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“I’ll be back.”
But he didn’t return and a few hours later, one of the men who’d been interviewing her walked into the room she’d been moved to.
“Miss Reed, you are free to go.”
“What?” she asked. She was now in a comfortable room with a bed and private bathroom. But she couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t relax.
“We have questioned in Mr. Fical, who was working with Lord Fothersam. He supplied the gun to His Lordship. Apparently, Mr. Fical been unhappy with the current regime and practices for years. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has close ties to the Purity Party, or has been funding them. However, we’ve yet to prove that. But he’s a smart man who knows things are over for him. He told us that Lord Fothersam told him that you had no idea what was going on.”
“Oh, thank God.” Relief flooded her.
“After we put pressure on His Lordship, he confessed that he’d lied about your involvement. We don’t know why His Lordship said that you were part of his plans. He isn’t saying much. We are guessing that this ‘devil’ that His Lordship keeps speaking of set Mr. Fical up as a contact to help him.”
So that’s why he’d wanted to meet with him twice.
“I . . . I’m really free to go?” she asked.
“Yes. You can leave right now. I’ll have someone return you to the palace.”
“No.”
“No?” He gave her a confused look. “I could try to contact one of the security team members at the palace to come and get you. Mr. Pierce was here earlier, but he got pulled into a conference call with some MI6 agents.”
“No, I don’t want to go to the palace. I want to leave the country right now. Can you organize that?” She couldn’t stay here any longer. Anxiety flooded her at the idea of seeing them.
“I suppose I can arrange that. There will be a plane that leave in two hours. There’s only one a day.”
Reaching up, she undid her necklace and handed it over to him. “Good. Could you please see that this gets back to the palace to Beta team. They’ll understand.”
“You don’t wish me to tell them where you are going?” he asked. “I should inform the Princes.”
“Am I not free to leave?” she snapped. “Are you keeping me here against my will?”
His eyes widened. “No.”
“Then you won’t tell anyone until I’m gone. They don’t need to know. Just . . . I’ll get in contact with someone about my luggage. Although I’ll need my passport and wallet.”
“We have those here. We brought them over from the palace.”
That was one less thing she had to worry about. She needed to get out of here. Now.
Because she knew that if they still cared about her that they would be here.
47
“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Judd asked in a tight voice.
They were all in the main security room of the palace. Caleb was standing. Wolfe was at his desk, ignoring them as he worked on something. Aleki was leaning back in his chair, munching on one of those cookies he liked.
A Tim-Tam.
Owen had given one to Judd once. Lord knew where he’d gotten it from . . . well, he did know. He must have stolen it from Aleki’s personal supply.
It had been too sweet for him.
Judd wasn’t into sweet things.
Except for Chloe.
Stop thinking about her!
That was the thing, though. He couldn’t stop thinking about her and the shocked look of betrayal on her face when he hadn’t believed her.
And now, they knew she was innocent. Well, partly. His Lordship had confessed that she hadn’t known what he was up to.
But that didn’t mean she hadn’t kept things from them.
“She left on a plane about fifteen minutes ago,” Caleb said. “Unfortunately, I was in a meeting at the time, and I wasn’t informed until I got out. By that time, the plane had left and I came back here to tell you.”
Judd clenched his hands into fists, then unclenched them.
“What the actual fuck?” Hux snapped. “Who the fuck put her on that plane?”
“A police officer just doing his job,” Caleb said calmly. “We couldn’t keep her here against her will. Do you know what would’ve happened? It would be an international incident.”
“So they just let her go?” Judd asked.
“Kassim gave the go-ahead,” Caleb answered. “And I wasn’t aware that you were still claiming her. Seems like the four of you dropped her as soon as Lord Fothersam laid out those accusations about her.”
“Not me,” Owen said darkly. “Did you tell her what I said?”
“Yeah, but you didn’t exactly say you believed in her,” Caleb said.
“We fucked up,” Hux said. “We should have stuck by her no matter what.”
Judd swallowed, feeling ill.
“She left this with the officer to give to you.” Caleb held up the necklace Owen had given her. He came forward and snatched it.
