Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
I’m leaving now. Sorry, Simone.
Jessica grabbed her purse and whipped the door of her hotel room open. The sight of several of the women from the conference in the hallway was a relief. Without bothering to close her door, she bolted over to them. “Listen. Everyone. There isn’t time to explain, but you have get out of here. Get your passports if you can. Leave without them if you can’t. If we go together we might have a better chance.”
“Leave?” one woman asked. “Why would we want to leave?”
“You’re not safe here,” Jessica said in a rush, glancing over her shoulder to make sure they were alone. “None of us are. I don’t know what exactly is going on, but trust me, you’re all in danger.”
“In danger?” another woman asked sarcastically. “What are you talking about?”
Jessica waved her hands in the air. “They lured us here. Do you know when people say be careful of anything that sounds too good to be true? Well, winning a million dollars simply by coming to a weeklong conference and passing some challenges sounded pretty good, didn’t it? I thought so. But it is all a lie. Something else is going on. I’m leaving now. Come with me.”
The women parted, allowing Vida Charmagne through. Alia was at her side looking on sympathetically. “Of course you’re leaving. No one expected you to stay.”
“Would you stop being a bitch long enough to hear me? Women are disappearing faster than I can blink. We handed over our passports, our cellphones. We’re essentially at their mercy. They say some women were sent home, but do we really know what happened to them?”
Vida’s teeth bared in a mockery of a smile. “Sour grapes. You weren’t what they were looking for, so you want to ruin the opportunity for the rest of us. Sorry, honey, you’re not fooling anyone.”
Turning her plea to the surrounding circle of women, Jessica said, “All the signs are there if you want to see them. This isn’t about helping us start new businesses. They’re isolating us. Testing us. Maybe to prove we’re healthy so they can get a good price for us. We need to get out of here. Right now. Come on, when you were asked to scale the building today in that little spandex thing . . . alarms must have gone off in your head.”
Vida’s eyes narrowed. “We didn’t have that opportunity. The challenge was canceled for the last group. Probably because they were so busy realizing you and your psychosis needed to be removed so the rest of us would be safe.”
Alia stepped toward Jessica. “Don’t be scared, Jessica. Being sent home isn’t the worst thing. I hear America is full of amazing men.”
Does she know more than she’s letting on? Is she here for the prince and not the prize?
Is the prince the prize?
I’m not sticking around to find out.
“Shut up,” Vida snarled and pulled her sister back. “I should have come alone.”
Jessica looked from one woman to the next and shrugged helplessly in the face of their disbelief. “I’m telling you the truth.”
“Let’s go, Alia,” Vida said, half dragging her sister behind her. “What’s the next challenge? The IQ test? You might want to start packing now, too.”
Jessica raised her hand as the rest of the women turned away from her, but she didn’t have the words to sway them to stay. Her shoulders slumped, and she covered her face with her hands and tried to think of her next best move.
“What are you doing in the hallway?” Simone asked from just behind her.
Jessica screamed, spun, then screamed again. Her heart was beating so loudly she would have bet that Simone could hear it. “Did you bring my passport?”
“No, I’m sorry. The matter of sending you home is currently being debated.”
“There’s no need to debate anything. I want to go.”
Simone pressed her lips together briefly. “I know, but I’ve been asked to sit with you until King Heinrich and Prince Ballasare come to a decision.”
“Did you hear me? I’m leaving.”
Simone tapped a button on her watch and two men appeared from around the corner. “I promised Ballasare I would keep you safe while he talks to his father.”
“Great, then put me on a plane. I promise I’ll never say a single word about this place.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why?” Jessica asked, reduced to pleading as the two men each came to a stop on either side of her. Simone motioned for Jessica to follow her back into her hotel room. She did only because she hoped it would buy her time to come up with an escape plan.
Simone closed the door, leaving the two men on the other side. “Ballasare likes you.”
“Likes me?” She threw her hands up in confusion. “Listen, I don’t claim to understand your customs. I barely understand my own. But, woman to woman, you have to see that this is wrong. You’re keeping me here against my will. It’s kidnapping.”
Simone shrugged. “I told him you would not want to stay, but you have to understand the male mind, especially a royal one. He thinks he can fix this.”
“I don’t understand what fixing it would mean, but you’re scaring the crap out of me. I don’t belong here. Let me go.” A thought came to Jessica that gave her hope. “What if it were Nadine? Wouldn’t you want someone to help her?”
