A Prince's Ransom: Kidnapped by the Billionaire (17 page)

Wait, there was a different door! It was partially wedged open thanks to a rolling trashcan, and the employees at the counter weren’t paying any attention as they dealt with the mad rush of people and snuck a look at their princess themselves. It was her favorite ice cream shop so they’d probably seen her before, but most people didn’t get tired of seeing royals or celebrities.

Katherine took one last glance at the employees to make sure no one was watching, then quickly moved toward the door.

Pushing it open, she let out a squeak of delight to see that she had been right—well, sorta. It was a back exit. Like, a proper back exit, she wouldn’t even get in trouble for being there. She could finally be free of Eric and Brigitte and all of that. In one corner of the small area behind the main shop, there was a freezer where they obviously stored the rest of their ice cream and supplies, and then a door that just led out into the alley behind it. It looped back around to the front and also allowed people to head to the street behind this one. Even better, the bodyguards wouldn’t even have a chance to see her.

FREEDOM!

Letting out a relieved breath, Katherine moved to open that door and head out toward the other street. The excited shouts and commotion of the ice cream shop faded as she closed the door, and she let out a deep breath.
Thank you, Élise.
You were a nice girl and I really appreciated the help, but… I just couldn’t deal with Eric anymore.

She stepped out onto the sidewalk, looking around at all the people who were still up and about at this hour—drunken, laughing partiers and handholding couples on dates—and glad that no one seemed to notice her. Honestly, she almost could’ve wept with relief that no one noticed her. Now she needed to figure out where she was so she get back to the hotel and get yelled at for running off and being so stupid.
Please
don’t let her parents be in the country.

Looking around the street, she didn’t recognize anything. She glanced at a few people and wondered if she should ask for directions, but thought better of it every time she got a whiff of too much alcohol on their breath. Invisibility was a good thing, invisibility was welcome. Tonight, anyway. Invisibility was a very welcome change to everyone staring at her, wondering why she was there in the first place. Katherine had
really
had enough of that.

Clinging to that freedom, she just started walking. Eventually, she would probably see something familiar, or a map. This was a very touristy town, since it was home of the royal family, so there were probably maps in places. They’d be in French, but she’d manage. She found herself actually managing to breathe. That was definitely an improvement.

After maybe fifteen minutes of walking, not knowing if the princess’ bodyguards had realized she had left or not, she turned another corner, only for her brow to furrow. Was that… it couldn’t be. That was too easy—but the longer she stared at the building, drawing closer to it, the more certain she was that it actually
was
the nightclub where she’d met Eric several nights ago. Which meant she was actually a lot closer to the hotel than she thought she was.

Katherine started walking faster, trying to peer around people and buildings for a glimpse of the tower above her hotel, then let out a slight, grateful gasp when she managed to see it. The windows were really specific, even from the outside. She was almost there. She was almost free of this entire mess. Maybe she’d get in so much trouble that she would be sent back to Pennsylvania immediately! That probably shouldn’t sound as appealing as it did, but she just laughed a little bit and shook her head. Getting into trouble was fine with her right now. It took all of her self-control not to sprint towards the entrance of the hotel. She wanted Tara to absolutely rip her to shreds. She wanted everyone to give her dirty looks. It meant that she was free…

The doorman at the main entrance apparently didn’t recognize her as she stepped through. She looked around and let out a soft sigh. She blinked a little bit when she realized that there wasn’t anyone looking official standing around. For all anyone knew, Katherine had possibly been snatched from this hotel, but everything seemed to be going about as normal. And there were no “missing person” flyers, no police, no reporters hounding the staff for updates on her whereabouts. It was a different country, sure, but shouldn’t there still be evidence that people were looking for her? This was weird.

She shrugged and headed towards the elevator. There was no guarantee her key would still work, but she did have it—and she had remembered to grab her purse before leaving the palace, so she had all of the essentials except for her phone. And Tara would definitely be in the room right now, probably asleep if she wasn’t up and fretting, not that Katherine thought she should be beside herself with worry about her, that was just the sort of personality her friend had. Right now, that would be welcome, too.

