CHAPTER ONE
‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN, you don’t know where she is?’ King Giorgos Nicolaides glared at his security chief.
The uniformed man shifted and took two attempts before answering audibly. ‘I have the entire team on it now, Your Majesty.’
‘Now?’ Giorgos, ordinarily so cool that people genuinely believed he had ice in his veins, was lethally close to losing his temper. ‘You’re telling me that Princess Eleni hasn’t been seen since late this morning, yet I am only hearing about it “now”?’
It was hours after she’d last been seen. It was now evening—dangerously close to darkness.
‘She went into the hospital but never made it to the usual ward that she visits.’
Every muscle in Giorgos’s body strained as he fought to control his innate instinct to sprint from the palace and start combing the streets for his sister.
Breathe. Think. Assess. ‘So where did she go?’
The man before him paled at Giorgos’s soft query. ‘We’re working on that, Your Highness.’
‘I assume you’ve checked all available security footage?’
He fisted his hands in a fierce attempt to hold back the rage threatening to overwhelm him. Why had his supposedly elite security soldiers waited so long before informing him? Unacceptable.
‘Her guard is to be fired,’ he snapped, unable to resist the need to take some kind of action. ‘As soon as she is found I want him gone.’
‘Yes, sir.’ The man all but fled from the room.
Giorgos took no satisfaction in knowing that other heads would also roll once the situation was under control, because for now he needed every one of those ‘elite’ soldiers to be out there trying to find her. Trying to rescue her.
Because she’d been taken—Eleni never would have left the hospital willingly. And when he got his hands on the foul bastards who’d stolen her with the intention of doing heaven knew what—
He halted his horrendous thoughts and stalked the perimeter of the large room. Find her. They just had to find her. Fast.
‘Sir—’
Giorgos whirled back as the soldier re-entered the room. As he registered the expression in the man’s eyes he felt his blood chill. This was a man who’d faced horrors before—not only in war, but in natural disaster rescue and recovery operations. He’d experienced the gamut of human devastation. And right now he looked wary. Why?
‘What?’ he rapped. His brain couldn’t compute complete sentences.
‘One of the street cameras shows—’
‘What?’ He stalked forward and gestured at the laptop the man held. ‘Show me.’
Impatiently Giorgos stared at the screen. The footage was grainy, but the identity of the woman on the screen was unmistakable. Giorgos watched his younger sister walk alongside a tall man—away from the hospital—to a car parked not far along the quiet side street. He watched as she got into the car and allowed the man to drive her away.
The man who’d held no gun or knife or any kind of discernible weapon. The man who’d almost been smiling. There’d been no apparent coercion, no apparent threat. Giorgos’s blood ran so cold he actually shivered.
His sister had chosen to leave.
The very night her royal fiancé was flying in to see her she’d run away with another man. And it had taken Giorgos only that one look at the man to know Eleni was in big trouble. That slimeball held his head high and had an arrogance to his long stride. He wasn’t afraid to be seen and he clearly knew what he wanted—Princess Eleni Nicolaides. And now it seemed he had her.
The question was why—what was he going to use her for? But that answer was also blindingly obvious. The man was a predator, an experienced seducer—Giorgos recognised it instantly because once upon a time he, Giorgos, had been a using bastard like that too.
He clenched his fists, seething with impotent fury. He didn’t blame his sister, only himself
. She was naive and innocent and young and she’d been duped—no doubt about that. Bitter bile burned the back of his throat. This was entirely his fault. He should have protected her more, should have kept her safer... But heaven knew he’d tried. Right now he couldn’t understand how this man had got access to her.
‘Who is he?’ He breathed the question slowly.
Before his security chief could answer Giorgos’s mobile rang. He froze, his gaze locked on that of his soldier. They both knew very few people had his personal number. He forced out a breath as he snatched the phone from his pocket and swiped the screen.
‘Giorgos, it’s me.’
His sister scrambled to speak before he had the chance to.
