Beauty and the Beast (Not Quite the Fairy Tale #3) (11 page)

Chapter Twelve

the Spy

S
he wasn’t sure why she’d made it to the Old’ Hand. Familiarity? She’d needed to think, clear her head, and that place seemed as good as any.

Oh, and obviously, there was the awesome ale to take into consideration.

She’d been sipping her drink, trying to get her head around what she’d discovered when she heard them.

Belle had expected it; hell, hadn’t she even warned Beast about it?

Beast, otherwise known as Aiden Maximilian Archer.

She wasn’t even surprised. Or annoyed. Or, anything, to be honest. It was one of those things she’d just shrugged at, thinking “well, of course, that’s him.”

Like she’d known for a while.

That was the thing she had to get her head around, because she couldn’t comprehend why she didn’t feel like hitting something – preferably something tall, royal and annoyingly hot.

But the conversation she overheard managed to pull her out of the funk, making her inner drama seem irrelevant.

“He said
everyone
was invited. That’s the perfect time. There will be too many people, the security is bound to be compromised.”

She immediately knew what they were on about.

The party.

Belle had thought about the same thing, when she’d heard the Prince was inviting everyone
to the upcoming anniversary of the Archer reign.

Stupid Beast. Did he
want
to get himself killed?

“If we have twenty, or let’s say fifty guys on the scene, we’ll get him. There’s no way his soldiers and Guards will spot all of us.”

“It’s gonna be tricky, Pete. Sure, everyone’s invited in the gardens, but I’ll bet anything the royals will stick to themselves, probably inside.”

“Sure,” the one called Pete shrugged. “But Saint Aiden is trying to prove he’s not a dick. He’ll come out at some point. That’s when we’ll get him.”

Shit. Pete had a point: Aiden
would
be stupid enough to come out. And their plan was smart: it would be the best time to get to him.
Before she knew what she was doing, Belle was on her feet, walking towards them.

“Well, well. If that isn’t Belle. What can I do for you, beauty? Wanna join us?”

She smiled as sweetly as she could.

“Yes. Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do.”

♦

Belle wasn’t arrogant enough to fail to notice when she was out of her depth, and badass as she was, she knew she didn’t have a chance in hell to win the day by herself, so she did what she had to do, and broke into the palace.

It would have been much easier if Clocks, Lightwood or
anyone
had given her their bloody phone number, but whatever.

She’d never been to the castle before – sure, she’d seen some shots on TV here and there, but it surprised her. She’d expected opulence, and it was definitely amongst the words she would have chosen to describe it, however it also was nothing she’d expected.

There was laughter and life, she saw people playing tennis indoors and out, the staff seemed as cheery as the guest, somehow. In fact, it was pretty damn impossible to decide who was there just to play around and who was working.

It took a while, but eventually, she spotted them.

She didn’t see more than the Beast’s back, but it still felt like a thousand butterflies were let loose in her stomach.

His hair was tied up at the back of his head, and she could imagine stroking it. It looked soft and shiny. Damn, he’d been sexy and all before, but she liked the hair, too.

Unsurprisingly, Clocks and Lightwood were firmly planted on each of his flank.

Belle sighed; she’d wanted to talk to those guys, but getting the Beast up to speed was
not
part of the plan. One thing, she knew for certain: he was going to be seriously pissed when he realized what she was up to.

Plan B, then.

She carried on creeping in the shadows until she found
him
.

The King was an older, and admittedly, just as hot, version of the Beast, so there was no mistaking him, despite the fact that the guy just wore jeans and a t-shirt – certainly no crown.

The issue? There were three Guards between them.  Great.

Belle sighed, before going out the window, and climbing across the walls, three windows across, to get to the room where he had been lounging around.

She’d had her hair pins ready, but thankfully, he’d been so good as to leaving the window open. She hopped in, not bothering to be discreet.

“Hi,” she said, waving at the older man, who was looking at her as though she had three heads and a tail. “Don’t try and kill me, or something, I swear I’m not here to cause you any harm…”

Ok, she was babbling away.

By this time, his Guards had converged, three humongous mountains aiming for her.

Oh, for everything holy in the land!