The hotel was quiet as she waited for the elevator to open up. She waited a few minutes for it to come from the top, and the doors slid soundlessly open. She stepped inside, hitting her floor number, and falling back against the wall. She was safe. Here, in the damn elevator of the damn hotel, she had to be safe. Katherine was going to crash into bed for the night and deal with the fallout in its entirety in the morning. Surely they could give her that long, at least.

The elevator door slid open again, and she pushed off the back wall. She fished for the key in her purse as she headed toward the room. It didn’t take long, and it was unnerving that there was still no sign that police had even been here, looking for evidence of her disappearance. She smiled a little when she got to the door and tried to unlock it.

Her brow furrowed again when it did actually unlock and open, almost as though Katherine couldn’t let herself believe it would work. She pushed the door inward and peered inside—only to stop, and stare uncertainly. All of her belongs were neatly packed away and sitting on the foot of her bed. She glanced to the other side of the room and saw Tara starting to stir a little bit at the sound of the door opening.

Katherine stepped inside quietly and saw a note on top of her suitcase. It was in French, of course, but it was something along the lines of “make sure this luggage is sent back to the U.S.”

What was going on?

Biting her lower lip, she moved further into the room, glancing toward Tara’s bed again. The girl was still starting to wake up, and would probably actually be awake at any moment—but before she could think of what to say, Katherine let out a yelp when the door behind her slammed shut. Suddenly, Tara sat straight up and Kat stumbled in her heeled boots, hitting the edge of the bed. She looked up, and her eyes went wide as she stared a Eric.

“What the hell are you doing here—why did you—?!” she hissed at him, trying to straighten up.

“What are
you
doing
here
, Katherine?” he demanded in turn, the fury in his voice palpable. She gulped loudly, backing further away from him. “After everything I said to you, you were just going to
leave
?!”

“Of course I was! I’d be an absolute idiot
not
to!”

“Katherine?!” Tara’s stunned, extremely confused voice caught their attention, and the two of them turned toward her. Her brown eyes darted between Katherine and Eric, and then she quickly grabbed at the covers of her bed and pulled them around her nightgown-covered breasts. “I thought you flew back to the school because you were
sick
!”

The blonde’s eyes bulged, and she looked down at the note on her suitcases. So neatly packed and unaware that she hadn’t touched them. Then she looked back at Eric accusingly. “You
paid the hotel
to tell my class that I had been rushed back to the U.S. because I was
sick
?!” She didn’t have to try and figure out the rest of that story—that little bit of information from Tara told her exactly what had happened.

But the prince, still in his formal tuxedo, seemed unperturbed by her accusation, stepping further into the room and adjusting his jacket. “You were very concerned about what your class was going to think about you disappearing—and obviously you were not abducted by some untoward individual who only meant to—”

“Like hell I wasn’t!” she cried in return, only to make herself take a deep breath and stalk toward him. “This, right here, proves my point perfectly. You don’t care about lying to get what you want, they probably thought I was dying or something—and you didn’t even blink about it! You are freaking psychotic, Eric, and you seriously need to leave me alone.”

“No,” he answered sharply, turning back to face her.

“Wait,” Tara’s voice struck through again, trying to make sense of a situation she had had no idea she needed to make sense of. “You
never
flew back home, Katherine.”

“No,” she confirmed angrily.

“And this is… this is
Prince Eric
.” All at once, Tara’s voice came out in a rushed, flustered gasp, eyes widening as she stared up at the royal. He smiled at her slightly, and bowed a little.

“Charmed.” The one word from his lips, directed at her, made Tara’s voice fail instantly and her cheeks turn a bright red.

“Yeah, this would be Prince Eric,” Katherine confirmed, unwilling to allow him to play the hero heartthrob in this situation right now. She started to list out his various offenses for Tara’s awareness. “He kidnapped me, held me captive, took my cellphone, bribed a hotel, had all of you lied to, and is trying to blackmail me into marrying him.”

