He sighed and looked away. When he returned his gaze to her face, there was only sympathy shining in his cool blue eyes. “The injuries from the attack—there were…complications. His body is rejecting the transplants one by one. The doctors don’t expect him to recover.”
It took all the strength she had not to give in to the shock and slide down the wall into a pool of goop at the news. She was mad enough to scream at him for days, but he was her father. Even now, even after everything, she loved him.
“How much time did they give him?”
“A matter of months.” He reached for her, but she brushed off his touch.
Understanding jolted her, connecting all of the events of the past week. “That’s why you came for me, isn’t it?” She lashed out, her anger finally spouting through her frozen core. “Not because of some outside threat, but because you needed a head of state to overthrow that farce of a government and my father couldn’t do it.”
“The Fjende is out there,” Dom snarled back. “They were looking for you.” He slammed his palm against the bookshelf door. “They did find you.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because you know I’m telling the truth.”
The laugh that spilled out of her was anything but joyful. “Just like I knew my father was dead? Just like I knew I was alone in the world? Just like I knew that someone would be waiting for me when my plane landed in America after the coup?”
“It’s not like that.” He blanched and looked deflated and so unlike the ultra-confident man he’d always been. “Not between us.”
“Funny, that’s what I thought, too.” She took a step back and brought her hand to the hidden door, ready to swing it shut. “Turns out I was wrong.”
“Where are you going?”
He probably thought she was running away, planning to start all over again with a new name and a new life. She’d done it before, she could do it again, but she wasn’t going to.
“To pack.” Her voice sounded so much steadier than she felt. “Unlike some people, I keep my word. I said I’d return to Elskov and knock the Fjende and their puppet off the throne, and I will.”
“We need to bring you up to speed on the details of what will happen at the Kronig.”
God, she couldn’t. Not with him. She wasn’t sure she’d make it another thirty seconds without breaking down. “I’m sure Major Bendtsen can do that. He does know the plan, or is that something you’re keeping to yourself?”
He stiffened, and a mask slid into place over his expressive features. Her Viking was gone. She didn’t know the man in his place. “I can fill him in, Your Highness.”
“Good.” She dipped her chin, barely managing to keep her bottom lip from trembling. “Then there’s no further reason for us to see each other again.”
She spun on the ball of her foot, head held high, and swung the hidden door shut, or at least tried to. Dom’s hand on the bookshelf stopped it.
“Elle.” Her name was a twisty bit of agony coming from him. “I’m so sorry.”
Pain clamped down on her chest, pinching her lungs and squeezing her heart. “Good-bye, Dom.”
His hand dropped to his side, and she closed the Scooby-Doo door. The ridiculousness of it gave rise to nearly hysterical giggles that she smothered down with the will of a woman who’d been emotionally eviscerated by the two men she’d ever loved.
…
Dom stalked through the greenhouse, the thick humidity natural in the glassed-in environment barely registering as he fought with the guilt and the frustration threatening to drag him down. He stopped at the indoor water feature that emptied into a koi pond and shoved the gnome’s red hat down with more force than necessary. The trickling water took a different path, revealing the door hiding behind it. Stepping through, he found Major Bendtsen at his usual post monitoring the wall of video screens showing the chalet and grounds from multiple angles.
“What time is your replacement scheduled to come on?”
The major kept his eyes on the screens. “Twenty minutes, sir.”
“Good. That gives us enough time for me to brief you on the plans once we arrive in Elskov.”
Now that got the other man’s attention. The major turned, his eyes wide. “I thought you wanted to hold off on that until right before the jet takes off.”
That had been the plan, to sit down with Elle and the major to outline exactly what would happen from the time their private jet touched down. He’d spent weeks thinking up every angle and circumven
ting every hurdle the Fjende would have in place. The Kronig was what he’d been working toward his whole life, but somehow it had become even more important to him that every move be controlled so that Elle would be kept as safe as possible. Right now, that was all that mattered to him.