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With Alex’s approval and gruff agreement from Ben, I placed the call and put it on loudspeaker.
Riss answered immediately. “Raphael, where the hell have you been?”
“Where do ye expect me to be? I was fired.”
“After what happened last night, I need you to be present for the investigation.”
“Have the police caught the suspect?”
She clucked her tongue. “I can’t answer that. It has been taken out of my hands.”
Well fuck. “Who by?”
“If you come back in, you can find out for yourself.”
“Not happening. Not when ye and the team think I’m paranoid.”
I was winding her in slowly.
There was a pause, then the team leader returned. “You were correct. The wine contained traces of MDMA. That’s a party drug. Tell me where Princess Alexandra is.”
Every face in our little huddle reacted, Valentine and Jackson grimacing, Ben wincing, and Alex closing her eyes.
I swallowed bile. “Who’s taken over the investigation? Someone at the palace?”
“The private secretary to the king. That’s how serious this is. He needs the princess back. That’s his only priority. Now tell me where she is.”
“She told me to take her to her father’s.”
Riss exhaled a gust of breath. “Thank God. She isn’t answering my calls. If you could?—”
“I don’t work for your team anymore, remember? If she’ll speak to me, I’ll tell her ye called, but ye let her down. It’s too late to be sorry now, and I can’t imagine she’d want to chat without there being something worthwhile for her.”
A voice sounded in the background, male and angry. “Tell him right now that?—”
Alex snatched my phone and hung up. Silence held around us, interrupted only by the chatter of birds in the trees.
She handed it back, pale. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’ll take a wild guess at that being Sir Reginald listening in, aye?”
“It was. Then that confirms it. Whoever tried to drug me hasn’t been caught, and Sir Reginald, a man who wants me as his puppet, is only interested in tracking me down. Did I get it wrong, or is that what you all heard in that brief conversation?” Alex dropped her face to her palms.
The urge to hold her grew to unbearable proportions.
I fought to stay professional. “You’re right. Riss repeated what he’s told her to say. Not any update on the paparazzo, but the fact that he needs ye back there.”
Opposite us, Ben’s expression turned even grimmer. “I suggest lying low for a few days. That will mean calling off the dogs that hunt ye.”
Alex nodded without looking up. “Meaning I need to reassure him that I’m out of his reach?”
“Exactly. Text this Sir Reginald and say you’re safe but won’t be back until the police investigation concludes and the aggressor has been caught. We can operate your phone in a way that it can’t be tracked. Then turn it off again so he gets the message that his calls won’t get through. I’ll talk to Barringtonas Raphael’s representative and demand he solve the mystery of the leak in the team, as reported to me by the bodyguard I lent to him.”
Finally, Alex raised her gaze. “Please say that’s enough. I just want to hide.”
Ben’s eyes showed his determination. “You’re the asset. Don’t doubt that they’ll expose themselves to try to get ye back, and Raphael gave them the opening to do it. All we have to do is sit and wait.”
Chapter 25