Brett shook his head. “It’s too late now. He’s fucked everything up.” He went up to Cameron. “You have a lot to answer for, and if this doesn’t cost you your job, I would be very surprised. You might be second-in-command, but you donotmake decisions without consulting the head of the investigation first.Especiallywhen it comes to royalty. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Donotdo anything else without checking first.”
He walked away, steam ready to burst from his ears. “Maddox, who is at the gates?”
“Lieutenant Colonel…Cage.” Maddox paused. “She family?”
Brett gritted his teeth. “Let them through the gates and direct them to park by the entrance and walk down to us. I’ll meet them outside.” He shook his head and returned to the Sutcliffes. “The Army has turned up to help. I’ll speak to them first and then direct them. I’ll try to get this sorted as soon as possible.”
“Take your time, Brett,” Andrew said. “We’re good until you tell us otherwise.”
The amount of respect he had for the king was more than he could ever explain, but he was truly grateful that they let him do his job without complaint.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
He headed for the door, being careful to avoid the roses, not wanting to displace anything, and slipped through it. Met with flashes of cameras and loud voices thrown his way, he ignored it all and headed back towards the main house. He saw several figures walking his way, and he braced himself. Despite having seen his sister at the hospital, he hadn’t seen or spoken to her for years before that—and he wasn’t looking forward to it that day.
“Lieutenant Colonel,” he said by way of greeting. “Your appearance here is not needed, but as we don’t want to cause undue concerns, I ask you to use your people to scan thesurrounding areas and see if anything is amiss. We don’t need you inside the chapel right now.”
“Nice to see you again, Brett,” Venus said. “We were called in for an emergency situation. The Army can take it from here.”
“You are mistaken. You were called in without authority. Therefore, you will remain on the outskirts until I tell you otherwise. Understood?”
Venus’s eyes tightened, but she nodded. “Understood.”
“Do not enter the chapel without permission, or I will have to assume you have something to do with this event.”
He turned and walked away, but not before watching the anger cross her face. She had never liked having the power taken away from her. He just hoped she listened and didn’t go off half-cocked because they would never figure this out if she took over.
****
Chapter 7
Felix
Felix ran to Sec HQ as fast as he could manage. He was a fast runner at the best of times, but at that moment, he broke speed limits, despite the plug in his ass rubbing against him. If anything, the reminder made him run faster. When he finally got there, the door banged back against the wall, and he ended up with two guns in his face, which he promptly ignored as he focused on the computer Sam had been stationed at before he’d jumped up. Pushing the chair aside, his fingers tripped over the keyboard, making the computer do what he needed it to.
“Shit, Felix. You nearly got your head blown off,” Greg said from behind him.
“So far, all we could see was that the camera stopped working just after the wedding started. We couldn’t see who did it; it just went blank,” Sam said.
“They’ve cut the camera at the source. Maybe they cut the actual cable, which is why it stopped streaming completely. Either that or they’ve figured out a way to bypass it without it leaving a footprint,” Felix mumbled to himself more than Sam or Greg. “Can one of you get back to the chapel and check the camera itself? I need to know whether the cable has been cut.”
“I’ll go,” Sam said and took off.
Felix’s hands trembled as he stabbed at the keys, trying to find out what had happened to the camera feed. It reminded him of when Dominic and Randall had been having problems.Someone had gone in and removed all traces of the camera feeds from houses but had left nothing behind to show who or what had done it. It had annoyed Felix something rotten when he hadn’t been able to trace it. All was good in the end, but he hated it when something outwitted him. He should be able to do everything with computers—after all, he’d been trained to be the best by one of the best.
Greg’s phone rang. “Sam? Uh-huh. Okay, thanks.” He ended the call. “Sam says the cable hasn’t been cut. Does that mean it was done remotely?”
“Yes. I can’t think of any other way it could be done. Surely someone would’ve seen it if they had messed with the camera itself before creating the grave.”
“So it’s possible they could’ve done something with the camera?” Greg asked, making Felix pause.
He cocked his head, working through the potential ways the camera could’ve been interfered with. “Ring Sam back.” Greg did, and Felix kept talking. “Ask him to check the cables and see if anything is attached to them. Anything that doesn’t look like it fits or should be there.”
Greg relayed the information. “He says there’s nothing there.”