A Wise Prince: A Poisoned Pawn World Book Read online

  His words resonate in my mind even though I don’t want them to. He pats me on the back.

  “Go run on it for a bit. You gonna see this lady again?”

  I get up and look him in the eye.

  “In two days, she’s been invited to the Summer Palace by my father.”

  “Good luck with that, then. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he adds as he heads off toward his office. Gerard isn’t just my trainer. He trains all of us and most of our staff. He runs classes and has experts come in when say, my sister wants to learn Pilates. He’s a cool dude and apparently a fucking Jedi master.

  I spend the rest of the day contemplating Gerard’s words. All through lunch with Anna, and all through dinner, and even when I crawl in bed, especially when I crawl in bed. It’s not bedding day, so the bed has been made but the sheets haven’t been changed today. When I roll over to the side of the bed where Kate slept, I can still smell her on my pillow.

  I roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling. I need a distraction. My mind wanders back to my mother’s crown.

  I’m about to fall asleep when Anna tiptoes into my room from the secret passage in my closet.

  “Late night?” I ask her.

  She jumps and puts a hand on her chest. “Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me!”

  “I scared you. You are the one walking out of my closet at…” I look over at my phone. “One thirty in the morning.”

  She shrugs and comes to lie down on the bed next to me. “Why are you up? Contemplating your drinking schedule at the Summer Palace?”

  I turn to her. “When you said you still keep feelers out on Mom’s crown, what did you mean, exactly?”

  She sits up, her face transforming from silly to serious. “It means that I still occasionally look into leads. Why?” she says and frowns.

  “What if…I want to find it,” I whisper to her. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my chest. I’ve been wanting to find that bloody thing since…well, forever, I just have never admitted it aloud until this very moment.

  Anna’s eyebrows knit together. “What? But…you always tell me to forget it. I…don’t understand.”

  I sigh and sit up to face her. “I can’t explain it, Suzy Q. I just…I need to do this. Will you help me?”

  The grin on my sister’s face says more than any words could.

  “Fuck yeah, I will!” she says way too loudly for one thirty in the morning. She covers her mouth but can’t cover her grin.

  She frowns then.

  “What?”

  “There’s something I need to show you, but I need to make you an honorary girl first.”

  I stare at my sister as if she has grown a second head or third arm.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  She looks around and grabs an umbrella in a stand in the corner of my room.

  “Kneel,” she says.

  I frown and give her a sharp look; I don’t kneel for anyone.

  “Do it,” she commands, giving me a look that would make lesser men shrink back in fear. I sigh before complying.

  She taps the umbrella on one of my shoulders and then the other. “I hereby declare under the authority of hundreds of years of women in the House of Alexander of the Kingdom of Norddale that you, Prince August of the House of Alexander, are a woman for the purposes upon which it is required for admittance and henceforth bestowed with the honors of being such in this family. If you shall ever reveal the secrets revealed to you tonight, you will be hung by your royal jewels in the dungeons. Please rise, Ms. Augusta, and follow me.” She twirls the umbrella and walks toward my closet and I stare after her in disbelief. What. The. Fuck. And my royal jewels? Seriously?

  “Fuckknob, you coming?” she calls out from my closet.

  I groan and head toward her.

  “What’s with all the theatrics?” I ask as I follow her. I note she’s heading toward the family library in the tower.

  “Sorry, I needed a clean conscience to show you this. It’s all I could think of…well, so last minute, anyhow,” she says as she leads us to the door that opens into the library.

  Once inside, I look around. Then, I look back at Anna.

  “You ready to have your mind blown?”

  I point to my chest. “You are going to blow my mind?”

  She grins. “Why yes, I am.” She heads up to the second story and I follow her along the narrow balcony until we reach the dead end. I cock my head to one side as she winks at me and pulls down a book, only the book doesn’t come off the shelf and a moment later the end of the bookcase swings open, revealing a hidden staircase. I’d like to pride myself that I don’t shock easily, call it years of practice or not giving a fuck, or somewhere in between, but right now, you would need a backhoe to pick my jaw up off the ground.