‘Eleni. Where are you?’ He was so relieved to hear from her he barked his words like bullets. ‘Come back to the palace now. Do you have any idea of the trouble you’ve caused?’
But she didn’t answer immediately—and her pause put Giorgos back on high alert.
‘I’m not coming back yet, Giorgos. I need time to think.’
‘Think? About what?’ Giorgos didn’t think at all before berating her. ‘Your fiancé is already here. Or had you forgotten that you’re about to go on tour with him?’
The image of her calmly walking away with that other man replayed in his mind—walking away from her duty, from her country. How could she? He’d never have believed her capable. She’d always embraced her role and been accepting of her future. Everything was perfectly prepared and the plans had been in place for over two years. This was an excellent match for her—she well knew that, as royals, their lives could never entirely be their own.
‘I can’t do it, Giorgos.’
‘Can’t do what?’ His impatience almost got the better of him.
There was another moment. Giorgos listened closely to the unnatural silence, sensing a new level of danger.
‘I’m pregnant,’ she said softly.
He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. He couldn’t speak. Couldn’t bear to think.
Pregnant.
With one word he was transported back to another time—to another woman. The split-second recollection of the devastation that had ensued slammed into him as if it had been yesterday.
‘Prince Xander isn’t the father,’ she added.
It was his worst nightmare—he’d longed to protect her from exactly this kind of mistake.
‘Who?’ he finally whispered. ‘Who?’ That ferocious anger was unleashed.
‘It doesn’t matter—’
‘I’ll kill him. I’ll bloody—Tell me his name.’
‘No.’
His rage ran unrestrained and he shouted into the phone. ‘Tell me his name, Eleni. I’ll have him—’
‘Call off the hounds, Giorgos. Or I swear I’ll never return. I will disappear.’
His jaw dropped and he was stunned into silence by her interruption. Eleni never interrupted him. Never swore or answered back. And she sure as hell never made threats. What had happened to his sister?
Again a reprise echoed in his head—of his own headstrong argument with his father, his own defiance that had led to such destruction. Recklessness and impulsive action like this led to chaos and calamity. The last thing he wanted was for her to suffer a lifetime of guilt and regret. He knew too well how heavy that burden was.
‘It doesn’t matter who it was,’ she followed up firmly. ‘He didn’t seduce me. I was a fully willing participant. I made the mistake, Giorgos. And I need to fix it. Tell Prince Xander I’m sick. Tell him I ran away. Tell him anything you like. But I’m not marrying him. I’m not coming back. Not yet. Not till I’ve sorted it out.’
Shock at her rebellion almost made him stagger. ‘Are you with him now?’
‘I’m not marrying him either,’ Eleni said.
Giorgos muttered a series of swearwords through gritted teeth. She was so damn naive.
‘This child is mine. Pure Nicolaides,’ she said. But then her tone softened to include the gentle plea he’d rarely been able to resist. ‘And please don’t blame Tony for losing track of me. It wasn’t his fault.’
‘Your protection officer has no idea where you’ve gone. He’s clearly incompetent. He has been dismissed.’
‘But it’s not his fault.’ Eleni’s voice rose, returning to that uncharacteristic tone of opposition. ‘I told him—’
‘Lies,’ Giorgos snapped. ‘But it is his fault that he lost track of you. His employment is not your concern.’
‘But—’
‘You should have thought through the consequences of your actions, Eleni. There are ramifications for all the people of Palisades.’
He closed his eyes again. This hurt so much. He needed to make her see sense and stop this foolishness before even more damage was done.
‘How do I stop a scandal here, Eleni?’ he asked as gently as he was able, making himself focus on her and not his own tortured past.
The past he could not change. But the future? That he could help to forge. He would care for his sister however he could. He owed her that, given it was his fault she had no father.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said dully. ‘I take full responsibility. I’ll be in touch when I can.’
Giorgos kept his back to the man in the room long after she’d ended the call, realising how close he was to losing her. That simply was not an option. His sister was all that remained of his family and he’d vowed to protect her—and their family name.
‘His name is Damon Gale...’ his head of security ventured quietly.
