Chapter 26
26
Hank
Garrison and Kade stopped me from punching Jed Peters.
"Why the fuck did you agree to that plan?" I snarled, because snapping at him was all I could do when arms were holding me back.
Jed stared at me stonily. "It was a good plan."
"I didn't agree to this." The queen glared at her bodyguard. Ramsay had his arms around her. The second we stepped into the queen's residence, he went straight to her, unmindful of protocols. In that moment, I envied him.
Kade inserted himself between me and Jed. "You say Thala has a tracker?"
"Yes, and they either didn't find it or haven't checked for it. It's pinging."
"Petros knew she'd dug out the one in her arm," Garrison said.
"So, what are we supposed to do now?" I gritted. "Hold on to our dicks while we wait for their demands?"
Garrison cleared his throat, but I was beyond pissed to watch my language in front of the queen. As far as I was concerned, Thala was acting queen, and she sacrificed herself for her sister.
"The plan was to show the public that there were indeed bad actors in the mix," Jed said. "The kidnapping of a princess is on tape."
Someone piped in, "The court of public opinion is changing. They're demanding we get the princess back at all costs."
"Then I will make a speech," the queen said.
"No," Ramsay growled. "Not while T Man is at large."
"What the hell are we supposed to do, then?" I was spiraling. "Why can't we follow her now?"
Jed listened to his earpiece. "Fuck, this is happening too fast."
I glared at him.
"Jed, buddy," Kade said. "You'll have to be more verbose than that before our man Bristow loses his damned mind."
"Petros has arrived," Jed clarified.
"I guess he had to cancel parliament," the queen said. "They were having an emergency session today."
"You expected him to be here, then what?" I asked.
"All right, I can share this now," Jed said. "Sending video to all of you. Thala didn't want a leak, but we've combed through all the surveillance footage on the property—"
"I was working on that," I cut in.
"The one at the back of the property is not connected to the castle's network," Jed continued with aggravating calmness. "It recycles on a hard drive every thirty days. It's where Petros parked his vehicle yesterday. He arrived early. Guess who he was meeting?"
I didn't even have to open the video Jed sent. I already knew, but I did it anyway. My mind already jumped ahead to getting back my woman while hoping her brother rotted in jail.
The quality of the recording was grainy, but there was no mistaking Petros.
And there was no mistaking T Man.
They met as recent as yesterday, and with the footage from today, ESS could connect them with the conspiracy and threat to the queen's life.
The queen was looking on with disgust at what was playing on Ramsay's phone.
"Have me reinstated," he told her. "So I can arrest that motherfucker."
"You have it." She extricated herself from Ramsay's arms and regally stood before us. No trace of weakness or vulnerability. She reminded me of Thala. "And as queen, I can make appointments to my security without needing an act of parliament. I appoint Rameses Ramsay as the head of security of the royal guard."
It was at that exact moment that Petros barged into the sitting room. He looked outraged and angry, and I wanted to dropkick him to the next kingdom with the hypocrisy on his face.
"See what you did?" He stabbed a finger in the queen's direction. "You shouldn't have let Thala hold that press conference."
"Me, brother?" she scoffed. "What did you do?"
Ramsay stalked forward, wearing a grim smile, and showed Petros the screen.
Color leeched from Petros's face and his jaw unhinged. He looked like he was about to puke. "Where…?" He backed away and gulped. "This is false. Fabricated."
"So, you're saying you didn't meet this guy yesterday?"
His mouth clamped shut. "You don't know what you guys have done. These people are dangerous."
"You're the prime minister and you allow people to intimidate you?" Queen Amadea approached him. "You should have come to me."
"You wouldn't listen," he gritted. "If you accepted PragueCog's bid for the stean ore basin, we wouldn't be in this mess and Thala wouldn't have been kidnapped."
"But you didn't go to the queen, did you?" Ramsay snapped. "Because you were in on the conspiracy."
Instead of denying, he lifted his chin. "This country would be better without a monarchy. It's time to abolish it."
"But you don't have the votes to do it, do you?" the queen said. "Many members of parliament still believe in the House of Targen. That was why you tried everything to discredit us. And when that didn't work, you tried to have me and Thala assassinated."
"Thala wasn't supposed to be touched!" he yelled. "But when Icarus failed to assassinate you at the theater, killing Thala on the plane with a bomb was a warning to me about what would happen if I didn't carry through."
