Page 62 of Ruthless

She grimaced. “I’ll wait for the movie, then.” Taking the phone he held out to her, she said softly, “Silly, I know, but I’m nervous.”

“There’s no reason to be. He’ll understand.”

“You’re sure he doesn’t know I’m a princess?”

“Has no idea.”

“Okay. Here goes.”

Pressing the keys, she put the call on speaker, and they waited for Ash to answer.

“Eve?” Ash said.

The moment she heard her friend’s voice, all the tension left her body. This was Ash, the man she’d walk into hell for if he asked.

“Hey, yeah. It’s me.”

“How are you doing?”

“Much better. My rehab has gone well. I’m almost one hundred percent again.”

“That’s good to know. We’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed all of you. Everyone doing okay?”

“Yeah. Pretty much the same. I can update you on that later. I wanted to alert you about something. Gideon there with you?”

“I’m here,” Gideon answered.

“Good. You both need to hear this.”

“What’s up?” Eve asked.

“Iris Gates contacted Kate and gave her a message to give to you.”

Eve shot a surprised look at Gideon. “What kind of message?”

“Cryptic to the point of ridiculous, but I’m passing it along in hopes you can make more sense out of it.”

“Okaaaay. Tell me.”

“I’ll read you the lines and let you make what you will of them. ‘The kingdom is in peril. Old enemies have new friends. Trust is nebulous.’”

“That’s it?”

“Only other thing was that you and Gideon were involved in some kind of political intrigue that’s about to blow up.”

The leak within her father’s inner circle just became even more troubling.

“Any of that make sense to you?” Ash asked.

“Yes. Maybe.”

“Care to share?”

“Yes. Actually, I was going to ask if you and Serena would mind coming here. I’ve been doing my own research, but I could really use some help.”

“I’ll check and make sure Serena’s available. Shouldn’t be a problem. Where are we going?”