Traitors in Their Midst

Dante opened his eyes, feeling woozy and a bit dizzy.

He was lying on a dirty mattress trying not to think about the fact that he had missed his woman's biggest Avgo Event.

The fact that they'd gotten ambushed in a place where he had a supremely tight defense set up meant the security breech was far deeper within the organization than they were even aware of.

He had been on his way out of Candi's dressing room, heading towards the side kitchen area near the dressing rooms where he knew his brothers would have congregated.

It was a meeting spot that the four men had previously agreed upon because it was a convenient area to store some of Candi's preparations and costume change.

Nobody should have known about that meeting spot, other than his security detail. There had to have been a double agent mixed within the twins' group that had given them away.

One moment, he was alone and the next moment, he was surrounded by masked space pirates.

Three men immediately grabbed him from behind. All had weapons drawn at his head.

They had pushed him into the side kitchen where he saw his two brothers also similarly subdued.

To his right was Jason. His temple was bleeding slightly and he looked sluggish.

To his left was Jared with a weapon shoved at the back of his head, his brown eyes terrified.

Of Lucas, he saw no sign.

"Call your dogs off. Now!" One of the men had called out through his mask. His voice had been magically modulated so as to be unrecognizable.

"My dogs?" Dante questioned, trying to engage them so he could at least negotiate something.

One of the thugs shoved the weapon into Jared's mouth.

"One more question from you and he gets a hole blown through his head."

"Okay. Okay." Dante held up a hand.

These guys were hard core. There was no negotiation possible.

"I need to access a virtual monitor. I'm just going to do that right now."

"Voice only. No visual." The thug warned.

Dante nodded and set up the call as carefully as he could. He knew this type of assassin.

Any stray signs of suspicion and the terrorists would shoot first and ask questions later.

Once he got through to his men, he placed the command to back off from the target and stand by.

The moment he did that, Dante felt the prick of a needle and the world went dark.

When he came to, he was alone on the dirty mattress in some rank holding cell.

His time piece showed eight hours had passed from the time he had left Candace. Her Avgo event had passed and he had failed her.

For a moment, self-recrimination rose within him, causing him to roil with overwhelming sadness and anger.

He shook to clear his head trying to clear the fog from his brains. He had to work past the emotions to try and figure out what had just gone down.

As he laid there on the mattress, Dante wracked his brains trying to figure out exactly what had occurred and more importantly, how it could have possibly happened in such a tight security area.

The two dozen personal security men he had deployed to surround them were all gone, most likely picked off, one at a time. All others within the vicinity had been called off by Dante himself.

One thing he knew for sure. The twins had been betrayed by at least one of their own agents. The looks on their faces were clear. They headed the intelligence division and even they hadn't seen this coming.

"Hey you!" A voice called out. It was a very familiar voice.

Dante slowly looked up.

"Mattheus Cordera." Dante drawled. "What brings you to this luxurious beautiful place?"

It had been awhile since he'd seen Mattheus, but the man hadn't changed much.

He had the same hawkish nose, the same piercing green eyes, and the same lanky dark green hair that always looked like seaweed.

"Haha, you're so funny. I came to visit my cousins as soon as I heard they were here."

"What have you done with Jason and Jared?"

"Oh don't worry. They are doing well. We may use them for nefarious reason, but we try not to hurt our own."

Mattheus' lips curled in a sneer.

"Too bad you didn't know that and pulled your security forces away from the Avgo Event."

Dante narrowed his eyes. At the moment, his brothers were not his only concern.

He had left Candace all alone in the dressing room. His only hope was that Lucas would have been able to reach her somehow.

"The judges called the Avgo Events a few hours ago." Mattheus laughed. "There's a new winner and her name is Candace Farrah."

Dante glared at him without saying a word. So that meant she did manage to make it to the stage, even without him and the twins.

"Hmm. You seem completely uninterested in the new Avgo winner. But you should be. She will be married to the new Crown Prince soon."

Dante continued glaring at Mattheus Cordera. Of course she was going to be married to the Crown Prince.

The man looked as if he had no idea that he was looking at the Crown Prince.

Mattheus held out his hand and melted the iron locks. With a quick sudden jerk, he pushed through.

"Hmm. Right about now, we should have announcements about the Crown Prince. Let's see what they say."

Mattheus waved a finger into the air.

Immediately, a voice began rattling nonstop about the beautiful and dazzling new Crown Prince, the illustrious famed star of the entertainment world, Prince Lucas!

Before Dante's horrified eyes, he saw his brother being paraded out like a lamb being taken to slaughter.

Closeups of Lucas' face showed amber eyes that were dazed, as if he had no idea what had just happened. This was most definitely not Lucas' doing.

And then the announcer moved onto the next piece of breaking news which had to do with the Lucandace couple.

Dante's eyes saw red as images of Lucas and Candace, those flawlessly merged photos from that asinine contest, rolling through in rapid succession.

They portraying a solid couple who were deeply in love and were simply waiting for the perfect time to announce their relationship.

Dante knew it was all fake, but the images of the two of them smiling at the cameras tore through his mind as rage bubbled up.

The announcer made it seem as though they had planned it all along, not exposing their relationship until Candace won the Avgo and became Prime Avgo Female.

They had also made it seem as if Lucas would also announce his Crown Prince position at around the same time so that the two would be automatically married per the Avgo agreements and rules.

Dante closed his eyes as he heard the announcer releasing the news that the wedding would take place two weeks later at the Royal Palace.

With a wave of his hand, Lucas cleared the virtual monitor.

"As you see, the woman that you have been dreaming of day and night is no longer available. She's getting married very soon."

His eyes grew melancholic. "I must admit, at one point I was also enamored with her."

"She is very enticing!" Mattheus licked his lips. "Such powerful limbs. Such graceful movements. Such luscious lips. Can you just imagine what a woman like that would feel like in your arms?"

Dante lunged at Mattheus. Immediately, a sharp stabbing pain hit him in the solar plexus and he dropped to the ground.

Mattheus had thrown a kick so fast, in Dante's drugged drowsy state, he could not avoid quickly enough.

The man was no joke. His fighting stance was on par with Slate, and Slate was no joke.

As he crawled on the ground, gasping from the pain, Dante's only satisfaction was in the fact that what Mattheus was imagining, Dante already knew.

He knew intimately, the curve of her face, the strength of her limbs, and the softness of her lips.

For Mattheus to be thinking about his wife in that same manner filled Dante with rage. He wanted to shut Mattheus' mouth, but he was the one on the floor at this moment and he needed to conserve his strength while he recovered enough to figure out a way to escape.

He took a deep breath and staggered to his feet. He had to find out exactly what Mattheus wanted from him and why the man was here.

Mattheus Cordera stared at him with hard glittering green eyes, filled with the arrogance of a man who knew his own worth.

"Let me cut to the chase here so we don't waste each other's time." He crossed his arms over his muscular chest.

"I know she was supposed to be yours. I know you sacrificed a lot to win her hand. I know you were the Crown Prince of Erenveil for the better part of a week."

He shook his head, his eyes never leaving Dante's face.

"For all this to slip from your hands must have been a terrible shock."

Mattheus' eyes softened.

"Believe me. I do know how it feels. My kingdom was stolen from me as well."

He leaned forward with a serious look on his face.

"What if you could get it all back, Dante?"