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He hit a buzzer on a keypad and waited, his gaze locking on to the house. Sir Reginald. I’d only seen his picture this morning, but there was no mistaking the haughty stance or the malice in his eyes.
Good. I had a few choice words to say to the man, and fuck was I letting him near Alex. In case this took a minute, I wrote a quick message to Jackson. If he was free, he could step in for Alex. I had a private secretary to take down.
The gate buzzed open, and he strode in, making a beeline for the house. I had a chance and had to take it.
“Sir Reginald Jessop,” I shouted.
Sarah blinked at the incomer and flitted away.
The man’s attention shot to me. “Raphael Gordonson, I presume.” The hostility in his expression shifted to calculation. He rerouted to bear down on me, his lips curved in a cool and unfriendly smile when he reached me. “The bodyguard.”
I tilted my head. “The underhanded, scheming palace insider.”
The smile dropped. “I have something to say to you. It will be brief. Follow me.”
He turned and stalked across the lawn, heading towards a distant building on the other side of a wide pond. At a guess, I assumed it to be Alex’s summerhouse that she’d planned to stay in.
The man didn’t say a word until we climbed the steps and he’d thrown the door open then closed it behind us. The bright room was warm. The polar opposite to the iciness of the man in front of me.
Anger brewed in my gut. If we were right, he’d done any number of things that could’ve got Alex hurt. Drugging her could’ve killed her. But there was the outside chance that he didn’t know what was going on, so I needed to walk a line.
I held up a hand. “I’m going to make this really simple. You can’t make Alex come back.”
“Why, because you say so?”
I shrugged. “No, I’m naw her keeper. She won’t return because she doesn’t want to. But if we’re getting personal, ye can’t make me give her up either. You’ve wasted your time in coming here.”
He tutted. “Make you? No need. You’ll do it yourself.”
“How do ye figure that?”
“Because you are not part of her world and you never will be. I manage her affairs now.”
Annoyance swarmed in me. “She manages herself, and we all saw what happened when shite employees don’t give a damn about her safety.”
He sighed. “I don’t have time for this.”
“Why, when it was your useless son leading her team?” I watched for a twitch or some sign I was on the money. It didn’t come, so I pushed harder. “Is that how Jared persuaded Johnnie to turn rat? A quiet request from the boss with insider connections and a bribe or whatever ye did to keep control. What I don’t get is how ye have the nerve to endanger her life then stand there like ye still have the upper hand.”
My words bounced off Sir Reginald like they were rubber. He didn’t even flinch.
Then he smiled. “I know who you are, Raphael West.”
West.I stilled, my blood turning icy cold. I hadn’t used that surname in almost a decade. I’d given it up when we came to Scotland and adopted a surname to honour the man who’d taken us in. Gordonson was mine by law now, on my driving licence and passport. The very few people who knew about the change would never have said a word.
Westmeant Sir Reginald knew that history.Westmeant he might know about my father, just as my brother’s baby had come into the world.
“How?” I managed.
Sir Reginald continued, “You ran your mouth to Johnnie, claiming you were The Big I Am, and while he thought you were full of yourself, I suspected different. I was right. The rest is irrelevant, as is your presence here, so you will listen to me carefully, then you will leave this place and never bother Princess Alexandra again. Am I understood?”
Chapter 38
Alexandra
Footsteps drummed Lancaster House’s wood-panelled entrance hall, and I spun around, relief filling my heart. Raphael hadn’t answered my call, nor could I find him. After leaving Dad, I’d searched outside, but he was nowhere in sight.
But it wasn’t Perkins returning him to me. Instead, he brought Jackson.