Chapter 27

27

Thala

"I want immunity," Roxana declared.

"You're not getting immunity," I told her.

"You need me to safely remove the collar."

"You're bluffing," I retorted. "We can just snap it off."

Hank's eyes narrowed at me. His face was grim, and despite the thick stubble covering his face, I could see him moving his jaw reflexively. Like he was grinding his molars. Getting shocked in the neck was no fun, but I was livid. Self-preservation deserted me.

The other woman smiled slyly, like someone who held all the cards. "Sure, if you want to rip out your throat."

Hank stepped forward, his lips pulling back, but I blocked him from getting to Roxana. His helplessness and desperation pushed against the back of my skull.

"You created a device to enslave people," I snapped. "If you think I'm going to let you get away with an immunity deal, you're mistaken."

"Oh, I don't think so." Roxana's smile continued to grate on me.

Jed came back with a collection of phones. "These are Sokolov's and Icarus's phones. They're intact." We had already confiscated Roxana's.

I invaded her space. "You know what I think? I think we're going to find our answers on these phones, right, Hank?"

"You betcha," he replied.

And as if he couldn't hold back any longer, he put his hand on my hip and drew me to his side. I didn't fight it. If I died tomorrow, I didn't want to spend my last minutes being mad at him and I was trying to remember why.

To hell with protocol.

I was prepared to renounce my title.

Someone coughed behind us. Roxana's eyes widened. "So the rumors are true. The princess has gone slumming."

I hauled back my right arm and punched Roxana across the face. I shook it out and told Ramsay, "Take her in."

"Damn, Princess." Hank picked up my throbbing fist and kissed my knuckles. "Thanks for defending my honor."

I turned to Hank, grabbed his shirt, and dragged him against me. "Now it's time to defend mine."

His eyes widened before I slid my hands to his jaw and gave him a brief kiss.

I must have shocked him to silence. Our moment was broken by the barrage of activities and Kade informed us we were expected back at the castle. Hank didn't say another word and I wondered if I had misread all his attempts to contact me. But he showed up here, flew across continents to get to me quickly, plus he was gripping my hand like he'd never let me go.

We were in the back of the Range Rover. Kade was driving, and Garrison was beside him.

Ramsay had Roxana in another vehicle while Jed was overseeing the team left to deal with the bodies in the forest.

"You gotta help me here, Princess," Hank said finally. "Does that mean you forgive me?"

"Is there anything to forgive?"

"The way I accused you…"

"You already apologized for that."

"You've been ignoring my texts, even Edgar's videos."

"I was trying to get my life back."

More silence and then, "And how's that working out for you?"

"Sucks. You? What have you been up to?"

"Missing you."

I inhaled a sharp breath and stared at Hank.

Then we both noticed that Kade and Garrison had stopped talking.

"We have things to discuss, Princess," Hank said quietly.

"I know."

Immense relief cleared the wariness in his eyes and the brackets around his mouth. The realization that he was uncertain about the situation between us just like I was gave me relief.

"I feel like we're both a third wheel," Kade informed Garrison.

"Yeah."

They weren't wrong. If we didn't have more urgent matters to attend to I could just sit here and stare at Hank's handsome and beloved face. I could just sit here and kiss away the uncertainty from his features because, clearly, he was still unsure of what he meant to me. What it meant to me that he was here.

"We're almost at the castle," Kade said. "You two better decide how you want to greet the mob. From what I've heard, the queen is already at the front lawn of the castle steps and giving Ramsay heartburn because he isn't there."

"Someone as stubborn as her sister," Hank said.

"Hey," I shot back.

He raised our joined fingers. "So, how do you want to do this?"

"Walk with me," I said.

He raised a brow.

"Parliament can kiss my ass."

The two men in the front seats choked with laughter.

Hank awarded me his shit-eating grin.

And my heart awakened to sunshine as if it had been dormant in the depths of winter.

Hank

I didn't know what I was more anxious about. Getting the device off Thala's neck or walking in front of a sea of reporters and spectators like I was about to face the firing squad.

"You sure?" I asked the princess. "I don't want you to get thrown into jail for defying royal protocol."

"I don't think they can do that," Thala replied, but her brows furrowed as if she was uncertain.

"Princess…"

"It'll be fine. Kade has his plane, right?"

"The castle gates are about to open," Kade said. "Now is the time to tell me to make a break for it."

