Prince's Addiction (The Exiled Royals Series Book 2) (7 page)

Alex grinned at Kate.

She was already at the dining table in the suite. He’d ordered a feast from room service—being Raymond’s cousin had to be good for something, after all—and she was digging in with gusto to an omelet and some fruit.

It was a bright, vibrant morning, and he hadn’t felt this good in years. It wasn’t just since his exile, but more since he’d become so troubled and had fallen so hard into his addiction. With Kate by his side, for the first time in a very long time, Alex actually felt hope.

Then his damn cell rang and the ring tune, The Imperial March from
Star Wars
, dampened his mood instantly.

Perfect, Father’s calling
.

He held up a finger to Kate and then went into the bathroom for some privacy. Turning on the phone, he answered, “Father, how are you?”

“I’m quite alright, thank you, Alexander. I was calling to let you know that Raymond invited us to Nevada. Your mother and I both felt that it had been too long since we checked in on your progress. We’ve rented a reasonably-sized estate on the outskirts of the city. Do you have a pen?”

“Huh?”

“You need to write down the address. I know your memory is poor. It’s one of the reasons you could never beat me at chess, that lack of focus and concentration,” his father chided.

Alex felt his cheeks flare red. That was always what his father did—reminded him that he wasn’t good enough for anything, period. It was almost a perverse talent of Nikolai’s. He insulted his son as easily as if he were breathing. He put the phone on speaker and pulled up the app for notes.

“Shoot.”

His father rattled off the address and he saved it. “We’ll be there in three days and we expect you for the big family picnic. Do try and come shaved and looking like a human. You know you always look like you’ve been on a three-day bender in a dark casino in press photos and at functions.”

Mostly because he had been. There wasn’t time for shaving on a hot streak, after all.

“I don’t know if I want to come.”

“If you ever want to be invited back home, you will. The check-in is mandatory. Your mother thinks, based on Raymond and Xavier’s praise, that you’re doing better. I’m far from sold myself, but this is an order. Come to the picnic, Alexander. You’re
expected
.”

“Then you’ll at least be proud of my progress. I haven’t gambled…”
in public
, “…in six months.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it, son. You never were anything but a lay-about and a disappointment before, so I seriously do not see how that can change now.”

“Father I—”

“No excuses, just show up and do your duty,” with that, his father clicked off.

Alex sighed heavily and refrained from throwing the phone. It would just punish himself, but damn it if he didn’t hate his father’s digs and edicts. He always had. Maybe that had driven him to gamble to start with, some perverse “If I can’t please him, then I’ll do it all wrong.” That and, of course, the utter thrill he got from the games. He’d never thought he’d find a high as good, but being with Kate was even better than the hottest streak.

For that matter, nothing on Earth made him feel luckier than the fact he’d found her.

Forcing a smile back on his lips, he headed into the dining room and kissed her cheek. “So how was the omelet?”

“Amazing,” she said, her cheeks still full of food. “It’s all great.”

“Then, would you be interested…my family is visiting in three days and they insist I go to a picnic with them. Will you do me the honor of being my date?”

Kate nodded and her grin was just a little unsettling, something eager there he couldn’t read. “I’d love to.”

***

“You must be Lily,” he said as he rushed out of his family’s rented villa to greet Kate and her sister. They looked so much alike—both had light blonde hair and startling blue eyes. He’d only had a glimpse of Lily from the game but she’d been a cute kid, overflowing with energy even from the stands, and he’d had no idea how even
both
Joan and Kate could keep up with her.

Lily nodded and bounded up to him, her hair bobbing in her pigtails. “Alex! Thanks for inviting us. I couldn’t stop telling everyone at school about your homerun. You’re amazing.”

He grinned back at Kate even as he picked Lily up and gave her a spin. “See, it must be true.”

Kate offered a tight smile, the kind that didn’t meet her eyes. She didn’t seem her usual sunny self today and that was understandable. A lot of people freaked out around royalty. Alex tended to forget that because they’d always just been his (annoying) parents. He set Lily down and gave Kate a deep hug. “My family isn’t going to eat you alive. They’re mostly like everyone else. I mean, my parents will be too busy riding me, the family black sheep. They won’t be upset about you at all.”

She nodded and smiled back at him. “God, you have me pegged. I really am so nervous. I don’t want to let it go badly. I just want…” she sighed and shook her head. “I guess I want a lot of things.”

Lily was a better cure for Kate’s melancholy than he was. Her sister rushed across the dust and hugged Kate tightly. “Come on! I bet there’s lots and lots to eat. I mean, they’re rich! I’ve never seen a house this big before.”

“Lily Anne, that’s not polite.”

“But I’m starving. I only had oatmeal and I can smell burgers from here.”

Alex chuckled. “Raymond and Xavier insisted on doing everything American style. Raymond’s running the grill himself. Father was already appalled,” he clarified, taking Lily by the hand and hooking his elbow through Kate’s. “Are you ready to run the gauntlet, Ms. Morrison?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

They walked through the high arched ceilings of the villa to the backyard. Xavier was lounging on the porch, his mother and father were already pulled up to the table as the staff served their drinks, and Raymond was with his wife, Melissa, whose long brown hair fell in a full curtain down to her waist.

“Now, I think introductions are in order. Mother and Father, this is Kate Morrison, my girlfriend and her younger sister Lily. And these are my parents, my cousin Xavier,” Alex clarified pointing to his cousin on the stairs. “And this is my cousin Raymond and his wife, Melissa.

Melissa, thank God, rush
ed over and shook Kate’s hand vigorously and smiled for Lily. “Some of the royal stuff can be stifling but don’t let it freak you out. It’s all going to be okay. They’re not exactly the sharks circling the water they want you to think they are.”

