Chapter 27

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Evy had never felt so foolish in her life. She should have stayed in that stupid room. Now like a fool she locked herself and imagine how she would look to someone who found her. Her neck went red with embarrassment and she face palmed herself. What a way to make a first impression!

She looked around the hallway she was locked into. She worked in a hotel before and she knew a service passage when she saw one. This was definitely a service passage. She looked up to see if there were any cameras, maybe she could wave at one? As her luck would have it , there was a camera down the pathway where the path the path split in to a 'T' one leading to left and another to right. She walked down and stood at the juncture and looked both ways. She looked up at the camera and waved meekly and stood there hoping someone would come find her. She had no idea how much time passed but nothing happened, she looked around on her left was a similar door she had walked through and on her right was a door as far as she could see there was no access card reader next to it and it had a bold red text on it "FIRE EXIT" with a typical sign of a man running from flames.

She slowly walked over and hesitantly tugged at the door and it opened without any resistance. She walked in to the doorway to be greeted by a stairway they led down. She contemplated if she wanted to wait around, but had a feeling that if someone was watching that video on that camera they should have come over by now, so with the only alternative left she started descending.

Strangely, the first two levels she descended the fire exit doors were locked as she reached the last floor she prayed before trying to pull open the door and to her surprise it opened. With relief she walked out in to a hallway again she had two paths in front of her and she turned right and walked for a few feet when the path turned left as she turned she saw one more double door and she could open it, the moment she opened the door she walked in to a large passageway in to a sea of people moving around busy in activity. Most ignore her are gave her a strange look before hurrying away, with their uniform and equipment they were carrying all she could realize they were some kind of kitchen staff.

"Excuse me?" She stopped someone.

"Yes?!" That someone stopped gruffly.

"I am...kind of lost..." she said in a meek voice, feeling foolish.

"Follow me!" he commanded and turned on his heel and kept walking.

Evy meekly followed him through a maze of hallways until he stopped at a booth where a guard lounging.

"She is lost!" he hitched his thumb behind him at Evy and simply walked away.

Evy looked sheepishly at the guard.

"Please follow me ma'am" He said politely as he got up and started to walk, after going through a maze of passages again he came to a door. Swiped his access card on the card reader and held the door open "This way please" He told her.

As she stepped out, he promptly closed the door behind him.

She turned around and stared at the door with a big red minus sign that said "Restricted Access" on it, where the guard was a moment ago.

She stared at the door for a moment in shock and looked around. She was in a massive hall with throngs of people going around the hall in neat little lines marked by velvet ropes. The door she came out was near the entrance of this hall and people were thronging in in droves.

***

Sebastian walked in to Roma's office.

"Is our guest settled in?" She asked him.

"Yep. I believe she will be sleeping for a while" He added.

"All right, arrange a lunch for us" She told him.

He just nodded and sat opposite to her on the other side of table and added "I got a call from the Russians."

She raised an eyebrow at that, their relationship with their next door neighbors was neutral and contact was rarely made.

"Some human soldiers at the border were mauled by wolves. The Russians are shooting any wolves on sight, they are warning us to stay away from the border in wolf form for a while." He informed.

"I see. Let our patrols know. Any surveillance is in strict human form only" She ordered.

"Yep" he agreed and added "Also the wolves that killed the soldier might be rogue werewolves and might have entered our borders."

"How worried should we be?" She asked.

"The Russians didn't sound that worried, a small group of rogues...mostly unstable but nothing we can handle" He gave his assessment.

"Inform our patrols, keep an eye out for them" She ordered "If you find them try and detain but if provoked, go ahead and kill them."

"Will do" Sebastian agreed.

"And send out a note of thanks to Ivan will you, this was nice of them" She added.

Ivan was the Alpha of the Russian pack. He was rumored to be crazy and was nicknamed 'Crazy Ivan'

"Maybe it's time we look at Russia more closely" Sebastian added.

