Page 14 of Ruthless Prince

“It’s in the dark blue purse I took to the ball tonight. I left it on one of mydressers.”

A short gray-haired man appeared in the doorway, holding a laptop computer. Jamie glanced up at him with raised eyebrows before turning back to me with a comforting smile. “Sorry, Willow. I’ll be back in a moment. Looks like Flint is done with the footagereview.”

He rose to his feet and motioned for the older man to come in. The two of them crossed the room and sat in another section with the laptop in front of them. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but every so often, Jamie’s eyes darted over to me. He lookedworried.

I couldn’t help but feel a little triumphant at that. They must have found something on the footage which confirmed I wasn’t just making everythingup.

Jamie finally shook the older man’s hand and returned to the sofa. “Flint just ran through the details of the security review with me,” he said, rubbing hischin.

“Was the intruder on the tapes?” I asked, eyes widening. “Did you see how he gotin?”

Jamie looked away. “I’m not quite sure how to tell you this, Willow,but…”

I frowned. “Just sayit.”

“There was nothing out of the ordinary on thetapes.”

“What?”

“The only person who went in or out of your room this evening was you. You left for the ball at seven o’clock, and no one else entered or exited the room until you returned just aftermidnight.”

This had to be why he looked worried earlier. Not because he saw someone sneaking around the White House on the footage, but because he thought Iwas goingcrazy.

“That doesn’t make sense,” I said, shaking my head. “Someone must have tampered with thefootage.”

“That’s impossible. I asked Flint just to be sure, and he confirmed it. The footage is genuine and hasn’t been edited in any way,” Jamie replied. “Trust me, no one went in or out of your room all evening, apart from you. Not even amaid.”

“What about my balcony door?” I asked. “What if someone got through there fromoutside?”

“That’s not possible either. Even if someone managed to sneak onto the grounds and wander around—which is next to impossible—the exterior security guards would’ve spotted someone climbing up onto the second floorbalcony.”

My pulse quickened. “Well, how did this happen, then? You saw the note, didn’t you? And the message on my bathroom mirror? That stuff wasn’t in my room when I left at seven. Someone else was inthere!”

“Willow, you’ve been under a lot of stress lately. You have your classes at Georgetown, and on top of that, you’ve been thrust right into the public eye over these last few months. That would be hard onanyone.”

I let out a groan and put my head in my hands. “Oh, god. You don’t believe me, doyou?”

“That’s not what I’msaying.”

I shrugged. “It’s fine, I guess,” I muttered. “No one else believes me either. They think I’m going nuts or making it all up forattention.”

He held up a hand. “Willow, I believe you. Iswear.”

“Doesn’t sound like it,” I said, playing with a loose thread on theblanket.

“I’m just trying to figure out what’s happening here. That’s all,” he replied, giving my shoulder a gentlesqueeze.

“Okay. Let’s figure it out, then.” I lifted my chin and looked him right in the eye. “Do you have anyidea how someone could sneak into an Executive Residence bedroom, completely unseen by all the security cameras and guards inside and outside the WhiteHouse?”

“No.” Jamie frowned and tilted his head to one side. “But what if… actually, nevermind.”

I stared at him with wide eyes. “Tellme.”

He shifted nervously in his spot. “Do you think it’s possible that youcould’ve done these things and then forgotten about them? Perhaps you wanted to test a new lipstick color and you thought it would be funny to write something on the mirror to see what it lookedlike?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Are you kidding? You think I’d write threatening things on my own mirror as a joke?” I said. “And what about the note? Do you think I wrote that to be funnytoo?”

He shook his head. “No. Of course not,” he muttered. “I don’t even know why I suggested that. I’msorry.”