“Speak for yourself,” his dad huffed.

Alex laughed and squeezed Mel’s shoulder. “Thank you so much for putting her at ease. We’re just like any other family, Kate.”

“With hot dogs!” Lily enthused bounding over to the grill.

Kate started to rush after her. “Lily, don’t be rude.”

Mel shook her head and walked back to where Lily was headed. “Don’t worry. Get to know Queen Catherine and King Nikolai. Raymond and I will watch Lily; we’ll consider it practice.”

Kate nodded and gripped Alex’s hand with an iron grasp. “Great, then it’s just me and royalty. How hard could that be,” she hissed at him.

Alex laughed and kissed her cheek. “It’s going to be okay. I promise you that.”

She nodded as he led her to the table. Pulling out her chair, he waited with his own bated breath for his parents’ inquisition to start. Kate smiled and bowed her head a bit before them, and Alex was impressed. Not everyone understood that with people of standing that you had to wait to be touched if you were touched at all. Unlike Americans, there wasn’t just an automatic and friendly handshake.

Alex actually preferred that custom of his new country much better.

“Well,” his mother said, offering as kind a smile as possible. “Tell us about yourself, Ms. Morrison.”

Kate blushed. “There’s not too much to say. I take care of my sister Lily and I have a job as a concierge at a smaller hotel in town,
The Palmetto
, and I sometimes jog in the park. I don’t have a lot of free time because raising an eight-year-old almost alone takes a lot of time.”

“And your parents?” his father asked, and Alex was surprised at his father’s interest.

It seemed so genuine.

“They died in a car crash when I was eighteen. I was lucky, in a way. Even if I was still in high school, I was old enough that I could adopt Lily myself and she wouldn’t go to foster care. We’ve been two against the world ever since.”

His mother smiled. “Well, now you have Alex around. How long have you been dating?”

“A couple of weeks.”

“And what do you think of Alex?” his father prodded.

Kate hesitated and Alex assumed she was just nervous. “We met because he helped me—carried me about four blocks—when I twisted my ankle jogging. He’s definitely a kind, chivalrous man.”

“Then we’re very proud,” his mother said.

“And a bit stunned,” his father replied, eyeing him.

“Yes, and I’ve definitely been surprised by him,” Kate continued, and it confused Alex that she was reaching for her purse. What could she possibly have in it? “In fact—”

They were interrupted by Mel’s scream and Xavier running across the lawn. Then there was a keening noise that chilled Alex to the bones.

Kate was up then, running as fast as he’d ever seen anyone move, and she was sitting as close as she dared to her sister Lily who was thrashing violently on the ground with what looked like a seizure. Alex was beside her and reached out to touch the little girl. Kate startled him by slapping his hand away.

“You can’t!”

“Why not?”

“You have to let the seizure end. It’ll hurt her otherwise.” Kate said, starting to cry.

He couldn’t hold poor Lily, but he could comfort her, and hold Kate tightly as she sobbed. It was a small, shallow comfort but it was the best he had to offer.

***

“We have to go,” Kate said. “I’ll take her to the hospital for a check-up. Her doctor…well, her seizures are so severe now that he wants to see her after every one.”

“What?” he asked, shocked at how out of it Lily still was even thirty minutes later. She was sitting on a sofa in the entry hall and Mel was rocking her quietly, but the girl’s eyes didn’t seem to be focusing on anything at all.

“I…the accident that killed our parents gave her severe head trauma. She has very severe epilepsy and it’s getting worse. We’ve been desperate to get her an operation but it’s so expensive and I don’t have insurance. I’m trying to get a charity to pay for it, but she doesn’t have a lot of time left and I don’t even know if the funding will come through,” Kate finished and, by the time she did, everything was coming out in ragged gasps.

He sighed and pulled her closer to him. “Then I’ll pay for it. Whatever the cost. I’ll do it.”

“I can’t ask that,” she said, eyes wide with her disbelief. “I’m not some gold digger.”

“And I don’t let little kids die if I can help it, especially not ones who think I’m Babe Ruth,” he joked.”

“I just…” Kate said, sniffling. “You’d really do that for us?”

“I would hate myself if I offered or did anything less.”

“Thank you,” she said, kissing him. “I have to go but I’ll come back to your suite tonight if I can get Joan to sit. I just…I have to get her to the hospital.”

“Of course,” he said, kissing her. “It’s going to be alright.”

She smiled through her tears. “For the first time in years, I think it is.”

He knew the feeling.

***

“Mother, Father, we need to talk,” he said, going straight to the salon to have an audience with them.

“Is the girl alright?” his mom asked.

He nodded. “She has a condition and Kate’s taking her directly to see her neurologist. It’s going to be okay for now, but Lily’s in big trouble.”

“What?” she asked, bringing a hand to her chest.

“Lily’s got severe epilepsy and it’s getting worse. She needs an operation and Kate doesn’t have insurance. She just broke down and told me about all of this. I had no idea. She mentioned the car accident before but not that it hurt Lily.”

“That’s terrible,” his mother said.

“It’s unacceptable,” he responded. “I’m going to donate my stipend money to the cost of the operation.”

“You only have so much, you know, son,” his father said. “Besides, maybe you’ve been a mark all along. It’s quite a sob story.”

“The girl is sick and we just saw it. I can’t let a child die, father. It’s wrong,” he said, standing up and trying to storm out. He would have left, too, if his mother hadn’t grabbed his arm.

“Son, wait.”

“I have to go and see what I can do about this surgery arrangement right away.”

“We’re going to pay for it and we’re going to make you an heir again—the heir.”