"What do you mean?" Roma asked.

"With war brewing in America, it would not hurt to have Ivan on our side" He offered "Ivan and Gordon are not the best of friends either, maybe we can reach an agreement?" the axiom enemy of my enemy is my friend never got old.

Roma contemplated for a moment "Send out some feelers, all unofficial of course and see how they receive them. If positive set up some dialogue. Maxim always wanted to set up some dialogue with our next door neighbors, maybe it's time we start working on it."

"Will do Roma" Sebastian said. They had ignored Russia for a long time now and it was time to do something about it.

Roma nodded satisfied and brought up next item in her agenda "I want Gordon Lockbourne roasted over hot coals over the incident in Montana, I want our representative to raise hell in the next world council."

"Sure thing Roma, how far do we take it?" He asked.

"See if we can get some concession out of it. Permission for manhunt on this Charles." Roma revealed her plan.

"It's going to be difficult" Sebastian warned.

"There was an attack on the member of the Roma royal family in his territory, he got him by the balls and its time we nail them to the wall" She said in deadly seriousness "Tell the council we consider this an act of war." She paused for a moment and looked at Sebastian "It's time to play hardball."

Sebastian somberly nodded.

"I know there will be some fallout" Roma stated. Gordon was not the one to sit around "most likely it will be Colorado, speak to Alex and go ahead with securing Colorado with full force."

"Got it Roma" Sebastian added "Also I have a team ready for infiltration" He added. She had asked him to get a team ready a week back to infiltrate Montana and he had put it together.

"Get them in to Colorado and put them on standby" She ordered.

"How well are we stocked out there?" She asked about their weapons.

"We have a storage center in Loveland, Colorado close to Nick's pack. It's stocked for a long lasting conflict" Sebastian assured.

"Very well" She said satisfied.

"Roma...are we ready for an all-out war with Gordon?" he gently asked her, this was not something they decided on whim, it would tilt the scale of peace the council managed and not all parties might be in favor of it.

"The way I see it, it is inevitable" Roma stated "We need to convince the rest of the world on why we are in the right and I leave that up to Maxwell and you to rally as many ally's as possible when the time comes." She stated and added "Talking about Maxwell...what's the status of his visit?"

"It's concluded, he will be back soon." Sebastian informed.

Roma raised her eyebrow at that, the African werewolves loved their haggling and they were worst then fishmongers, they would drag the most trivial of discussion for weeks if they had their way.

"Maxwell was running thin on patience so he demonstrated his point...so to speak." Maxwell had taken the most vocal opponent in the meeting and snapped his neck and laid him on the table and let his body remain there for the duration of the meeting. Which ended unsurprisingly quickly.

Roma sighed "I would prefer we have our potential allies alive"

"It was long overdue....they were getting bolder out there, it was time to remind who they were dealing with" Sebastian defended Maxwell's actions.

"Violence always had repercussions...you of all people should know that" She admonished.

He gave her a pointed look "True, but sometimes it gets the job done."

"Anyways" Roma said looking at her watch "I think it's time for us to meet our young guest."

***

Evy took a moment to realize what had happened.

They had though her to be some lost tourist and promptly escorted her out in to the tourist area and left her there.

She looked around lost, unsure what to do next and walked along with the throng of tourists taking in the sights, she was soon enthralled with the paintings and riches displayed for the equally awed public and to think everything belonged to her new family....it was an unsettling thought.

She spotted a security guard standing in one corner and approached him with great reluctance.

"um...ah..." She started.

"Go straight and take the second left miss" He interrupted dismissively buy in a polite tone, he did not even look at her.

"Ah...what?" she asked bewildered.

"The washrooms...straight and second left" he put out his hand pointing her in the direction.

"ah.."She rasped embarrassed "I don't need the direction to the washroom" she informed.

For the first time since the beginning of their conversation he turned to look at her, with a question mark face.

