by Julie Miller
“Because you were so easy to talk to. You understood me. The real me. We have much in common. I have been living the lie for so long, I did not realize how much I needed someone who cared about me, not the role I was playing.”
“If I could read Lukin, I would have discovered the truth. The details in Aleks’s file are yours.” She pulled away and lifted her skirt to reholster her gun. She didn’t have to save this man. “What are you, Ivan’s bodyguard? His friend?”
“Both. I am the geeky computer guy, as you say, who runs tech for the prince’s security team. We have switched places before—years ago when we realized how much we look alike, covering duty shifts, going to class when one of us overslept, stupid stuff—nothing recent, and never on this grand a stage before. But after the bombing in St. Feodor—”
“You threw yourself over him when that bomb went off. That’s how you got those scars—protecting the prince. You’re protecting him now.”
He nodded. “We switched places seven weeks ago, as soon as the doctor cleared me to return to duty. I’d been away recuperating—it was easy enough to change our hair, our glasses.”
She touched the bruise that had been dimmed by makeup on her jaw. “The doctor knew?”
“He was familiar with my injuries—and Ivan and I both thought it was prudent for him to know the truth, in case any health issues cropped up for the real prince while we traveled.”
She was silent, not sure what to say. She’d given this man her heart, her body. And he’d lied.
“I did not tell you because I promised Ivan I would not. I wanted to. I wanted you to know the truth. But my sworn duty is to my future king.”
“I understand duty. I understand why you lied. The more people who know who an undercover operative is, the harder it becomes to keep it a secret.”
“Yes, dorogoy. You understand, but do you forgive me?”
Dorogoy. Darling. Did he really love her? She pressed her hands to either side of her head, wishing she could make the hurt and mistrust go away. But she couldn’t. Not in this moment. Not when she wasn’t even sure what she was feeling anymore.
She pointed to the desk. “We have bigger issues to deal with right now. I’ll get Aleks...” She shook her head, clearing her thoughts to at least one thing. Duty. “I’ll get Prince Ivan out to the van. You see what you can do about that bomb.” She paused in the doorway and turned back to those piercing blue eyes. “Do not blow yourself up. We have more to talk about.”
Then she ran to join the exiting crowd.
Chapter Twelve
His one fear had been that he would hurt her. He hadn’t realized how much seeing that look of betrayal in Carly’s beautiful eyes would hurt him.
Aleksandr—had he really gotten so used to thinking of himself as Ivan?—couldn’t shake the sense of loss he felt when he saw Carly running away from him. But he could compartmentalize his feelings and deal with the job at hand. The military had trained him to do that. His oath to his future king demanded it.
While the grandfather clock ticked away in the corner, he searched through the desk to find tools he could use. A small pair of scissors. Tweezers. Although this explosive wasn’t rigged to blow, he worried that any spark from the cell phone might set off the C-4 accidentally. That meant untangling his way through these wires and removing the phone without building up any kind of static charge as he worked.
He pulled off his glasses that did more to distort his view of the world than correct his slight astigmatism. But they’d been a necessary part of his disguise to pass as the prince, who was nearsighted. He clipped the first few wires and unwound another to pull the phone free of the explosive. Then, he pried the phone apart and removed the battery.
Crisis averted. He breathed in a sigh of momentary relief. Time to make sure the prince was safe.
In that deep breath, Aleksandr caught a whiff of faint perfume lingering in the air. Carly didn’t wear perfume—she smelled like the delicious foods she cooked. This was more exotic. Was that Galina’s scent? She’d been gone for nearly fifteen minutes. Shouldn’t her perfume have dissipated by now?
Sniffing the air, he followed the scent to the drapes at the window and pulled them aside. The window was unlatched, hanging open a fraction of an inch. All the windows on this side of the building had the same floor-to-ceiling design as the veranda doors. Had the bomber come in this way? Or gotten out?