  “What the…” I trail off as she crooks her finger at me.

  “This way, Augusta,” she says with a smirk. I roll my eyes and follow her up a very narrow staircase. We pop out into a small circular room that’s essentially hidden in the woodwork of the beams of the roof. The room is…well…very Anna. There are computers and monitors everywhere. She’s somehow wired in electricity. And in one corner is a shelf and a chair. The light other than the single bulb overhead and the desk lamp comes from a slit in the wall where it looks like a stone has been removed to allow in natural light. It’s so narrow though, that from the outside, it would just look like a gap in the mortar of the stonework, hardly noticeable on a castle that’s been standing for centuries.

  “What is this?” I ask her.

  “Sit down.” She motions to the chair by the shelf. She sits in the small modern black chair at one of the desks.

  “This,” she starts, motioning around us, “is the secret room of the women of the House of Alexander. It’s been passed down through generations. Mom had just shown it to me a few weeks before her death. And until right now, I kept it a secret at her request.”

  “Holy. Shit,” I manage.

  “I was hoping for more of a ‘wow, this is cool’ or ‘hey, glad I’m a girl now,’” she says.

  “So, this is where you sneak off to,” I muse. For years, Anna would sneak off, and we wouldn’t be able to find her.

  She nods. “Come here, let’s see what the dark web has for us tonight.” I scoot the chair over to her desk and watch as she expertly works through mazes of the web that I don’t understand. It’s all numbers and codes and a completely foreign language to me.

  Not long ago, my sister revealed that she was a world-renowned hacker. She also happened to find out about a plot to kill a prince, who didn’t know he was a prince. She saved him and us and happened to uncover that our uncle was behind the murder plot and also had the prince’s mother and our mother killed in an attempt to bring down Montelandia’s monarchy and ours. As it happens, the prince is now Anna’s husband, Logan. Logan’s father happens to be the king of Montelandia, our neighbor principality. The whole thing ended in the death of my uncle after he nearly killed my aunt in an explosion he arranged at the Summer Palace, which was just reconstructed. Never a dull moment in the royal life.

  I sit patiently, laughing when Anna keeps typing with one hand and opens a small fridge door with the other, handing me a bottle of water.

  “Thanks. Quite the setup you have here. Is this a perk of being involved in the world of espionage?” I ask. Currently, Anna assists with intelligence work for our country. It’s an odd job for a princess, but it’s a perfect job for Anna.

  “One could say that,” she answers. She sets a bucket of cheese puffs on the table and pushes it toward me, while she grabs a handful of Oreos from a container next to the desk.

  “Fuck the cheese puffs, I want Oreos too,” I whine.

  She laughs and throws one at me. I catch it and continue my watching.

  She sighs after about ten minutes of clicking keys. “Nothing to note. Last nugget I had was an underground auction in Barcelona.”

  “A what?”


  She rubs her head. “There’s this ring of illegal artifact sellers that hold a roaming underground auction. It moves but is always held on the fifth of the month in a different city. It’s invite-only and has some of the most famous stolen works of art and historical artifacts in the world. Occasionally, they sell other things like ivory or whatnot, but mostly it’s the art. I had heard rumblings about a crown at one of them, but it turned out to be stolen from a gallery in Rome.”

  “Wow,” I interject because leave it to my sister to have found this and infiltrated it.

  She shrugs.

  “Where’s the next one being held?”

  “What, interested in stolen goods?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

  I laugh. “No, just curious who goes to these things. Maybe it would be fun. I could buy us a stolen Picasso to hang here in the female parlor.”

  She slaps my shoulder. “You’re an ass.”

  “I’m serious though. Maybe I could get in and you know, set some feelers.”

  She frowns. “You?”

  “Yeah, me.”

  “You are not a spy.”

  “No shit, Sherlock. But I could be.”

  “Auggie, be serious.”

  “Anna, I am serious.” I sit back and stare at her.

  “South of France.”