"I am lost" she confessed.

"Lost?" he asked confused.

"Yes."

"You mean from your family?" He asked.

"No...No.." she took a deep breath to explain "I was on the fourth floor and lost my way and ended up here."

The utter look of disbelief on his face told her everything she needed to know. He did not believe her.

Shit!

***

"Evy" Sebastian knocked on her door and waited for the third time and he still had no response.

He gently pressed the door handle and it opened without any resistance. He hesitantly entered the room and looked around...the bed was un kept, indicating she had been sleeping there.

"Evy" he called out and met with silence. His eyes riveted to the bathroom door which was open. He walked in to the room further "Evy?" no response. He walked in to the bathroom to check it out. Nobody was there. Apparently she was not in the room, where the hell was she?

***

"Miss I don't know what you are playing at but..." The guard skeptically stated, eying her wearily.

"Can you contact Sebastian?" She interrupted him and at the mention of that name his eyes widened.

"How do you know him?" He demanded.

"Or Jonathan?" She asked ignoring his question.

"How do you know them?" He demanded again.

She sighed "I flew in to Roma with Sebastian earlier today and Jonathan escorted me to my room on the fourth floor, he is the head of butler services or something isn't it? Please contact them and they will confirm my story" She insisted.

One more guard walked over "is there a problem?"

***

After a few minutes of searching, Sebastian reached the conclusion that was building for a while. Somehow Evy was lost in the palace. He sighed, and pulled out his phone, he needed to contact his head of security to have people look at cameras to find her and he started walking towards the security control room. None of the security staff knew how she looked.

***

"She says she is lost" The guard explained to the new one, who was like a supervisor. "That she was staying in the fourth floor and she came in today earlier with a 'Sebastian' and a 'Jonathan' who is supposed to be the head of butler service escorted her to her room."

The new guard did not give anything away just stared impassively at her but internally he had alarms going off...they had their share of crackpots from time to time, claiming to be the girlfriend/ wife of the prince or the lovechild of Maxim or long lost relation to the royal family, they in fact had a list of regulars that were detained at the gate itself. She didn't look like the regulars but something worried him...her accurately naming a senior staff and his title correctly and next mentioning Sebastian by name....Not many knew both of them, the names of the Royal family were common knowledge but the rest...not so.

There could be a very slim chance he pondered.

"What did you say your name was miss?" He asked her.

"Evy...Evelyn" she blurted out.

"Stay here" he ordered her and looked at his guard "stay with her"

The supervisor walked back to where he came from and picked up his wireless radio that the security team used.

"Control room, can to connect me to butler services please?" He radioed in, no way in hell he was reaching out to Sebastian for something that could be nothing.

***

"Sebastian" the head of security greeted him on the phone.

"I have a delicate situation, Matt" Sebastian began.

"I am all ears" The head of security responded.

"We might have someone lost in the palace....Someone we need to retrieve ASAP without any fuss"

"Ok..." The head of security waited for more information.

"Female, 5'2-5'3 in height....brunette, not sure of her clothing or her current location, I need active eyes on all cameras on top floor and need someone looking at recordings for the last one hour." The top floor cameras were on recording and no one actively monitored them.

"O.K. am diverting all my resources on to this" He did not even have to ask how important it was, if Sebastian was calling him, he knew it was priority one scenario.

"Anything else I need to know?" he asked.

"Her name is Evy...." Sebastian contemplated for a moment and added "She is new here and has no idea of the layout so she could truly be lost and Matt keep this to yourself...she is Maxwell's mate" he added.

A moment of silence "I am on it Seb..." Matt reassured, toughly understanding the situation."

***

Jonathan the head of butler service was a busy man and was rushing out a meeting when one of his staffer interrupted him.

"Boss. There is a call from security."

"Security?" He asked confused, they were not someone who he receive a call from...usually.

"Yeah, they have detained a tourist who claims she knows you." The staffer said skeptically.

