this room and one way out. No one’s going to get to her with that army.

I nodded, coming to my feet. I crossed the sterile, tiled floor and placed a kiss on Charlotte’s forehead.

“I’ll be right back, my love.”

Opening the door to the suite, my family came to their feet. Brie, Sophie, Oliver, my mother, Charlotte’s parents...they were all there.

“Sit, please,” I told them as I passed the row of security that blocked Charlotte’s door from the rest of the suite. Oliver had personally chosen the staff from guys he’d known since school.

The family sat in the living area, looking at me expectantly. Sometimes I forgot that I was in charge now.

“She still hasn’t woken up, so there’s nothing new to report there. Mom, go home. In fact, take Xander home. Get him back to Willa and get out of Elleston for a while.”

“Darling, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“I am. Damian briefed me a few hours ago, and from what they’ve found, they believe that Katherine and Ian acted alone. But Katherine is still at large, and with the political tide we’ve seen, it’s hard to believe they didn’t have some backing. I’ve been told the threat is over, but I’d feel a hell of a lot better with you in the States.”

She pursed her lips and glared, but nodded.

“Man, if I’d known all it would take was a crown to get you to listen to me, I would have knocked Xander out of the running a long time ago,” I joked, my lip cracking as I smiled. Ian had done a number to my face. My lip was split, and my eye blackened, nearly swelled shut.

She sighed. “Fine. We’ll go.”

Xander looked at me, determination in his eyes, but I shook my head. “Go. Get back to your wife and your unborn child. There is nothing you can do here, and everything to do there. Take Mom and keep her…” safe, “occupied.”

They mumbled, they argued, but they agreed.

My eyes swept over the people that I loved, landing on Sophie. “I need to talk to you and Oliver in private.”

She startled, her gaze flying to Oliver, but she nodded.

Everyone but security filed out to another room in the suite. I sat on the couch that faced Sophie, while Oliver held up the wall next to Sophie’s armchair. He stood as close to her as possible without actually encroaching on her space.

The line between proprietary and protection was blurred, but not in an obvious way.

“What’s going on?” Sophie asked.

“I need you to go away,” I said softly, knowing she was going to resist.

“I’m sorry?” she snapped.

“And I need you to take her,” I said to Oliver.

“What?” He came off the wall but didn’t walk toward me.

“When I was in the tunnel, with Ian, he mentioned a threat against you,” I told Sophie. “He was pretty damn specific. They’re going to use someone to get close to you. I don’t know why or how, but they wanted me dead so you would be on the throne.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. “I...I don’t even want it. I never have.”

“I know that,” I reassured her. “I think they were hoping you’d take the crown and they could get someone in power with you who would dissolve the monarchy.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen. I’m never getting married anyway.”

I blinked. So don’t have time for that aspect of the conversation.

“Sophie, he knew you’re allergic to peanuts, and penicillin. Peanuts, sure that’s common knowledge. But penicillin? That’s classified and only in your medical records, which are, again, classified. Not even Ian had access to that information through his position as security.”

“They’re in deep,” Oliver said, a muscle in his jaw ticking.

“Too deep. We’re locking the royal family down, but with a specific threat against Sophie...I want her gone, at least for a few months.”

“And where do you want me to go? I don’t want to leave you here with this. I can help with Charlotte, with any appearances. Please don’t make me go, Jaime.”

I moved and sat next to my little sister.

“I know you can help. You’re fully capable, and brilliant. You are truly the best of us, and you always have been. But you’re my little sister, and at the end of the day, I can’t stomach the thought of anything happening to you. Do you get that? If something does happen to us, if this plot is deeper than they know right now, then I need you safe. And if they’re coming for you, then you’re not safe in Rhyston.”

“But the security—”

“Ian was security!” I snapped.

Her hands hit her lap and her back straightened. “I understand.”

“I don’t think you do. We’ve had threats with your picture, too, Sophie. They know your schedule, they know your security team. You aren’t safe here. I can’t keep you safe here.”

She swallowed but didn’t cry. Even when faced with a death threat on her, she held her composure, looking for ways to help other people.