For a moment, Simone seemed genuinely conflicted. “If I let you go, Ballasare might follow you, and this could all go public. He can be as stubborn as his father. These times we’re in require us to be careful. I have to think of Nadine’s welfare as well as my grandchildren. If I defy a royal order, not even the king could protect my family.”
“I don’t understand. Protect you from who?”
Simone shook her head. “I’ve already said too much. I wish I knew how to help you. Perhaps if Ballasare loses interest in you? That might work. Try to be boring.”
Jessica nodded numbly. She has half convinced she’d hear her alarm clock sound in a moment and realize that the conference and all the craziness surrounding it was nothing more than a bad dream. “I’m going to throw up.”
“Really or are you wondering if you should say that to him? Vomit does turn most men off.”
Jessica rush to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She stood over the toilet for a few minutes, but her stomach settled. After placing a wet towel on her face, she sat on the edge of the bathtub.
With her eyes closed, she started mentally recreating the hotel layout in her head. She might only have one chance to escape. Plan A: run the first chance I get. Plan B: be unattractive to a prince. Maybe that should be plan A. It plays on my strengths.
“Enough,” King Heinrich bellowed within the privacy of a hotel office. “I should have stopped you before it got this far. Three hundred women? None of them from Virgina. How could this be anything but a waste of time?”
Bellasare stood toe to toe with his father in a way he had never dared to in the past. “You said I would be allowed to choose my own bride.”
“Within reason. A twenty-four-year-old American? Do you honestly believe she is pure?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then you truly cannot make this decision yourself. You will pick from a handful of women who come from good families here on the island.”
“I will not.”
“Then I will choose for you.”
“So your word means nothing.”
His father’s expression twisted in pain. “Do not see it that way, my son. I am trying to protect you. The wrong choice could cost your crown.”
“I never asked for the crown, Father. I never asked for any of this, but I embrace the honor of it. I would give my life for my family and my people, but when it comes to choosing the woman who will sleep at my side, bear my children, raise the next king—I will not bend to your will. The choice will be mine.”
The king shook his head and sat down. “There are things you need to know, things I should have told you before now. It is not me who will punish you if you choose unwisely.”
“I know. Theo has warned me.”
“He put you both in danger by doing so. Do your brothers know?”
“They aren’t blind to what happened on Rubare Collina.”
“It’s a war, Ballasare, a war I pray doesn’t come here. Our enemies could be disguised as our friends. The very guards we post at our doors could slay us in our sleep.”
“That has never happened here, Father.”
“No, we have always worked with the Arcano, but there is great unrest with them. Rubare Collina thought they won against them, and yet more surface and threaten them. I don’t know what the future holds, but I worry for my sons. All of you.”
“I will not be ruled by fear.”
“Do not look at it that way. Instead, see that following our traditions is the only way to protect your family and your title. Let me pick a wife for you, Ballasare. She will be beautiful and good-natured. What more do you want?”
“The right to choose. Jessica stays.” It was as much a matter of principle as it was preference.
The king brought a shaking hand to his temple. “You may be putting us all in great danger.”
Ballasare rose to his full height. Seeing his father’s fear ignited a fury within him, one that burned hot and clenched his fists. “If one action as small as this one can put us in danger, how safe are we? How safe have we ever been?”
“You don’t know what they’re capable of, Ballasare.”
“No, but I know what I am.”
Ballasare strode out of the office and sent a text to both of his brothers, requesting that they meet him at the Dare Stone. As young children they had come upon a rock in a far corner of the island. It stood proudly in the middle of a neglected garden within a crumbling castle his family had long ago abandoned. In the middle of the stone there was a thin hole that the young princes had pretended a powerful sword had once been pulled from. They found their way back to that spot and that stone many times during their childhood. Over time it became a place they gathered to talk about anything they didn’t want others to know.
A short time later, Ballasare arrived at the old castle and parked his car next to those of his two brothers. They were already out of theirs, leaning against one, talking.
Nic smiled at his approach and cuffed Robert, their youngest brother, on the shoulder. “I told you he would seek our advice. If it’s about how to impress the woman, let me handle it. If it’s about what to do with her on his wedding night, I’ll leave that to you, even though I could probably give him better tips.”
