Page 62 of Meet Cute the Virgin

“Yeah, okay,” I repeat. “Maybe I should be freaking out, and I still might, but, and I know this is going to sound crazy, it feels a little settling. Like I’ve been missing something, but I didn’t know what. Now I’ve found it.”

“It’s not over, Lily; I’m sure she’s finding out the two men haven’t reported back to her.”

“And she’ll send more.”

“Likely,” he agrees.

“Then we have two options.” His brows rise. “What? I’m in this now.”

“All right, what are these two options?”

“Well, maybe three.” I wiggle my fingers. “One, we wait them out; two, we surprise attack.” I can tell from his expression he’s not a fan of that one. Home turf is likely better. “Or we build that dome.” Tristan opens his mouth to respond. “The dome was a joke.” I cut him off, pointing my fork at him.

Tristan reaches across the table, covering my hand with his. “The dome stays a joke for now.” I roll my eyes playfully. “But you’re not leaving my sight until we figure this all out.”

“So, status quo.” I turn my palm up, threading our fingers together. “Good. Now pass the bacon; your princess is starving.”

If that queen has anything to do with my dad’s death, off with her fucking head.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

TRISTAN

The east wing study at Teddy’s estate is more secure than the drop house. It is most logical for us to be here. It makes the girls really happy too.

I’ve spent the last hour rerouting my systems here, spreading monitors across the mahogany desk that usually hosts nothing more threatening than estate ledgers. The room is directly across from the suite we’re staying in.

Killian leans against the far wall, arms crossed, watching me work. “How is Lily handling everything?”

“Surprisingly well.” I don’t look up from the screen. “They’re back in the vault?” I joke, but is it really a joke? When Teddy found out Lily is a princess, she was ecstatic. She started pulling out all the crowns she could find. I think I heard her mumble something about Lily needing a bejeweled scepter to match and apologizing that she doesn’t already have one. They’re having fun with it. Better than dwelling on it, and I have to give it to the girls. They are resilient.

“Still in there.”

The screen in front of me flashes with different incoming data. I’ve been pulling every thread I can find on the queen ofGrandeurs—her financials, her security detail changes, and her communications patterns in the last few years.

“She’s not giving up,” I say. “The two men in the alley were scouts. Low-level, disposable. To her, at least they were.” It’s fucked up because one died with her name on his lips. That’s deep loyalty.

“Now what?”

“She’s setting up a new plan of action.” I pull up a satellite image of the Grandeurs palace, zooming in on the eastern wing. “Five encrypted communications have gone through in the last eighteen hours. All linked to the same server. They are using burner phones and rotating locations, but the pattern is consistent.”

Killian pushes off the wall and moves to stand behind me. “Professional.”

“Professional enough, but it only slows down the process. You can still find them. Right now, she’s in a holding pattern.”

Killian nods in acknowledgment. I pull up another file. I was finally able to track down Victor’s old mission logs. Once I cracked the current code, it was easy, but there is a window before it closes, and I’ll have to start again.

“It’s all of Victor’s old mission logs, the ones I could never fully get into,” I tell Killian. “The queen might be waiting us out, but she knows we’re on to her. To what degree, I’m not sure, but her men never came back with the girl, so she’s aware Lily has some sort of help.”

A thought I don’t want to have is why didn’t they simply kill Lily? It would have been their easiest course of action. Why were they wanting to take her?

“Abduction, not assassination,” Killian says, reading my silence. “They want her breathing.”

“Which means the queen needs her for something.” I scroll down through the mission logs. “Victor’s extraction order.Decades ago, off-books, king himself requested it. One infant from a rural clinic, fire already burning down, a house with planted bodies. No witnesses, no survivors.”

“That’s a pretty standard cover.”

“Standard except for the addendum.” I highlight a line. “Package to be delivered to a neutral location for transfer to state care. Not to the palace or a distant family member in another country, but she was going to be placed in state care.”