Chapter 1

Prologue – Theo's POV

The security gates eventually opened on the driveway to my younger brother's house, and the security guard car that followed me down here, only to overtake me on the smaller country lanes, pulled over to one side to let me through. As I drove past the car, I saluted at him and he bowed his head in return. In a way, I almost had to apologise to him for waking him up at four in the morning to head down to my brother's house for half six in the morning.

It was another two minutes' drive, going around ten miles an hour, to reach the front yard, where I pulled up in the far corner. Straight away, I could see my kid brother.

Luke wasn't a kid anymore, really, but I always viewed him as a child. I was four years older than him, meaning I was the Crown Prince of Great Britain and would have to deal with the throne the second my mother would abdicate – if she would. It came with great responsibility which I always carried around. My younger brother, Luke, was also meant to be responsible as the second in line to the throne but was always more of a joker.

Everything happened for him rather quick just over three years back; a new inside security girl joined who just happened to be his Soulfinder – and thankfully I got on really well with Grace. We were like brother and sister or close friends within a couple of days and we just moved on. She was kidnapped and I had to watch my younger brother, my best friend who I was always so close to, break down time and time again and become the hollow shell we feared he might be. We found Grace eventually, but her brain wasn't the same – she wanted to attack Luke. We also found out she was eleven weeks pregnant at the same time. We wiped her brain, and Luke and Grace were all good again. They moved out to Windsor castle before Christmas and their own home the beginning of the year after. Their baby daughter was born June 8th at Buckingham Palace stupidly early in the morning. Everything was perfect for a day before Grace was taken into surgery for complications. She recovered, and the day they brought their baby daughter, Lila, home Luke proposed to Grace and she (inevitably) agreed.

Then there was a terror attack in London, where Grace and Luke were kidnapped. There was a simultaneous attack in Buckingham Palace, where I was gassed and knocked unconscious and they stole Lila from me. A few weeks after, we found Lila and Grace in a quarry in Scotland, and Grace could confirm the location where my brother remained. We arranged the operation to get Luke out as Grace headed down to her university friend's house. However, my own father was the one behind the attacks on Grace – both kidnappings, the reason she needed surgery, and my own brothers, his own sons, kidnapping too – and went to shoot Luke and Grace's two-month-old daughter. Grace jumped in front of the gun. It took a week until Grace woke up from a coma, and two months of intense rehabilitation until she was back to normal, but since then, the trio was never seen far from each other.

Even now, half six in the morning, Luke was outside with their three-year-old daughter Lila, washing their car. As I turned off the engine, Luke dropped the sponge he was using back into the bucket and looked over at me. I got out the car.

'Isn't it a bit early to be washing cars?' I called over to Luke. Lila looked over at me excitedly before looking back at Luke, who nodded. Lila then dropped her sponge too and ran over to me. I picked her up and spun her around.

'Hey, Princess,' I whispered to her, lifting her to sit on my hip. She was a dead-ringer of her mother – long blonde hair that has a wave in it, a sprinkling of freckles and chubby cheeks. She had Luke's eyes though – a bright blue colour.

'Uncle Theo!' Lila shouted before kissing my cheek.

'How are you so awake?' I asked her.

'It's morning!' She said, gesturing at the sky.

'She's been saying that since five,' Luke said, coming over to me as he wiped his hands on his t-shirt. 'She doesn't understand the concepts of lie-ins.'

'Where's Grace?' I asked as I hugged Lila.

'Inside finishing off her case, she shouldn't be more than an hour until she's good to go – what time does the zoo open?' I asked and Lila looked over at me in shock.

'Zoo?!' She shouted and Luke laughed, taking her off me.

'We didn't tell her or she'd be up at around two this morning, excited,' Luke said, putting Lila down on the floor. 'We can't go to the zoo is the car is still dirty though, Lils, the giraffes don't like dirty,' Luke said as he crouched down and told his now excited daughter.

'Giraffes don't like dirty cars?' Lila said, swaying and I grinned at her.

'No, they don't. Flamingo's don't like dirty cars either, so we have to finish washing the car before we can go to the zoo,' Luke said to her, gently touching her cheek. Lila grinned back at her father before she ran back over to the car, picking up her sponge and started to rub a spot on the grey Corsa that was in the driveway. 'I won't tell her that you're driving,' Luke said and I rolled my eyes.

'Child slavery I think that is, Luke,' I told him and he grinned and shrugged.

'She's very much willing to wash cars, she's an odd one,' Luke said. 'You got over here earlier than expected,' He added, checking his watch. 'We're not leaving until past nine, I'm hoping to convince her to have a nap before then,'

'Traffic was decent for once,'

'That's because rush hour doesn't start for a while,' Luke added and I knew he had me foiled. He knew I came two hours early for a reason. 'So, the real reason you appeared two hours early is…'

'Is Grace around?' I asked shyly again.