“Okay. How long do I have to be gone?”

“Just a few months, I think. We just need time to get to the bottom of the threat.”

She nodded, her face set in the soft lines of resignation.

I stood, and Oliver met me, pulling me to the other side of the room.

“I’m not leaving you.” He shook his head. “No way.”

“You have to.”

“Not with you in danger. Send someone else.”

“No. It has to be you. The palace is on lockdown. No appearances other than television, all security checked and rechecked. I’m safe. Charlotte is safe. Sophie is not.”

He raked his hands over his dark blonde hair, his normally cool composure lost. “Is this because of the tunnels?”

“What?” Realization dawned on me, and I put my hand on his shoulder. “You did exactly as I asked you to. You got Sophie out of there. You were exactly where I needed you to be, and my gratitude is beyond words. You had no way of knowing that Ian was dirty. This is not on you.”

“You don’t trust me anymore,” he said so quietly I knew Sophie didn’t hear.

“Quite the opposite. You’re the only person I trust with her. You’re the only man she’ll willingly go with. I don’t want to know where you are, nor do I want you tell anyone else. I want you to take my little sister and disappear so well that our own security can’t find you, so Katherine can’t find you.”

His gaze dropped to Sophie and softened.

God, I was an asshole, but I exploited what I knew was there.

“Would you trust anyone else with her? Where you couldn’t find her? Couldn’t get to her if someone came after her, intent on killing her? Would you trust someone else to defend her? To protect her? To care for her night and day?”

“Damn it,” he seethed.

“Yeah, I know.”

His eyes flashed back to mine.

“I know,” I told him, my meaning clear. “You think you feel bad with Charlotte in that bed? Imagine it was Sophie. Imagine the hole was in her chest, her blood on your shirt.”

“I get your fucking point.”

“If you make me order you, I will. But I know you’ll do this, and not because I’m asking, but because she needs you. I’m giving you twenty-four hours to get everything in order and get her out of here.”

“Okay.” He glanced at Sophie, the war firmly raging in his eyes.

“Everything okay?” Sophie asked walking over to us. Fuck, how was he going to hide her? Even in simple slacks and a sweater, she emanated royalty. It was in the set of her shoulders, the arch of her neck, the graceful yet powerful way she held herself.

“Yeah. It’s going to be.” I pulled her in for a hug. “Listen to him. No matter what. No matter how pissed you are, or how unfair you think this is. You listen to him. Take care of him.”

“Okay,” she said, burying her face in my shoulder.

I placed a kiss on the top of her head and stepped back, knowing she had to go. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Don’t tell Mom, or Brie, or anyone. I’ll let them in once you’re gone.”

“I’ll see you...soon.” She nodded and walked out of the room, her head held high.

Oliver followed her.

“Oliver.”

He turned in the doorway.

“Please protect my little sister.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” He bowed formally.

I stood there in the silence for a moment, the weight of what I’d done weighing heavier than my crown.

One woman I loved was fighting for her life in the next room.

One was headed to the states with my brother.

I’d just sent another into emergency exile for God knew how long.

That just left me Brie to take care of…

And the entire country of Elleston.

Before I could get back to Charlotte, Damian walked in, all business.

“Your Majesty.”

“Drop the bullshit, Damian.”

He smiled, but it was weary. “The Queen?”

“No change.”

He nodded. “We’ve searched both Ian’s apartment and Lady Katherine’s estate. All the plans were there. The bomb-making materials, all of it. It looks like we were right—they acted alone. We pulled the contacts off Ian’s cell phone just to confirm, but right now that’s where the investigation points. We’re still searching for Katherine, but as recognizable as she is, it shouldn’t be long. You may be facing a political threat, but the physical one has passed.”

I kept the threat on Sophie to myself.

“It’s over.”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“Thank you, Damian.”

He sighed, looking older than his thirty years. “I’m just sorry it happened in the first place.”

“Me too. Keep me informed. I’m going to wait for my wife to wake up.”

“I would say that you’re going to be a great King, but I think you already are.”

I nodded my thanks, words failing me, and left him for the only person who really mattered.

Charlotte.