Player's Princess (A Royal Sports Romance)(78)

"Your Grace," he mumbles.

"I'm Prince Konstantin. Princess Ana's brother."

"Seriously?" Akele says.

"Hi, Prince," Aheahe says.

"Are you going to trash my bar?" the bartender says.

I stand up. "Why are you here?"

He puts his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I am here because I love, how are you saying, big sister? Yes, I love big sister and I want to help her. She is very sad. Unless you are why she is sad, then I must cut your dick off."

"It's not my fault," I choke out.

"Let me translate for you," Thorlief says, rising.

They go back and forth in their native tongue. I have no idea what they're saying, but the prince turns redder and redder with every word.

"This whore did this thing to my sister?" he says to me.

"Uh, yeah."

"Then she must pay," he says, slamming his fist into his hand. "But first we must be stopping the wedding."

I blink. "Wait, what wedding?"

"The wedding of Ana to Mortimer."

"Hold up," Dee says. "Wedding to—?"

"Why am I in repeating? Are you having sawdust in your ears? Princess Ana must marry. The queen has decreed it."

"Okay," I sigh, "so if I want to get Ana back, I have to somehow get to a foreign country thousands of miles away with no transportation and no passport and somehow get into a closely guarded wedding and break it up without getting executed by my girlfriend's mother?"

"Yes!"

"Oh f*ck me, more booze."

Just then, more people to start to pile in.

Izzy comes first, with Chester Caulfield on his heels, and the rest of the team files in behind him, most of them still in their pads. Half the cheerleading squad packs into the bar, and finally the De La Warr Knight in his giant foam costume ducks under the lintel and tromps into the bar carrying his seven-foot foam lance.

"What is this?" the bartender demands. "Some kind of a joke?"

Akele stands to his full height.

"Brothers and sisters," he thunders, his voice rolling along the ceiling like a distant storm, shaking the rusty, old chandeliers. "We have been called together today on a holy quest. We have been bound in blood and pain on the field of battle, a bond that no one can understand who has not shared it."

He walks around the room, arms up, preaching.

"Our mission is a difficult one. An ocean and a castle stand between us and victory. I ask you this day to put everything on the line for Jason Powell and Ana De Vries, to risk everything. There may be difficulties. There may be casualties. We may not return, but if we fall, we will ride in Valhalla eternal as warriors of renown. What we do today will be legendary. We will be more than players, more than cheerleaders, more than a guy in a foam suit. We will be heroes. Who's with me!"

"I am," Aheahe roars.

Then the room goes completely silent. Everybody kind of shuffles around on their feet.

Oh, okay then.

"I am going," Thorlief says, rising to stand, shakily, next to Akele.

The prince walks over and slaps the huge guard's shoulder.

"I too am joining this, ah, quest."

"You don't need to go, Akele," I sigh, walking to the middle of the room. "I can handle this myself."

"How many times has he carried us?" Aheahe shouts. "Will we abandon him in his time of need? Is that how you will remember this day? When you let your friend face danger alone?"

Izzy walks over. "In."

Cheesy Caulfield is next. "In," he agrees.

"Please leave," the bartender pleads.

The Knight walks over and pumps his foam lance in the air.

Suddenly I'm surrounded by hands slapping my shoulders and back.

"Together we are stronger," Akele declares. "We need cars, boats, helicopters, whatever we need to get to… how are we doing this again?"

"I am having a private airplane," Prince Konstantin says. "It will holding all the people. We must go now!"

"All right!" Akele roars, "Everybody get in the van! We're breaking up a wedding!"

I turn to Thorlief and Konstantin.

"You can get us on the island?"

Konstantin grins. "For Ana? I can move the world."

That hole in my chest begins to fill with something swelling up inside, a fire that burns through my veins.

"Let's go," I bellow. "We've got work to do!"





Chapter Sixteen





Ana



I had not expected to set foot here for a long time. It no longer feels real. My bed is broad enough for me to lie across it with room to spare. My rooms are huge, as big as a house all by themselves. I am surrounded by opulence and history, ensconced in an ancient castle with all the modern creature comforts and luxuries that would make a rich man gasp.

I was born in this room. Literally; my mother gave birth on this bed, surrounded by doctors and midwives and attendants. My entire childhood was spent here. This is my place, where I began. It should be a comfort to sit here again in this room I know so well, with the distant sea and its lush crashing sound echoing through my open window as the cool, damp air washes over me.