His gaze dropped past the excess folds of the heavy gold brocade to a swatch of dark, dusty material stashed behind the curtain. Aleksandr knelt to grasp what was clearly a sleeve. A collar. A hooded coat. He lifted the coat to his nose, breathed in the overpowering perfume and residue of sweat from a hot summer afternoon, and then he cursed.
Galina had worn this. Tonight. On the Plaza. A replica of the coat worn by the rebel bomber in St. Feodor. Her perfume was expensive and distinct.
Why? Why would the prince’s chief of staff want to kill him? Galina Honchar wasn’t a political rebel. She had no ties to criminal families. Aleksandr shook his head and pushed to his feet. The whys didn’t matter. This was over. He knew who had murdered Eduard Nagy, who had poisoned Frank Valentine, who had tried to kill the prince.
“Carly!” She’d be out of earshot by now, but he called to her, anyway. They were a team. Together, they’d found the answers he needed. “Carly!” He whirled around to see the dark-haired woman standing in the doorway. “Galina.”
She held her tablet in one hand and a gun in the other. A gun she pointed squarely at him.
“The building is clear, Your Highness.” She eyed the dismantled device on top of the desk. “You took apart my little toy.” She strolled toward him. She set the tablet on the corner of the desk and typed in a number on the screen. “But I have another.”
He tossed the coat back into its heap, wondering if she had any kind of skill with that gun and just how badly he’d get hurt if he charged her. But more than the gun, he worried about what the numbers and the blinking prompt on her tablet meant. So he stood his ground. For now. “We know about the car bomb, Galina. KCPD and embassy security are searching for it right now.”
She trailed her finger around the frame of the tablet. “Yes, but will they find it before I press this button and kill, I don’t know, seven innocent people? Just like St. Feodor? Maybe more? All I have to do is send this message.”
If she’d been crying earlier, there was no sign of those tears now in her cold, dark eyes. This woman was beyond feeling anything but the rage that consumed her. “You’ve taken apart many things that were mine. You’ve destroyed so much.”
Aleksandr took a step forward, testing her reflexes. The gun never wavered. He put up his hands in a placating gesture, pretending that understanding made a difference. But he wasn’t about to retreat. He had to get that tablet away from her. He had to get past that gun first. “This is about Konrad, the man you loved. This is all about revenge.”
Galina nodded. “I simply wanted to poison you—to see you die a painful, horrible death. The Loyalists would have taken the blame for the threats and your death, and all of Lukinburg would understand the pain that I have suffered because of you. But the apples got away from me. You wanted to give them to your girlfriend. Your stupid girlfriend! After that mistake, I realized I would have to be more clever. My Konrad taught me many things. How to love. How to build a bomb. How to fire a gun. But he didn’t teach me how to live without him. How to live with his senseless death. He died protecting you.”
“Konrad’s death is no excuse for this.” He channeled every imperial syllable of the prince’s tone he could. “You will kill many innocent people. Kon would not want that.”
“I want that!” She stepped toward him, using the gun to direct him away from the window while she picked up the coat. “My world was perfect until you came along and started changing everything. What was wrong with the old ways? I was happy. In love
. Konrad was alive.” She tossed the coat onto the desk. “That stupid reporter nearly caught me in here. Otherwise, I’d have cleaned up after myself. Just like I’ve always cleaned up after your messes. Everything had to be just the way His Royal Highness the Prince of Lukinburg wanted it.” Aleksandr countered her position, inching closer to the tablet. She motioned him into the chair beside her and ordered him to sit. Feeling the barrel of the gun pressing against his skull gave him no choice but to oblige. “You made enemies, and he paid the price. Now you’re going to pay.” She circled the desk again, turning the tablet to face her. “What a tragic, humiliating end to your visit to Kansas City. You will die. Your people will die. Your regime will fail. You can’t stop me.”
Carly Valentine’s kick-ass tone sounded from the doorway behind Galina. “I can.”
