“Hey, dude.”
“Alex, we need a doctor at the safe house,” Grant ordered.
“Du-u-ude.”
“I know. The princess doesn’t appear to be severely injured, but her DSS agent is unconscious. I haven’t been able to evaluate.”
“Done. Anything else?” the guy on the phone asked.
“My parents and friends. Can you find out if they’re hurt?” Ari asked.
“Dude,” Alex scoffed and then hung up.
“What the hell was that? He only said ‘dude.’” The panic of not knowing what had happened to her family and friends clawed at Ari, fighting to be released.
“Alex and his wife are computer geniuses. However, no matter how much he’s grown up since we started working together, he’s never dropped the dude-speak. He’ll take care of everything with a couple of clicks to the keyboard, though. And don’t worry, we now speak fluent Dudenese and can translate for you,” Grant sent her a wink in rearview mirror.
“My best friend is like that. Although Kale doesn’t speak dude,” Ari told them as she held on tightly to Jameson.
“Abby’s brother? Yeah, he’s good, too,” Valeria said.
Before Ari could ask about it, they were driving into the bowels of an underground parking garage. They went down to the lowest level and parked near the cargo elevator. “He’s on his way,” Val said as she put her phone away. She opened the door with her gun drawn and took up position at the back of the SUV so she could see both the large silver elevator and be able to look around the vehicle to see if anyone was coming.
Grant’s gun was in his hand as he slowly scanned the area from behind the wheel. The ping of the elevator arriving seemed to echo just as loud as the explosion had.
“Get down,” Grant ordered Ari as he rolled down the window and aimed his gun at the elevator.
Ariana folded herself over Jameson to protect him as she waited.
“Saving a princess is a first. Usually you all are killing someone. Which one is it? One of the princesses from England? Belgium? Demark? Luxembourg? Sweden? Please tell me it’s the princess of Sweden.” Ariana listened to the deep rumbling voice and grew worried. Killing people? She knew Abby and Dylan were able to defend themselves, but killing people? Sure, they joked about it but was that all they did? Ariana’s mind leapt to Greer and the two men she killed to protect her. Abby and Dylan would kill someone to protect those they loved or the country they loved. Right now, she was pretty sure she could kill whoever had tried to kill her. Maybe her ethics were more flexible than she thought. After all, Ahmed was her godfather.
“Shh,” Val hissed a second before the door opened. “Come on out, Ariana.”
Ariana looked over her shoulder at the tall, dark, sexy, and utterly dangerous man standing in a coal-black suit. His eyes looked harder than granite as they stared at her. Ariana lost her breath for a second time in the last ten minutes.
“Sebastian Abel. You dated my friend Abby.”
Valeria and Grant’s heads whipped toward Sebastian in shock.
“We didn’t date. We used each other for mutual benefit. The night you and I met, I was a prop for a mission she was on. Welcome to my flagship hotel, Your Highness.”
Ariana didn’t correct him. She told most people to just call her Ariana, but she felt she needed the power her title gave her with Sebastian. “Thank you for your hospitality. My bodyguard needs a doctor.”
Something in Sebastian’s hard look softened a little. “He’s on his way.”
Sebastian stepped forward and held out his hand. “If you’ll come with me, Your Highness.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“I’m not asking you to. I’m just getting you out of the way so Grant can get him out of the car.”
Ari hadn’t noticed that Grant was out of the car and waiting by Valeria to help get Jameson out. Ariana took Sebastian’s hand and he helped her from the car. He didn’t let go of her hand, though. He tucked it in the crook of his arm as he escorted her into the elevator.
Ari had to stand helplessly by as Grant hauled Jameson out of the SUV and tossed him over his shoulder like a bag of horse feed. Jameson groaned and she tried to rush forward, but Sebastian put a strong hand over hers, trapping her to his side. “Let them do their job.”
