Prince's Addiction (The Exiled Royals Series Book 2) (8 page)

“What?” he asked and he noticed his father blinking with confusion as well.

“You deserve it. I saw the way you were with her and Lily, the way you comforted them, and now taking what money you do have and offering to give it all away? That’s the mature king we’ve always been looking for. How could we be mad at you for that? Son, welcome home,” she said, rising with all her regal bearing and leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. “Now, just go with your father and he’ll write the check himself.”

“I think a check might be a bit old-fashioned, son,” his father replied. “I’m just going to transfer your inheritance into your bank account and tomorrow we’ll publicly announce that you’re no longer exiled.”

He nodded and couldn’t keep from beaming. He could save Lily’s life and make Kate truly happy. There were so many possibilities now, and there was something completely intoxicating about eventually bringing the sisters to Lavinia, to making Kate the queen he knew she could be.

“This is amazing.”

His father finished typing on the computer and nodded. “And it’s done. It’s not ‘amazing,’ but it is what your mother thought best.”

“Mother only?” he asked, the bile rising in his throat. “Is she the only one on my side?”

His father shook his head and stroked his long, silvery beard. “I want to believe you’ve changed but I still haven’t seen all the proof I require. I see a slacker who sits by his cousin’s pool and goes out to eat and lounges in the park. I see a man with a high school dropout girlfriend whom he barely knows. All I see is the same laziness I always do. I mean, are you good at anything, Alexander? Do you even try?”

He felt like he’d been slapped.

The moment was so clear now, so crystalline. He was never going to be able to please his father. He’d always be the fuck-up, and when the old bastard found out about his online accounts, all of this would be over anyway, and he’d be revealed for the pretender to the throne that Alex always secretly felt he was.

Balling his hands into fists at his side, Alex stormed off to his Porsche. Pain was lancing through him and there was only one thing left to take that sting away from him.

***

“I’m putting it all on red seven,” he said, shoving the truly appalling amount of chips on the table.

It was millions, everything he’d inherited just hours before from the Lavinian crown. He no longer cared. If his father thought he was such a screw up, then Alex would show him the ultimate mistake. As much as he cared about Kate and Lily, he just needed to feel anything. God, maybe he’d be lucky, get the score of a lifetime and shove it down his family’s throats.

The dealer’s eyes widened and Alex wondered if he wanted to warn him. That was clearly against casino policy, but even with whales all over, the prince wasn’t sure the dealer had ever seen this much bet on a single spin.

“Sir?”

“Seven red, just spin it.”

The dealer nodded and spun the roulette wheel and he watched the dizzying interplay of black and red before him. For one glorious second the wheel looked like it was going to lock onto seven, then it moved and the crowd gathered around him gasped, horrified.

Even the dealer looked green as he reached for the chips. “Sir, I’m sorry.”

Alex shrugged and chugged his Scotch. “It’s just money, isn’t it? What does it even matter?”

***

When he got home, he was shocked to see Kate on the bed in front of him, wearing nothing at all but the most seductive smile he’d ever seen. He wanted to come home and lick his wounds in peace, and he was about to kill Xavier for trying to play cupid and for letting her in. If he hadn’t just screwed his life all to hell, then it would have been a sweet gesture.

Now it just annoyed him.

Everything annoyed him, but nothing so much as his pathetic failures, all the things he’d been foolish enough to believe he could fix.

What an idiot he’d been.

“Kate…”

Her grin widened and she traced a finger over one of her pert breasts. God she was beautiful laid out before him, her dusty rose nipples just waiting for his tongue. Those haunting sapphire eyes of hers were staring back at him, half-lidded, and he wanted her so badly.

But he’d ruined it.

He’d ruined
everything
.

“I’ve been waiting. Dr. Johnson said Lily was stable. After a few hours, they discharged her and Joan has her at her place the whole night. We can do
anything
we want.”

He shook his head but stayed just at the foot of the bed. “We can’t.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I made a terrible mistake.”

“About saving Lily? How could you even say that?” she demanded, surging to her feet, her blue eyes blazing.

“No, I mean my father said things after we arranged for me to get my inheritance. I was so angry, and I just…I went to the casinos.”

“You what?”

“I bet it all on a roulette roll, and I
lost
it. There’s no money at all. I’m dead broke and there’s nothing left for anything. I’m sure when my parents find out tomorrow that I’ll be permanently disinherited.”

“I can’t…you did what? All because your dad’s a jerk? How could you? Did you know that Lily’s going to die in a few months without that surgery? Do you even care?”

“Well you said a charity could help,” he said, and even that defense sounded weak to him.

“They’re
Ops for Kids
,” she said rushing to her clothes and starting to yank them on. “They were going to be funded by your parents once you were officially disinherited. If you don’t have funds, then they don’t either. I don’t even…you’re the most selfish asshole I’ve ever met!”

He frowned and walked over to her and she, barely dressed but at least approximating it, threw her hands up at him. “No, you don’t do this. You stay where you are, you ass.”

“I don’t understand. How did you know about that part of it?”

“I hacked records. I used to program a lot. I found out who you were and what the deal was and, at first, I was trying to ruin you so that the money would get to the foundation faster.”

It felt like swallowing glass shards. It was hard for him to even speak. “What?”

She spun on her heels and glared up at him, her eyes a burning sapphire. “I was trying to make sure my sister survived.”

He gripped her shoulders and she stilled but didn’t pull away. “You were using me?”

“At first, but I fell in love. Damn it! I wasn’t supposed to, but I did. I trusted you,” she said, pulling something out of her pocket. “Here, this is yours.”

