Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Just as I prepared to type a response, an email alert flashed up. The words Semper in scopum grabbed my attention immediately.
To Zee,
He’s back where he belongs.
See you in Majestic.
Semper in scopum.
My head felt like a helium balloon that had just been released into the sky. He’s back where he belongs? What the fuck?
“Kenji,” I breathed. “Kenji, fuck. Help. What does this mean? Does this mean what it looks like? Is Ryan the target?”
I handed him my phone so he could read the email. There was no point in panic-dialing Bear if I was off the mark.
“You need to send this to Ryan immediately.”
I forwarded it to his email, copied Violet, and then dialed Bear with shaking hands.
There was no answer—he might have his phone in airplane mode—so I dialed Violet.
“Check your email,” I said as soon as she picked up the call. “I think the Stamper’s after Ryan. I think it’s…” I hesitated before accusing someone in the royal family of a crime. “I think maybe Ryan is in trouble, Violet.”
“Hang on.” I heard sounds of her shuffling things as if getting to her laptop. “That makes no sense, Zee. Why would Ryan be the target?”
“I don’t know. The royal family wants him back. They offered him a ton of money in Amsterdam, and he said no. Maybe… maybe they think getting to me somehow will make the record label lose faith in Ryan and replace him? Maybe then they think he’d go back to Ventdestine?”
“That’s an awfully convoluted way to go about recruiting someone for a job, Zee,” Violet said with excessive patience. “The stamp is the logo from your album. They got to you at your shows. You’re one of the world’s largest celebrities right now. How could it not be you? No offense to Ryan, but close protection officers aren’t hard to find. They couldn’t need Ryan that badly.”
I shook my head in frustration. “You don’t understand. They have this weird superstition. King Asger thought it was fate that Ryan saved him. That the winds of fortune had blown him to them at the exact right time. What if… what if King Gerhard thinks his father died because Ryan wasn’t there? What if he thinks fate wants Ryan back?”
“I still think they would have made him a better offer,” she said matter-of-factly. “If the king of Ventdestine wanted Ryan Galloway so much, he could make the offer tempting enough for Ryan to say yes, Zee. Everyone has a price.”
I thought about the man I loved. About how I’d offered to support him so he could travel with me and we could be together. About how living in Ventdestine meant Ryan had been forced to deny an important part of himself. “The price isn’t always a financial one, Violet.”
She hesitated. “You’re right. Okay. I’ll run this down, Zee. I promise. Hang tight. I’m also going to check with Lou and make sure Noelle is accounted for, too.”
I had to admit, I hadn’t even considered Noelle since Amsterdam. But I supposed she was doing PR liaison stuff for the royal family, wasn’t she? It wouldn’t hurt to run it down and see if she had any helpful insight.
“Do you have a way of tracking Ryan? He’s not answering my call, and he’s stopped texting.” Why hadn’t it occurred to me to ask him to share his location with me? What kind of boyfriend was I that I couldn’t look out for him the way he looked out for me?
“His last location was Teterboro. They’re probably in flight.”
“I’m sure there’s Wi-Fi on the plane. Why isn’t he online?”
I could hear the sound of her typing. “Not sure. Let me go and see if I can contact someone else on their team. I’ll be in touch. But Zee?”
“Yeah?”
“If Ryan’s the target, that’s good news for you.”
My mouth dropped open as I tried to figure out how I was possibly misunderstanding her words. She couldn’t mean that, could she?
“How so?”
“It would mean you’re out of danger. If this is about Ryan, we can deal with that separately. But at least you’d be able to breathe a little freer.”
I felt Kenji’s hand slide into mine and squeeze it tightly. I turned to him with incredulity on my face as I tried to remain calm and keep from outing Bear without his permission or getting him fired on the spot.
“If you think I’ll breathe freer knowing someone was using me to get to him, you don’t know me very well. Please get in touch with him and keep me updated, Violet. I want to know as soon as you hear from him.”
As she ended the call, the flight attendant notified us we were landing. Majestic’s private airstrip had become a familiar landmark in the past couple of years. I looked out the window as we left the Rockies behind us and flew above the tumbling foothills. The Majestic River meandered out of the hills and onto the flats, curving around a tiny speck I knew was Way and Silas’s tiny house on the Fletcher Ranch.