Page 65 of Ruthless
She glanced at the clock on her desk. “Serena and Ash should be here in a couple of hours.”
They’d received a text from Ash last night confirming that Serena was available, and they would both be headed to Amelie soon.
“Ash will have no problem with the logistics of arriving in the city, but what’s the plan to get them into the castle without causing questions?”
“Remember Mylan?”
“Ha. Yeah. One of the only pleasant memories of my incarceration.”
She grimaced in sympathy and said, “He’s going to meet them at the airport and escort them here. And on that note: Things went a little sideways yesterday, and we didn’t discuss this, but any ideas on who might’ve taken out Clement?”
“No, but I imagine the man had more than a few enemies.”
“Agreed. Just wondering if it had anything to do with this other stuff that’s happening.” She shrugged and added, “I could easily see Clement selling information, but he wasn’t privy to my father’s schedule.”
“No, but he knew you were here.”
“He never mentioned that he’d told anyone?”
“No. The bastard was tight-lipped but smug as hell.”
“If he told anyone, whoever he told might’ve been the one who killed him.”
“If so, then my incarceration might’ve been more than just bad blood between the two of us.”
“Which, by the way, you never told me why he had it out for you.”
He hesitated to bring this up again, since it was the beginning of their complicated connected past, but he had promised full disclosure. “The incident with Homer. You might not remember that Clement was there.”
“Yes, I remember. He was one of the guards who tried to intimidate me, and then when my father came, he pretended to be all protective.”
“You were likely occupied with other things, so you probably didn’t see the groin-punch I delivered.”
“No, but I wish I had. Still can’t believe my uncle promoted him to be commander of the palace guards.”
“That was your uncle’s doing?”
“I assume so. He took over that responsibility after Samuel was killed. Samuel originally oversaw those activities. Neither Nicolas nor Alex wanted the responsibility, so he agreed to take over.”
Gideon’s eyes went back to the board where Eve had listed possible suspects. “Perhaps it would be helpful to know what each person’s responsibility entails. Maybe we’ll find a thread somewhere.”
“Okay, but first coffee.” With a quick kiss on his cheek, she walked out of the room.
Gideon continued to stare at the board, a heavy feeling developing in his gut. Perhaps the culprit was even closer than any of them could ever imagine.
* * *
Ash and Serena arrived as covertly as if they were on an OZ mission. Eve received a text from Mylan when the OZ plane landed. Twenty minutes later, the text came that they were inside the inner hallway, headed to her apartment. And then the door chime sounded.
Feeling unaccountably nervous, Eve stood at the door and took a bracing breath. She didn’t know what to expect from her friends. Finding out someone you thought you knew everything about was actually someone else would be a shock for anyone. Finding out that that same someone was a royal princess might be a little too much.
The instant she opened the door, all worries disappeared. Serena ran into her arms with a little squeal of delight. “You look wonderful. How are you feeling?”
Tears of gratitude welling in her eyes, Eve held her friend close. This right here was one of the reasons she loved her OZ family as much as she loved her blood family. The incredible acceptance and unconditional love were both life-affirming and validating. Her bloodline had nothing to do with how they felt about her.
“I’m great,” Eve answered. She pulled away to look at her friend and felt her heart clutch.
Though still lovely, with her honey-blond hair and magnolia complexion, Serena had lost weight, and the dark shadows beneath her light-green eyes told of sleepless nights. Eve made a vow that the two of them would carve out some alone time so she could find out what was going on with Serena and Sean. It was insane what he was putting her through.