He rattled them.
Still nothing.
“Dammit.”
Maxence glanced down at his phone. “Alexandre says that it already started, and he couldn’t hold them off any longer. That wasten minutesago.” He thumbed something into his phone and then pounded on the huge wooden doors with ringing, echoing thumps. “Open up! As heir apparent, I demand entry!”
If this had been any other time, Dree would’ve giggled at how pompous that was. If Max had gotten any more archaic in his language, he would have sounded like he was recitingBeowulf.
But at that moment, nothing seemed particularly funny. She kept stealing glances behind them at the doors into the room, even though two soldiers were aiming their weapons at that door and alternating checks at other parts of the room.
Maxence pounded on the door with the side of his fist. “Open these doors!I demand entry!”
Finally, the door clicked as if being unlocked, and the mechanism and handle turned.
A pretty dark-haired girl, who Dree remembered was Maxence’s cousin Christine, Alexandre’s sister, stuck her head out and whispered, “Get in here quick before they have a fistfight. I unlocked these damned doors while they were spouting off about whether it was allowed or not.”
Maxence shoved the other door open so that he wouldn’t bump Christine and strode directly inside, walking toward the middle of the throne room.
Chapter Nineteen
DISASTER
Maxence
The crowd of aristocrats parted in front of Prince Maxence Grimaldi as he strode into the throne room.
As they damn well should. Moving the meeting time up to sabotage him was tantamount to a coup.
Kidnapping him absolutelyhad beenan attempt at a coup.
Maxence didn’twantthe throne of course, but it was his duty to ensure Monaco’s future.
Somehow.
The mercenaries from Rogue Security fanned out around the room, two of them stationing themselves near Max, a sad necessity.
“No!No, there are no private security forces in the meeting!” Prince Jules announced, striding forward as quickly as his short legs would allow. “This declaration has already been passed!”
Maxence’s cousin Alexandre stood on the dais in front of the throne, his arms outstretched and his fingers spread. A black cast covered his left hand and part of his forearm, which Maxence had noticed when Alex and his wife had visited him in his office weeks before.
Alexandre pointed at Maxence and shouted, “Prince Maxence has arrived.”
Prince Jules called back. “He has private security personnel. If our private security personnel can’t be in the throne room, neither can his!”
Alexandre winced and touched his fingers to his temple. “The movement was passed by unanimous vote. No private security personnel are allowed in the throne room during deliberations.”
Maxence spoke to Aiden. “Wait outside.”
“Yes, sir.” They marched out, closing the doors behind them.
Prince Jules strode over to the doors, flipped the locks, and smirked at Maxence.
Max considered shoving Dree out the doors and telling her to run, but there were over a hundred other people in the throne room.
Surely, nothing would happen.
Alexandre raised his arms again. “Prince Maxence has arrived! We are starting the entire election again from the very beginning. Everything that has transpired isnullandvoid.”