The color drained from Galina’s face before Aleksandr saw the flash of sparkling turquoise behind her. Galina raised both hands, including the gun, as Carly circled around her, her own gun trained on the back of Galina’s head as she reached for the weapon to disarm her.
“KCPD. You are under arrest—”
He saw the grim determination flatten Galina’s mouth. “Carly!”
Galina ducked and swung around, cracking the gun against Carly’s arm, sending Carly’s weapon flying. Galina lunged toward the desk.
“Keep her away from that tablet!” Aleksandr shot to his feet, but it really was no contest.
There was a fistful of hair, a kick to the knees and Galina was pinned to the floor. Carly kicked one gun out of reach beside the door and twisted around to locate where her gun had landed. Galina tried to roll away from her, and she was forced to put a knee in Galina’s back and hold her in place. “Really, lady? You want to keep fighting me?”
Aleksandr picked up the tablet. “Will turning this off set off the bomb?” he demanded.
“Go to hell,” was Galina’s answer.
“I will take that as a no.” Good thing he knew a little bit about computers. He disabled the tablet’s Wi-Fi connection, closed down the screen and pried open the back to remove the battery, just as he’d pulled apart the phone.
He heard footsteps running in the hallway as he set down the tablet. He was pulling off his belt to give Carly something to bind Galina’s wrists with when a trio of men burst through the door. He was not a happy man. It didn’t matter that Ivan was flanked by both Filip and Danya. He shouldn’t be anywhere close to this traitorous witch. “What are you doing here?”
“Are you all right?” Ivan asked. “Carly?”
Filip and Danya must not know they had the real prince with them. “Get him out of here.”
The two bodyguards rushed forward, pulling Aleksandr to his feet and flanking him. But Ivan wouldn’t listen. “Galina Honchar, I accuse you of treason. Danya, take her into custody.”
“Shut up, party boy.” Galina was beyond reasoning now. “You’re a waste of my time.”
The prince stepped forward. “How dare you speak to your future king like that?”
“Future king?” Galina repeated.
“What?” Filip and Danya stood there agape.
Danya released Aleksandr first and moved to stand beside Ivan. “You are the prince?”
Ivan grinned. “Surprise.”
Danya turned on Filip. “Did you know this?”
Filip glared at Aleksandr. “I did not.”
“What are you saying?” Galina seemed more stunned than either of the men. “You? With all your sightseeing and flirting... I could have killed you a dozen times. Those nights we worked late at the hotel while he was with her?” Galina’s roar of frustration was almost feral. “I will kill you!”
Carly hadn’t spotted her gun yet, but Galina had. Fueled by whatever grief and anger was driving her, she twisted away from Carly and grabbed the gun from beneath the desk. She rolled, fired.
Aleksandr leaped in front of the prince and felt the bullet strike him in the chest. Pain blossomed on the right side of his rib cage as if he’d been struck by a rocket.
“No!” Carly shouted, her concern followed just as quickly by a curse. And then she switched her focus entirely and took Galina down again. She wrestled control of the gun and jammed it against Galina’s neck before the woman finally stilled. “Is he hurt?”
While Filip and Ivan helped him sit up, Danya went to Carly. He picked up the discarded belt and wound it tightly around Galina’s arms above her elbows. “This will hold her for now.”
Carly shook her head. “She’s not getting off another shot. I’m not letting go. Is he hurt?” she demanded.
“I am all right,” he reassured her, breathing through the bruising pain. He unbuttoned his shirt and peeled it back to reveal the flattened bullet that had lodged in his protective vest. The shot might not have cracked a rib, but it sure did feel as if it had. He wished he could read the message in Carly’s green eyes. Worry? Anger? He still reassured her. “The wind is knocked from my chest. I will be all right.”
And then he turned his attention to the prince, who helped him to his feet. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be safe in the SWAT van.”
“Galina wasn’t with the rest of the entourage. Neither were you. I was worried. I may be a prince, but I am also your friend. Your very grateful friend.”
