Page 11 of Royal Salvation

Justice went to move away, and she held on tight to his hand, not wanting to lose the peace and security she’d found around him. No matter their argument, he made her feel safer than anyone ever had, and she needed that more than anything else in that second.

His blue eyes darkened as he looked at her before sighing and pulling her into his arms and carrying her toward the couch. Sitting, he eased her onto his lap and held her head to his chest as she began to shake. Lucía closed her eyes, trying to get the images from her mind, and like the other horrors she’d witnessed, she knew this one would haunt her too.

Lucía shivered, her entire body succumbing to shock as the reality of what she’d witnessed hit her and Justice held on tighter as if he was holding her together by sheer will. Instead of feeling suffocated, she burrowed closer, sinking into his heat as firm lips pressed to her head.

“We’ll figure this out, Lucía, and find out who sent that video and if it’s real.”

“He was sending me a message. That was for me the Princess, not me the photographer. He called me Your Highness. Very few people know that work is mine.”

“I know and from now on I’ll be stuck to you like glue. No more walking everywhere. We’re taking this seriously.”

Lucía pulled away and she could see the sincerity and determination in his eyes when he looked at her and she shivered for a different reason as desire, hot and sharp, lanced through her body. Her nipples beaded as she realised the position they were in and felt the hard ridge of his cock beneath her thighs.

For a moment neither of them moved and she held her breath, not knowing whether she wanted to run away or throw herself at him and demand he give her what she wanted. What she’d needed since the moment he’d walked into her life a week ago and woken every hormone in her body.

Before she could decide, Justice lifted her and set her on the couch before taking a step back. “I need to call my team. Will you be okay?”

“Of course.”

Justice nodded and rushed to his room as if he didn’t trust her not to attack him and wrestle him to the ground. At least with the carnal images in her head, there was no room for the horror on her laptop.

Chapter 5

Reaper slammed the door and banged his head against it in frustration. He’d been so close to saying fuck it and giving into the primal urges he was feeling that were reflected in Lucía’s eyes, but he couldn’t. After what had just happened, he realised she needed him to keep her safe more than ever, and that had overruled every other instinct.

He hadn’t said it, but there was no doubt in his mind the video was real, and it had shown a young man losing his life as a warning to her to stay away. He wanted to march back out there and snatch her up and run, take her someplace safe but it wasn’t an option. He knew once the shock wore off for her, she’d only be more determined not to be cowed. The woman he’d come to know this last week had a spine of steal and a heart that was warm and kind but determined to do right by people. It was a humbling thing to know he’d been so wrong about her. He fought the instinct to like her because he knew it could be a slippery slope from liking her to wanting her with every breath in his body.

Dialling the number, he got straight through to Bás. “We have a fucking problem.”

Bás growled. “If you fucked her, I’m gonna bury you on this fucking mountain.”

“Calm down. I haven’t laid a finger on her.” Not strictly true but close enough not to have him going to hell for lying. No, he was going to hell for many other reasons.

“Then what?”

“She just got an email sent to her professional account with the video of a young man being beheaded.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Yeah, exactly and it gets worse. There were two men on the video, covered head to toe in black fatigues. The one who seemed to be the leader addressed her as Your Highness when he warned her to stay away or she’d be next.”

“Where’s the laptop now?”

“In the living room.”

Reaper could hear Bás walking and knew exactly where he was going.

“Get it so Watchdog can take it over and see what he can find.”

Reaper walked back into the main living room to find Lucía nowhere in sight. He figured she’d either retreated to her room or was in the bathroom. Sitting at the table he woke the sleeping laptop. “I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Reaper, I need you to give me remote access to this laptop. You need to go to this website.”

Reaper typed in the web address Watchdog gave him and a command popped up on the screen. He followed each of the directions knowing if there was something to find, Watchdog would find it. As the video played again in front of him, he watched it to the end, knowing the team were doing the same on the other end.

“Shit, that’s cold.”

Lotus was hardly warm and fuzzy, but he could hear the disgust in her voice at the violent act of ending the man’s life.