Everyone laughed in the vehicle except me. I was more cautious. That damned Argent law. I was determined to find a loophole because I was never letting Thala go. I might follow her around like a lovesick puppy until she called security on me, then I would resort to finding ways to stalk her. Maybe live undetected in the tower.

Different scenarios ran through my head, but none of them sounded satisfactory.

I didn't care about the title or royal status.

I just wanted her to be mine.

"You're gripping my hand really tight, Hank," she whispered.

We exchanged glances. "I'm not letting you go again."

Her lips parted, but no words came. Then my peripheral vision caught the gates opening and both of us faced forward.

"So, what are we doing again?" Garrison unbuckled his seat belt and angled toward us. His face was etched with both anticipation and humor, like he couldn't wait to witness a train wreck.

I exhaled a frustrated breath. This was more than about me. "We're going to do what Thala wants. You want the car to turn around? Kade said he has the plane ready to go."

"I was kidding," Kade said incredulously. "And you can't bring her on the plane. What if that collar around her is incendiary?"

"That would really suck," Thala squeaked.

I punched the back of Kade's seat. "Shut up. You're not helping."

"Nadia came back with her initial analysis of that device," Garrison said. "No explosives."

"So, does that mean we're going to make a break for it?" Thala asked with amusement.

"Too late," Kade muttered.

A line of guards motioned our convoy to the entrance of the castle, where a sea of people awaited. A barricade had already been set up. Clapping and roaring of the crowd greeted us.

"What the fuck?" I mumbled.

"Apparently the news of the princess's kidnapping has sparked outrage and there is an outpouring of support for the queen and Thala," Garrison said. "The news that the prime minister has been arrested has sent several people in parliament into hiding. It's chaos."

"I could see that Sokolov could have more cronies in our government," Thala said. "And I nearly became one of them."

"Your heart was in the right place, Princess," I said.

We exchanged brief smiles, but when my eyes fell on the collar around her neck, our immediate issue shadowed our win. It was a relief when Nadia said it wasn't an explosive device. I didn't think so either, but it was good to have that assessment backed up.

"Showtime," Kade said.

"They're opening the door on my side," I said. "Let's not shock them with any hand holding, but I will be right behind you."

She nodded before saying, "Got it."

There was no time to ponder her quick agreement, because the door opened to a deafening cheer. I got out first, then helped Thala from the vehicle. Then we moved. With me behind her, Garrison took up the rear, but there was no question I was Thala's close contact bodyguard.

Crowd-control security kept the public at a comfortable distance, but too many limbs in the air and deafening noise sustained my vigilance.

Queen Amadea, who was waiting for us at the top of the steps, didn't wait for us to reach her. She ran down the steps to greet Thala.

They exchanged enthusiastic hugs, and judging from the crowd's roar and knowing how stoic the sisters usually behaved in public, it was a novelty, and their subjects approved.

When they broke apart, tears streaked down their faces, and they didn't seem to care.

The queen had been apprised on the collar situation and she touched it briefly before spearing her gaze at me.

"You're going to get this off her." Not a request or a question.

A command.

"That's the priority."

"Then I won't keep you. I will give the people an update."

Thala

"Sokolov's phone is the one controlling your collar," Hank said.

We were in the computer room of the castle. I'd been in this area once or twice before. We chose to work here because it was equipped with the technology Hank required to supplement what he already had to remove the collar. He'd been working on it for two hours, but he finally hacked into the phone without triggering a self-destruct button.

I winced thinking about the word self-destruct , and then I started feeling phantom jolts from the collar. Or maybe they were real.

"It's about time," I said mildly.

It was just the two of us in the room. ESS was making sure the queen was secure from any more threats. There was a rumor of a coup, but that was quickly squelched. Amadea remained commander-in-chief of both the royal guard and the armed forces. The concern was from a faction of the Romanian military. After my brother's arrest and Sokolov's death, the conspiracy quickly unraveled.

Garrison had been aware of these geopolitical machinations from the beginning, which was why he asked Hank to go to the theater and was the one who warned Ramsay about the assassination attempt on the queen.

Hank put down the phone and took my chilled hands in his. My fingers had never regained their warmth since my abduction. I drew in anxiety with each inhale, never expelling it all. And it built, layer upon layer like plaque in my body until it stiffened my shoulders and jaw. The caress of his fingers inside my palm sent goose bumps up my arm. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." My voice came out in a hoarse whisper. "Don't I look fine?"

"You don't have to pretend with me, Thala," he said softly.

