Stealing Kisses With a King (Kings of Carolina #3)- Sylvie Stewart Page 0,59

and attempted to shift aside my empty glasses in as subtle a manner as possible.

“Hi, Nolan.” Ruby had clearly met him before. “How are you?”

“Better now that I’m in the company of two beautiful ladies.” He rocked on his heels and Ruby turned to me and shook her head in amusement at his attempts at flattery. “Will you allow me to buy you two a drink?”

I moved to refuse, but Ruby beat me to it, waving him over. “I’ve never been one to turn down a free drink.”

“God, how I love you Americans.” Nolan beamed and hopped the barrier with ease to pull up a chair at our table.

It looked like sharing time was over, but Ruby had given me a lot to think about.

Chapter 16

Malcolm

This was a disaster.

I’d thrown on a pair of jeans and a button-up and had been trying to talk to her through the bathroom door when she’d burst out fully dressed and run out the main door of my quarters. I’d been about to chase her, but Trevor was stalking down the hall in my direction, and when he took notice of Alice’s distressed state, his jaw tightened and his steps picked up speed.

“Not now, Trevor.” I put up a hand to ward him off.

He was having nothing of it, and the man did outweigh me by enough to have me reconsidering my refusal. “The matter is urgent, Your Highness.”

As the head of security, I couldn’t exactly wave off his concerns, especially as I was already on shaky footing with him after my American adventure. My reign would start off decidedly on the wrong foot should he have some vital information and I pushed him off to chase a woman who was angry with me.

I sighed and gestured for him to come in. He waited for me to sit before taking a seat himself and extracting a tablet from his case. “There’s been a security breach, sir.”

“What kind of security breach?” This was the first time I’d ever been consulted on such a thing. I knew these things happened from time to time, but it had always been left to others to determine the appropriate response.

Shiny bald head down, he tapped a few times on the tablet before looking up at me again. “The staff are still working on it, but it seems our server was hacked, I’m afraid. We’ve yet to determine how much information was accessed.” He stood again and passed the tablet to me. “If you’d like to have a look, the information we’ve gathered is there.”

I scanned the document, unable to interpret most of it, before handing in back and sitting again. “So, exactly how serious is this?”

Trevor’s mouth firmed and then he shrugged. “It could be nothing—some deviant kids with nothing more productive to do with their time than test their hacking skills. Or it could be something far more serious. A foreign influence, a domestic threat from an anti-royal segment, any number of possibilities really.”

This sounded delicate, indeed. “I assume you’ve already discussed this with the king and queen.”

He hesitated, something I couldn’t say I’d ever seen him do. My senses went on high alert. “I came to you first, sir.”

I was unsure how to respond so I waited instead.

Trevor’s brow furrowed and he continued, “I reckoned you’ll be king in less than two weeks so we may as well put the past in the past and get on with it.”

If I’d expected his tone to be begrudging, I’d have been dead wrong. He was clearly determined, and I welcomed it. Well, in my own way, that is. “I hope for your sake my mother agrees or your arsehole might be sore come coronation day.”

He squinted at me and shook his head. Too soon for friendly banter, it seemed. Ah, well. Baby steps.

“We’ve had to scrap much of the security plan for the coronation as well as rearrange some of the day’s schedule. It’s not worth the risk. We’re also limiting some of the audience capacities, instead allowing more portions to be televised.”

“All right. That sounds sensible.”

“Do you have time to review some briefs and let me show you some of the changes?” He was back to tapping on the tablet.

I was a bit surprised he asked instead of demanding.

“Certainly.” I nodded, my mind firm in the knowledge that it was my duty to prioritize our people and the crown despite what other parts of me wanted to do.

“How’s our crown prince this evening?” Nolan collapsed on my sofa.