Modern Princess

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Ren's POV

"He is the most frustrating man I have ever met," I growled, looking at Mr. World through the mirror.

He just chuckled and shook his head.

"What," I asked.

I could tell he had something to say, but he just covered it up with a laugh.

"I just think it's funny how your only shields to avoiding liking the young man are heated glares and rude remarks. You clearly like him."

I gaped at him as he nonchalantly continued to sew on my dress.

"You must be delusional because there is no way in all of Hades that I would ever like that-that....toad," I exclaimed, coming up short in the insult department.

"Don't strain yourself there," he sarcastically remarked with a chuckle.

"I mean, okay. He's cute, but that's all," I huffed, crossing my arms only to have Mr. World to push them back to my sides.

"He's only cute," he pushed, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Fine. He's really hot, but that means nothing because nothing is going to happen."

For some reason, the thought of staying just friends (if that's what we even are) was a bit disappointing. What is wrong with me?

****

Beckham's POV

I was standing at the doorway of the seamstress room smiling like an idiot. I was acting like such a girl just because she called me hot.

I shook my head and walked away from the door, but the smile wouldn't leave my face.

I barely walked around the corner when I nearly ran into King Hugo.

"Ahh, Prince Beckham. Just the man I was looking for," he smiled as I bowed in respect.

I almost didn't notice he had said my real name until I realized I didn't feel the bad feeling I get every time someone says Isaac. I mostly just get the feeling every time Remy says it, but that's beside the point.

"Your Majesty, I'm trying to keep a low profile so if we could keep the name dropping to a minimum that would be ideal."

"Of course. Of course. But what I would like to know is why I wasn't informed of the switch," he said, with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

I stood frozen for a bit, trying to understand what he was talking about.

"Did my father not inform you of the circumstance," I asked, trying to think of every possible solution to what he was saying.

"I was informed of nothing and, in fact, I thought you were here as Prince Beckham. I was surprised to find my daughter out with another young man under false pretenses. The only reason I didn't expose you two then was because I know your father very well and I would expect him to raise his children better than that. So," he said, motioning ahead of him. "Care to explain."

****

After a long walk around the palace and an even longer chat about what I was doing here, I found myself shaking hands with King Hugo.

"I trust you to do what is right which is why it is up to you to make sure your friend does not make my daughter fall in love with him. That would flaw every plan I set up for her. And furthermore, you need to make absolutely sure of why you're here," King Hugo was looking me straight in the eyes and I had a feeling he wasn't just talking about the murder case.

"Yes, Your Majesty," I gulped, feeling more deflated than ever.

As the king walked away, I glanced at my watch and grimaced. I was nearly thirty minutes late to my virtual meeting with Eb. He was going to be pretty upset, especially since he said it was pretty urgent.

I quickly went back to my room and set up the little bit of equipment I had with me. I contacted Eb right away and was met with an annoyed expression.

"Hi Eb," I guiltily smiled.

"You're late," he grumbled with a frown on his face. "I'm going to have to move fast now in order to fill you in on what we found."

"Yeah. Go ahead. I have the files open on my tablet."

"There was a sighting earlier this week of what was suspected to be a rebel leader. I didn't think much of it until there was a second appearance, yesterday of the same man. Except this time, he was halfway across the world in Dig. And the even more puzzling is fact that he was in two different disguises. I guess he really didn't want to be identified. Lucky for us, face recognition picked him up both times."

"I'll be in Dig pretty soon for Princess Olympie and Prince Azzedine's wedding so I can do some investigating about this man while I'm there. Can you transfer the pictures to me so I can see if I've seen him before or if he's in any of my notes," I asked, my mind already whirling at one hundred miles an hour.

"You are the boss," Eb commented, as I heard clicking on his side of the screen. A few seconds later, I was searching through the pictures he had sent over. It took me a minute, but I finally realized that I knew this man and I knew just where from.

"Eb, remember when I told you Princess Ren and I had a stakeout in an abandoned warehouse and heard some conversation between a man and a woman," I said, continuing to sift through the pictures.

"Oh yeah. When you and the Princess had a date," he smirked, wagging his eyebrows at me.

I gave him a look and said, "A date? Really?"

"Okay. So maybe it wasn't exactly romantic, but I know you totally enjoyed it."

"Anyway," I said loudly, causing Eb to bark out a laugh, "this was the man we heard. Ordinarily I wouldn't recognize him, but he had the terrible misfortune of having a scar of sorts on his head," I pointed out.

"Oh yeah. I see it now. I was wondering why he didn't have any hair there," Eb nodded, leaning forward in his seat to look at one of the other computer screens.

Then the beeping started going off.

"Eb, what's going on," I asked, leaning forward in my chair in case my help was needed.

"It's the facial recognition alarm," he quickly said, typing away on his computer. "I put this man and a few other suspicious people into the system and we finally got a hit on," Eb clicks something, "a traffic camera. It's the man again and he's walking across the street in," more clicks from Eb, "Kedudien."

"Where," I asked, already standing up and slipping my phone into my pocket.

"The corner of second and third street, but Beckham he's probably already long gone. We don't always get these hits immediately after they happen. I think you should hold off," he advised, looking me in the eyes through the screen.

I was already ready to go fin the man, however, despite Eb's insistence not to.

"I have to at least try, Eb. You of all people should know I have to try and find the man."

"Not that I'm condoning this, but at least activate your tracker so if for some reason you get your butt beaten by this dude I can find you," he grumbled, typing away once more on his computer.

I rolled my eyes in exasperation, but did as told and activated the tracker in the back of my neck through my phone. This was the only tracker I had voluntary control over. The one in my wrist, given to me as a baby, was always on and always being monitored by the royal security. Eb had me implant the one in my neck for him and his team since he couldn't get ahold of the one in my wrist. He, least, let me turn it on and off. Not that I had to listen to him, but someone had to have a level head in this operation.

"I'll contact you if I run into trouble," I said, before Eb started objecting again and I hung up.

Here goes nothing.

****

xx