Page 131 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

“Give him the phone, Meg,” her father said.

“What business does he have with my phone?”

Councillor Beau swayed up from the sofa. “Give him the phone,” he roared, his pale face turning red.

Meg’s brows flew up to hairline, but Beau Fletcher wasn’t done.

“You have brought this upon yourself. Paying someone to put a camera in Prince Kai’s bedroom? What were you thinking? You have committed treason against two royal households!”

“Put a camera in his room? Is that what he told you? And you believed him?”

“Do not lie, Meg. The maid confessed everything. Prince Kai has proof that you met with her and paid her and sent those emails, so you can’t lie your way out of this.” Beau shook his head, so worn and fed up. “And I cannot clean this up either. I will not clean it up like I did every other time you created trouble. Because you haven’t changed like you promised me you would.”

She threw her hands up in the air. “Okay, I did it. I paid the maid—Sila or whatever her name was—to bug his room. There? Are you satisfied? But it was just a joke, Dad. I was just messing with Kai as a joke. You’re taking it completely out of proportion, and that’s not fair.”

My mouth hung open as my mind strained to keep up with the baffling human being before me. The more she spoke, the more convinced I became that Meg Fletcher really wasn’t okay, and her father had failed her by covering for her instead of trying to get her the help she so obviously needed.

Beau opened his mouth on an exasperated breath, then seemed to give up as he faced Kai with the fallen shoulders of a broken man. “Do with her what you please. I will not intervene.”

“Dad, come on.” But Beau ignored her, and Meg scowled at Kai. “Does it make you happy turning my own dad against me? All because of a joke. You’re unbelievable.”

Curling his hand around to the small of my back, Kai guided me up from the sofa with him. “Give Shehryar your phone.”

Shehryar didn’t wait for Meg to offer it up. He was as agile as a viper as he grabbed her wrist and snapped her arm straight. The click of her elbow cracked off the white walls, and she shrieked, her palm reflexively opening. The phone fell right into Shehryar’s waiting hand.

“What the fuck?” she cried out, holding onto her forearm. “You nearly broke my arm!”

“You should’ve listened when I asked the first time,” Shehryar said, his voice lethally quiet, as he shoved Meg’s phone into his back pocket. The fact he had even acknowledged her spoke volumes to me. His anger had crossed the border from bodyguard into brother territory.

“You think I’ll stay quiet about this when Touma’s royal guard just assaulted me?”

“I’m Princess Esmeralda’s personal guard,” Shehryar said and shrugged one shoulder. “And nobody saw me do anything.”

Meg searched for backing from her father, but when he kept his whole body turned away from her, she gritted her teeth. “My phone. Now.”

“No.” Shehryar stepped back.

It wasn’t obvious if she followed his movement or if she lunged at him, but Shehryar reacted as if she had done the latter. Catching her by the wrist, he dragged her around and slammed the side of her face against the glass of one bi-fold door. He kept a hand around the back of her neck, not squeezing or hurting her, just holding her still and restricted.

“Let go of me. Let go,” she screamed. “Get him fucking off me!”

“Your Highness?” he drawled, not taking his eyes off Meg.

Councillor Beau spluttered forward next to me, his frightened gaze flying between Shehryar and me. Silently pleading me to help his daughter but I wasn’t going to make that decision by myself.

I tipped my head up to Kai. “What do you want Sher to do?”

Meg’s huffing and the guards moving up and down the stairs filled his silence as his jaw locked and unlocked a few times. “He can let her go.”

“Did you hear him, Sher?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he answered and released the raging woman.

Said red-faced troll swung around almost toppling herself over with her unnecessary aggression. Slowly, Kai lifted his shoulders and dragged himself forward towards her, holding his head up high. But Meg made the mistake of charging at him with murder stamped across her entire person.

“Sher,” I growled quickly, and Shehryar’s hand shot out, roughly guiding Meg back.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” she roared, swatting his hand away.

---