Page 37 of Her Prince in Disguise
Three minutes later, he stood in front of the hotel room door, knocking, but there was no answer. Laith looked around, noting that the doors on this floor were much closer together, indicating that Andi had been assigned a standard hotel room instead of a suite. “Why the hell is she in a regular room? I toldJonas to ensure that the team members were in suites with more space for each visit.”
One of the guards explained, “She didn’t check in with the others, Your Highness,” the man explained. “We looked into the issue at the beginning of the week. She didn’t check in until hours later, so the hotel gave away her suite.” The man shrugged. “Least, that’s what Jonas told us after we asked him about the room assignments.”
Laith nodded, but that explanation didn’t feel right. It reminded him that Andi hadn’t arrived in London at the same time as the others. Why the hell had she been several hours later than the team?
He’d ask Jonas in the morning. Laith had already dismissed his assistant for the night, thinking that Andi would be joining him soon.
Muttering curses under his breath, he walked back to the penthouse. “Are you sure she came back from the pub with the others?”
“Yes, Your Highness,” the guard replied with a firm nod. “We’ve been tracking her ever since you asked us to watch out for her.” He tilted his head slightly. “We’re still looking into what happened this morning. No one on the team saw anything out of the ordinary.”
Laith nodded, still thinking back to the events of the morning. He started pacing, his hands fisted on his hips. “No new boxes arrived for her?”
“No, Your Highness,” the guard confirmed.
Laith continued pacing, then he pulled out his cell phone, staring at the words again. Packing. Why did she need all night to pack? Andi traveled with only the suits he’d bought her, as well as toiletries and a few extra, more comfortable, outfits.
Perhaps it took a woman longer to pack than he realized. Laith hadn’t ever packed his own suitcase before. Not to mention, the palace servants ensured that he had an outfit for every possible event. That meant that he always traveled with at least two tuxedos, multiple suits for each day, and casual clothes. Plus, after Queen Elizabeth’s father passed away back in the nineteen fifties and the new queen didn’t have a black dress, all royals traveled with funeral attire. Just in case.
Laith honestly had no idea how many suitcases traveled with him. It wasn’t important to him as long as he had appropriate attire for any event. So, how long did it take one to pack?
Or was Andi just avoiding him? Had he done something to offend her last night? She’d left with a smile this morning. But he’d been annoyed that she was still trying to hide their relationship from the team. Laith understood why she continued to hide things, but he didn’t have to like it.
What the hell was going on? And why wasn’t she texting him back to let him know when she would come up to his suite?
Chapter 26
After another long flight back to Philadelphia, Andi walked into her apartment feeling alone and scared. She was exhausted after not sleeping the night before. She’d sat on her bed the whole night, staring out at the lights in the city, praying that Laith would be safe. He had bodyguards with him around the clock. Were they good enough to keep him safe?
Obviously not if the person threatening him could get close.
Or was that just a lie?
Andi couldn’t risk it.
On the flight home, Andi had, again, been in the back of the plane, surrounded by a family of four, including two kids under the age of five. The kids had cried for the entire six hour flight while the father had muttered expletives, demanding that the wife quiet them down so that he could focus on his movie.
The food on the flight had been boring, the movies hadn’t been able to penetrate through the fog of terror that surrounded her. And Andi was…desperately sad that she hadn’t gotten to spend last night in Laith’s arms.
So now, as she came through the door to her tiny apartment, Andi was exhausted. She didn’t bother to unpack. Instead, she stripped off her clothes, then climbed into bed, pretending that she wasn’t crying over the demise of a very precious relationship.
Two hours into her sleep, Andi woke up, feeling groggy and disconnected. She wasn’t sure what time it was, or even what day it was, but something had woken her. Had someone just knocked on her door? She lifted her head out of the mountain of pillows and blankets, waiting. But there was no other sound, so Andi went back to sleep, assuming that one of the neighbors had bumped her door with their groceries.
Laith muttered a curse as he slipped back into the SUV. “Take me to the club,” he ordered, referring to the not-so-secret club out in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He could get a drink and contemplate what he was going to do with Andi once the team met up in San Francisco on Monday morning. He would get answers then. And he’d damn well find out where she’d been this morning!
They’d all be flying out to California on his plane. If he’d known that Andi was going to slip out of the hotel before the others this morning, heading to the airport, he would have stopped her and brought her home on his plane. If he’d moved faster this morning, reached her hotel room before she’d taken off in a taxi to the airport, Andi would be by his side. In Paris. With his damn engagement ring on her lovely finger!
Andi stared at the box on the floor in front of her apartment door, her heart pounding with fear. For several moments, she didn’t move, didn’t pick up the box. There was a letter attached to the top and, worse, there was no address label. That meant that someone had hand delivered this box toher home. This crazy person, who threatened her and threatened Laith, knew where she lived!
For several seconds, she didn’t pull her eyes away from the box, knowing that she didn’t want to see the contents. But she couldn’t ignore what was inside either. The first box had been kinky and scary, but not really threatening. The second box was still a mystery. The third box…that scene had been horrible!
So, what crazy fantasy could the mysterious person possibly have put inside this new box?
Andi glanced up and down the hallway, looking for whoever had dropped it off. There weren’t any security cameras in the hallways. At least, none that she knew about. All the residents needed a key or a code to get in through the front doors, but too often, someone pushed into the building behind another person. The security in this building wasn’t great.
Or was this person someone who lived in her building? That would at least tell her how someone knew when she was out of town. But did that make sense?
Bending down, she lifted the box gingerly, not wanting to touch it, but not wanting her neighbors to see it either. She’d read horror stories about women who stepped out of line and had acid thrown on their faces, or pipe bombs in a person’s mailbox.
