“Fia told me that went well.”
“Good, glad to hear it since I haven’t spoken to her, either.”
“Well, that’s what happens when you run away from home, Regina,” Sana scolded her. “People can’t drop you a line, let you know how your assassination went.”
“So is that how you found me?” Gina toyed with her glass. “Fia tracked me somehow?”
She just smiled. Unlike Gina, Sana enjoyed keeping secrets. Maybe because she’d been stripped of any privacy for the first part of her life. Now that she was out of the media spotlight after her ‘daring escape’ during the coup when her uncle came into power, she lived in obscurity in Switzerland. It was a self-imposed exile that made her very happy.
Gina had long since come to terms with the idea that saving the princess all those years ago had only been a distraction so that the U.S. could put their man in place. It didn't matter to her; she got the outcome that she wanted. Sana was safe, happy, and free. Gina never expected to see her face to face again, or even speak to her. But Sana had reached out right after Jeremy’s death and they’d quietly kept in touch ever since.
And now Gina was sitting across from her friend. Her crazy, funny, wonderful friend who had funded Walker and Kayla’s escape when Gina had no one else to turn to. Exile or not, the former princess still had deep pockets.
And now she was determined to help Gina, whether Gina wanted it or not.
“You are really not going to give me a say in this, are you?” Gina asked.
“I'm not,” Sana answered. “You're a very intelligent woman, my friend, except when it comes to yourself. You were supposed to return to Watchdog for protection. I can't believe you simply disappeared like that.”
Suddenly, her smiling, easygoing friend looked terribly upset. “I wasworried. I don't like to be worried. I've had enough worry in my life.”
Gina frowned. “Don't you dare try and make me feel guilty like that.”
Sana sat back and crossed her arms. “I'll do whatever I want. My Swiss Air Force, my Swiss Navy.” A pout appeared on her pretty face.
Gina couldn't help but laugh. “You're a very petulant dictator,” she said.
“And you are an obstinate prisoner. I'm afraid the champagne wasn’t good enough and I'll have to try and break you with some Swiss chocolate.”
Curled at Gina’s feet, Fleur lifted her head at the magic words.
Sana rolled her eyes. “Fine, I'll throw in some biscuits for you, puppy. Happy?”
Her tail thumped against the floor.
“So,” Sana continued, glaring at Gina. Where is Lachlan Campbell in all of this?”
Dammit. “Hopefully watching over everyone in a safehouse somewhere in California like I asked him to do until this blows over.”
“Gina…”
“Sana. I don't want anyone to get hurt trying to help me. That includes you. Thanks for the lift to Zurich, but when we get there, we are parting ways.” She lifted the flute. “Champagne and chocolate or no champagne and chocolate.”
“We’ll see.” Sana picked up a remote and pointed it at a blank screen across from them. “In the meantime, we have just enough time to watch the firstDouble-O Troublemovie before we get there.”
* * *
They didn't part ways in Zurich.
It had been years since Gina last visited Switzerland. The Zurich airport was as she remembered—clean, neat, easy to navigate. She tuned out the announcements overhead in German, French, and English as they headed for the trains. They took one to the city of Lucerne where Sana lived now, in Old Town where covered wooden bridges crisscrossed the turquoise-blue Reuss River. Sana’s apartment was right on the Reuss and had a beautiful view of Jesuitenkirche, a seventeenth-century baroque church, right across the water.
Gina practically soaked up the beauty of the city through her skin. It was one of the few places she’d never been—she’d mostly visited Zurich or stayed in Geneva when her dad was on a diplomatic mission.
“Home sweet home,” Sana said as she took Gina and Fleur upstairs and showed her to her room. “I’ll let you settle in. There’s an en suite bathroom with everything you need. Take a shower or a bath, eat some torture chocolate,” she pointed to a fancy box of chocolates sitting on a dresser, “take a nap, and come downstairs whenever you’re ready.”
She closed the door behind her. Then she opened it again, stuck her head in, and said, “Oh, and I saw you studying the building outside and eying the balcony just now. Don't even think about trying to escape.”
“Really? When have I ever climbed out a window to escape a royal residence?” Gina deadpanned.