Giorgos drew in a deep breath before turning to take on the battle.
‘Everything,’ he said firmly. ‘I need to know every last thing about him. I want all records of him entering and exiting the country. I want to know who he is and what he does—down to what he has for breakfast and what detergent he uses. I want everything. Nothing is too small or too trivial to know.’
‘We’re already putting together a dossier.’
‘I want it in less than an hour.’ He wanted it now.
‘Yes, sir.’
Alone once more, Giorgos paced the room as he waited for the vital information to arrive. How had this man got to Eleni? When had he had the chance to seduce her? He’d arranged a perfectly suitable engagement. She would be going from this palace to another nearby. And she’d been pleased—hadn’t she? She’d always understood the expectations of her.
He turned as his security chief finally re-entered the room fifteen minutes later.
‘We’ve been running all palace footage through facial recognition software,’ he started.
‘And?’ Giorgos prompted him curtly.
‘It seems Mr Gale was a guest at last month’s hospital ball.’
‘The hospital ball?’
Giorgos was so surprised he dumbly repeated the man’s statement. But then he looked at the open laptop the man had carried in. There, frozen on the screen, was proof that this Damon Gale had breached the gates of Giorgos’s own damn palace.
A series of four images had been captured from the security footage. The ball—a masquerade—was an annual fundraiser for the hospital, and yet Damon Gale hadn’t bothered with a mask even then. He’d walked in with one woman, but had then been caught on camera promenading in the ballroom with another. A tall, slender woman in blue—and even with the mask and the wig she wore Giorgos knew it was his sister.
So the arrogant jerk had seduced Eleni in her own home, under Giorgos’s very nose. He’d had the gall to ditch his date while he went princess-hunting.
Giorgos looked back at the first image and could hardly focus for the fury rising through him at the sight of Damon’s date. She too wore no mask, and she was stunning. There was pretty and then there was beautiful, and Giorgos had met plenty of both—models, actresses, heiresses—enough to be jaded...spoilt, even. But thi
s was a woman in another league altogether.
Both serene and haughty, while subtly flaunting her sexy curves, her brunette hair was long and thick and hung in a seductive swathe to the narrow waist that was the cinch between her bountiful breasts and curvaceous hips. But even though she had the ultimate hourglass figure, it was her face that was utterly arresting—the pure symmetrical beauty of her wide eyes, upturned nose and pillowy pouting lips.
She was indisputably, classically perfect. Every inch of her spoke of femininity and sensuality. Her undeniably exquisite features meant she’d be a woman who understood her power and her worth. The dress she’d chosen emphasised that fact—it covered, yet clung, and he knew she’d deliberately chosen it to emphasise every killer curve.
A hot rage brewed deep in Giorgos’s belly—he was familiar with beautiful women who toyed with men. Who betrayed them. But why had Damon Gale left her side to target Eleni?
‘Get me a print-out of this picture,’ he snapped.
‘Of Mr Gale?’
‘Of them both. Who is she?’
Why had this man gone to seduce Giorgos’s innocent younger sister when he’d walked in with this woman? What part did this...this vixen...have to play in it?
‘Her name is Kassiani Marron. She’s known as Kassie and she works at the hospital.’
‘My hospital?’ Giorgos tensed as his fury burned hotter. ‘So she brought him to the palace?’
‘Actually, Mr Gale held the invitation. She accompanied him.’
Giorgos drew in a sharp breath. She was Damon Gale’s date—he’d asked her to attend with him yet set his sights on Eleni? Giorgos was stunned. This woman held such sexual allure...
‘Ms Marron is Mr Gale’s half-sister,’ the officer added. ‘She is the illegitimate daughter of John Gale, Damon’s father, an American diplomat.’
So she was Damon’s half-sister—family. Of course. It made sense. She was the feminine feline equivalent of her predatory brother. Scalding hot satisfaction rushed through Giorgos’s system, flooding his rage and turning into another emotion altogether. An emotion he had no inclination—and no time—to define.