The last one made Tara stare at the shorter girl. “What?”

“You heard me. He doesn’t want to get married to some snotty Miss Perfect, who I think belongs with him based on all I’ve seen, so he wants to try and dupe some stupid American girl into marrying him instead!”

“Katherine, that is not what I think of you and you
know
it.”

“If I know anything, it’s this. You were so convinced you shouldn’t be having any sort of relationship with me that you paid money to keep what you were doing a secret!”

“I would have done that regardless—or would you like to appear in every tabloid and magazine and newspaper in the country with gossip about who you are and what you’re doing with me and all sorts of nonsense? All before any of them ever had a chance to actually know you?”

“Know me?! Eric, stop lying out of your ass, you never would have let them know me! You would have presented me as the perfect little submissive wife for you to parade around in public while everything I am would be swept under the rug with more bribes and keeping everything from anyone who ever mattered! You picked me because I was easy and I’ve had enough of all of this! Leave me alone!”

“No,” he repeated, more forcefully than before, although he didn’t approach her again. “What I said earlier this evening was genuine, and I am not letting you walk away, or rather
run
away, because you are afraid that it might be.”

“I doubt you have ever said anything to me that was genuine.”

All at once, he was silenced. Then he abruptly turned away from her, looking toward an absolutely flabbergasted Tara. “My apologies for the intrusion, by the way. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss…”

“Tara…”

“Miss Tara. Your friend and I have a rather volatile relationship.” Katherine snorted as he spoke. “But perhaps you might be able to assist me with that. It is my intention to marry Katherine, that much is true, and what was once merely an arrangement of convenience is instead—”

“No, enough!” Katherine interrupted sharply. “You are extremely good at twisting words around and making people believe what you want them to, Eric, but you are not pulling that crap with Tara. She is my friend and she deserves better, and right now she’s staring at you like you’re Brad Pitt or Ashton Kutcher and she would agree to anything you said.” She crossed her arms over her stomach, and Eric sighed.

Tara’s cheeks colored again. “I think I would’ve been able to handle myself, Kat.”

“This guy could talk a bullet back up a gun, so no, you wouldn’t have.”

“You know, Katherine, perhaps there is something to the idea that you and I do not belong with one another,” Eric interjected with what was almost amusement. “After all, you seem entirely incapable of trusting me.”

“And what reason have you given me that I should trust you, Eric? Tricking me into going to dinner with you when it was a trap to keep me on the palace grounds? Planning to abandon me at the club and whole heartedly believing I wouldn’t catch onto it until you were already gone?”

“How about earlier, teaching you to ride a horse and helping you get over your fear of heights?”

“Where you took off with me at a full gallop when I was already in tears—yeah, I remember,” she retorted angrily.

“You met him at that club you went to? Why didn’t you tell me?” Tara asked, startled anew.

“Because I made out with him and he humiliated me, and I didn’t really think you would believe me to begin with.” Katherine didn’t care to relive the humiliation by going into their first encounter in detail. Tara winced.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.” Katherine turned to look at Eric with almost a challenge. “You give me a real moment when you actually did something that seemed trustworthy, and I’ll go back with you. And none of your bullshit of twisting facts to get what you want, a
real moment
.”

His eyes watched her intently as silence descended over the three of them for a long moment. Tara was still very out of sorts, shifting uncomfortably on her bed and obviously wishing she were properly dressed. But this was taking things too far. Katherine had left, she had finally gotten away from him. And he had followed her anyway, snuck into her hotel, followed her upstairs, and basically broken into her room. She was surprised that no one had heard the commotion and come to investigate. Eric was still silent.

Katherine made a face and looked away from him. “Alright, with that firmly settled, I trust you can see yourself
out
.”

“I will do you one better, Katherine,” he replied. Her eyes narrowed at him.