Rise of Kings and Queens

Chapter 27

"Then you should prepare for a lot of hard times. The media will eventually find out how you two met."

"You know about that?"

"We all do."

"And you don't disapprove?"

"All I care about is your happiness. We all do, but some of us think that girl will not bring you happiness."

"What do you think, honestly?"

"I think some people have to do things in this life that they aren't really proud of to survive. I don't think that's always their own doing so I'm never going to judge them for it. You look happy, and she looks happy. That is the only thing that matters."

"I'm a little surprised the media hasn't found out about her yet."

"That's my doing," said Yelena. "It was kind of easy."

"How?"

"I hid her identity from public knowledge," answered Yelena. "I classified her as a person of interest so no one can just look her up."

"Why did you do that?"

"Arlo told me how you two met and I thought you wouldn't want anyone else knowing. That is between you and her, and apparently Arlo and Luan who were also there."

"And the rest of my squad as well, apparently."

"Yeah, Arlo and Luan were concerned."

"Thank you, Yelena," said Luka. "I really do appreciate you. I hope you knew that."

"I know now," said Yelena. "Let's go see how Kara is doing."

Yelena and Luka entered Kara's room where they found Esme and Luan looking after her. The room had seemed to have gone quiet when they entered. Kara was awake and had a frown on her face.

"Did we just interrupt something?" asked Yelena.

Esme, Luan and Kara looked towards each other but didn't answer the question. Luka went over to Kara who had her covers up to her chest and wore a turtleneck.

"How are you holding up?" he asked her.

"Hurt," she answered. "My arm, my face and my back. I got careless and the enemy really got me."

"She's lucky to be alive," said Luan. "One of the Mexican royal guards didn't make it."

"I can't believe Dependency really attacked Mexico," said Yelena. "You think they would be grateful to have the refugees back in their own country."

"Oh no," said Kara. "They want compensation for supporting the refugees for as long as they did."

"Seriously?" said Luka.

"Not just them," said Luan. "Brodie Noble has been asking for the same thing back in his country."

"Wait," said Yelena. "He's asking for the same thing as Dependency? That makes him a person of interest again."

"We realized," said Luan. "I'll probably go talk to him again. Could be Dependency just watching him and agreeing with what he wants."

"I still don't like it," said Yelena. "If they weren't working together before, they might be now." Yelena noticed Kara and Esme had frowns on their faces. "Seriously, what did I miss?"

Esme and Kara looked away from Yelena.

"You're really not going to tell me?"

"She doesn't think it was Dependency who attacked her," said Esme, not looking in their direction.

"Excuse me? If it wasn't Dependency, then who?"

"I think it was Delfina Cordero," answered Kara.

"Oh," said Yelena. "Shit. I take it you have no proof?"

"None."

"Then you see our problem," said Esme, turning to look at Yelena. "Delfina attacked one of ours and we can't do anything about it."

"Wait, why do you think it was Delfina?" asked Luka. "Weren't you being attacked by Dependency?"

"Dependency would have killed me," said Kara.

"I thought they tried," he said. "Hence the hospital bed."

"The person who attacked me had every opportunity to kill me." Kara pulled down her turtleneck, revealing a cut mark by her throat. "She had a knife to my neck and all she had to do was cut. The person who did this to me wanted to send a message to all of us."

"Which was?" asked Yelena.

"Retire or we'll retire you," said Esme.

"They tried to retire me, but the doctors say I'll recover."

"What do we do now?" asked Luka.

"We can't retaliate without proof," said Yelena.

Esme slammed her fist into the wall. "We know that. Why do you think we are so pissed off?"

"We'll get her," said Yelena. "Delfina thinks she is smarter than us, and she hates that there's prince and princesses as world military leaders. We're going to use that against her."

"How?"

"By sending a prince and a princess to protect her from Dependency."