Ari nodded as Sebastian pressed a card to the elevator. “You’re staying in one of the private residences in the hotel. I’ve programmed it so I’m the only one with access to the floor via elevator or stairs. You’re safe here, Your Highness.”
“Why are you helping me?”
“Contrary to appearances, I have few real friends. I count Abby and Dylan as friends. If I didn’t help you, I’m pretty sure she’d hurt me. And I’m too handsome to be in pain.”
“Speak of the devil, herself,” Val muttered as she answered her phone. “Hi, Abby.”
“Is Ari hurt?” Ariana heard Abby practically yell over the phone.
“I’m with her now,” Val reassured her. “She’s fine but her bodyguard is injured. We are with Sebastian and a doctor is on the way over.”
“What about my parents? I can’t get hold of them.” Ari’s heart felt as if it were being wrung out. Abby’s parents and her parents were still unaccounted for and they’d been closer to the bomb than she’d been.
“Alex is working on it. I’ll let you know the second we hear anything.”
“You better or I’ll—” Valeria hung up.
“She’d kill us slowly. Blah, blah, torture, blah, blah.”
“You okay, Princess?” Sebastian asked quietly.
No words could come out since her throat felt swollen shut with emotion. Were her friends and family dead? The doors to the elevator opened and Sebastian handed the key to Valeria. “Get the guard inside.”
Ariana moved to follow, but Sebastian held her to him. “He’ll be okay. I also believe from the short time I met Abby’s parents that they’ll be okay, too. Ahmed probably glared at the bomb and it died in its tracks before touching them and your parents.”
Ariana smiled even as the tears fell. “Call me Ariana. Thank you for all your help, Sebastian. I know you didn’t have to do this.”
Sebastian shrugged his broad shoulders as if it were no big deal. “It appears that when I became friends with Abby and then Dylan, I also get their friends and family. It’s worth it, though, to have friends you can trust.”
Ari stopped walking and looked up at Sebastian—really looked at him. “I think we’re very similar, Sebastian.”
“How is that, Ariana?”
“The face we show to the public doesn’t equal who we really are.”
“And who are we really?” Sebastian asked, showing no reaction.
“People who have made wrong turns in life but who ultimately want to help others. You, Sebastian Abel, are a good guy.”
He tilted his lips up in a predatory smile that would have melted the clothes right off her before Jameson had entered her life. “I wouldn’t make that mistake again. Ariana. I’m a Big Bad Wolf and you’re Little Red Riding Hood. I can’t wait to gobble you up.”
Ari rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You’re the woodsman, but don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”
“Ariana!” Grant yelled and Ari dropped Sebastian’s arm and ran for the room. “I heard from Alex.”
13
Ariana didn’t notice Sebastian slipping away. She stood nervously in front of Grant and waited. “It’s not much, but I can tell you that none of them have been listed as dead yet.”
Ariana’s world spun as her stomach plummeted.
“I’m sorry, lass.” Grant wrapped her in a giant hug.
“Ari,” Jameson mumbled. Ari rushed over to the couch where Jameson was lying on his stomach and reached for him.
“I’m here. You’re going to be fine, Jameson. A doctor is on the way and we’re in the nicest safe house I’ve ever seen.”
“You hurt?” he asked. His eyes were still closed, but his hand squee
zed hers and tears about burst from her eyes.
“I’m okay, thanks to you. You kept me safe.”
The door opened and Sebastian walked in with an elderly man in a navy-blue suit carrying a tan leather bag. “He’s here to help and to ask no questions.”
The doctor was in his eighties if he was a day. Ari stared at him as he shoved his thick tortoiseshell glasses up his nose. “Hello. I’m Dr. Moshe Mizrahi. Let’s see what we have here.”
Grant hurried forward to help Dr. Mizrahi to the couch. Dr. Mizrahi sat on the coffee table and opened his bag. Ari moved to sit on the floor, still holding Jameson’s hand. The elderly doctor smiled kindly at her and reached for her shoulder. He patted it gently. “Don’t worry, bubeleh. I’ll take care of him.”
