Page 12 of A Fierce Princess

“Anna? We should go,” Pete says.

I nod and follow him back to the elevator and out to the car. I look around as we start to drive back to the house. There aren’t any buildings right next to Logan’s apartment complex. And the nearest buildings don’t have good angles for a sniper to aim into his apartment. Then it hits me, I bet I can find the blueprints to his apartment. I laugh to myself as I feel stupid for not having thought of that earlier.

“Everything OK back there?” Lucas asks. I can see him raise an eyebrow in the rearview mirror.

“Yep, all is good,” I say to him. I have a night of more research ahead of me.

Chapter 7

When I enter the house, I look out the floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors to find that Auggie is floating on a raft. A cocktail of some type is in a cup holder that is floating next to him.

I walk out and look down at him.

“You’re blocking the sun,” he says.

“Oh, if only the paps could see you now,” I say to him.

“What? I’m not nude. I’m not fucking a woman. And I’m not snorting cocaine off the side of the raft,” he says. I can’t see his eyes through his mirrored sunglasses, but I know they are closed.

“Wow, way to set that bar high,” I respond to him as I toss off my sandals and sit down on the edge of the infinity pool. I look out past Auggie at the edge of the pool that is indistinguishable from the ocean beyond. There are only a few puffy clouds in the sky. Palm trees flank either side of the yard which is fenced in by a tall white wall. The top of the wall has plants growing out of it.

“Where’d you go?” he asks, breaking my thoughts.

“Cable Beach,” I answer.

“Mingling with the riffraff,” he says.

“Augs, shut up. You’re one to talk. I believe the last trip you took you were quoted in three different tabloids as saying you ‘like to sample the commoners,’” I say, as I give him a pointed look. He pops up to look at me, and he grins.

“Yeah, wasn’t one of my better drunk moments,” he says sheepishly.

I roll my eyes. “Trust me, you’ve done worse,” I point out.

“Touché, princess, touché,” he says.

I stare out again at the sea beyond the pool. I’m contemplating what to do next when my phone buzzes alerting me that there’s something on my computer that I need to see.

“Secret boyfriend?” Auggie asks as I stand.

“Yes, you know me. I’ll just bang anything with a dick,” I say sarcastically. It doesn’t help that both my brothers know that I’m a virgin but, of course, that’s not rocket science since I’ve never had a real boyfriend. The closest I came was a guy I met at camp years ago—Eddie—but we were kids, and he never came back to camp. We emailed a few times but then lost touch.

“Guess I’m doing a good job of protecting your virtue!” Auggie calls out as I walk inside. I raise a single finger at him but don’t look back. I can hear him laughing as I walk toward my room.

When I reach my computer, I shut the closet door and grimace with what I see. One of M’s fake names has come up in my search for movement at airports. He’s boarded a flight from Dubai. I close my eyes and try to figure out my next move.

I sit and meditate on it for a few minutes before the easy answer slaps me in the face. I quickly search for Logan’s charter business. Finally, lady luck smiles upon me, because I see that he has availability for a charter trip starting tomorrow. I know Auggie has to be at something in the morning, but if he skips one minor thing, we could go on a little sibling trip. I text a link to Auggie and suggest we take a few days to see some of the other islands.

I walk back out to the pool, not bothering to wait for his response.

“Hey, did you get my text?” I ask him.

“Damn, impatient much, Suzy Q?” he asks with a smirk.

“Well?” I ask him.

I put my hands on my hips and pout. “Come on, Augs, it’ll be so fun! We can have a little brother-sister adventure. We haven’t had one in years!” I whine.

“A brother-sister adventure?” I hear a voice behind me say.

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