Page 127 of His Prince

I make no sense, but he seems to snap out of whatever trance he’s in. He grabs a phone from his pocket and starts speaking rapidly to someone on the other end of the line in a language I don’t understand, but I don’t have the time or the mental capacity at the moment to figure it out.

Casey is hurt, and I know Mikhail is too. He would have come looking for me by now.

Oh god. Gael. Dima.

“Did you call anyone?” the waiter asks me, and I nod.

“Yes, I…I need to find him. Please help me,” I say, and then run back to the room, hoping like hell to find Mikhail there, but it’s empty. Just like I feared. The table is in disarray, food scattered about, chairs turned over, as if a fight occurred. But all of that disappears when my eyes land on Gael who is slumped over the table. With shaking hands, I reach over and touch his neck and he’s painfully cold.

“Oh my god,” I whisper, my heart pounding in my chest, my eyes watering. Tears slip down my face.

“Please don’t be dead, please.”

I press my fingertips against his pulse point and feel a faint beating. But it’s barely there, just a flicker of life.

“Oh thank fuck,” I murmur as I hear the woman on the phone shouting at me to respond.

“Sir. Sir. We have emergency services on the way.”

“Hurry, something’s wrong. They’ve been poisoned. I don’t know. Oh fuck. And my husband…he’s gone. Oh my god, he’s gone.”

I shouldn’t have ever agreed to come here. I should have insisted that we leave. Fuck, I was playing a game with a dangerous man, and I lost. I fucking lost, and now I may lose Casey and Gael in the process. And my husband.

I don’t know where he is.

Is he even alive? Did they take him? Did he escape?

Just as I think it, Dima appears in the doorway, his eyes wild, his gun drawn.

“I heard the sirens. What happened?”

“They poisoned Casey and Gael! They took Mikhail!” I cry, running to him and letting him pull me into a hug. “Did you see anything?”

“No. Nothing. They must have gone out a different way. Fuck!”

His panic sets me off as the sound of sirens gets louder, and I split my time running between Casey and Gael, shaking them, slapping their faces, anything to help them wake up. But they’re passed out, slumped over and half dead. Dima is standing next to Gael, watching me frantically move back and forth, his gun in his hand, ready to take out anyone who approaches.

The paramedics finally appear with stretchers and start taking vitals. Meanwhile, the waiter who helped me earlier is speaking loudly right outside the room with an older woman, her eyes flaring in alarm, her gray hair bobbing on top of her head.

“Was this Daniil?” she asks me, and I nod, a sob forming in my chest.

“Yes. Oh my god. He took him.He took him.”

She reaches out and forcibly grabs me, much stronger than any granny has any right to be. She shakes me roughly.

“Get it together, boy. You need to keep a clear head.”

“He’s dangerous. He has my husband.”

“We’ll find him. Daniil knows better than to cause drama in my territory.”

The way she says that, as if she runs some kind of granny mob has me blinking up at her.

“Steve will accompany you and your bodyguard to the hospital. I’ll meet you there with some information.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, just as the emergency responders move Gael and Casey out on stretchers, rushing them out of the restaurant.

They can’t give up.

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