A Player for A Princess

Reginald Winchester stands in the green drawing room of the palace facing me. My instinct is still to be furious with him, but after what my mother told me, I’m trying to curb it.

“What do you want from me, MacCallum?” he says in the reproving tone he always uses with me.

“I want you to help me find Wade Paxton.”

Exhaling dramatically, he steps to the small wet bar and lifts a decanter of scotch. “I have distanced myself from Paxton. He’s a thug, and he can’t be reasoned with anymore.”

“It’s not a request, uncle. You will help me find Wade Paxton, and you will do it now.”

Drink poured, he replaces the crystal stopper with a soft clink. “I don’t take orders from you, nephew. I’m in your mother, the queen’s command.”

Anger tightens my jaw. “Then I will have my mother command you to help me find Paxton.”

“Don’t you mean Zelda?” He watches me with those steel blue eyes as he takes a sip. “She’s who you’re really interested in finding, correct?”

“Yes.” I return his gaze with matching intensity. “Do you know where she is?”

The idea that he might know her location almost provokes me to cross the room and grab him by the lapels, but I won’t let him see my level of desperation. The last thing I need is for him to think I’m not in control.

“No.” His answer is clipped, and my shoulders drop.

“Fuck,” I hiss, dropping to the sofa.

“However, I know what they were planning. It’s possible we can compare notes and see if it leads us to the prize.”

My head snaps up. “Tell me what they were planning!” I’m off the sofa and closing the distance between us.

He takes another deep breath. “When you lit out of here on her trail with two of Rowan’s best guards, Wade abandoned his plan to kidnap Ava in favor of her sister.”

“He was going to kidnap Ava?”

“She’s engaged to your brother. She was his first-choice bargaining chip.”

I nod as I listen, thinking of her words. “It makes sense to take Ava.”

“However, at the palace, with the assassination attempt and everyone on red alert, he knew he wouldn’t be able to get within fifty feet of her.”

“Or more,” I mutter.

“Zelda, on the other hand, took off running with the very man he’d hired to be his ears inside the palace.”

Nodding, I look at my palm. “We knew he used Seth to get to Zee and Ava, but we didn’t know why.”

“Wade Paxton is a thug, but he’s smart. He never trusted me. He doesn’t trust anyone as far as I know.”

Touching my uncle’s arm, I motion to the door. “Come with me to the war room. Freddie is there with Logan. They have all the information we’ve gathered so far.”

As we pass through the corridor heading for the grand staircase, I think about what Logan uncovered. “How did you leave it with Paxton?”

“We parted ways in Turkey, when he set out for Tortola. I intended to stay undercover in Antalya until the time we rendezvous in Totrington.”

We’re at the large office, and I tap on the heavy wooden door as I push it open. “He’s here,” I say, and

my two guards do a brief nod. “Your grace.”

Reggie steps around to what I assume is his usual chair and pulls it out to sit. I take the seat opposite him.

“We don’t have time to waste. Paxton has connections all over the Mediterranean, the Caribbean… He mentioned several small islands off the coast of Venezuela that are uncharted.”