I nearly trip over my own feet as I’m pushed forward. Rowan puts his back to me as he moves toward a black car. Sweat clings to my brow as the back door is opened and I’m thrown inside, falling into the well between the seats. Awkwardly, I do my best to get myself up, but bound the way I am, it’s not the easiest.
I’m pulled by my upper arm and placed on the seat, shoved to the opposite window as Rowan gets in. He buckles both of us up, and we set off.
“You have to let me go. I was leaving! I wasn’t coming back.”
Both men ignore me.
I glare at the side of his face. “You have no grounds to detain me.”
Rowan chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. “The fuck I don’t,Ella.”
“Now? You do this now? You’ve known who I am for weeks.”
He glares enmity at me. “You see, that’s the funny thing about this. Idon’tknow who you are. But I know that you left the palace and just had a clandestine meeting with an unknown woman.”
Fuck. He saw her. Yet he doesn’t seem to know who she is. Whether that’s because he didn’t see her face or because he doesn’t know her is unclear, and I don’t ask, but one thing is certain. There’s no way I’ll get access to the king’s computer by midnight or be able to kill Signoria and Antonia.
Which means Jaqueline is dead. And I’m next.
39
MARCELLA
Rowan doesn’t speak to me the entire drive back. I don’t know what to do. If I tell him about the Signoria and they go after her, Jaqueline is dead. If I don’t get to the king’s computer, she’s dead. If I tell him the truth, he might not believe me. At the very least, he’ll have to investigate, and that includes looking into the drive. But the moment it’s inserted into anything, it’ll notify the Signoria, and she’ll know I’ve been compromised, and again, Jaqueline will die.
I don’t care about me in this. I never looked at my life with any longevity in mind. I’m far from innocent, and I deserve whatever I get. But Jaqueline doesn’t. She’s so young. There’s still a chance for her in this world. But I have to get her out.
For all I know, Signoria could have seen what happened outside of the hotel, and it’s already too late. Dread pools like boiling oil in my gut. All I wanted from this was to save Jaqueline and save the royal family. Now everything is sideways.
But the facts remain the same. If I want to save Jaqueline, if I want to save the king, I have to act. I just don’tknow how to make it all work now that I can’t track Signoria since they confiscated my phone, and I’m trapped here.
We arrive back at the palace, but I’m not brought in through the front. We drive around to the side, stopping before the garages without pulling in. The car shuts off, and the driver gets out. My door is opened, and he uses my bound wrists to haul me out of the car. Rowan follows. The sound of car doors slamming shut behind me is deafening. There’s a side entrance over here that I never paid much attention to, except that I know where it leads.
The door is unlocked with a code, then we’re walking down a steep flight of stairs. The cellar is dark and has an earthy undertone to it. Probably because it’s ancient and it shows it. The floors are stone, the doors are short and metal. This is one of the original palaces built in this country, and it’s centuries old.
We reach a room, and I frown at the sight of it. There’s a bed, a table, a chair, and nothing else. No bars either. Just a heavy, old door.
The man holding my wrists, whose name I still haven’t gotten, walks me in before he releases me. The door shuts, but I’m not alone. My backpack is tossed onto the table, but it’s useless to me now. Rowan takes a seat while the large man stands at the door.
I might have better luck without him here, but it seems I don’t get the choice.
“Rowan—”
“What do you know about Marie Elonaise?” he cuts me off, and I startle at the question, my eyebrows taking a nosedive.
“Why are you asking me about Marie?”
His jaw locks, and his eyes harden. “Tell me!” he shouts, shocking me with his vehemence. I sit on the bed, my wrists behind me since they haven’t cut the ties.
“She took the princess.”
His eyes widen, and he exchanges glances with the man before he returns to me. “How do you know that?”
I tilt my head, squinting at him. “How did you know about her?”
“I’m asking the questions, Marcella. Was that Marie you were meeting with?”
“No.”