Levi slipped down the back staircase, disabled the alarm on one of the ballroom windows, and navigated his way through the blind spot he had discovered only a short time ago.

If he had read Darius’s expression correctly, Cassie was no longer with her father. Levi guessed she had left the residence shortly after he’d been escorted out the king’s chambers.

Though there were dozens of places she could go on the palace grounds, only one made sense to him: the gazebo.

Assuming his status with the royal guard had changed from guest to enemy, Levi tucked his earpiece into place and used his phone to find the new frequency for the guards’ communication. It took him only two tries to find it. That was something else security needed to change. Of course, if they had approved the scrambler he had recommended, he wouldn’t be able to track their activity now.

He listened for a moment as the guards orchestrated their movements to compensate for the motion sensor that had sounded. Levi played the guard formations through his mind and chose his course. He pressed his body alongside the palace wall to keep himself out of view of the cameras and made his way to the northeast corner.

Should he hike straight to the gazebo or retrieve a horse? Going on horseback would certainly be faster, and depending on how long ago Cassie had left the residence, she might still be at the stables.

With a destination in mind, he continued forward. He scanned the area, searching for any movement out of place or any guards who might intercept him. From the voices coming through his headset, security had yet to locate the source of the sensor alarm. He itched to have access to the control room and the video images feeding onto the screens there.

One voice cut through the rest of the chatter on his headset with a sense of urgency. “Intruder on the east side. Looks like he’s heading for the stables.”

Levi’s heart squeezed in his chest. If he was right, whoever was on the grounds was headed straight for Cassie.

* * *

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my big brother.” Julien lifted his weapon and took aim. “I have to say that was very clever coming to work for the Rossi family. I never thought to look for you here.”

“Put the gun down. I’m not a threat to you.”

“Oh, but you are. You and those three princesses are all that stand between me and the throne.”

“I abdicated my claim when I came to work here. It was the only way King Eduard would agree to protect me.”

“Then he knows.”

“He only knows you exist. He doesn’t know your name or anything else about you.”

“Someone does. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have found a surveillance team outside our old apartment in Malmo.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. King Alejandro didn’t have anything to do with that,” Theo insisted. “If he had ordered a surveillance team, I would have known about it.”