I’m coming for you, Elle.
“Location?” He was halfway out the supply closet door before the word was out of his mouth.
“East wing, second floor, near the balcony overlooking the inner garden where the Kronig will be held.”
She was close. He ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
“I’m patching you in with the agent in place,” the major said.
There was a loud static buzz, and then a second voice joined Bendtsen’s.
“They’re on the move, sir.”
Fear grabbed hold of Dom’s throat and squeezed. “Who’s they?”
“Henriksen has her.”
The head of the Fjende, a snake and sadist in his own right. Things had just gone from bad to way fucking worse. “Is she hurt?”
“The target has her by the throat, and she’s struggling.”
Dom withdrew his gun as he approached the landing. “Do you have a clear shot?”
“Negative, but the mezzanine is deserted except for the princess and Henriksen,” the agent said. “Shit. The guards just came out of the king’s chamber. They’re taking her inside.”
Adrenaline surging through him, Dom sprinted up the last few stairs and burst through the door opening up to the mezzanine, right in time to see the door to the king’s chamber click shut.
The agent, wearing a butler’s uniform, joined him.
“The king’s chamber is a camera-free zone,” the major said through the comm unit. “We don’t know what’s waiting inside. It could be a trap.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Dom said. “I’m going in.”
…
Elle screamed against the palm slapped over her mouth and clawed at the iron band of an arm around her waist.
Walther checked his watch. “As amusing as this is to watch, we don’t have time for it—anyway, no one can hear you in here.” He opened up a black pouch sitting on the desk and withdrew a needle and a glass bottle filled with a blue liquid. “Don’t worry, this won’t turn you into a doll.” He filled the syringe. “No, this makes you nice and calm, the perfect, pliant little princess.”
The guard moved his hand from over her mouth to the top of her head and yanked it to the side, exposing her neck for his boss. Adrenaline rushed through her, making every nerve stand up and scream. Not again. If she had any hope of getting away from Walther, of not becoming his puppet queen and royal incubator, she had to avoid being drugged. The Kronig might be her last chance to defy him in a public setting where he couldn’t harm her, and she couldn’t do that if he got that needle in her.
“You don’t have to do that.” Desperation made her voice shake.
His smile was anything but kind as he held up the needle, tapping against it to remove any air bubbles. “You’re saying you’ll cooperate without the narcotic?”
She nodded, desperate not to lose even this sliver of a chance.
“Hmm.” He cocked his head and gave her a considering look before screwing up his lips and shaking his head. “Nope. I don’t believe you.”
The other Hulk twin clamped his massive hands down on her and held her still. The needle pricked her neck, and a river of fire surged through her veins. Drawing on every last bit of strength she had, Elle swung her arms upward, connecting with Walther’s arm.
“Bitch,” he yelled as the half-full needle fell to the floor.
She inhaled a sharp breath, but before she could exhale euphoria settled over her, wrapping the world in cotton-candy gauze. It was like she was floating outside her body, watching Walther’s face turn splotchy and red with fury when he realized the syringe had broken and all the liquid had leaked out. The vicious slap he delivered across her face was a mere love tap. None of it mattered.
The door flew open, and Dom rushed through. Her Dom. She loved him so much, and he’d come for her. A lightness, practically blinding in its brightness, filled her, but it wasn’t right. She knew the man firing a gun with deadly accuracy into the Hulk twins wasn’t Dom.
Dom was dead.