“Yeah, this is touching,” Carly groused. “I need handcuffs.” Joe Hendricks and two members of the SWAT team entered the room. She glanced up at him and saw him holding his side. “And a medic.”
One of the officers immediately knelt and pulled out his cuffs to take Galina into custody. The other went to the desk to examine the explosive.
“You okay, Valentine?” Joe asked, helping Carly to her feet. That’s when Aleksandr noticed that Carly had taken off her shoes—or lost them in the mud outside. “We found the second bomb in the royal limo. Bomb squad is taking it apart now.”
Aleksandr moved to the desk. “This one has been dismantled, but they will want to dispose of the components properly.” He handed Joe the tablet. “Take this, too. Any good computer tech in your crime lab should be able to trace when she used it to set off the bomb that killed Eduard.”
“I’ll send someone in to clear the room. SWAT Team Two is doing a full sweep of the building. We’ll debrief later.” He nodded to the two SWAT officers. “Get her out of here.” He turned to the real prince. “Your Highness. If you would kindly stay where we put you this time. It’d be a hell of a lot easier to keep you safe.”
Filip agreed. “We will make sure he remains secure. Danya?”
Suddenly, the room was empty except for him and Carly. He got a glimpse of one gorgeous leg as she pulled up her dress to holster her weapon again.
She didn’t seem affected by his obvious attraction to her. “You need to be checked by a medic.”
When she headed for the door, he blocked her path. “We need to talk.”
“Ivan... I mean, Aleksandr. Aleks? What do I call you?”
He took a deep breath. This wouldn’t be easy, but he had to make this right. “My friends call me Aleks.”
Her lips warped into a frown before she extended her hand to shake his. “Nice to meet you, Aleks. I’m Carly Valentine. I have issues with people who lie to me.”
“And you are always honest with me.” He tightened his grip and held on when she would have pulled away. “I am sorry I have hurt you. That was never my intent. But I had to keep my word to the prince. I became him to keep him safe.”
“You just took a bullet for him. Good job. You’re a man of your word. May I have my hand back?”
“No.” He pulled her into his arms. She put up a token fight but stopped the moment he winced at a shove against his bruised ribs. “I wanted you to love me. The man whose parents were murdered, the man who served six years in the army.” He lifted her hand to his face and held it where she had touch
ed him so many times before. “The man with the scars. Is there any way you would give Aleksandr Petrovic a second chance? One where I do not lie to you?”
The grandfather clock chimed midnight.
Carly rested her hands on his chest for a moment, then busied her fingers rebuttoning his shirt and straightening his tie. When the chimes stopped, she pulled away, as if that was her cue to leave. “You have to go back to Lukinburg. Today. We survived the deadline. Your traitor has been identified. No more bombs. You have to protect Ivan. I don’t even have a passport. We’ll probably never see each other again.”
“Carly—”
“I’m glad for the time we had. Truly. I felt special. It felt...real.”
“Aleksandr.” Danya called to him from the doorway. “His Highness would like to speak to you.”
“You’d better not keep your boss waiting.” Carly put on a brave smile that made him feel as if he’d taken that bullet to the heart. “You said one week. You never lied about that.” He retreated to the door but wasn’t ready to leave her. “I knew about the time limit on this assignment. I understood I was never going to have a prince of my own—no matter how much I loved him.”
Everything inside him went perfectly still, then bloomed with hope. “You love...?”
Danya grumbled a curse. “Petrovic. We must make a statement to the police and then get the prince back to our hotel.”
Carly waved him away. “Go. Duty calls. We both know how that is.”
Duty. How many times in his life had he chosen duty over love?
How many times had he even been given the choice?
Aleksandr cupped the side of Carly’s neck and tipped her face up to cover her mouth in one last hard, passionate kiss. “Obicham te, dorogoy.”
Then he drew his finger across her cheek and followed Danya down the hallway.