She crossed her arms at her stomach. "It's a big castle. If you need help, let meknow."
Amy's friend shouldn't be cold in the palace, but he kept the thought to himself. Perhaps she’d just eaten ice cream before going to bed early. There had been a bowl on her sidetable.
Once he said goodbye, he rushed down the stairs to his office in the lowest level, near the old dungeon. On his way down, he texted security, so when he walked into the room, he met the brown-eyed gaze of his most trusted general. "Babik, Amy ismissing."
Babik's expression was unreadable, as always, but he said, "I'll get the security tapes. In two minutes, we'll follow the videofeed."
"Good, thanks." Lucio's heart pounded. He should have thought of that already, but then he never should have let Amy go anywhere alone in this castle. It wasn't safe here. He knew there was a threat and he hadn’t protected her nearlyenough.
The general found the files on his computer and Lucio pulled his chair closer to the monitor. "Babik, we left my suite together over an hour ago. She went to see her sister, and Evie confirmed they’dtalked."
"Let's start there then." Babik rewound on screen to an hour ago on the timestamp and opened the file for the guestwing.
Lucio pressed his fist into his knee as he watched as Amy knocked on her sister's door. No one answered, so she went inside. Babik switched the camera to inside, but once Evie walked toward her, the conversation seemed polite. They fast forwarded the scene. Babik said, "Nothing exciting sofar."
Amy turned and left Evie’s room, so they slowed down the tape. Lucio said, "She should have been heading back to ourroom."
On the tape, Amy walked down the hall and Lucio bit back a groan of frustration. Babik's gaze narrowed and he hit stop. "Wait. Loopback."
"What?" Lucio hadn't seen anything. She’d walked down thehall.
Babik watched the scene and the tape made a slight jump. "The tape isaltered."
His stomach dropped. All his instincts had been right. He jumped out of his chair and let it screech on the hardwood floor. Lucio checked the time stamp and calculated it down to the second of when Amy had been taken. "Fifteen minutes ago, she was smuggled out of the palace." The five men he and his brothers had been tracking for the past few hours were checked into a hotel nearby. He went to his desk, and found his hand gun and holster. "Get the guards ready and secure Edvard. No one is taking her fromme."
His brothers walked into the office and both went to their desks to get their supplies. "We came tohelp."
"Amy's beenkidnapped."
What he couldn't say was that if he lost her, he lost his reason for living. He'd prefer banishment from his family than ever marry another. Amy was his and his alone now. He had to get her back. He had no otheroption.
17
Amy rousedto consciousness when the frigid ice truck doors opened and two men grabbed her arms and forced her out of the ice and into the heat of a kitchen. Her chapped lips burned and she was colder than she’d everbeen.
Before she could scream for help, they dragged her up the backstairs and into a small hall. The numbers on the door made her assume this was a hotel, and the two men who manhandled her threw her into room312.
Her vision blurred in her icy face, but she realized another two men were in the hotel room, slightly older than the twenty-somethings who’d driven her here. She stared at one who reminded her a little of the older man she met in London with the same calculating blue eyes. She massaged her arms, lifted her chin and met his gaze. "It was freezing inthere."
The man bowed like she was royalty. "The ice truck was all we could get, YourHighness."
She dropped her hands to her side, warmth stinging her fingertips. "I'm not aroyal."
"You're marrying one." Heshrugged.
She took a step backwards. Her heart raced, but all she had as a weapon was making herself as human to them as possible. She let out a sigh. "Well that's good to hear. I thought you were going to stop thewedding."
The man with blue eyes crossed his arms. "Ms. Fields, we cannot let you marry the prince. You must understandthat."
Her heart raced. If these men were connected to her report then she understood they were here to cause problems. She swallowed and lowered her gaze, to appear weaker. "Are you following my analysis? If so, we need to discuss some of your tactics, including my kidnapping. There is no way stopping my wedding would somehow bring the Aussasdown."
He took a step toward her. "I disagree,ma'am."
Ma'am wasn't her name. She wasn't a person with that, and in self-defense class they stressed that any potential victim needed to humanize themselves as much as possible if they wanted to get away. She hugged her waist and decided she'd play on their sympathies. "You shouldn't. Lucio's only marrying me because my sister in unavailable. He doesn't truly care about me. He can marry someone else tomorrow and nothing you do to me willmatter."
The second man in the room said, "You actually believethat?"
She turned and met his green eyes which seemed the rarest color of emeralds and noticed his thin blonde goatee, committing it to memory for Lucio. "Absolutely. Tell you what. Let me explain my analysis to you and help you gain real insight into causing the mostdamage."
