Maybe Theo was right; I couldn’t be okay with that. I couldn’t stand there next to these men and pose in pictures.
“Hey.” A hand laid over mine, drawing my attention up to hazel-blue eyes. “You all right?”
I gave a shrug.
Lennox didn’t respond, but his fingers squeezed mine as if he understood every thought and emotion going through me. His gaze, full of strength, locked on me. For a moment, I had a flicker of staring into those eyes as I went up on my toes, wanting nothing more than to feel his lips on me. Everywhere on me.
My head jerked to my lap, taking a deep breath. Was that real? A dream?
“You got this, Duchess,” he whispered to me, tugging me to get out of the car. “Get through this, and I’ll get us a pizza on the way back.”
“Oh god. Yes,” I moaned with craving, picking at the perfectly demure dress the PR team had laid out for me. I hated it.
His jaw locked down as he swallowed, his serious bodyguard persona clicking in place. He barely touched me getting me out of the SUV. People were everywhere. Hotel workers, the king’s and prince’s entourage, press, public, protesters, other leaders’ guards and people. The chaos was so thick, I could barely make out Theo getting out of the car in front of me, Dalton at his side.
Extra security kept Theo and me in different cars. The king exited his own bulletproof SUV at the front. Dozens of trained guards moved like a wave with Alexander and Theo, ready to crush anything in their path as they escorted them through a side door into the hotel. A ruler of one of the protested countries cut in between Theo and me as we all filed toward a back entrance.
“We should hold for a moment.” Lennox frowned as the ruler’s huge entourage crowded through the door.
“Spencer! Spencer! Is it true you were at the Church last night? Were you on ecstasy?” A paparazzi yelled out at me.
“Fuck,” Lennox grumbled, moving us to the door again, muttering in his earpiece with the other guards. Lennox kept me close, his arms ready to dart out in front or in back of me, keeping a perimeter around me. Screams for us blended as he shoved me through the door, stepping us into the large hotel restaurant kitchen. Line chefs and cooks moved around the hot kitchen, shouting orders, trying their best to ignore us, but seeing the prince and the king, many stopped, gaping at the royalty.
“Phoenix is in,” Lennox muttered into his microphone.
“Phoenix?” I eyed him.
“Your code name.” He smirked.
“Because I’m fierce and spirited?” A smile curled my mouth that he picked the spirited horse as my code name.
“Suuure, that was the reason.”
I shot him another look, but his attention darted around the space, taking everything in, his brain in full military mode. I could see him evaluating and weighing every noise and movement around him. Taking it in. Assessing.
It was kind of hot.
No longer able to see Theo, I knew him and the king were already far ahead of me, a foreign leader and his men clogging up the hallway where we were headed.
Lennox’s nose flared, his eyes darting around.
“What?”
He didn’t answer at first, his gaze sharpening. For some reason, my pulse sped up, thumping against my neck.
“Lennox...” I uttered.
“I don’t know.” He licked his lips, his head snapping around. “Something’s off.”
I followed his gaze. At that moment I felt it too. The shift in the atmosphere. Like a single spider’s thread being cut, but it vibrated through the whole web.
My head snapped to Lennox, my mouth parting to speak.
A single shout cut above all the noise, a yell of defiance.
Of hatred.
“No!” Lennox’s arms reached for me, his eyes wide, his jaw set.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion tore through the space, shredding everything around me. Shrieks of people and metal, the vibration sliced through my chest as my body flew up in the air. It felt like forever and an instant before my bones crashed against a wall, my head cracking back.
Muted screams and wails. Thick haze and debris.
“Spencer!” My ears picked up my name through the ringing.
My lashes lifted to see blue-hazel eyes over me, speaking to me. Dirt covered his face and clothes, a cut bleeding below his eye.
“Get up,” he yelled, his voice muffled. My brain dazed, my movements slow, numb, he picked me up, shoving me toward a cupboard.
BOOOOOM!
Another bomb detonated right as we entered the room, flinging us to the ground and sliding us across the floor. The explosion shattered through the space. His body crawled over mine, shielding me from the rubble.
The wreckage was thunderous, striking the ground like lightning. Clouds filled my lungs, ripping oxygen from me.
“Spencer. Stay with me!”
I stared up at him, wondering why he looked so frantic. Scared.
“Spencer!” His voice drifted away, the blackness absorbing me, pulling me under.
And there was nothing.
No light. No thoughts. No sound.
There was no choice to go or not.
It took me, the darkness swallowing me whole.
To be continued….