"Okay, I'm terrified. I hate that Roxana got to me."

"Well, Nadia has hacked into Sokolov's electronics company. They might have safeguarded the technology behind the collar, but their clients are less careful about it."

Hope rose inside me.

Hank's laptop pinged, and a grin broke through his face. "Yeah."

His fingers flew over his keyboard before he hooked up Sokolov's phone to the laptop. "Syncing it right now."

The few seconds felt like a heartbeat of forever.

"Ready to be done with it?" he asked, when his laptop made a sound signaling completion of the sync.

I nodded, trying to keep myself planted in my seat.

He didn't give me a heads-up a second time. I thought he was going to disconnect the collar manually.

The clasp loosened from my neck. I gasped.

Hank's fingers went around the collar, and I held my breath.

His hands came away with it.

"Hela's hell." My hand flew to my throat, along with a whoosh of giddy relief that relaxed all the stiffness in my body. "I'm free."

Those two words had more meaning at this moment. Our gazes locked. He dropped the collar and cupped my jaw.

"Princess…" His face came within an inch. Turbulent emotions swirled in his eyes.

The door opened.

And we sprung apart.

"Am I interrupting?" An amused Garrison stepped into the room and I swore a growl rose from Hank's throat. "I see you've been successful."

"Why is it you've got the worst timing?" Hank stood up and started tidying his things.

Garrison raised a brow. "Or the best? I'm all-knowing, remember?"

I wanted to laugh because Hank was not even disguising his annoyance that Garrison interrupted what could have been a kiss that would have set me on fire.

I would even admit to a bit of disappointment, but the rational part of me made me question if jumping back into Hank's arms was a good idea. Were we destined to react to life-threatening situations with sex?

Maybe Garrison's interruption was a sign we needed to break this endless cycle. If he had come in a few minutes later, Hank could have been pounding into me on top of the desk.

"Did you come to check on us, or do you have more news?" I tried to keep a straight face, given the images fleeting through my head.

"Both. Nadia sent me a text that Hank was about to break you out of the collar. I also got word via Ramsay that more of Sokolov's co-conspirators have been arrested."

"How deep in was Petros?" I asked. From the exchange I'd gleaned in the Range Rover during our return trip, he wasn't involved in the plane bombing.

Garrison's eyes softened. "He never meant for you to get hurt. That was why he was so torn up about Icarus using you as payback. Your brother wanted to call the whole thing off after the failed attempt in the theater, but it just escalated and Sokolov acted unilaterally to have you killed. There was one last-ditch effort to get to the queen."

"The ball?"

"Yes. According to Petros, he didn't want to have anything to do with it, but it was you or the queen. Your brother never meant to harm you."

"But he did anyway." My chin tilted up. "He hurts Amadea, then he hurts me. I'm ashamed of my role in this. It had always been him and me against Amadea, but it was over petty things. Never once did I think he would want our sister dead. So what now?"

Garrison's mouth quirked at the corner. "Now you have parliament under control and the public on your side."

"And?"

"Maybe it's time to push your own agenda."

With that parting shot, Garrison left the room.

"Does he mean what I think he means?" I glanced at Hank.

He stared at the closed door for a beat, and then at me. "The Argent law. I'm not even going to be obtuse about it because that's the one law I'd love tossed out into ancient history where it belongs."

I arched a brow. "Really?"

He dropped the wire he was rolling up into his duffel of things and stalked toward me. The tips of our shoes touched. He lowered his head. "Really. So, what is it gonna be, Princess? Are we going to talk about this?"

"While I'm not going to be obtuse about it, I'm also not going to put a motion into parliament without thinking it through."

His eyes gleamed. "Thinking it through like…"

"We're going to be seen in public. And we might have to break protocols." I remembered my conversation with Amadea about easing the public into the possible abolishment of the Argent law.

He crossed his arms and rocked back. "Like what?"

"Well, are you amenable to having an actual date in public?"

"You're asking me?" he asked incredulously. "In case you've forgotten, I've already done that."

"But I wasn't a princess then," I challenged. "Are you sure you can take the heat of public scrutiny? Because they're going to be vicious. You've lived your life in the shadows for too long. Being with me, you'd have to give that up and might not be able to work with Garrison or your friends again."

"Let me worry about that."

"Are you saying you're up for it?"

He uncrossed his arms and clasped my elbows, drawing me closer. "I'm saying, I'm all in."