Belle grabbed onto the closest object – a book – and threw it at the cane aiming straight for her, before jumping on the wall to avoid the next kick.

How was she supposed to explain herself while dancing around, dammit!

“Stop!”

The three mountains reluctantly stayed on their heels, still blocking access to the King, until the man actually pushed one of them aside.

He looked up at her, still perched on a platform at the very top of the window.

“Sibelle Thornton, I take it?”

Ok, she had to admit, that was rather surreal. The King knew her name?

Then again, she’d kinda had a
thing
with his son, so she supposed that was possible.

Unexpected, but possible.

“That would be me,” she replied, leaping back down.

The guy shook his head, turning to his Guards.

“Now that’s just not fair. How did that kid land
her
?”

♦

Enough was enough. He’d believed he’d dreamt it, at first, but now he knew.

After smelling the honey and cinnamon cocktail all morning, he was certain. She was there.

Aiden followed his nose which was still as sensitive as it had been while he was a Beast, and made it to the last floor.

There was nothing there, save for the surveillance system; Ben’s new domain.

Apprehensive as hell, he made his way to his office, to find
everyone
converged within the four walls.

Clocks, Lightwood, Vera, Ben, his father and his creepy Guards – everyone save for Belle.

“Where is she?”

No one asked how he could tell she’d been there, thankfully, so he didn’t need to reveal just how much of a freak he was.
I can smell her
did sound creepy. And the slightest bit obsessive, too.

“If you’re referring to Belle,” the King replied, “she didn’t stay long. We would have called you, but… well. Either way, gentlemen, I do believe we’re all done here.”

The merry band of traitors ran out while Aiden and Adrian started a staring contest.

This time, Adrian broke first, when a huge grin spread on his face.

“Damn, son,” he said, “that girl’s a peach, you lucky bastard. The grandkids are going to be gorgeous.”

“What was she doing here, dad?”

“Believe me when I say you’ll work it out soon enough. There’s no point worrying about it now. Come, we need to get dressed. We have a party to get to.” 

Chapter Thirteen

Dance

“
R
oses are red, Violets are blue. If you don’t live through this, I will kill you.”

“Romantic. And perfectly apt, too,”
said a familiar voice in her earpiece.

Belle had been
ever so slightly
pissed when she discovered that her brother had taken a job at the palace without telling her, but thankfully for his ass, they had more important things to worry about right now – like stopping a group of extremists, to whom she incidentally belonged, from murdering the Prince and so on.
The only issue? The stupid idiot wasn’t helping. The anti-royalists had underestimated his stupidity. Sure, there was a large tent under which most indolent nobles lounged, but Aiden was actually walking amongst the people, shaking hands, exchanging banalities, kissing babies.

Shit.
Now
he had to go and play the politician. Might as well hold a sign up saying “please, do feel free to take this opportunity to murder me, I insist.”

“How are you holding up,” she asked one of the terrorists, taping his back and discreetly planting a tracker on it.

She wasn’t as careful as she’d sworn she’d be.

Belle was supposed to follow the anti-royalist’s plan, and mark whomever she inadvertently passed by, but she couldn’t. As the Beast was being an obnoxious, arrogant, stupidly confident and sexy ass right now, Belle walked everywhere, and marked as many guys as she could.

She had no other choice. The basic plan was to wait until the bulk of the group had converged around Aiden, and hit him then, all at once; and damn, given the fact that he was pretty much offering himself up right now, it might really work.

The only thing keeping her relatively calm was the careful eyes of Clocks and Lightwood, scanning everyone whom he interacted with.

“Fine. Just want this over with already. Tomorrow, Belle, that shit-ass will be nothing but history.”

It was getting increasingly hard to smile and nod, rather than punching them in the throat when they said stuff like this.

The Prince had been a shit-ass, sure. But anyone watching what he’d accomplished within one little month would stop being an idiot, and be thankful that he’d come back where he belonged.

Reforming the entire system had taken days. He’d fired everyone high up enough to have made any decision over the last decades. They all were under investigations. Every case solved had been reopened.

And more to the point, the Prince was
her
Beast, and that was that. No one was hurting him. Not if she had anything to say about it.

