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“Just now.” He glared at Alexander. “Kindly return the duchess’ watch, Mr. Vasiliev, or I’ll have the authorities escort you to the station. I believe you’re wanted on four different counts of fraud and theft, are you not?”
Alexander’s charming demeanor quickly melted away, exposing a truly evil expression beneath. He huffed, placing Arianna’s expensive rose gold watch onto the bar counter. “Fine,” he grumbled, his practiced American accent now gone. “Happy?”
Arianna gawked. “How did you—”
“Sam, take the duchess upstairs.”
I swallowed hard. I knew I was probably in a lot of trouble, judging by how upset Kris sounded. “We were just—”
“Now.”
I regrouped with Adam, Liam, and Charlie with the duchess in tow, feeling very awkward and a bit out of my depth. This wasn’t how I imagined the evening playing out when I agreed to let Arianna out for a bit of air. Alexander had seemed so normal, so unassuming. The fact that he managed to get close enough to steal something right off the duchess was one thing, but the fact that I’d been right there and didn’t notice was another.
“I’m so sorry, Sam,” Arianna apologized when we got into the elevator together. “I’ll talk to Kris. I was the one who suggested this whole silly idea.”
I shook my head. “No, no. I’ll take responsibility.”
“But you didn’t do anything wrong.”
Charlie placed a hand on my shoulder. “You really didn’t do anything wrong, Sam,” he assured. “And we were all right there with you.”
The entire elevator ride up, my stomach refused to stop flipping. After seeing Arianna to her room for the night, I returned to the ground floor of the penthouse. Kris was there in the living room, arms crossed, and brow furrowed steeply.
“Someone better explain what the hell just happened,” he grumbled.
26
Charlie
“It was my fault,” Sam said. “Arianna was complaining about feeling cooped up. She wanted to go sightseeing, but I convinced her to stay in the hotel instead. She has her meetings downstairs at the restaurant all the time. I figured there wouldn’t be any harm in it.”
“She has those meetings after hours of prep work by her security team,” Kris snapped. “Impromptu trips need to be cleared through me.”
Adam took a step forward. “You were busy. I took the initiative and signed off. It was only a couple of drinks, Kris. A girl’s night out. And the three of us were there the whole time.”
“And yet none of you noticed the conman sitting two feet away from the duchess?”
I frowned. “A slip up, on our part, but nothing came of it.”
“That’s not the point, Charlie. Nothing came of it becauseIstepped in just in time.”
“It was just drinks,” Liam grumbled. “We had everything under control.”
“Everything under control?” Kris huffed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. If you really had everything under control, you wouldn’t have let the duchess out in the first place. I figuredyouof all people would understand the sorts of risks we’re dealing with.”
I exhaled slowly, fighting off the mounting pressure behind my eyes. “We’re in a secure location with plenty of witnesses and several exit strategies. At no point was the duchess in any real danger.”
“You four should have waited for my all clear.”
“You were preoccupied,” Sam said calmly. “You had enough on your plate. We were trying to—”
“Go over my head?”
“What? Of course not. We just didn’t want to stress you out over something so silly.”
“And yet I’m still stressed as hell, so that didn’t really work out, did it?”
“Don’t raise your voice at her,” I snapped, stepping between Kris and Sam. “She did what any of us would have. Sam appeased the client while keeping her as close to home base as possible.”