  “Thank you,” I say and kiss her cheek.

  “Oh, and I promise to get you something good for your room.”

  “Just remember, you are a girl now. Use your vagina wisely!” she calls out as I head back toward the stairs. I have a mission now, a distraction. I smile to myself.

  Kathryn

  Jackie and Dominic have officially ripped me a new one. Needless to say, I’m on their shit list. I can’t really blame them. If something happened to me, well, they would be fucked. I’ve apologized, but I know I won’t be sneaking away anytime soon. I’m pretty much going to be on lockdown for the foreseeable future.

  I spend the next forty-eight hours working on my thesis paper. I hand the draft in before I finish packing to go to the Summer Palace.

  “You ready?” Dominic asks from my doorway.

  “Yep,” I reply as I zip up my suitcase.

  Dominic eyes my three bags. I shrug. I don’t normally pack so much, but I have absolutely no idea what to wear at the Summer Palace. So, I did what any smart woman would do: I packed fancy, business, and casual…in separate bags, of course. I silently slide a smaller fourth bag over by the others, shoes…because…shoes.

  Dominic groans. “You have problems.”

  “Oh, come on. It’ll be like a vacation for you. I hear the Summer Palace is like Fort Knox since the explosion. So, you won’t have to worry about my safety, plus they have a bazillion security guards there.”

  Dominic glares at me and he hefts two of the bags out of my room.

  My phone pings with a text.

  Terrance: Still down for hanging out this weekend?

  Me: Sort of on lockdown.

  Terrance: Shit. Jackie was probably pissed.

  Me: Understatement of the century.

  Terrance: I’m off to London for a few weeks, but I will give you a ring when I’m back this way.

  Me: Sounds good.

  Terrance: Behave

  Me: Never ;)

  I send a message to the hospital nurse who oversees the volunteers, letting her know that I’ll be gone for a few days. She texts me back a picture of Andrew. He looks good and this makes me smile.

  I shove my phone into my pocket and head out to meet Jackie. She eyes me suspiciously.

  “Don’t worry, I can’t possibly get into any shenanigans at the Summer Palace.”

  “True, but just know, you are still on the top of my shit list,” Jackie grumbles as she grabs the other bags and hands them to Dominic. I slide into the car.

  I’m quiet as we drive to the Summer Palace. It’s not far from the city. Of course, the principality is so small in comparison to the U.S. that I feel like we are just driving from one side of the city to the other and then out to a suburb. And essentially, we are.

  I’m surprised when we drive up to a much less flashy-looking estate than the main palace. In the front, it still looks quite old, but the new landscaping and windows tell me it was recently renovated. I frown remembering the news reports when the explosion took place here less than two years ago.

  An older woman is waiting for us at the front door.

  “Good morning,” she says cheerfully, and I’m taken aback by her American accent. “I’m Tessa. His Majesty has asked me to welcome you and make sure you are settled.”

  I can’t help wondering if she was chosen to greet me because she’s an American.

  “Where are you from, Tessa?” I ask as I follow her with Jackie and Dominic in tow. I’m vaguely aware that a young man has picked up my bags and trails behind us.

  “Georgia, originally, Miss Kate,” she says to me with a wide smile, her Southern accent comes out strong as she says “Georgia.”

  I smile back at her. “Georgia is a lovely state.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she agrees as she opens one side of a double door to reveal a giant suite.

  “This here will be your room. There’s an adjoining suite with two rooms for your security,” she points out to us as we stand in the doorway. Dominic walks around the room, doing a sweep, I’m sure. I roll my eyes.

  “Dominic, I think the room is secure,” I huff.

  He glares at me. “I’m just doing my job,” he snarls before nodding to Jackie.

  “Is there anything else we can get for you?” Tessa asks, ignoring my banter with my security.

  I shake my head.

  “I’ll let you get settled. You can dial one on the phone and it will put you through to me if you need anything. It’s not as formal here as it is at the Royal Palace. Dinner will be a six. You are welcome to explore the grounds in the meantime. Anna is out riding with her husband, and the boys are somewhere around here,” Tessa says as she gives me a wink and nod and heads out into the hallway.