'Uh oh, what have you done to require the assistance of my MI5 wife-to-be.' Luke said, crossing his arms. 'She can't help you if you've murdered someone,' He added.

'No, nothing like that,' I tutted. 'Is she in the office?'

'Yup, don't get her too bogged down in your murder mystery please,' Luke simply said before turning around and heading back over to his daughter who was still happily washing the tyres on the car, crouching over in her pyjama bottoms and talking to her teddy bear who was sat down next to the bucket.

I sighed before heading over to the front door which was left on the latch. Their home was warm and welcoming; with a modern appearance, inside. The tiled floors matched the colour of the timber beams, and the while flat walls had the odd canvas of family pictures. I headed through the long kitchen and down two steps into a small corridor and knocked on the door on the right-hand side which was open. I could see Grace in her pyjamas, sitting on one leg and the other resting on the chair, hair tied up in a neat ponytail and several word documents in front of her, and one on the laptop screen. She turned around on her pivot chair.

'You got confused, we said half eight, not half six.' She simply said. 'It's alright, must be your old age,' She added as an after thought.

'I'm here early for a reason,' I told her, 'Can I sit down?' I asked, gesturing to the seat that was beside her and she just looked at me for a moment. I could see the slight frown on her forehead before she nods.

'What's up?' She said, sipping from a mug that was beside her.

I sighed. I didn't quite know how to tell her. I had kept it secret for almost three years – nearly as long as she has had Lila running around – and now I had worked up the courage to tell someone my body wasn't allowing me to tell her. I trusted her nearly as much as I trusted everyone else. Perhaps even more – it hadn't crossed my mind to tell Mum or Luke. But my body wasn't allowing me too.

'You're being ominously silent for someone who wanted to ask a question,' Grace said after a few moments of silence before sipping her drink again 'Normally people speak when people ask them what is up,' she added.

'You remember when Lila was born?'

'Oh… When my daughter was born?' Grace said, taking another sip, 'Yeah, springs to mind,' She joked and I rolled my eyes.

'Crystal and Xav came over randomly, you asked why and they just said they had some work to do,' I started to explain.

'But they came over to find your Soulfinder, yeah,' Grace added.

'No, wait – how did you know that?'

'I guessed, and I asked you and you just went "maybe" so I just kind of assumed that was what was happening,' Grace said and I sat there watching her. 'I did wonder what had happened,'

'Crystal said she couldn't find her,'

'Ah,' Grace said. 'Sorry,'

'It's okay, I got a call the other day from Crystal – she had managed to track her down. Crystal assumed she was dead or just completely unavailable and I just kinda accepted that, but now she's called up saying that's she's fine and she lives in Ireland and commuted regularly to London and I dunno what to do, I didn't want to mention it to Luke because it would just seem so trivial.' I said to Grace shyly and she nodded. 'I mean, I was in a better place back then to go for it, and now I have so much weighing on me and barely any free time and I can't just go to Ireland for the weekend to look for her, and she won't ever fall for me because she knows my status,'

'Hang on, it doesn't happen like that,' Grace told me. 'I didn't go to Buckingham Palace with all intentions to hit on Luke and eventually have a kid with him – that wasn't how that worked. You'll bump into her, and things will be tough from both ends, and in all honesty, the status thing with Luke was a massive turn off but you work out ways to get over it. Eventually, you'll learn what you'd put first – your status or your girl,' Grace told me simply.

'What did Luke put first?' I asked her.

'Oh, from Day 1 he always put me first. He was on about denouncing his title to move back to Berkshire or Hampshire with me. But he likes being melodramatic.'

'What do you think I should do?' I asked her to know it was stupid. Anyone looking in would question why a Crown Prince who will inevitably become King at some point, would heavily rely in on his younger sister-in-law to be for advice but I had never seen her as anything other than my sister. Someone I could go to for help.

But she shrugged. 'I cannot make that call for you, Theo. If you aren't in the right mindset and you are questioning about trying to find her, then you aren't ready. It is a hell of a lot of hard work, and whilst it does pay off every single second, it still drains you and it is a lot of commitment within the first few months. If you aren't ready for that, it would mess both you and her up. But if you're willing to give it a go, then what is stopping you?' Grace said, locking her computer and getting up. 'Breakfast?'

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

Around half nine, we had all piled into my car. Grace was sitting in front with me, giving directions on how to get to Marwell zoo in case we lost the security car that would be sitting in front of us a few cars away, and Lila and Luke were in the back – Luke having lost the rock-paper-scissors to keep the excited child calm. I pulled away, following the giant black jeep with tinted windows in front of me, waiting at the junction after that had turned left. A few minutes later, when the road was clear, I pulled out too.

'Can I get a toy!' Lila shouted and I saw Grace grin.

'Don't have you have enough toys, Lila?' Luke asked as my niece hugged her favourite toy; a now tatty yellow duck toy.

'No! They want more friends,' She said in the back.

