The woman in front of her clucked her lips. “You probably know by now, but just in case shock’s stopped your brain from working – that man we shot was your security from Reid Chalkias.” Crazy black eyes laughed at her. “And I’m Tic Tac Toe, the person Davos hired to play with you.”
****
When the private jet owned by the prince’s family landed in Miami, the prince immediately received word that Igor, who had flown in a few days earlier, wished to come aboard.
Sensing that something was amiss, the prince gave his permission and remained in the jet, waiting for his right-hand man to join him.
“Anything wrong?” Payton Malcolm asked grimly as he came to stand beside his son.
“I’m not certain,” the prince said reluctantly.
When Igor was aboard, the prince only had to take one look at the older man’s face—-
“No.”
The prince staggered back.
“What’s wrong?” Payton swiftly caught hold of his son’s shoulders just as his wife rose out of her seat and rushed to the prince’s side.
Seeing the way her son’s face had whitened, Enid demanded anxiously of Igor, “What is it?”
“It’s a...friend of your son, milady.” Igor’s face was stoic, but his voice was heavy and strained. “She’s been abducted.”
The prince sucked in his breath.
Abducted.
He strove for calm, knowing that he would be of no use to Fawn if he went berserk.
“The GPS trackers?” he heard himself ask. The day Fawn had become his lover, the prince had several secretly installed on her belongings: one on her phone, another on her engagement ring, her favorite school bag, her favorite shoes – all the things that she frequently used.
“We’ve already started tracking.”
“Good.” He swallowed. “Everything should proceed as planned.”
A moment of silence, and then Igor asked tensely, “Even the parties, sir?”
“Even the parties.” The prince nodded jerkily. “Everything should proceed as planned.” The parties, the women, all of it had been planned to make Abraxas Davos think twice about his involvement in Beatrice Crichton’s disappearance—-
And now he had another reason to do them.
“Hire all the women you can for tonight. I want to make it seem like I’m partying so fucking hard they won’t be able to reach me—-” His lips twisted. “As long as they’re unable to tell me she’s under threat, they won’t have any choice but to keep her alive.”
Igor’s frown eased a little. “Understood, sir.”
“That should give you and your men enough time to track her down.”
When Igor left, the prince looked at his parents.
“It’s unlike you to not help in the search,” Payton said quietly.
The prince’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “This is how I’m helping, Father. The moment they’re able to contact me—-”
If something happened to Fawn—-
“Oh, sweetheart.”
The prince broke down, and Enid’s own tears ran down her face.
Reid might be strong and powerful now, but he was and would always be her son, and it broke her heart to see him in so much pain.
“So many people have already died because of me, Mother,” the prince said dully. “If I lose her, too—-”
“You’ll get her back, sweetheart.” Tiptoeing, she kissed her son’s forehead, saying shakily, “Have faith, son. We’ll get her back.”
The prince’s eyes shuttered closed.
Have faith.
He inhaled deeply.
It was all he had left.
Faith.
When the Prince of Darkness descended from the jet with his family, he was as dark and as beautiful as everyone wanted him to be. All eyes were on him, and he played his role perfectly, charming the press, seducing the women that screamed his name because the trial had made him and his friends even more famous.
It was as if learning that they had suffered like any mortal being and yet managed to survive had turned them into gods overnight, and the prince’s bodyguards had to work doubly harder now, preventing women from literally throwing themselves at the prince.
After depositing his parents in their hotel room, the prince went straight to the party his staff had arranged ahead of time, and there the hysteria seemed even a hundred times worse. Women were actually undressing themselves in hopes of capturing his attention, and knowing that his every movement was being watched—-
The prince allowed his fingers to touch another woman’s breasts—-
His body to brush another woman’s body—-
His lips to touch another woman’s mouth—-
All the while feeling sick inside, knowing that while every fucking slut in the world was throwing herself at him, anything could be happening to Fawn—-
Anything—-
Anything—-
A girl suddenly flung herself at him, and for one moment his fingers tightened around her neck.