“A flash drive?” he asked

“Yes,” she said flinging it to the bed. “I hacked into your computer four days ago. It’s a bunch of screen caps and evidence of your various gambling site accounts. I was going to give this to your parents this afternoon, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bear to do it after I saw you be so kind to Lily during her seizure.”

“I…”

“I trusted you and now you ruined everything,” she said, tears beginning to stream down her face. He couldn’t have felt worse; it was a stabbing to his heart, to his very soul. He tried to stroke her cheek but she pulled away completely from him and grabbed her purse. “No, you don’t get to do that. You
never
get to do that,” Kate continued, rushing for the door. “All I know is that your father was right and you are
nothing
.”

With that, she rushed out, slamming the door and leaving him to his pain.

Kate cried for a week solid, not just over Lily, although that was also killing her but also over the loss of Alex. She’d been so close to having everything, to really having a family like she hadn’t since her parents had died. Now it was all over, blown to smithereens.
Ops for Kids
had called her two days ago to let her know officially what she already understood. The money was gone and Lily was going to waste away.

She hadn’t slept much and was a zombie at work. While she made food for Lily and made sure her sister’s diet was balanced and healthy, Kate didn’t eat. Everything in her world felt pale and gray, like it was just a half-life she was doomed to.

Then she got a call.

“Ms. Morrison, it’s Dr. Johnson from Vegas General and I have some news.”

“I don’t understand, Lily’s appointment isn’t for another week, and she was stable at the hospital. Has something happened?”

“Yes, we received a sizeable and anonymous donation today. The only requirement for receiving enough money to build a couple new wings, frankly, was that Lily’s operation be done this week. Congratulations, we’re finally going to be able to really help her.”

She broke into tears, certain that she’d misheard everything. None of what she was hearing could be true. It was like the best dream ever coming true.

“Is this a prank? I’ve been played with too many times.”

“No, I promise you, Ms. Morrison, this is very real and we’ll see you and Lily both tomorrow and schedule it all for the 10
th
.”

“God, thank you!” she enthused and then she clicked off her cell. Rushing to her sister’s bedroom, she swept Lily up in a hug.

Her sister rubbed at her eyes and groaned. “But it’s Saturday.”

Kate chuckled and looked into those wide, trusting eyes before her. “And you’re getting surgery. You’re going to be okay.”

“Really?” Lily said, starting to cry. She usually had to be so brave. “Are you sure?”

She hugged her sister tightly and was never letting her go. “Yes, and soon you’ll be the healthiest kid in school!”

***

It was a month after Lily’s surgery before she went to the park. Kate loved Joan but only trusted herself with Lily for the first four weeks of her recovery. Even now, she was only risking an hour to go from her place to the chess tables. As she walked past them it broke her heart when they were empty. No one was playing anything, except, oddly there was a small black bundle folded up on the final table.

On a hunch, she walked over to it and realized they were a brand new pair of yoga pants—tags still on—in her size. Frowning, she picked them up and turned around, almost squealing when she found Alex standing behind her.

“What are you doing here?”

“I think I could say the same thing. I actually play chess,” he said. “Admit it, princess, you came to see me.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, madder that she was so transparent than she was that Alex was here. She’d definitely wanted to see him. She had no idea how he’d managed it, but there was only one way that operation had been paid for and that a couple of new wings were being built for the hospital.

“I didn’t. I just needed to know what the strings were.”

“Strings?” he asked, brown eyes swimming with mirth. “I don’t understand.”

“Lily had her operation a month ago, funds opened up.”

“Then that’s great.”

“Alex, cut the bullshit, where did the money come from? I know you lost your whole inheritance!”

“I went to rehab.”

“Huh?” she asked, her eyes wide. She hadn’t been expecting that at all.

“Rehab. I’m not in line to be king, yet. My parents said I had a long way to go, but they did send me to rehab and I haven’t gambled in five weeks. The price for going was that they fix my mistake and fund the wings
and
the surgery. The look on father’s face was pretty priceless.”

“So I guess I have you and your mom to thank?”

“My mother… she would do nothing less. She really liked Lily too,” he shrugged and ran a hand through shaggy bangs. “I think she really always wanted a little girl.”

“I just…I don’t even know what to say. You messed it up so horribly to start but then she got the surgery and she’d
never
gone a month without seizures before that. She’s doing so well, and the thought of living in a world without her in it, well, it
would
have killed me,” she concluded.

He smiled broadly but didn’t move closer. Maybe he was scared he’d spook her. She wasn’t sure she didn’t still want to run herself. “I didn’t want that to happen to you, not ever.”

“I can’t tell you how happy I am. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever,” she rushed to him and swept her arms around him, holding him close.

Like always, the kiss was magical, as hungry as it had ever been.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I set you up. I was a horrible person.”

He smiled. “For all the right reasons. Yeah, it stung, but I lost all the money the first time because of my issues.”

“You’re a lot calmer than you should be,” she said, burrowing her face in his shoulders. “I ruined everything. I stole your files. I set out to hurt you…at first.”

“I’ve had four weeks in rehab to suss things out. I won’t let my father’s opinions define me, and I won’t hold that against you because you had the chance and you
didn’t
take it. I think you’re a very good person, Kate.”

“And you’re a lot better than the selfish playboy all the tabloids always said you were.”

He laughed and kissed her again and that familiar heat flared through her belly. God, she wanted more. “No, I wasn’t. Not until I met you.”

“Then should we go back to your place or mine? Lily’s over at Joan’s,” she clarified. “Hell,” she said, gesturing to the chessboard. “We could play for it. A little friendly wager?”

He shook his head and swept her into a bridal carry. “I don’t play games anymore, Kate. No more risks. I’m just laying it all out there. All I want is you.”

“That’s what I want too.”