'Lila, we will get you a new toy if you go and have a nap. Plus, you'll get to the zoo quicker if you have a sleep,' Grace said in a sing-song voice from the from the front.

'Okay, Mummy!'

Less than five minutes later the toddler was snoring and Luke leaned forward on his chair to talk to us quietly.

'How on Earth do you do that?' Luke asked Grace and she grinned and smiled before she gently kissed him.

'Magic,' She mocked.

'Mmm, I bet,' Luke said.

'Okay you two, let's not do this in the car,' I joked at the pair knowing they had mentioned once or twice about wanting another child now Lila has grown up considerably and was due to start school next September – which would allow Luke to go back to work as a paramedic full time and Grace would be working from home, like she does now, for military services. But I knew Grace wanted another kid, another baby to look after. After the shooting last year, she had to have someone around her for four months after just in case someone would come around looking for her. And I saw Lila grow up as fast as she did and I knew she missed having a baby to, well, baby. She missed the sleepless nights and the cuddles and the feeding and being able to cradle Lila in one arm. Whilst she loved Lila to absolute pieces now, she still wanted another baby. Luke wasn't far of the same ideology either, but neither of them had agreed to anything yet. Or at least that was what I was aware of.

It was weird; my younger, kid brother had a nearly-wife and a toddler daughter and I had yet to be in a serious relationship that lasted longer than three months.

I thought about what Grace has told me; if I wasn't ready – don't go for it. But how did I know when I was ready and when I wasn't ready? I wanted that level of closeness with someone that my kid brother had with Grace. I wanted that family bond, that laughter they had which I didn't have now. But did that mean I was ready?

But at the same time, whoever she was, I didn't want to put her at risk of any form of attack. It was almost fact how that if Grace had never met Luke, she wouldn't have got kidnapped (twice), shot (twice) and have horrific burn scars down her leg (thankfully, that only happened once). But look at them now – if anything, those incidents made them stronger as a duo.

We arrived at the zoo nearly an hour later – and thankfully Lila slept the entire way until Luke woke her up in the car park. And then she was very excited again. We parked in between two security vehicles and eight blokes came out of the car, surrounding us. Grace got out first, unbuckling Lila from her car seat and picking her up and placing her on the floor, where Lila promptly run over to a security guard excitedly, pulled his trouser leg and started talking about penguins to him.

'She's a weirdo,' Grace mouthed to me as I got out the car and I grinned at the floor. 'Lila,' She called and her daughter came straight back over to her.

We spent a good five or six hours at the zoo, Lila leading the way around every single animal exhibition, starting with the penguins and working around the entire zoo. Twice. We eventually stopped for food after the first tour. We had a large crowd us always and finally had a break in a small café, where Lila sat on Grace's lap to eat her lunch. And we were back off again, I picked up Lila at points, showing her the animals above the crowds as Luke and Grace were talking, and we all took it in turns to let the toddler run off and show us places. We found somewhere that allowed toddlers to have face paints and she fed some animals as some staff members spotted her looking at the giraffes happily. We went back around to the gift shop as Lila was excited to get a toy red panda and a flamingo, but fell asleep on the walk back. She was now sat fast asleep on Luke's hip. Grace went into the shop, buying a keyring and one or two other small trinkets and a few toys for Lila before we managed to make our way out of the shop.

It was in the car on the way back, when Lila was still asleep, Luke had also drifted off in the back seat that I turned to Grace, who was silent not to wake the pair in the back.

'I'm gonna do it.'

'Do what?' She whispered back to me.

'I will find her,' I mumbled and she nodded at me.

'Good choice, Theo,'

'You think?'

'Well, I'm not going to crush your hopes and dreams by telling you it's a terrible plan, am I?'

'You think it's a terrible plan?' I asked her and she shook her head.

'No, I was trying to get you think about your stupid question.'

'But, what do I have going for me?' I asked nervously, already starting to doubt myself. Grace just frowned at me taking a sip from her water. 'What does that mean?' I ask as I realised I wouldn't get an answer from her. She just shook her head.

'Were both you and Luke born ignorant?' She asked me quietly and I rolled my eyes but I wasn't entirely sure what she was on about.

'Look, I can't make up your mind and I can't make up your fate either. You must take control of your own life when it comes to things like this, Theo, you can't let anyone persuade you either which way when it comes to this. All I can say is you've taken ages to float around this subject. You thought she was dead and you would have got over that idea in your head, and now you've found out she is fine and alive and you're questioning it again. So you clearly care about her, perhaps you don't even realise that you care as much as you do,' Grace said, shrugging before putting her headphones, leaving me to my own thoughts.

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Hello!

I hope you like this so far - I know he was a bit rushed and it seems a bit ropey but I wanted to get it up tonight so eventually I will rewrite this all. But I hope you like it!

The updates should be once a week or so but I cannot promise! Please review and let me know!

This is the sequel of Protecting Grace if you want to read that and know the characters a bit better!