Arthur nodded. “Edwin and Henry are getting the duke into his car now and he doesn’t want to go.”
I rolled my eyes at that. “And I didn’t want him to hijack what was supposed to be a nice evening, so I guess we’re both disappointed.”
A ghost of a smile lit up the prince’s face.
“Are you all right, Arthur? I know Edwin was joking earlier…” I trailed off, thinking about Edwin’s earlier comments about Arthur.
Arthur shrugged. “Are any of us really? I’m clean right now, I suppose.”
“You should call Carter,” I told him. “He misses you, you know.”
I wasn’t sure what had happened between the two of them, but they used to stay up all of the time playing video games. They were attached, probably in more ways than I could ever really understand.
“Miss Holloway,” Maverick’s voice came from behind me and I turned to find all four of them waiting for me. “It’s time to get you inside for the night.”
“Right,” I said, turning to look at Arthur again.
“Tell your brothers goodbye for me, and please take care of yourselves. I don’t want to have to look on the news and see what crazy stunts you three have gotten yourselves into. You’re usually the voice of reason, Artie, so act like it.”
This time Arthur’s grin was genuine as he pulled me in for a hug.
“Bye, Lennie, see you later.”
Then he was gone, heading back through the East wing where his brothers were still probably wrangling the drunken, irate duke into his car.
“So you’re pretty close with those princes, huh?” Dallas asked as we started to cross the garden.
“They’re childhood friends,” I explain, suddenly feeling the events of the day catching up to me, the exhaustion weighing heavily on my shoulders.
My feet were aching and I was about two seconds away from needing to be horizontal or I would scream.
“Yeah,” the alpha muttered, his voice flat behind me.
I paused before turning to look at him.
He and Brooks had been my body men all night, meaning they had a front row seat to my interactions with the three princes, so they should have seen more than anyone else that our interactions were more like a sister and her annoying brothers than anything.
“Do you have something to say, Agent Wilson?” I asked coldly.
“No, he does not,” Maverick said, stepping in between us. His back was to me, so I didn’t see what sort of face he was showing to Dallas, but whatever it had been seemed to cow the other alpha because he looked sheepishly ashamed by the time Maverick had stepped aside again.
“No I do not, ma’am, I apologize.”
His formal words almost irritated me more than anything else. Before, my stupid self thought that, maybe, he had been jealous of the three princes.
Now I wasn’t even sure of that either.
“They’ve been my friends since I was born. The Holloways and the royal family have been close for forever,” I said, suddenly feeling like I was on trial.
“Friends who kiss?”
We all whirled to look at Brooks who had been quietly watching our interaction up to this point.
“When it happened when I was sixteen, yeah… wait, why am I even explaining any of this to you four,” I realized with a huff as I looked around and realized that several of the staff members who were supposed to be cleaning up the party had stopped to watch the veritable soap opera happening in front of them.
I was about to open my mouth to tell them to mind their business when something whizzed by my face and shattered the glass panes of the door next to my head.
Pain lanced across my cheek.
