An American Cinderella

“Did you not hear how bad everything was that I just said?” I asked. “It’s a monster.”

He reached out and touched my cheek. “What kind of prince would I be if I couldn’t slay the dragon for my lady love?”

“But how do we slay the dragon?” I asked him, feeling the grip of hopelessness close around me again. “She has all the cards. If I do anything, she releases the photo I took. She releases my father’s photos and ruins him. She probably has evidence planted just to make sure that I really do go down with my father.”

“The way to beat a dragon is to find the chink in its armor,” he said slowly. His accent made him sound like a knight of old who actually might have slayed dragons at some point. He smiled slowly. “We use the dragon’s greed and tools against it.”

“I don’t understand,” I replied. “What tools? I don’t have anything on her.”

“Yes, you do,” Henry said. I could see the wheels starting to spin in his mind, lighting up his eyes.

“Like what? The recording? I only have the one voicemail and there’s not much on it,” I said, shaking my head.

“You have the bugged phone. And, she thinks you have something she wants.” He smiled like a cat about to catch the canary. “We should give it to her.”

“What? Are you crazy? I can’t give her the trade information.” I stood up and started pacing the room. “You want me to go back to my office and steal it? I can’t even access the data anymore and most of the files have been shredded. And another thing-”

Henry stood and caught me in the middle of the room. He put his hands on either side of my head and pulled me into a kiss. I fought him, still having more to say, but not for long. His kisses were just too good.

“There’s easier ways to get me to shut up,” I told him, once he released me from the kiss.

He raised his eyebrows like he didn’t believe me. I sighed.

“What’s your plan?” I asked, keeping my questions in check.

“She’s expecting a thumb drive full of trade documents that she will then sell, correct?” He waited for me to nod. “Then that’s exactly what we’ll give her. Only...”

I suddenly understood what he was planning. I smacked my palm to my forehead. “Only it’ll be what we want them to say.”

I frowned. “But, I don’t know how to make those files look real. I don’t even know what to put on them. And then, who do we tell? Do we tell anyone?”

“One problem at a time,” Henry replied. He kissed my cheek. “And we aren’t alone in this. I am a prince after all. That does come with some resources.”

“Resources?”

“You want to slay a dragon? You need knights,” he said with a smile. “And I have the best technological knights around.”

Chapter 28

Henry managed to keep me calm for the rest of the day and well into Monday. I canceled my appointment with the lawyer. With Henry and his team of “knights” I had more help than a single lawyer could provide.

Still, I was a nervous wreck.

Monday I went in to work, making sure to bring my bugged phone with me. I needed to finish scanning the last of the documents to make it look like I was doing exactly what Audrey expected me to do.

As soon as I walked in the front door, Gus got up and gave me a big hug.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “I know you said you were, but I’m asking again. You need anything you let me know.”

“I’m okay,” I promised. “Thank you for looking out for me.”

“I promised your dad I would,” Gus replied. “How’s Henry?”

“We worked things out,” I told him. “We’ve got a plan.”

“By the way you just went pale, I don’t want to know what the plan is,” Gus said. “Please be careful. Your dad will come back and haunt me if I let anything happen to you.”

“It should be easy,” I told him. “Don’t worry about me.”

I just had to pretend to be a complete sell out.

Gus gave me one more hug, the look on his face saying that he didn’t quite believe I was as fine as I said I was. I did my best to put on a more confident smile. I didn’t want him worrying about me.