The Millionaire's Royal Rescue

“That can wait. This can’t.”

She wasn’t listening to him about the threat and he had to find a way to reach her. He needed her to be cautious. But he understood her hesitation to tell her father or uncle. After all, she’d been living with security dogging her steps for years now unless she was on the palace grounds. He couldn’t imagine what they might do to protect her if they found out about the note. Before he made the decision of whether to tell anyone about the threat, he had to know that Annabelle was taking it seriously.

“Okay. I’m listening.” Annabelle’s gaze met his.

“That’s the problem. I don’t think you’re hearing what I’m trying to tell you. This note, it’s serious.”

“It’s proof that we’re close to the truth about my mother’s murder.”

“It’s much more than that and you know it.” He really didn’t want to scare her with the stark possibilities, but what else did he have to knock sense into her?

Annabelle sighed. “I know you’re worried. But I can’t stop—”

“I know. I know.” He understood how important this endeavor was to her.

Annabelle’s determination reminded him of Abbi’s. That was not a good thing. Warning bells were going off in his head. Maybe if he’d been more insistent with Abbi then they wouldn’t have been in that horrible car accident that stole her life far too soon.

He took Annabelle’s hand and guided it to his face. He ran her hand down over the faint scar trailing down his jaw. “Do you feel that?”

“It’s a scar?”

He nodded. “I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told anyone. I mean, it was written up in the papers, but they invariably got the facts wrong. Way wrong.”

Annabelle sat quietly as though waiting until he was ready to go on. The horrific and painful memories washed over him. He’d locked them in the back of his mind for so long that it was almost a relief to get them out there—almost.

He cleared his throat, hoping his voice wouldn’t betray him. “When my company went public and I ended up with more money than I knew what to do with, I gained instant fame. I could have easily become a partying fool with a girl on each arm, but that just wasn’t me.”

“Let me guess—you preferred to spend your time working on your computer.”

“Something like that. I guess when you grow up with your nose in a book or gaming on your computer, it’s tough to change. One night, after a particularly successful deal was signed, a couple of friends talked me into going out to celebrate. Of course, I’m the lone guy at the table while those two were off chatting up some beautiful girls. And that’s when Abbi stepped into my life. Literally. I was on my way out when she stepped in front of me.”

“And it was love at first sight.”

Grayson shrugged, not comfortable talking about his feelings for Abbi with Annabelle. “She was leaving too. I offered to grab some coffee with her and she agreed. There was an all-night coffee shop a couple of blocks away. I had the feeling that I should know her, but I didn’t. And she was actually okay with that. She told me she was an actress. She’d just had her first box office hit. But she wasn’t like the others who’d passed through my life. She didn’t want anything from me. She was down-to-earth and actually interested in my games.”

It’d been a long time since he was able to think about Abbi without seeing the horrific scene of the accident with the blood and her broken body. Those images were the ones that had kept him up many nights. But these memories, he found comfort in them. He remembered Abbi smiling and laughing.

“We became fast friends.”

“Uh-huh.” The look in Annabelle’s eyes said she didn’t believe that they were just friends. And there was something else. Was it jealousy?

“Trust me. In the beginning, neither of us were looking for anything serious. We both just needed a friend—someone who treated us like normal people. And so when she wasn’t filming or doing promo spots, she came and crashed at my place. We gamed a lot.”

Annabelle frowned.

“What’s the matter?” Grayson asked.

“I just never had anyone like that in my life. Sure, there’s my brother, but other than that my father succeeded in isolating me.”

“What about female friends? Didn’t you have some close ones?”

She nodded. “I did. But then we grew up and went our separate ways. In fact, my brother is visiting one of our old friends right now. She’s a model on the Paris runways. Who’d have guessed, given that she started off as a tomboy contrary to her mother’s best intentions? She and my brother were best friends as kids. They’d fish together and go boating. You name it and they probably did it.”

“But not you?”

“I guess I was too much of a girly girl. I was not into getting dirty or touching creepy, crawly things.” Her face scrunched at the mere thought and he couldn’t help but smile.

So once again, she’d been left out. Grayson’s heart went out to her. He knew what it was to be alone and never know if the people who were in your life were there becaus