Page 1 of The Prince of New York

ONE

“If they do that, the tigers will surely want to help.”

The headof my sister’s detail stormed through the palace, and I halted, my eyes widening at the man’s disheveled state. His suit would be retired; magic might be able to repair the tears, but the bloodstains and mud would be a challenge to remove. He marched with the determination of someone on a mission, and I worried for anyone foolish enough to get in his way. “Terry?”

The RPS agent halted, focusing on me. “Your Royal Highness.”

Somehow, I kept from flinching over the reminder I would inherit New York should anything happen to my sister before she had children with Ethan. I focused on his appearance to calm my anxiety over the possibility of ruling a kingdom I didn’t want.

Riding incident? A fight with my sister’s tigers? A hundred possibilities rattled around in my head, and I regretted my decision to come to the palace to do some work for the kingdom.

I should have stayed at home and salvaged what metal and materials I could from my junkyard.

Sighing, I asked, “Do I want to know what happened?”

“My queen wishes to do a mud run. As she has some sense, she decided she wanted to see what was involved first. As I have ‘been slacking’ and ‘could use some exercise after my vacation,’ I was ordered to participate in the course the RPS set up in the yard.” Terry regarded his suit with a dismayed expression. “I believe the RPS was attempting to discourage our queen. If I emerged from their course barely intact, perhaps she might change her mind about participation. All we did was motivate her. She believes I enjoyed myself.”

“You look like you barely survived a murder attempt that happened to take place in a muddy field.” Aware the RPS agent had recently recovered from having been snatched from the palace grounds, an illness, and a rather haphazard adventure across Texas with his Montana princess, I worried a chill might put him back on the injured roster. There were rumors that the Texan RPS, with help from the Mexican RPS, had subjected the man to a living hell as part of his physical therapy. Reaching out, I pressed the back of my hand to his forehead, determining the mud had dropped his body temperature a disconcerting degree.

Concentrating, I focused on his clothes, warming everything up so his core body temperature would have a chance to rise. “That working should last until you are in your room and have a chance to shower. Soak in the tub and get yourself warm. If you’re on duty, I’ll go make myself useful until you’re fit to return without running a risk of catching your death.”

“Fortunately, they took me off duty at the start of the course. Thank you, Ian.”

I recognized the moment the agent had lost his last fuck and needed some normalcy in his life. Chuckling, I patted his shoulder, ignoring the filth that transferred to my hand. “How’d you do on the course?”

“I survived and reached the end without having to skip any of the obstacles. I fear the royal physicians might use it for Rachel’s physical therapy. If they do that, the tigers will surely want to help.” According to the agent’s expression, he’d thought of several more disturbing options. “Bathing them would be good exercise, but she will inevitably become exhausted trying that course. I’m exhausted, Ian.”

“You were also ill,” I reminded him. “And while you likely enjoyed running around Texas like some unchecked hooligan once they stopped torturing you, that was hardly restful. Then you had the scenario against the Texans. You did New York proud on that. Great work.”

“I destroyed the palace’s electrical systems pulling it off,” Terry muttered, bowing his head. “I got carried away.”

I laughed, well aware his Montana princess held the full blame for his performance.

By taking out Jessica, he’d gotten his hands on Olivia, his true target. The tables had quickly turned, and the princess had taken the RPS hostage while the Texan queen had bought the pair time. Olivia had refused to let him out of her sight until confident she’d secured the man as hers.

It amazed me that the RPS agent had escaped his Montana princess long enough to get any work done.

As my sister would lose her mind if Terry became ill again, I gave his back another pat and herded him along. “I’ll try to remind my sister to take it a little easier on you. Who is acting as her detail lead right now?”

“Monty,” Terry replied. “Rachel doesn’t mind him, although she doesn’t fully trust him yet. This should be good for team unity.”

I wrinkled my nose. While I didn’t have anything against Monty for being one of the original New York RPS agents in service of my parents, I also lacked even a scrap of the faith my sister displayed. I blamed her variant of empathy.

She somehow found the good in people and capitalized on it for her benefit. People liked to claim I had empathy as well, but I hesitated to believe it.

Then there was Marcus, who was in the same shoes as Monty, but he did his best to avoid me due to my unfortunate tendency to grimace when we crossed paths.

I tried to undo the damage my parents had done, and that meant going out and helping other kingdoms whenever they had a problem. The whispers about my work bothered me.

Everyone always acted like New Yorkers lacked heart. Most viewed us as greedy, and it went downhill from there.

Nobody realized we’d struggled to survive. In some ways, we still did.

“I’ll talk to your therapist,” Terry warned.

Damned empaths. “I was thinking about how my sister keeps managing to figure out who can be trusted. Her empathy is weird.”

“Her empathy is exactly what it needs to be for her peace of mind. Don’t beat yourself up over something that isn’t your fault, Ian. Have you been going to your lessons?”

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