“Let us do our job,” Lara says. “We’ll bring her back here and then you can talk to her. Until then, you need to wait.”
I look back and forth between them, frustration that they’re right ripping through me. I’d love nothing more than to go to that bar, grab Lilly by the arm, and drag her back here. But I know damn well that not only would Theo be angry that I risked myself like that, but Henrik wouldn’t appreciate the negative publicity right before the wedding.Especially since I don’t have the best reputation at the moment.
Irritated, I push at Ottar’s chest to get him off me, and I turn my back to them. Hand tugging on my hair, I say, “You have ten minutes. If you’re not back in ten, I’m coming to find her.” I then face them and add, “I’ll be right here, waiting.”
Lara and Ottar exchange looks and nod, before taking off down the hallway at a jog. If I can’t retrieve her myself, then I wouldn’t trust anyone else but Lara and Ottar.
Doesn’t mean I like it, though.
I glance down at my phone, looking to see if she texted me, and when I see that she hasn’t, I grip my phone even tighter. What if something happened to her? What if someone recognized her, kidnapped her from the bar, and left her phone there? What if they have her right now . . . and they’re taking her somewhere we’ll never find?
No.
That won’t be the case.
Because if she was captured, I’ll spend every waking hour of my life looking for her. I’ll die before I let her be harmed.
Anxious, I pace the hallway, staff members passing by me, their eyes drifting, taking me in, watching my every strangled movement. No doubt there will be some sort of leak to the papers about the nervous prince, pacing the hallways right before the wedding.
I can see the headlines now.
But fuck if I care.
I’m not moving. Not until I know she’s back in this palace.
And she’s not leaving my sight when she gets back. I’ll see to it.
I spend the next eight minutes driving myself mad with worry.Why haven’t they returned? What happened to her? Who could she have run into? What the fuck was she thinking?And with every motion in the hallway, my eyes deceive me, thinking it’s them returning when, in fact, it’s just staff members moving around from room to room.
I want to shout at them not to fucking move. To stay where they are, but I bite my tongue and turn away, staring at the secret doorway that leads into the palace. That will be boarded up. Tomorrow. I will make sure of it.
“Keller.” My back stiffens when I hear Lara’s voice, and I whip around to find her standing behind me with Lilly dressed in a brown wig and baseball cap. Timmy is next to her, looking frightened to death as Ottar holds his arm.
Relief flies through me but is quickly replaced with white-hot rage.
“See that Timmy finds his way back to his room and that where hecango and where hecan’tgo is explained to him.” I grip Lilly by her arm and pull her forward without a word.
“Keller,” she says as I bring her through the door to the secret corridor.
“I suggest you don’t say a goddamn word.” I push us through the painting, slamming it open against the wall, and when two guards startle from the noise, I say, “See that this is boarded up, immediately.”
One of them takes off as I pull Lilly toward her room, open the door, and move her into the quiet, dark space. When I shut the door and lock it, I press my hand against the hard wood and take a deep breath.
She’s safe.
Remember that.
She’s here, with you, in her bedroom, safe.
When I turn around, I catch her removing the baseball cap and wig and dropping them to the floor. Her eyes remain on mine the entire time.
I push my hand through my hair. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I don’t know,” she says as she drops into her vanity chair. “I just got caught up in the prospect of having fun, without someone looking over me every two seconds.”
“Those people wholook over youare making sure nothing bad happens to you.”
“Well, nothing bad happened,” she says.
