Page 145 of The Prize

Maybe they’d heard about our wedding and wanted to wish us all the best for tonight. In the name of public relations, considering Tobias was still a client, I clicked the return-call button.

Huntly Pierre’s logo filled the screen and then Abby’s face appeared. “Hey, Zara,” she said brightly. “Thank you for taking my call.”

“Of course,” I said. “Anything for you. How are you?”

“Not bad.” Her gaze slid behind me. “You alone?”

“Yes.”

“Where’s the man?”

“Outside.”

She drew in a sharp breath. “How’s the weather?”

I peeled off my sunglasses. “Sunny. How’s London?”

“Rainy.” Her wary gaze jumped to someone behind the screen.

She wasn’t alone but was pretending this friendly chat was merely between us. The hairs prickled on my forearms. “Everything okay?”

“You look sickeningly healthy.” Abby laughed. “Lots of downtime?”

“I’m working hard. You know me.”

“How’s Wilder?”

I needed to know the reason for her call on a Saturday. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“We have a situation.” Her playfulness dissolved. “There’s been a major art theft at Buckingham Palace.”

My throat tightened as my brain went into overdrive. “Oh?”

“I don’t want to say too much.” Abby glanced behind her. “Look, we’ve been commissioned by the Palace to find this one. This is big. Like a major masterpiece has just vanished off the face of the earth. It’s the queen’s all-time favorite. We’ve hit nothing but dead ends. The queen’s personal secretary hasn’t told her yet as he doesn’t want to alarm her.”

“How can I help?”

Abby leaned in closer. “I can’t believe I’m even saying this—”

“Seriously?” I managed before she’d finished her statement.

She seemed unfazed. “We believe it’s the work of Icon.”

With a trembling hand, I tilted the screen to ward off the sun’s reflection bursting through the window.

“Don’t hate me for asking, Zara.”

“You want to know where I was?”

“Tobias, was he with you last week?”

Lying felt wrong but not protecting Tobias felt even worse. “What day?”

“The staff are pretty vague. As you can imagine the palace is huge and they have a ton of art over there, but the painting went missing between last Wednesday and today.”

A chill washed over me. “What was stolen?”

“I know this is difficult for you.”