Page 54 of Palace of Betrayal

“León, stop. You’re hurting me.”

“Tell. Me. What. You. Did.” He could barely restrain his desire to strangle this fickle bitch just to get the truth out of her.

“I had no choice.”

Leo shook his arm as she tried to cling to him. “Tell me!” He roared his demand and thrust her away from him, not trusting himself to have his hands on her right now or he might do something he’d vowed to never do and strike a woman.

Chelsea hit the floor, her body collapsing on itself in dramatic fashion as she wept at his feet. “Please, Leo you have to understand.”

“I don’t have to do a single thing. Now tell me what happened to Bebe.”

Bits and pieces of memory were returning now, and he remembered the water and how she’d drugged him. Any empathy he may have felt for this woman in the past evaporated.

“Atticus said if I could get you alone, he’d handle Bebe and take her away so she wouldn’t be in our way. We can be together now she’s gone.”

His body felt numb at the revelation that Atticus was behind this. “Did Atticus tell you to come to me with the story about you being drugged?”

Chelsea looked up at him through big eyes filled with tears as she sat on the floor, legs outstretched in front of her. “Yes. He said he had a plan to make us rich and I’d end up on the throne with you as King if I did what he said.”

Leo crouched to her as she spoke. “What did he say?”

“That we had to leave the marina and let Alain get on the boat. People would think we were dead and then I’d come to you and tell you I’d been drugged and he was missing. Prince Alwyn would get in trouble for lying about that, and when Atticus made Alain steal the gemstone, he’d get the blame.”

“How would that help Atticus?”

Chelsea shrugged. “I don’t know. Just that you’d turn to me, and we could be together but then she got in the way. Atticus offered to help me get rid of her.”

“Where did he take her?”

“No clue.”

Leo stood, he had all he was going to get from her. Time was moving on. By the looks of things, it had already been the best part of twelve hours. Looking at his watch he confirmed it had been twelve hours since he arrived at Chelsea’s.

Picking up the sandal he’d dropped, he retrieved Bebe’s gun knowing it was her favourite and stowed it in the glove compartment of his car before he gunned the engine and tore down the driveway, headed for the palace.

He hit dial on the console and his call connected to his private security. “It’s Prince León. Please have Chelsea Vos picked up at her residence for treason and escorted to the private jail.”

He ended the call quickly and wished he had more to go on, but he had very little. He knew a man who did though, and he was going to answer some questions or Leo was going to make his life a living misery.

Striding into the palace, León was a man on a mission. The early morning staff working to clean the palace sensed it, scattering like leaves on the breeze as he marched past them toward his father’s rooms. A single knock before he entered, he stopped to see the very man he’d been about to summon already there with his father. Anger and rage built in him, making his fists clench as they itched to take a swing at his uncle.

His father looked up at him from his seat opposite his brother, a worried look on his face. “Leo, where have you been? I’ve been trying to contact you.”

Leo didn’t slow his pace, he prowled towards his uncle and stood in front of the man who’d caused a lot of the pain in his life and saw him for the weak man he was. “Where is she?”

“Son?”

Leo ignored his father’s question and stared his uncle down as the man sat back, trying to seem unconcerned. The pulse in his neck gave him away, and Leo fought the urge to smile, although he felt no humour.

“Where is she? Don’t make me repeat myself.”

“Really, León, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve been sitting with your father as he was concerned after you never came home last night.”

“Save it,” Leo bit out, his temper boiling over as he leaned close.

His uncle seemed to sense the danger he was in now. Like a rat backed into a corner, he glanced at the door as if looking for a way out, but he had none here.

Leo reached down and hauled his uncle up by his lapels, ignoring the squeak of outrage. Moving close he saw his father stand from the corner of his eye but didn’t remove his focus from Alwyn. “Stop. We know about Alain. We know you’re working with Wojcik, and he’s using Alain to obtain the gem for the American. Now you have five seconds to tell me where he took Bebe, or I’m going to beat the snot out of you.”