Page 59 of A Wise Prince

Me: It’s been interesting.

Kate: I hear we are going to the Summer Palace.

Me: Word travels fast

Kate: Everything OK?

Me: I…hope so

Kate: That doesn’t make me feel better

I’m about to reply when I see Kate’s name on my phone. Shit. I answer her call.

“Hey.”

“Where are you?” she asks. I realize she must hear the street noise. I’m torn. I don’t want to tell her anything, but I also don’t want to lie to her. It’s a new concept for me. I’ve never had trouble telling a small white lie to a woman. I decide to not lie but not go into specifics either.

“I’m taking a walk.” Hell, it’s the truth.

“A walk?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Auggie, what’s going on? How was this morning? What happened? I’m dying over here. I need to know,” she says. I almost laugh because she sounds ridiculous.

“It was interesting. I can’t explain it now. We can talk tomorrow,” I say as I approach the small coffee shop. “I gotta go. See you tomorrow.” I hang up and stare at the sign in the window which reads “fermé.” I frown.

I’m about to leave when my phone pings with a text message.

Unknown Caller: Meet me around back.

I don’t like this, and I’m about to say, “fuck it” and hightail it out of here, but like a moth to a flame, I’m drawn toward the alley next to the shop.

“I’m a fucking idiot,” I murmur to myself as I walk along the side of the building. There’s a small courtyard in the back. I can see the figure of a woman sitting at a table, but her back faces me. As I walk around the table, I freeze. I know this woman. Liza. She worked at the Summer Palace until about six months ago.

“Liza?” I ask, confirming that it's really her.

She looks up at me. She’s pale. She looks…scared. She nervously looks around her and then back to me.

“Please have a seat, Your Highness,” she says, her voice barely a whisper.

I slowly take the seat across from her, my back against the wall of the courtyard. I frown with confusion. I don’t understand why she’s here and what she thinks she knows, which can’t possibly be much of anything.

She leans towards me, her eyes glancing around once more. I’m not sure who she expects to come waltzing in here. “You’re in danger, Your Highness,” she says quietly.

My frown deepens. “What do you mean, exactly, Liza?”

She squirms in her chair and reaches into her pocket. She lays a business card on the table, a business card that I am now very familiar with, a business card belonging to Jared Farrington.

I pick it up and look at it and back at her. “Why do you have this?”

She looks down and bites her lip. “Because…I work for his family now.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

Kate

I stare downat my phone in disbelief. Did Auggie just hang up? What the fuck? My gut tells me something is wrong. And my gut is never wrong. I take a breath and text him.

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