Chapter 5 - THE PRINCE WHO CHOSE THE ENEMY
Alina stared at the photograph until the screen blurred.
“No.”
Marcus looked over her shoulder.
“That could be staged.”
Rovan said nothing.
That worried her.
“Say something.”
Rovan’s jaw tightened.
“There have been rumors.”
“What rumors?”
“That Leo joined Regent Stefan.”
Alina stepped back as though he had struck her.
“You said he was a prisoner.”
“I said we believed he was a prisoner.”
“Based on what?”
“Intercepted communications.”
“Or based on what you wanted to believe?”
Rovan looked away.
Alina wanted to scream.
Instead, she walked into the rain.
Marcus followed.
She stood beneath an awning, shaking.
“He wouldn’t do that.”
“You haven’t seen him in three years.”
“He’s my brother.”
“People change.”
She turned on Marcus.
“You really are terrible at comforting people.”
“I know.”
She laughed despite herself.
It lasted half a second.
Then she covered her face.
“I left him.”
“You escaped an assassination.”
“I left him.”
“You were twenty-three.”
“I was his older sister.”
Marcus leaned against the wall.
“My father called me the night before he died.”
Alina lowered her hands.
“I saw his name. I was in a meeting. I ignored it.”
Marcus stared into the rain.
“For years, I told myself that if I had answered, maybe he’d still be alive.”
“Would he?”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“But guilt doesn’t care about facts.”
They stood silently.
Finally Alina said, “We get the files.”
Marcus nodded.
“We get the files.”
Vale Tower was forty-eight stories of glass and steel.
Daniel knew the security system.
Marcus owned shares in the building’s management company.
Alina knew how rich people ignored service workers.
That became their plan.
At 10:40 the next morning, Alina entered Vale Tower wearing another cleaning uniform.
Marcus walked through the front entrance in a $9,000 suit.
Receptionists smiled at him.
Nobody looked twice at Alina.
He entered an elevator.
She entered a service elevator.
On the thirty-ninth floor, they met beside a supply closet.
Marcus glanced at her uniform.
“Again?”
“People see what they expect to see.”
“That’s depressing.”
“It’s useful.”
Daniel guided them through an earpiece.
“Server room is behind Vale’s private office.”
Marcus entered first.
Vale’s assistant stood.
“Mr. Kane. Do you have an appointment?”
“No.”
“Mr. Vale isn’t here.”
“I know.”
Marcus smiled.
“That’s why I came.”
While the assistant argued with him, Alina slipped through the side corridor.
She reached the server room.
Daniel gave her the code.
Red light.
Denied.
“Daniel.”
“He changed it.”
Footsteps approached.
Alina hid behind a wall.
Richard Vale entered the office.
Marcus’s voice stopped.
Vale smiled.
“Well.”
May you like
He looked straight toward Alina’s hiding place.
“If it isn’t the dead princess.”