This was a surprise.

Jonathan smiled "I didn't know I was getting popular with the tourists"

They all knew and shared stories of crazy tourists who claimed their relation to the Roma family.

"Yeah" The staffer smiled "Since she mentioned you by name and this never happened before security wanted to check with you for a slim chance"

"Nope, nobody I know is here" Family members of staffers who were new or came to visit did get lost occasionally.

He started walking towards his office.

The staffer smiled and told him grinning "Guess what she claims you escorted to her room...you are going to love this...on the fourth floor!" the staffer started walking to his desk to pick up the phone to inform the waiting security guy on the other side.

But as he picked up the receiver, Jonathan suddenly was in the face of his staffer and he stepped back involuntarily "What did you say?" Jonathan rasped with disbelief.

***

"All units be advised we are looking for a lost person...female, 5'2-5'3 in height, brunette goes by the name Evy. If any units make contact please contact control room immediately"

The supervisor's radio crackled with this broadcast message.

Before he was about to respond his radio crackled again "This is control room, we have Jonathan who wishes to speak to you, patching him in"

"Sir" the supervisor acknowledged the senior staffer.

"Do you have someone named Evy with you?" he demanded.

"Yes sir" The supervisor confirmed.

"Please escort her to my office ASAP" He barked.

"Yes sir" The supervisor acknowledged.

"And...please treat her with courtesy"

"Sure sir"

The supervisor walked over to her "Can you please follow me miss?" He asked her politely. He was not sure what was happening yet but he know how to follow orders well.

Jonathan called Sebastian and said as he picked up "Security is escorting Evy to my office, she apparently lost her way"

He head Sebastian and then said "Sure sir, will escort her up to you" and hung up the phone.

He rushed to his office and waited for a moment when the supervisor walked him with Evy trailing behind him.

"Sir" the supervisor said "The guest you asked me to escort"

"Thank you that will be all" Jonathan dismissed him.

The guard looked at Jonathan and then at the girl who was looking at Jonathan sheepishly and turned back, his task done he would return back to his post.

"It happens more than you know" Jonathan said reassuringly even before Evy could open her mouth.

"Getting lost...you are not the first one and I suspect would not be the last" Jonathan elaborated on her confused expression.

She just nodded her head, feeling like a through fool.

"Well this is my office and you can drop by anytime" he said pointing around his office and grinned at her "And you don't necessary have to be lost to come here"

She just blushed.

"Let's go" he said putting his hand out for her "Sebastian is waiting for us."

Her eyes widened and she groaned in further humiliation "He knows?"

"You will know to know shortly Miss Parker that there is very little that happens in this palace that Mr. Knowles is not aware of." He told.

She felt strange hearing Sebastian's last name.

And soon she was escorted back to the fourth floor where Sebastian was waiting near the elevator.

"Thanks Jonathan!" Sebastian dismissed him.

Jonathan just nodded at both of them and gave her a kind and reassuring smile and waked away.

She was looking anywhere but him.

"Now that you are back" Sebastian stated "you need to get ready we have an appointment to keep"

He turned and started walking in strides towards her room.

She scurried behind him "Who with?" She asked.

"Why...your would be mother in law of course" he turned and smiled

As she froze in panic blood draining from her face.

***

Evy returned to her room humming to herself happily, her day had taken a good turn.

After a horrible start of day where she promptly got lost to her lunch with Roma where she barely opened her mouth and was borderline rude to her with just "Yes" and "No" answers to Roma who surely thought she was a bird brained female. But she had been so nervous she was trying not to throw up half the time and no matter even if Roma tried to make her feel welcome she was just too wound up and that bastard Sebastian had enjoyed every bit of it, she could make it out from the amused expression he carried for the whole of the lunch from hell.

But after lunch she was left to her devices and had called Jonathan from her room phone to thank him again and took up on his offer for a personal tour of the palace.