Belle had attended every meeting she’d been invited to since she’d “joined” the anti-royalists and each time, it had become more evident that most of the guys were tools – but they had numbers on their sides.

While it was possible – actually, expected – to post a soldier every ten meters, and to sneak in some in their casual attires, Aiden’s announcement had meant that the populace outnumbered them by a hundred to one – everyone able to tear themselves from work, living within driving range of the capital had turned up.

Belle knew of at least thirty terrorists, for sure, but she’d heard that some had made a special journey to attend the party, new faces she couldn’t identify.

“You’ve marked twenty-four baddies, sis. Anyone else?”

She crooked her head discreetly, certain one of the many cameras her brother controlled was fixed on her.

There were some guys left, but they were on the other side of the room; she had to navigate cautiously, before someone realized she was meticulously ensuring to see – and touch – all of them.

But then something happened that screwed up all of her careful preparations before Ben had given the order to arrest everyone she’d marked; Aiden’s eyes lifted from the woman who was fruitlessly attempting to flirt with him, and fell on her.

Shit.

Belle shook her head one millimeter left and right; she knew he’d caught it, but that didn’t stop him from leaving the girl where she stood, and parting the crowd until he was right in front of her.

Right in the middle of his enemies; exactly where they wanted him.

♦

He’d seen the panicky expression and he’d taken it for some sort of silly girly crap; god new girls could lose their shit around him; or at least, the real, non-blue version of him.

Aiden should have recalled this was Belle.

The instant he entered her space, he felt the shift in the atmosphere; one woman screamed, and then, everyone started to panic.

Everyone save for the terrorists and the obviously very prepared staff who leaped towards him.

Someone threw a cane his way; catching it mid-flow, he used it to knock the gun out of the guy’s hand who was holding it awkwardly, pointing towards Belle more than him.

But by the time the gun hit a bush, Belle was long gone anyway; from the corner of his eyes, Aiden saw her get a dagger strapped to her fucking thigh, and planting it in the palm of someone who’d just been about to cowardly knife him from behind.

He felt her frame, warm and comforting, right against his back.

Before the next wave, Clocks and Lightwood had taken their respective places on his flank, closing the circle for the very first time.

It was traditional to have three guards, like his father did, to ensure he was protected from every angle, but Aiden had never found someone he trusted completely, implicitly – that was what the third guard was; someone who held his life in his palm when he protected his back.

Belle had taken that place without a word and nothing had ever felt so right.

Truth was, he would have loved to be able to hide her away like he’d fantasized many a time, keeping her safe from any form of harm or discomfort – but it wasn’t who she was.

Belle was the one who belong next to him every time he faced a danger, just as he’d be right next to her if she ever did.

“Belle,” he called out, above the chaos, yet again blocking another knife – thank fuck, no one else seemed to have been able to sneak in firearms.

“Yeah?”

“A thigh sheath, woman? That was damn sexy. I wanna see it if we get out of here!”

She didn’t answer at first, but after a while, he felt his first blow – an elbow hit him right on the flank.

“Shut it, Beast. There’s no if about it. It’s when.”

To be frank, she had a point. They were winning, and winning fast.

Their protective circle was flawless, and so was the aggressive quadrum his father and the king’s guards had formed keeping those who tried to run occupied.

Well, they were winning, until suddenly, everything was lost.

He didn’t know what made him turned towards the arrow, but he knew what made him stay in place.

He might have spotted it early enough to avoid it, but he didn’t move a muscle, because if his body wasn’t in its path, the arrow would have hit her instead.

Aiden was quite at peace, a hundred percent certain of his decision; he wasn’t ecstatic about it, obviously, but there were worse ways to go. How many could say they’d died saving the one they loved?

But just then, when he’d relaxed, ready to take his fate, the impossible happened.

To his horror, there was a frail, supple, delicate frame in his arms, in front of him, instead of resting behind his back.

Shit, the girl was fast.

But his Beauty had forgotten that he was a Beast.

The arrow was just about to collide with Belle’s skull when he used as much raw, brutal force as he could muster to manage to push his body before hers.

So, instead of lodging itself between her amber eyes, it went and pierced his heart.