"So, we have a name? Icarus is the guy with albinism." Icarus was Theater Man, and it was probably not his real name either.
Petros nodded.
"You ally yourselves with wolves and you're bound to get bitten," Amadea said.
"We have to get Thala back," Petros pleaded. And it made me sick how desperate he looked. As if he really cared for Thala. "You shouldn't have used her as a buffer between us."
"What, so you can finish the job?" Ramsay snarled.
"Yes." Petros's eyes filled with hate. "Now my little sister is going to pay the price for my failure."
That was when my control snapped and the violence I was keeping in check broke free. Prime minister or not, this fucker was going to tell us everything.
I shoved Ramsay aside and grabbed Petros by the collar. "You're going to tell us everything. Because I swear to God, the way I'm feeling right now, I don't care if you're the King of England, I will bury you alive."
"Get in line." Queen Amadea stood beside me but gave no indication I should release her brother. With my hands wanting to strangle Petros, she said, "I relieve you of your position as prime minister, Petros Targen, and you will tell us everything."
Thala
They left the hood on my head. They'd tied my hands behind me. I'd long lost my sensible shoes. And when the vehicles stopped, they shoved me out of the Jeep, thinking I would fall. But it was times like these where I thanked my warrior training, how to balance without my arms to help me. Realizing this, my abductors bullied me through the woods. No amount of shoving my back made me fall, so they resorted to tripping me because I couldn't see.
I stopped counting how many times I stumbled and fell, but I never gave them the satisfaction of staying down, even when my knees and shoulders screamed at me. Both took the brunt of the different ways I fell.
After what seemed like hours, whatever light I could discern through the hood faded. The ground became slippery, and the walking turned downhill. An intense forest smell of decaying matter, moldy and musty, assailed my nostrils. Cold and damp air whispered over my arms.
We were in a cave.
Hela's hell.
And if there was one thing I was certain about, trackers were less effective in caves.
We reached a flat area. A gun poked at my left side, guiding me to the right.
"Get on your ass," T Man said. My first instinct was to fight back, but what could I do when there seemed to be several men with guns? With my limited vision and using what senses I had, I figured there were about seven of them.
T Man ordered one of his goons to tie me against the wall. When that was done, I inspected what was shackling me. They'd used plastic cuffs to bind my wrists, but they'd secured me to a metal hook that they must have drilled into the cave's wall.
"Make yourself at home." The sneer in his tone made me wish I was free to kick his ass. "Enjoy all your white hydrogen in here."
Suppressed anger threatened to make me lash out, but it was tinged with a boatload of anxiety that the tracker plan might have backfired. Jed wouldn't be able to trace me. In that instant, my biggest regret was not seeing Hank again.
I ignored T Man's mocking. I'd read up on the emerging green fuel and it existed deeper in the earth's crust. Otherwise, a mere spark would lead to an explosion. Still, I shuddered at the thought. I seemed to have developed PTSD for explosions.
He walked away and maybe left me for minutes, or maybe it was hours. As much as I tried to push thoughts of Hank away, they kept creeping in. Will I see him again? I had a feeling these people were not going to ransom me and they took me as payback against my brother. Otherwise, they wouldn't have roughed me up so much.
My heart and mind still couldn't wrap around the fact that Petros was complicit. They were holding something over his head. Some kind of blackmail.
Footsteps approached again. My ears could tell the difference in these shoes from the others. The one approaching had the slip-slide sound of leather shoes and didn't have the muffled sounds of rubber-soled boots.
"I hate coming here," the new voice muttered. I recognized that voice. I hadn't heard it often, but in the darkness, I had to rely on my other senses to make connections.
The sound of leather shoes came closer. He was in front of me and he crouched.
An amber glow illuminated the area.
"Princess."
"Sokolov," I returned mockingly.
"Very good. Or can you see me?"
"I can't, but my sense of smell is strong enough to detect rotting garbage."
There was a pause, and then fingers clamped my throat before pain exploded at the back of my head. The son of a bitch slammed my head against the cave's wall.
He didn't release my throat, his fingers digging deeper, almost choking me. "You know you're at my mercy, right?"
"Untie me and we'll see who'll be at whose mercy. You're so brave to speak to me this way when you have my hands bound."
