Alex's face darkened, clearly pissed that his attempt to stir shit had been thwarted. "Well, I hate to break up the party, but Violet and I have places to be.” He grabbed my arm and gave it a sharp tug, making me stumble a few steps away from my friends.
Jordan's hand shot out, snagging my other hand and stopping Alex from forcefully pulling me from the field. Which would be great, except now I felt like a chew toy between two angry dogs.
As subtly as I could, I extracted myself from both of their grips and took a step back. "Stop it. I'm not going anywhere with you, Alex. I’m certainly not going to meet your creepy parents and play happy family after the shit you pulled last night."
A dark shadow passed across Alex's face, and a frown pulled at his brow that hinted at more concern than anger. Still, he had walked away and left that psycho nurse to dowhatevershe wanted to me while I was restrained and helpless.
Of course, he didn't need to know that Nurse Reller had met a rather unexpected end to the night. As far as he knew, I'd had my IUD forcefully removed and a tracking device inserted.
"If you'd taken the damn ring, maybe it wouldn't have come to that," he snapped, his concern washing away and morphing into irritation. "You brought it on yourself. Now stop acting like a brat. If you think what the nurse did was bad, you really don't want to keep my father waiting."
My skin prickled with anger at the threat, but what the fuck could I do about it? I couldn't exactly solve this problem with my blade. Couldn't challenge King Steve of Australasia to a fight to the death. The whole thing was way over my pay grade.
"She can't go with you," Mattie answered for me while my mind whirled. "Sorry. Queen Jacinta invited us all to visit with her at their residence in St. Moritz. We leave in an hour."
She was fudging the details a bit, but as plausible as it sounded, I wouldn't be contradicting her.
Alex's eyes narrowed. "Since when? There would need to be a royal decree to take so many heirs from the academy at once."
Nolan smirked, smug as shit while folding his arms over his chest. "Check. I bet you'll find it posted on the announcements board."
I stiffened. He was taking a huge risk. What if Rafe hadn't spoken to his parents yet? What if they were still writing the letter or it hadn't been published? The announcements board was accessible from our palm readers, so it'd only take Alex a few seconds to check it...
He didn't turn on his palm reader, though. No doubt he knew we'd pulled a rabbit from a hat and didn't need to verify it in front of us all. Instead, he looked shrewd.
"You leave in an hour?"
Mattie nodded. "There about."
Alex flashed his teeth in an unkind smile. "Fine. I guess you'll just have to meet my parents dressed as you are. Come on, darling." This time when he grabbed my wrist, it was like being caught in a vice, and he wasn't stopping for anything as he started dragging me toward the stadium exit.
"Wait, Alex, stop!" I protested, stumbling to keep up while trying to pry his fingers from my wrist. I could just break them, but explainingthatto King Steve sounded as fun as a jalapeño enema.
We'd just reached the corridor outside the arena when I breathed a sigh of relief.
Rafe.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" he demanded, storming toward us with fury radiating from every pore. "Take your hands off her, Australasia, or I'll have you arrested on domestic violence charges."
Alex paused a moment, clearly uncertain whether that was a legitimate threat or not. Rafe sensed that indecision and pushed harder.
"Did you forget whose kingdom you currently reside within? My authority surpasses yourscompletely, Alex. Here in Arbon even more so than anywhere else. Take your fucking hand off Violet. Immediately."
Alex shook his head, not wanting to back down to his long time nemesis. "Her presence was requested by my father. Are you really going to risk an international scandal over some orphaned slut? She's not eventhatgood in bed."
Rafe didn't take the bait. He didn't even flinch. Instead, he projected the image from his palm reader into the space between us.
"I think you'll find, Alex, that a royal decree from the Queen of The Switzerlands surpasses your father's desire to leer and intimidate over dinner. What was that you said about an international scandal?" Rafe's eyes gleamed with victory, and Alex practically vibrated with fury as his eyes scanned the official document displayed. "The transport is ready now, so we've decided to leave immediately." He reached out and firmly peeled Alex's fingers from my wrist, then tugged me to his side. "But hey, be sure to pass along our sincerest apologies to your parents, won't you?"
Alex's scowl was so deep I briefly worried his eyes might disappear, but when he spat some curses at Rafe and stomped off like an angry child, I just laughed.
When he was gone, Rafe let out a long breath and looked down at me. "Are you okay?"
Startled at the sincere question, I just nodded, rubbing at my wrist. "Thank you. You saved my ass there. I owe you one."
Rafe gave a lopsided smile, his eyes unreadable. "Jordy's right. You still don't get it." He shook his head, amused. "Come on, we've got better places to be."
Chapter 29