  “What are your plans?” Jackie asks me, her hands on her hips.

  I shrug. “I…don’t know. Maybe, I’ll just walk around and explore the estate.”

  She gives me a pointed look.

  I groan. And hold up three fingers. “I promise not to leave the estate, Scout’s honor.”

  “Fine,” she huffs. “But, if—”

  “I’m not leaving,” I say again, cutting her off as my phone rings. “It’s my mom.”

  Jackie nods and goes into the adjoining suite.

  “Mom?”

  “Darling, how is everything?” she asks. My mother is…an interesting lady. She’s a ridiculously smart, former pediatrician. My parents met in undergrad. Their lives were somewhat normal until my dad’s older brother was killed in an accident at an intersection where there had been several accidents over the year. He rallied the community and got a traffic light installed, and his politic career was cemented. My mother went along for the ride, begrudgingly. She’s actually a bit closer to my younger sister, Ashlyn. Ash is a freshman at Georgetown. She wants to work for the United Nations. She’s an idealistic do-gooder with a heart of gold. I’m more of a daddy’s girl. Although, I don’t see him much these days. We’re always like two ships passing in the night. He keeps threatening to visit me since I’ve been here studying, but so far, his schedule has not allowed it. Aside from last Christmas, the few times I’ve come home, he’s been traveling. No matter how long he’s been president, I can’t think of him like that; he’s just…my dad.

  “I think Daddy and I are going to come to visit,” she says excitedly.

  My eyes widen. “Really?”

  “Yep. He has meetings in Barcelona, and afterward, we want to spend a few days at Carol’s house in Saint Tropez. Would you be able to get down there?”

  Of course, my parents would get to the continent and want me to travel across it to meet them. I sigh. “Yeah, sure. I just turned in my thesis
draft, so I have some free time now.”

  “Wonderful! I’ll get it all arranged. It should be next week. We leave for Barcelona in the morning.” I sigh again. My parents are notorious for making last-minute decisions. You’d think they wouldn’t be able to do that, but nope, they keep the Secret Service on its toes.

  “Great, have Linda send me the info.” Linda is my dad’s personal secretary, who I know will arrange every detail of this visit.

  “Shannon already has it and will send it to you. How’s school?”

  “Fine. Mom, can we chat later? I just got to the Summer Palace and I want to go explore,” I say.

  “Oh, sure, darling. Can’t wait to see you.”

  “Bye,” I say as I disconnect and flop back on the giant bed. I take a breath allowing myself to relax. And then there’s a knock at my door. Fuck me.

  “Yes?”

  The door opens and Auggie stands there, looking like a model in a cologne commercial. He has dark stubble dotting his face, his dark eyes look piercing, and he’s wearing a pair of jeans that hang low on his hips and a white linen button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He has on some sort of pair of expensive leather shoes. His left wrist has what I assume is an overpriced watch in a silver or titanium metal, and his hair…his hair looks like he either just rolled out of bed or just got fucked. I squeeze my thighs together because…damn.

  “Hey,” he says as he leans his arms upon the doorframe, exposing his lower abs as his shirt moves up his body.

  I bite my lip and will myself to breathe. I shouldn’t be attracted to him. He would just break my heart. I let out the breath. “Hey.”

  “I heard you just arrived and figured you might need the ten-cent tour.”

  “Sure.” I get up from the bed and walk toward him. OK, I sort of sashay toward him in my dress. I love this dress. It’s blue and is form fitting on the top but the skirt is more of the nineteen-fifties style, and it has pockets.

  He pushes back and holds out an arm. I tuck mine in it as he leads us down the hall.

  Chapter Eight

  August

  Hot damn. Everything I thought I knew about Kate is…wrong. She’s sexy as motherfucking hell. And that dress. Its low neckline means when I stare down at her, I can see her cleavage, and yes, I’m an asshole and have looked multiple times as I lead her down the hall and show her the newly renovated wing.