Which meant he might have other allies he didn’t know about. He held that thought tight.
Until he watched as his uncle showed up on a vidclip to speak to the news agencies from the Arimanda. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear the man actually looked grief stricken while he addressed the vultures who’d come to cash in on his pain. “It is with a sad heart that I’m forced to step into a place I never thought I’d occupy. My brother was a great emperor and I know I’m a shallow substitution. We are still reeling from the actions of my nephew. I can’t understand how anyone could be so ruthless and unfeeling, especially toward their own father who loved them so much. I tried to tell Evzen that no one can tame a wild animal. True to the generosity of his spirit, he refused to believe it and he let the love of his son guide him to suicide. I don’t know what madness infected the prince, but I can assure all of you that he will be held accountable for his actions and I will not rest until he’s behind bars where he belongs and is executed for this heinous crime.”
Love you too, you old bastard.
Caillen shut the browser off. Last thing he wanted to see was any more allegations directed toward him. “Why do they think I did it?”
Hauk pulled up another clip. This was security footage on board the ship. And there in his father’s room, standing over his body, was a man who looked so much like him that even he doubted his innocence.
Holy…
Hauk nodded as his expression mirrored the sick horror Caillen felt. “You want to live. We’ve got to find this asshole and expose him as the killer or whoever doctored the footage. Nyk, Syn, Shahara and Jayne are already on it.”
“What about my mother?” Desideria’s features were pale from her grief. She was still beautiful, but she looked so tired that all he wanted to do was make this better for her.
If only he could.
“That’s where it’s really odd,” Fain said, directing their attention back to the monitor and a new clip that was filled with static. “There’s no footage from your mother’s room, Princess. Someone tampered with the camera. But two members of her Guard swear they saw you running out of there right before her body was discovered and that they pursued you only to find you fighting with Caillen. At first, they claim they thought he was attacking you. Then when you two turned on them to fight and then escaped together, they realized you were working as a team to kill your parents.”
She gaped at how preposterous that was. “I’m sorry, but that’s the dumbest story ever conceived. Are you telling me anyone is stupid enough to believe it?”
Hauk scoffed. “Two words. League bureaucrats. Thinking waved bye-bye to them a long time ago.”
He had a point.
“I can’t believe this,” she said, wanting to hunt down her mother’s Guard and carve her initials into their useless brains.
Caillen reviewed some of the data that Fain was still calling up.
Desideria moved to stand so close to him that her breath fell against his skin, tickling his flesh and making him wish he had a spare moment so that she could do that to his entire body. “They can’t honestly believe this.”
Caillen met her gaze, wishing he could be so naive. But he knew better. “Greed akes people stupid. Always. It stands to reason in their world that we would kill our parents to inherit their positions. Face it, it’s a common enough occurrence. Why should anyone doubt it?”
Hauk nodded in agreement. “Darling said that you’d already been suspicious of your uncle.”
“I was.”
Fain gave him an arch stare. “Was?”
Caillen took over the search as he reviewed the news reports about his father’s death. “Something’s not adding up to me.” It was too easy a jump to his uncle.
Wasn’t it?
But then he’d seen people do far worse for a lot less. He didn’t want to believe that the brother his father had loved and trusted would be so cold.
However, that was as cliché as kids killing parents for inheritance. His uncle made sense.
Fain scoffed at his doubt. “What are you? Trisani now? You want to give me the winning lottery numbers while you’re on a roll?”
He ignored Fain’s sarcasm as he rethought his earlier conviction. “I’m telling you, something’s wrong. How did both get killed on a ship with that kind of security? And so close to us leaving? At basically the same time?”
Hauk answered before Fain could. “Obviously the assassination was in place and they sped it up after you guys evaced so that they could frame you.”
He just couldn’t make himself buy Hauk’s explanation. It just didn’t fit. There was something more here. Something they didn’t know about.