Page 77 of A Wise Prince

She glares at me. “Yes, dear brother, seriously. Anyone watching us, well, we’ll know who they are and where they are. We are going to have to take them down very methodically. Jack, you and I are going to have to come up with a game plan, pronto.”

“Agreed. Let me get my guys on the phone,” he says as he dials a number on his mobile.

I stand there, feeling very helpless. I have nothing to add to any of this. I sink down onto the sofa as I half listen to Anna and Jack discuss everything they know with some guy named Aidan. The facts are flying in one ear as my thoughts fly out the other. I feel like I’m missing something like the puzzle pieces are coming together in the dark and I can’t really see the picture they are forming.

It’s when Anna says, “Jared brought that diamond with him to the auction. The crown though is still missing. We can’t track that diamond back before the gala when he was at the royal palace.”

My mind stops whirling. The words “before the gala” bounce around my head as everything else freezes. No, there’s just no way, it’s not possible. A small memory plays in my mind like an old movie reel.

“Dad!” I yell.

Tessa shushes me. “Your father is in a meeting,” she says as she grabs my hand to usher me away.

I peek inside and see Conrad Johansen sitting in his office. I don’t like him. He’s stout and has a face that always looks mean. He never acknowledges my siblings and me when he’s here.

I go find Anna, and we start up a game of hide-and-go-seek, our favorite. I run out to the gardens and push myself in between the dense shrubbery along the stone wall. I’m about to try to get back to home when I see Johansen walking from my mother’s grave. I don’t move as I watch him. He looks around and then disappears behind a turn in the garden wall. I crawl out of the bushes and walk to my mother’s grave. It’s a peaceful place, a rose garden. There’s a bench there with the Shakespeare quote, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” In the middle is my mother’s grave. It’s a beautifully carved stone with her name and birth and death dates. There are roses carved into it, her favorite flower.

I look around, but I see nothing disturbed. I’m about to investigate further when Anna comes running toward me.

“I see you,” she squeals, and with that, I take off running.

“I…need to check on something,” I say abruptly as I walk to the door and keep on walking until I find my father’s old Porsche in the garage. I pull the key from the cabinet and start it up. I’m about to pull out when Kate steps in front of my car.

“Where are you going?” she asks.

“Get in,” I say, not wanting to waste time explaining my crazy thoughts to her. She tentatively gets inside.

“Are you allowed to leave the palace without security?” she asks me.

I turn to her grinning. “Nope,” I say, letting the “p” pop as I turn down a side road on the estate, a side road with a secret trail that leads out to the far side of the village. Nico will probably kill me for doing this but fuck it.

“You do realize just how hypocritical this is, right?” she says to me. It’s not lost on me that we just rescued her because she snuck out of the palace. I don’t respond.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going or not?” Kate prods.

“The Royal Palace,” I announce as I turn onto the back road that will lead us to the edge of town and the castle that my family calls home.

“Why?” she asks.

“I have a hunch,” I answer, glancing at her. She’s watching me with a frown on her face. I turn back to focus on the road, pressing power on the radio.

We don’t say another word as we drive. It takes about thirty minutes to get there.

I pull off on a side street and park as I pull a hoodie over my head. We walk in silence and slip into the secret passageway that Anna and I always use to get in and out of the palace.

Five minutes later, we are in the garden staring at my mom’s grave. I sit down on the bench and look around. I have no idea what I’m looking for. This part of the garden is surrounded by a tall stone wall. Ivy climbs it, and there are bushes trimmed into perfect spiral shapes around the perimeter. Rosebushes sit in front of them and in between them. Mom’s grave is in the middle, a stone pathway circling it.

“What are you looking for?” Kate finally asks.

I frown. “I don’t know exactly.” I stand and begin walking along the wall. As a kid, sometimes we’d find loose stones and use them to hide things. But I don’t remember finding any here.

My hand runs along each stone as I walk around the small courtyard. There are few smaller statues placed in between bushes. I’m about to give up on my theory when I knock into a stone carving of a lion. It moves, and I put my hand on the wall to stop myself from falling.

“Shit,” I curse to myself.

I reach down to move the statue back in place and freeze. I see an opening in the stone platform on which it sits. I push the stone creature more and it moves, revealing a box. I let out a breath as I reach down and pull it out.

Kate rushes to my side. “What is that?” she asks, but her voice tells me she guesses the same thing that I do.

---