Robert shook his head. “Hey, Big Balls, I’ve seen you with enough women to have faith that you’d know what you were doing.”
“Don’t call me that,” Ballasare said automatically. His brothers were the only two who had the nerve to mock his name. They were also the only two he wouldn’t slug for doing so. “And I’m not here about a woman.”
Nic folded his arms across his chest. “That’s a shame because it had the potential of being a really amusing conversation.”
“This is serious. Robert, you used to be close to our cousins on Rubare Collina. I need to know the latest on what is happening there.”
“Are you referring to their hunt for American cousins?” Robert answered.
“No, their removal of the Arcano.”
Robert shrugged. “They’re pretty tight-lipped about it. Why?”
“What’s going on, BB?” Nic joked. “Are you letting Theo spook you again?”
The nickname rolled off his back, irrelevant in the face of all that was going on. “I’m fresh from a talk with Father and he looked—afraid.”
“Of the Arcano?” Nic asked seriously as he pushed away from the car to stand.
“Yes.”
“I saw him yesterday and he was fine. What changed?” Robert demanded.
“I challenged one of his decisions.”
“What did you challenge that would have him worried?” Nic asked.
There was no one Bellasare trusted more than his brothers. Yes, they teased each other and sometimes squabbled, but when it mattered they had never let each other down. For that reason, Ballasare described what had happened, right down to a G-rated description of how he’d instantly been attracted to Jessica.
Nic raised one hand and asked, “So, Aunt Simone is babysitting your girlfriend while you figure out what to do with her?”
“Essentially,” Ballasare said with a nod.
“Should you call her your girlfriend if you’ve only met her once?” Robert asked with a crooked smile.
“She’s a woman of interest,” Ballasare clarified.
Nic laughed. “Now she sounds like a criminal.”
“Could we focus on the important part?”
Robert rubbed his chin. “You mean trying to confirm that she’s a virgin without having sex with her before the wedding? I don’t think we should help you with that. It feels wrong. She may one day be our sister-in-law.”
“You’re not taking this seriously,” Bellasare growled.
Nic chuckled. “How can we? Come on, you have to admit Father has a point. The woman you chose doesn’t sound like she’s worth the trouble.”
“She might not be,” Ballasare said tightly. “But I didn’t consider the Arcano a threat until I saw real fear in Father’s eyes. I could let him choose a bride for me. Hell, I could let the Arcano do it. It would be easier, but one day soon I will wear that crown, and I refuse to do it with fear in my eyes. Maybe Rubare Collina has it right. The time has come to free ourselves from these shackles.”
That wiped the amusement from the faces of his brothers. “What do you want us to do?”
“I want you to listen. I want you to watch. This may all blow over without incident. I don’t know, but my gut tells me that trouble is coming regardless of what happens with Jessica. We need to know who we can trust and have them ready if we need them.”
“And if we asked you to choose another woman?” Robert asked.
Ballasare folded his arms across his chest and took a deep breath as he considered his answer. He wasn’t in love with the American, but there was lust involved. My family will always come first though. “I would. For you, I would bend.”
Nic shook his head. “It wouldn’t change anything, Robert. I would be the next one they would choose for and then you. Ballasare is right, this woman does not matter as much as what she represents. Will we rule Rubare Virgina or be timid puppets who do as we are told? King Xander and his brothers fought for their birthright and prevailed. I’m not afraid to do the same.”
Robert shrugged. “Nor am I. But an American queen? We really are following in Rubare Collina’s footsteps.”
“At this point, she is just an option,” Ballasare said.
A smile returned to Nic’s face. “Do you think Simone told Jessica the real reason she was invited to the conference?”
“She may have.”
“And you canceled Jessica’s plans to leave, even though she said she wanted to go?”
“I did.”
“She’s not going to be happy with you.”
Ballasare shrugged. “She may be upset at first, but it’ll pass. I’ll explain to her that I am seriously considering choosing her.”
Robert leaned over and gave Ballasare’s arm a light punch. “And that is why we call you BB. I wish I could be there for that conversation.”
Nic nodded in agreement. “It’s a win/win for me. If she kills you, I get the crown. If she doesn’t, we get what I’m sure is going to be a fucking hilarious story.”
“I don’t see the humor in any of this,” Ballasare said.
“I know,” Nic said, his smile widening. “That’s what’s so awesome about it.”