CHAPTER 9
Nic
Celebrations and holidays didn’t usually irritate me. But today had been a long day, time wasted that I could have spent with Diana.
Even though she’d told me she wasn’t sure if she’d be attending the anniversary festivities, there had been a part of me that had hoped she’d show up anyway.
She’s not packing.
She’s not leaving.
After what had happened the night before, I sure as hell hoped that she’d realized that we belonged together. Surely she’d recognized the fact that she couldn’t leave, and that we had to marry.
I arrived at the Colossal Hotel later than I would have liked. And my mood wasn’t improved by Theo when he stopped me before I could get on the elevator.
“Your Highness,” Theo greeted me as he stepped in front of the lift that I really wanted to ride.
“What is it, Theo? I’m in a bit of a hurry.” I was anxious to find Diana. We had things we needed to straighten out.
“Miss Longmont isn’t here,” Theo informed me. “She asked me to give you this.”
He held out an envelope, and I swiped it from his hand and stuffed it into the back pocket of my jeans. “Did she say anything? Where in the hell did she go?”
“She simply said she had to leave tonight, Your Highness. That was all she said.”
I looked at Theo, trying to see if he was telling me the whole truth. He didn’t know it, but he always did some weird thing with his eyes when he wasn’t being completely forthcoming.
There was no looking away for a moment as he spoke. Theo’s gaze had been steady. He didn’t know anything else.
“Never mind. I’ll find her,” I answered, being as nonchalant as possible before I turned and exited the hotel. Theo could be a busybody when it came to royal business, so I tried not to share any of my personal information with him. Not that I’d really had much of a personal life before I’d met Diana.
I got back into my SUV with the letter in hand, not caring if I was parked in a No Parking zone. Fuck it if I used my royal privilege right now. I needed to discover what had happened to Diana.
Why in the hell had she left? She knows how I feel about her.
As I pulled the paper out of the envelope, something fell into my lap. When I lifted it up, I instantly recognized the heart pendant that Diana always wore around her neck.
I quickly opened the letter:
Dear Nic,
I know I’m being a coward by not saying goodbye to you in person, but I’m not sure that I can, so I had to resort to written words.
Last night was the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me, but I can never be your wife. I’m not eligible, but I hope you find the perfect partner.
I wanted to give you something that actually means something to me: the last gift I received from my dad. I hope it brings you luck in your search.
Please pick yourself a bride before the Arcano gets restless. I wish you all the happiness that a person can possibly have in the future.
Best Wishes,
Diana
“Shit!” I cursed, tossing the letter in the passenger seat. “How in the fuck did she leave?”
It wasn’t like Rubare Virgina had normal airports. She couldn’t just pick up the phone and book a flight. Somebody, a citizen, had to have helped her get off the island.
I hit the button to start the engine of my vehicle, both fury and sadness warring inside my body as I thought about her letter.
I should have talked to her last night. I should have told her that I loved her. I should have made sure she was going to stay.
Refusing to accept her brush-off, I headed to the only place I knew that might have answers to my questions.
I wasn’t choosing another bride.
I’d already found the woman I wanted.
I just needed to know why she didn’t want me.
“Where is Diana?” I asked my father, eldest brother, and my sister-in-law after I’d arrived at the main residence.
If my woman had gone missing, one of them knew exactly where she was. An invited guest wouldn’t leave this island early without assistance from someone in the royal family.
All of them had gotten to their feet in the great room when I’d arrived. My father was the first to speak. “Where is she? Why don’t you know where she is? The Arcano sent a warning this morning. They grow impatient. An announcement was expected this afternoon.”
“I don’t care about the Arcano,” I answered gruffly. “I just want Diana.”
“I thought she was with you,” my father bellowed. “I was under the impression that the marriage situation was settled. If there’s no announcement, your life is in danger. We’re down to only a few days, Niccolino.”
There was absolutely no reason for my father to lie right now. He was counting on an announcement, and instead of being angry, he actually looked worried.
“I can only make the Arcano happy if I can get my perspective bride to agree. It appears that she’s left the island,” I answered unhappily. “I’m going to have to go after her.”
“Don’t, Nic,” Jessica pleaded as she stepped forward. “Diana has her reasons why she can’t marry you. You have to pick another woman.”
It only took me a moment of surveying her guilty expression before I asked, “It was you? Did you help her fly out of here?”
A tear trickled down her cheek as Ballasare gripped her firmly by the waist and pulled her to his side. “Jessica thought she was doing the right thing, and I agreed. Diana couldn’t marry you, Nic. She’d put you and the royal family at too much risk.”
