Erik
The night ended on a sour note even though we tried to keep up appearances in front of the other guests, who had no idea anything had happened. Omar had been given his money back and escorted from the building. Security had been told he was persona non grata at the Charleston Hotel, and though it was over, it felt far from anything even resembling over. My gut told me Omar was in cahoots with Anwar and they were up to something. Whether it was to spoil my wedding or something much worse, I had no way of knowing, but I felt it in my bones. And it scared the hell out of me.
Casey, my mother, and my sister went to bed when we got home, but my father, Sandor, Aziz, my father’s security team and I sat up late into the night discussing upgrading security, security for the wedding, and our overall thoughts about what had transpired tonight. We sipped brandy and scotch until nearly dawn, exhausting every possible scenario that could go wrong and not feeling confident we were prepared for any of them.
By the time I went up to bed, it was starting to get light outside and Casey moved into my arms.
“Were you up all night?” she asked sleepily.
“I’m okay, go back to sleep.”
“You’re worried,” she murmured.
“A little, but I don’t want you to worry.” I kissed the top of her head as she snuggled closer.
“I worry if you worry.”
“Shhh. Our baby prince needs his rest.”
“Our baby princess is giving me indigestion.”
“I’m sorry. Try to rest.” I felt her relax back into slumber as I held her, but sleep didn’t come to me for a long time.
The days leading up to the wedding were busy, but I’d stopped enjoying them and spent my time trying to figure out what was going on in Limaj. There were too many closed-door meetings with my father and our security teams, and that only increased as the king prepared to come to town. He’d booked the top two floors of the Charleston, and the city itself seemed to be preparing for his arrival. Traffic would be closed off on the Strip when his motorcade would arrive at the hotel and I was beginning to wonder about the wisdom of getting married here in Las Vegas. It was already a chaotic city and the addition of the royal family’s arrival would add a layer of crazy I wished we didn’t have to deal with.
To her credit, Casey wasn’t nearly as frantic as I was. At least not that I could see. She moved through each day with a smile, taking care of each detail that came up, spending time with both her family and mine, and using the evenings to soothe me in ways I hadn’t been expecting. She was so much more than a beautiful, talented musician. I’d known she was special, but not how special, how integral she’d become to my existence. Skye had begun to warm up to her after the way Casey had come to her rescue at the charity gala, which had been surprising but in a good way. I should have been having the time of my life right now, but I wasn’t. Every day I woke up with a sense of dread, and I wanted to take Casey and run to a deserted island somewhere.
I’d known something was coming, but when it came it was so much worse than anything I’d been imagining. My phone rang at five thirty in the morning, ten days before the wedding and the day after the first of the family had arrived in Las Vegas to do some sightseeing before the wedding festivities started. I fumbled for the phone, getting twisted in the sheets we’d mangled during our lovemaking the night before, and finally grabbed it.
“Yes, hello?”
“It’s me.” Sandor sounded choked up. “You need to come down to your father’s den. Now.”
“What’s going on?”
“Now.” Sandor disconnected, and I practically levitated to my feet, trying to stay quiet so I didn’t wake Casey.
I pulled on sweats and a T-shirt and slid my feet into running shoes before leaving our suite and jogging down the stairs to find the others. I knew it was bad when I spotted my mother in a robe, her hair sticking up and no makeup. She was always well put together, even first thing in the morning, so seeing her like this filled me with dread.
“What’s happened?” I asked as I practically skidded into the room.
My father looked up with red-rimmed eyes. “There’s been an accident. The king and queen are dead.”
“Sonofabitch.” Accident my ass. I knew with every fiber of my being that if the king was dead, it had not been an accident. My heart beat painfully as I began to pace. “What happened?”
“There was a meeting of the special council at the palace.” My father sighed, swiping at his eyes. “Members and immediate family were called in to vote on…” He cleared his throat. “Isak wanted to award Casey the title of princess as part of your wedding present. There was to be a brief discussion and the vote. We spoke last night, I gave him my verbal vote, and he didn’t expect any resistance from anyone. He’d already spoken to Anwar, who’d reluctantly agreed so everyone was called in to make it official. Anwar, Rafael, Yolanda, Yusef, Vardan, Miriam, and Daniil.”
“Oh god.” I fell into a chair at the thought of something happening to Daniil.
“There was a bomb.” Dad took a breath. “It wiped out the east wing of the palace.”
“How many?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“All but two.”
“All…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “All but Anwar.”
“And Daniil.”
“That bastard. That no-good, conniving, piece of shit…” I let out a string of expletives in my native tongue.
“Daniil was suspicious when Anwar got up in the middle of the vote, claiming to need to use the facilities.” Sandor looked as furious as I felt. “He followed him. Anwar and his two closest aides went into the safe room where the jewels are kept.”
