Page 4 of Royally Knocked Up
He didn’t answer.
He led her to a black car with tinted windows and opened the back door. Utterly confused now, Hailey got in. She clutched her purse. If this had been some kind of plot, they wouldn’t have allowed her to keep her phone. She reached into the purse andclosed her hand around it, allowing its weight to reassure her. If anything suspect happened, she would press a button and her team back in Baltimore would know exactly where she was. They would be able to track her.
The car pulled up in front of a low business complex in the heart of Luria. Hailey got out of the car, realizing as she stepped onto the pavement that Romano had been about to open the door for her. Why was she being treated like some sort of foreign dignitary when she was here to do a job?
And where was her suitcase? She hadn’t seen it be placed in the trunk of this car. That fact made her nervous in the extreme.
“This way,” Romano said.
“Where are we?”
“You’re about to be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement.”
“And this is the document I couldn’t sign online.”
“They’ll want a recording of you signing it so that we can be sure you were actually the one to do the signing. You’re going to need to show identification here as well — do you have that on you?”
“I have my passport.”
“That will work.”
She was shown into the building and down a long hall. At the end of it, there was an unmarked door.
Romano opened this door and escorted her in.
The room she entered was nice enough, and Hailey realized she had anticipated something more like an interrogation room with no windows and a steel table. This was a well-appointed officewith a mahogany desk and a big picture window looking out on the Monteverdian Alps. There was a contract on the desk, and a pen beside it.
She sat down and looked it over.
It was the most anticlimactic thing she could have imagined. This was nothing more than a standard private investigation contract, with additional clauses for secrecy extending beyond the completion of the job — in other words, she would never be able to tell anyone what had happened here.
That didn’t bother Hailey at all. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d taken on such an agreement. She signed it and pushed it across the desk toward Romano.
“All right,” he said. “Now that that’s done, I can take you to the palace.”
Hailey frowned. “The palace?”
“Your contract is with His Highness Edoardo Mancini, soon to be His Majesty, King of Monteverde.
Hailey’s heart caught in her throat.
Thatwould be a first.
The palace was on the outskirts of Luria, and it was massive. The architecture was beautiful, all columns and spires, the kind of thing you only ever saw in Europe. Driving up to it, Hailey felt breathless. She hadn’t anticipated anything like this.
This time, she waited for Romano to open the door for her. She had no idea what the protocol was here. Was she allowed to approach the front door, or was she supposed to wait?
Romano escorted her up the steps. “His Highness is waiting for you in the throne room,” he said.
“Are you coming with me?” Suddenly, she felt intimidated at the thought of facing the king on her own.
Romano shook his head. “You must be invited to enter the throne room. I’ll wait for you out here. It’s just through those doors.”
A shiver ran down Hailey’s spine at the thought that she was about to enter a throne room and approach a king.
But Romano was right — she had been brought here. She had been wanted here.
She pulled open the door and walked inside.