I was tired of hearing about duty, honor, and doing exactly what was expected of me. I looked at Ballasare as I replied angrily, “In what way does she put you at risk? I’ve done everything I’ve been asked to do my entire life, and all I wanted was one single thing for myself. I love Diana, and I think she loves me, too. She must. I can’t possibly feel this way alone.”
“She does love you,” Jessica answered grimly. “She left to clear the way for you to marry someone eligible.”
“She was eligible,” I argued. “She was perfect. And even if she wasn’t, I’d find a way for her to become my wife.”
“She slept with somebody else on the first night she was here, Nic. A man named Alex. Diana knew very little about him, but if he’s a Rubarean, he could expose the truth.”
The indignation I’d been feeling suddenly vanished. “That’s why she left? She thinks that she tarnished herself and that being married to me would hurt me?”
Jessica nodded. “Yes. I’m so sorry, Nic. She loved you so much that she wanted to protect you.”
“I have to find her, Jess,” I told my sister-in-law. “I can’t explain right now, but I can guarantee you that Diana didn’t sleep with another man. I know that because I took her virginity myself.”
“Before the wedding?” My father looked around the room and then sagged with relief as he realized we were completely alone.
“It happens,” I answered irritably, knowing that my elder brother had almost certainly been guilty of the same offense. Oh, he’d never admitted it, but I knew he had cared too much about Jessica to leave her alone until the wedding.
“Yes, it does,” Ballasare admitted sheepishly. “If a man loves a woman that much, it definitely can happen.”
“It never happened to me,” my father rumbled.
“The point is, Diana was a virgin,” I continued. “And she is going to be my wife.”
“What if you’re wrong?” my father challenged.
“I’m not wrong,” I said, annoyed. “Jessica, is she gone? I need to know her route.”
“Nic, are you sure?” my eldest brother asked urgently.
“Would I ever risk one single hair on my family’s head? Have I ever? If there was any possibility that I was wrong, I wouldn’t be asking for the information.”
Jessica quickly told me what she knew, and then I turned around, desperate to try to intercept my future wife before she got too far.
“Where are you going?” my father called as I jogged out of the great room.
I rose my voice and yelled, “I’m going to kidnap an American wife.”
I heard my father’s snort of disapproval as I strode through the main entrance, and I couldn’t help but grin.
Diana loved me enough to give up her own happiness.
Yes, maybe I did need to talk to her about making sacrifices like that, but right now, I was relieved. Jessica’s information had given me hope that I could clear up this mess and marry Diana as soon as possible.
Maybe she’d miss being in America, but I’d make it up to her. We’d travel together, and I’d make her so happy that she’d never regret giving up so much to be with me.
I was making plans in my head right before I felt the worst pain I’d ever experienced rip through the left side of my chest. It brought me to my knees, and I turned only to see a shadowy figure disappear into the wooded area that surrounded my father’s castle.
I clamped a hand to my chest, then pulled it away to find my fingers covered in a thick coat of blood.
“Dammit!” I said in a pained, graveled voice.
I wasn’t entirely sure who my attacker was, and I was beginning to not give a damn because my head was spinning. My blood continued to flow, and I could see it drenching the denim I was wearing as my body lost its battle with gravity and I finally hit the ground, spilling the colorful pavement in front of the palace red with my blood.
“Your Highness!” I heard one of the door guards shout.
Apparently he’d seen me fall, and I was grateful that I wouldn’t have to lay here for long.
I struggled to stay alert, but the persistent, buzzing sound in my head kept growing louder.
“Nic! Oh, my God! What happened?” a female voice screamed.
It was Jessica, and I felt her presence as she knelt down beside me.
“What happened?” Ballasare asked in an unusually panicked voice as he too lowered himself to the driveway to look at my wound.
I grimaced, then tried to speak. “Not sure. Got me from behind,” I rasped. “Diana…”
“I’ll find her, Nic. I promise,” Jessica answered in a tearful voice. “I helped her get away. I’ll bring her back.”
“I love her,” I told her with the last energy I could muster.
“I know,” she said grimly. “Just try to be still. The ambulance is coming.”
“He’s bleeding too much,” I heard my father comment.
“I know, dammit,” Ballasare replied as he tore at my shirt. “I can’t even tell exactly where the wound was initially struck.”
Sirens wailed in the distance, and voices started to become part of the buzzing in my head as I finally gave in to the darkness that was beckoning me to close my eyes and be still.