“Which is made of concrete and steel,” I grunted.
“Daniil knew something was wrong and ran back to warn the others, but the bomb went off before he got there. He’s banged up, but okay. I spoke to him about twenty minutes ago.”
“Sonofabitch!” There was a crystal candy bowl on the table next to my chair and I flung it across the room, watching it shatter against the wall, brightly colored candies flying in every direction.
My mother approached me and leaned down to wrap her arms around me as I fought off tears. The king and queen. Vardan, whom I’d been close to. Rafael and his young wife. Studious Yusef. Innocent, oblivious Miriam. Even Miriam’s husband, quiet Uncle Harold, had been in the room, even though he didn’t have voting rights.
How the fuck had Anwar gotten away with this? The loss of life was unfathomable to me, and the damage to the palace was heartbreaking. The west wing. Where my suite was located. Skye’s suite. A second home to me. Gone.
“Thank god Elen was already here in Vegas,” my father said. “Daniil and the others were planning to leave tomorrow.”
“I have to go to my brother,” Sandor said. “I fear he’s in danger. If Anwar’s goal was to eliminate the rest of the bloodline…”
“I should go,” I said automatically. “Technically, you’re next in line after Anwar because of my father’s abdication. I’m the logical choice because as long as you and Daniil are alive, I’m no competition to him.”
“Cousin, you are his greatest competition,” Sandor said. “He knows you are the rightful ruler, the one who should ascend the throne. I gave up my place in the succession when I took the oath of Bodyguard to the Royal Family. He also knows the people of Limaj love you and have embraced your future wife as well. His attempts to discredit her in the press fell flat, and poisoning his father’s mind against her didn’t work either. You are his greatest rival and it’s you who has to be careful.”
“Whatever he perceives as a threat has no bearing on reality,” I said impatiently. “I’m not in the running unless and until every one of you is dead, and that’s not happening on my watch.”
“Be that as it may, where you go, I go.” Sandor faced me with his arms folded across his chest.
Someone brought coffee, tea, and pastries, though no one had an appetite. We were glued to multiple televisions and websites, scouring the news for updated information even as my father had the jet prepared for a trip to Limaj. There was a lot to do, but I had to talk to Casey. Even though I’d been unconsciously preparing for something to happen, reality was jarring, and I was out of sorts. She would ground me; she always did, though we’d never gone through anything like this in our short time together.
She was in the bathroom when I got to our suite and she looked up in surprise as she came out.
“Hi. I was just going to look for you.”
“Something’s happened.” I reached for her and pulled her onto my lap as I sank onto the edge of the bed.
“Oh no.”
I told her what I knew, and the tears that filled her eyes caused my own to come to the surface. “I have to go,” I whispered against her hair.
“I know.” She pressed her face into the side of my neck. “Promise me you’ll be back, Erik.”
“I’ll never leave you for long,” I whispered, kissing her temple. “Come on, don’t cry.”
“We should cancel the wedding.”
“No. Absolutely not.” I pulled away slightly and lifted her chin. “I’m not letting that bastard take this away from us too.”
“It’ll be considered in bad taste.”
“No, it won’t. We’ll add a special tribute to the family members we lost, maybe a photo collage or something, make it a celebration of their lives as well as the beginning of ours. We can’t cancel because that’s what he wants. He wants to disrupt everything, throw the royal family into turmoil and the country into chaos. I won’t allow it. The people will need something as beautiful as a wedding to help them heal after such a loss.”
“If we go ahead with the wedding, then we have to address why, because it really will look gauche.”
“We’ll hire a PR team and set up an interview for when I get back. My plan is to go and meet with Anwar. I’ll pay my respects, feign interest in the funeral arrangements, perhaps even pretend to pledge my support and allegiance. I have to know what’s going on, what his plans are.”
“The wedding is in ten days, Erik. How are you going to do all this in ten days?”
“I don’t know, but I have to try. Do you trust me?”
“Of course.”
“I’m going to meet with Anwar, get a feel for what’s happening, and come home.”
“Be careful, Erik. He’s so much more dangerous than we imagined.”
“I know, but someone has to go.”
“Won’t people think it’s strange that the whole family isn’t going to mourn, plan the funeral, all that stuff?”
“Perhaps, but at this point, my concern is getting Daniil out of the country and seeing if I can find out what Anwar is planning. He’s going to be king now unless we can prove that he murdered the family, and I’m probably the only one who can do that.”
“He’ll kill you too.”
“He might try, but I’m not stupid, and both my father and I have allies within Parliament and the rest of the government.”
“I don’t like this.” Her eyes were watery as she looked at me.
“I know.” I brought her fingers to my mouth and kissed each one. “I don’t either, but I have to do this. Please say you understand.”
“I do.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and held on for dear life.