"You're not going all Amazonian princess on me?" The mockery in his voice intensified.
"What do you want?"
"I have everything I want here. A true Amazonian princess."
"And you think you can sell me? I'm too old for the perverts you do business with."
He released my neck and started laughing. "Although, I could probably find a buyer who'd pay top dollar for your bloodline."
"I'd cut off his cock first."
"Feisty. Sad I didn't get to you when you were younger."
My stomach twisted. How could Petros be friends with him? Did he know he was a human trafficker?
Sokolov spoke to someone, and I heard more laughter. My ears also picked up clicking and a snapping of a case.
Fingers wrapped around my throat again.
"Get your hands off me!" I kicked out my feet, but being tied against the wall with my hands behind me restricted my movements. Something cool circled my neck like a choker necklace.
"Ah, it fits perfectly. Iona's measurements of your body are correct."
"Iona? You mean Roxana?"
"Hi, Princess," a female voice said. "I'm flattered you remember the name of your housekeeping staff. And you're wearing one of my greatest creations."
How long had this conspiracy been going on?
"What is this, another tracker?"
"No. Think of it as an obedience collar."
Pins electrocuted my flesh, seizing the muscles at my neck, tensing my jaw.
The asshole zapped me.
I gritted my teeth. "Fucker."
"Tsk. Tsk. Such language for a princess. That's on the lowest setting," he said. "For now, you will get used to wearing it, but when we get you to your new owner, he will decide whether to use the spinal implant."
For the first time since the ordeal started, genuine fear sent goose bumps racing down my spine, chilling my overheated body. "What spinal implant?"
"The back of the collar has a pin that will embed itself between the c6 and c7 of your cervical spine. Removing it on your own will paralyze you."
"You're sick," I whispered.
"You're going to love your new home. You'll be an elite fighter for the African underground games. If you play your cards right, you may even be the warlord's best fighter, and who knows, maybe you'll be a queen after all."
A stampede of boots hurried toward us.
Terse Russian words were exchanged.
"When?" Sokolov roared.
Their voices lowered to harsh whispers. T Man and Sokolov were arguing. They moved away from me and so did the light, until complete darkness blanketed the surroundings and trapped me in my biggest fear.
To be caged and controlled by megalomaniacs.
I remembered my last meaningful conversation with my sister.
What life was I meant to be born into, Amadea?
Hank. I was born to be with Hank. I had a glimpse of a life with him.
I hoped in my final act as princess, Amadea's reign as queen would be secured.
I didn't think I could bear to become a slave.
Death would be sweeter.
Whoever bought me from Sokolov would have to put me down because no way was I going to fight to make him rich.
Then hope floated inside me.
Hank.
Hank would search for me. Deep in my heart, I knew he would never abandon me.
Maybe I should fight to stay alive.
He'd worked against human traffickers before. He'd made connections in the underworld.
I was deep in my roller coaster of thoughts when the sound of gunshots startled me.
I heard a fizzle in the darkness.
An explosion shook the cave.
What the hell is going on?
Then fear came crashing over me.
Am I going to be buried alive?
More rushing footsteps.
Shouting.
More gunfire.
"Go. Go. Go. I got you guys covered." That voice sounded familiar.
Hope ignited.
A shuffle of boots approached.
A light shined on me.
"I found her!"
"Hank!" His name came out garbled from my lips. "Hela's hell. You found me."
The newcomer yanked the hood off my head.
I couldn't see him clearly but his scent filled my nose. Woodsy, citrusy, gunpowder.
I started to cry.
"Princess," he rasped. He planted a brief kiss on my lips before he hugged me.
No, he wasn't simply hugging me, he was freeing me from the wall and cutting the plastic cuffs.
Needles crawled up my arms as blood circulation returned. I welcomed the pain taking over from the numbness.
He leaned back. "Can you stand?"
My chest was bursting with emotion and a wave of words I wanted to say to him, but I could only nod, too overwhelmed.
His jaw clenched as his eyes fastened on the collar. He spoke into a mic. "Is Sokolov or Icarus alive?"
"Negative. They went out guns blazing."
He slipped his fingers around the thing holding my neck captive and shined a light over it.
Electrical needles jolted me. "Ahhh!"
"Fuck!" Hank cursed.
"What's wrong?"
"We have a problem."