Stripped Bare

I am your living hell...2

Dante POV

I climbed the stairs, barely avoiding the prince's men, as I followed the trail of voices on the second level of this mansion. Interesting how their friend would just sell the place to them just like that. I wondered what made this person be so willing to give up such a beautiful house like this unless the royals had made an offer they could not refuse, or practically twisted their arm to get it!

Nothing would surprise me anymore, since the royals had their usual underhanded tricks of persuasion. I heard the dull hiss of an oxygen tank, as we slowly crept into the darkened bedroom, which had a balcony that overlooked the party below us.

The wheelchair was there, with its' occupant who seemed to be motionless within it. As I came closer, my eyes darted on both sides, just to make sure that we were alone with the prince, and that no one else was in that room. Walid kept watch, his gun locked and loaded, as we silently locked the door behind us, while checking the other rooms for any unwanted guests.

As I approached, my eyes grew wide as I stifled a gasp from escaping my mouth. The prince was a shrivelled-up shadow of his former self. I wondered at what could have happened in the past week that we were here. My mind brought me back to the vision of a very angry but seemingly fit man berating his subordinates in the parking lot of the hotel. How on earth could this be that same man?

Could the princess have planned this all along? I gingerly laid two fingers on his pulse but I found none. It appeared that the man had been dead for some time. But then who was it who waved down to both her and Damien? I checked behind the sofa and found another corpse – that of a man wearing a robe, similar to what the prince was wearing. In this dead man's hand, was an injection needle.

I observed the body, checking for further evidence, when I suddenly heard a noise behind me. I barely turned my head in time to deflect the butt of a gun from striking me. I grappled with the man in the shadows as I struggled to see his face through the darkness, since my opponent was wearing a mask of some sort. I yanked the felon's arm and thrashed him down onto the carpet, but he grabbed me and pulled me down with him!

Walid was trying to take aim but found no clear opening with me being in the way. I finally managed to get a hold of the gun, flinging it far away from us as I continued to roll on the floor with the guy. Walid managed to pick up the weapon with a handkerchief, stowing it away as evidence.

This person was not heavy set as I was easily able to knock the wind out of him, when I elbowed his gut. I heard a grunt come out of that mouth but it sounded feminine to me. At last, I gripped the mask which hid the face so well and yanked it off just as Walid slip back into the room after hearing a huge commotion outside.

The mask flew off to reveal someone whom I had not seen in a while...Teresa???

Before she could utter a single word, Walid boldly grabbed hold of her arms, pinning them back behind her, as I flicked on the side light switch, so as not to cause any disturbance to the party below. I stuffed my pocket handkerchief into her mouth to muffle her cries. Once she was subdued, we quickly bundled her outside of the room to the back-end staircase, and down to the awaiting vehicle which Mason and Fahey had quietly driven up the driveway.

As soon as we caught sight of Damien coming down the stairs to give the go-ahead, Fahey revved up the engine as Walid shoved her through the opened car door, slamming it shut. Walid also handed over the gun which she had in her possession to Mason.

As they drove off, we heard the screams of a woman in agony, and naturally assumed it was the princess upon discovering her husband's cold and dead body in the room. We had to get back to the party as soon as possible to avoid being under suspicion of any kind.

All three of us climbed up the stairs, calmly and collectively towards the room, only to see the princess, passed out in the arms of one of the guards. One of the guests had called the police who were on their way.

Dante and I relieved the man of his burden, gently laying the fainted princess on the couch. Soon the paramedics hustled up the stairs to check on the prince, confirming that the man was no longer breathing. Meanwhile, the police began to separate the people into groups, in order to interrogate them.

The princess was slowly revived, only to become a sobbing, crumpled mess. We both tried our best to console her, as she pined for her beloved husband. We were about to leave the room but the woman begged us to stay, and so we did, knowing full well that this could be the break we needed to get information of the trafficking activities out of her. She called a man to her side, dressed in shamanistic robes and introduced him to us, stating that he was responsible for the prince's health and wellbeing. I made a mental note of this while watching the paramedics do their duty.

While Damien dealt with the pleasantries, I noticed the faint hint of a thin cord around the prince's neck, indicating that he could have been possibly asphyxiated, but why Teresa was present and if she did it was yet to be revealed to us. It was left up to our interrogation team to find out.

We wondered about the identity of the man behind the couch, who had been shot point-blank by a gun, affixed with a silencer. It was found in close proximity to the body, and was dusted for fingerprints by the attending forensics staff.

As we were cautioned by the police to touch nothing, my mind wandered back to my good friend and fellow schoolmate, Tommy, whom I thought I had innocently left at the university a while back. I hoped that he was alright, since he and Teresa had been terribly close when I left.

Fahey and Mason later revealed upon thoroughly questioning Teresa, that she was working on her own and not affiliated with any agency or organization. It was purely out of revenge, as her mother had been physically and sexually abused at the hands of the prince a while back, when the woman had been a hired dancer for one of their events.

Teresa had prior knowledge of the prince entering the country at some point and had apparently been following the man everywhere on his travels, but whether she knew of what my involvement with the royals was, had yet to be clarified.

Teresa was just as shocked to see me as I was to see her, and had to be administered a drug which would wipe her memories clean of ever having encountered any of us at the scene. Her only recollection would be that of having successfully killed the prince, and that she had gotten caught, and was now on her way to being judged and eventually incarcerated.

There was no mention of Tommy during her interrogation however. I just hoped that the guy was okay, and vowed to look for him on my own sometime later.

Meanwhile, we were at the princess' beck and call, since the guards had done a lousy job of protecting them. She felt that she could not trust them anymore. She abruptly dismissed the men from the room for the time being.

Walid ordered the men to help disperse the guests, asking them politely to leave, while the police were still questioning the princess, us and the staff who were present. We were doing a little investigation of our own with regards to the staff, since only they could have allowed Teresa entry onto the premises while she posed as one of the guests.

So much for surprises. I was in a bit of a quandary as to what my role would be after the prince's demise. Whether the princess was going to relieve me of my duties towards her was another matter to be considered. But deep in my heart, I secretly hoped that we could finally bust this case wide open soon, and I would finally gain some peace of mind over the entire matter.