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“Oh, how awful of me. Do I have a bad attitude about being your prisoner?”
“This is bigger than you. Can’t you understand that?”
He really thought that she should be able to take that on board. That she should just be willing to throw her life away because he was convinced that his brother thought she would be the best Queen for the country.
The longer she stood there staring at him, the longer she felt the burn of his conviction going through her skin, the more she realized they might as well be from different planets.
It wasn’t a language barrier. It was... An everything barrier.
He had sacrificed all his life for the greater good. He could not understand why it didn’t make sense to her. Why it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to abandon her expectations about her life and simply throw herself on the pyre of the good of many.
> “Javier,” she said.
His expression became haughty. “You know people don’t simply address me by my first name.”
“What do they call you?”
“His Royal Highness, Prince Javier of Monte Blanco.”
“That’s a mouthful. I’m going to stick with Javier.”
“Did I give you permission?”
Tension rolled between them, but it was an irritation. She had a terrible feeling she knew what it was. That maybe he had felt the same thing she had when they had been close earlier.
She chose to ignore it.
She chose to poke at him.
“No. But then, did you ask me if I cared to get it?”
“What is it you want, Violet?”
Her throat went dry, and she almost lost her nerve to ask him what she had intended to.
“Do you do anything for yourself?” She decided that since she was already acting against what would be most people’s better judgment, she might as well go ahead and keep doing it.
“No,” he said. Then a smile curved the edges of his lips. “One thing. But I keep it separate. In general, no. Because that kind of selfishness leads to the sort of disaster my brother and I just saved our nation from.”
“But you know that’s not the way the rest of the world works.”
“The rest of the world is not responsible for the fates of millions of people. I am. My brother is.”
“We just don’t expect that, growing up in Southern California.”
“That isn’t true. Because you’re here.”
“Because of my business,” she said.
“And your father,” he said. “Because whatever you think, you feel an obligation toward something other than yourself. Toward your father. Your family. You know what it is to live for those that you love more than you love your own self. Magnify that. That is having a country to protect.”
Then he turned and left her standing there, and she found that she had been holding her breath. She hadn’t even been aware of that.
She looked around the room. She was now left to her own devices. And that meant... That she would be able to find a computer. She was sure of that. And once she had the internet at her disposal, she would be able to figure out some things that she needed to know.
It occurred to her that she could contact home. If her brother had any idea what had happened to her...
She could also contact the media.
