And Gabriel had to understand. He had also lived in fear of King Enzo as a boy. He had helped Alexandre save Evelyne from one of his father’s plots.
So Alexandre sat back and let Gabriel handle this. He did not ask for updates. He did not demandaction, though days dragged on with none of those things.
It took nearly a month—between Gabriel carefully choosing the right man to track Ines down to making sure the investigation was quiet, careful and involved no threats.
Finally, Ines had emailed Evelyne at one point to assure her she was fine, and it was the break Gabriel’s man needed.
They’d traced her to a small Italian village, living out of town a ways in acabinwith her traitorous cousin.
“I can have someone bring her home,” Gabriel said, his voice devoid of any emotion, but Alexandre knew there would be judgment based on how he responded.
Alexandre shook his head. “No.”
“Evelyne and I could handle things here for a day or two if you’d like to collect her yourself.”
“Not yet.”
Gabriel’s eyebrows rose. “You want her to…stay there?”
He did not. He wanted to drag her home, lecture her, demand to know what the hell she had been thinking.
He wanted hismouthon her—and this was the main thing that made his decision for him.
All of these overly emotional responses were not acceptable. So perhaps it would be best if she just…stayed where she was. This was, essentially, his plan. Get her away so he couldthink.
So let her hide. Let her think she’d done some great runaway. What did it hurt? It got him exactly what he’d been planning on anyway—thoughhewould have done it with more tact and a PR plan in place. Still, it wasn’t so different.
That ideaalmostgot through the red haze of anger.
“Yes, for the time being. Let her have her runaway. As long as I know where she is, what she is up to, that is enough for the time being.” He could rest. Relax. And be safe from losing his hold on everything with her an entire country away.
While he got everything sorted—determined if an annulment was evenpossible, this was better.
“All right.” It was not approval. If anything, there was a tinge of disapproval in his tone.
But Alexandre knew this was the right way to handle it, whether Gabriel approved or not. Ines would be too far away to tempt him, to needle him. But he would know she was safe and he wouldn’t worry that she would chafe under his demands. She would thinkshewas in control.
Let her.
“I need someone to watch her though. Completely hands-off. Just keeping tabs.”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
“Thank you.”
But Gabriel didn’t leave. He hesitated, which wasn’t like him at all. So Alex braced himself for whatever Gabriel would say.
“Eventually your country is going to want to know why they haven’t seen their queen for so long,” he said softly, gently even.
“Yes,” Alexandre agreed.
But today was noteventually.
Nor would tomorrow be.
Ines was miserable in so many different ways she couldn’t even catalog them all. She’d stopped worrying about Alexandre finding her. Maybe it was foolish to let her guard down, but she couldn’t seem to muster the mental energy.
She was tired. Achy. Nauseous. A flu that came and went, ebbed and flowed, but never disappeared. At least, she kept telling herself it was the flu. Even though she began to suspect something else.