Ariana nodded but bit her bottom lip as she waited for the doctor to do his exam. He clucked, sighed, and nodded through the exam. “We need to get him out of his clothes. I have to clean and stitch up the wound on the back of his head, and it appears some shrapnel damaged his skin where the bulletproof vest didn’t cover.”
“What can I do?” Ariana asked him.
“Keep holding his hand, bubeleh. This isn’t going to feel good. I’ll numb his head and stitch it up, but there’re too many other scrapes that need to be cleaned and possibly sutured and I can’t numb them all.”
Ariana nodded in understanding as Grant took a pair of scissors and cut off Jameson’s suit coat and shirt. She then unfastened the Velcro straps of the vest. Next they went to work on his pants, and finally Ariana sat back down with her hand clutching Jameson’s. He lay naked on the couch with a white hotel towel over his backside and his shirt, pants, and boxers cut off and hanging in shreds under him.
Dr. Mizrahi clucked again and started injecting numbing medication to several of the larger cuts. “The vest stopped a lot of the shrapnel, but the back of his arms and legs got the worst of it.”
Ari watched as Dr. Mizrahi started cleaning the wounds. She counted them as he went. Six needed stiches. The rest required butterfly bandages to help them heal faster. Twenty minutes into it and following an injection of pain medication, Jameson finally blinked his eyes open.
“Has the doctor examined you?” were his first words. Ariana had been watching the doctor close a wound on Jameson’s calf when he finally woke up.
“Jameson! Oh, I’m fine. You kept me safe. How do you feel?”
“Like I was in an explosion. What’s the damage?”
Dr. Mizrahi leaned forward and lowered his smiling face into Jameson’s as he pulled open his eyelids to check Jameson’s pupils. “You’re looking much better. The worst was a head wound and a gash on the back of your thigh. They’re all stitched up and I’m on my last couple of stitches for a wound on your calf.”
“Where am I?”
“Abel Hotel,” Ariana answered.
“Your parents?”
“I’m waiting to hear,” Ari told him, trying not to choke up. “Grant has someone on it and I texted my best friend.”
Grant’s phone rang and Ari’s phone buzzed.
“It’s Alex.”
“It’s Kale.”
Ariana turned to look at Grant who was already on his phone. She looked down at her phone and gasped. Alive.
“They’re alive. Unfortunately, Deming is, too,” Grant said, hanging up. “However, I’m sorry to say that your friend Greer has a broken leg. She was shielding your mother and part of the stone planter the bomb was in hit her leg.”
Ariana’s phone buzzed again. “Greer has broken leg. Everyone is at York Hill Hospital,” she read out loud.
“You’re all patched up,” Dr. Mizrahi said with a smile. He reached for her hand and Jameson’s. “I’ll pray for you both. Mr. Abel knows how to get hold of me if you need me.” He leaned forward and placed a kiss on Ari’s cheek and then on Jameson’s cheek.
* * *
Jameson thanked the doctor before Sebastian Abel led him out the door. He couldn’t let go of Ariana’s hand and kept staring at her to make sure she wasn’t injured. The last thing he remembered was curling her body into his and then flying through the air.
“I don’t want to think about work, but I need to check in with my boss.”
“Here,” Val said, handing over her phone. “Yours was crunched during the explosion.”
“Thanks, Val. I don’t know how I got here, but I’m betting it was you and Grant who saved the day.”
“We might have come in and swooped you out of there, but you’re the one who saved the day. There have been casualties, but your alert started the evacuation. It would have been a lot worse than it was. Plus you saved the girl.”
Jameson felt Ari squeeze his hand before he had to pull it away and dial his boss. It took ten minutes to fill him in and get an update on the situation. “Where are you?”
“We’re safe.” Jameson didn’t know why but he didn’t want to risk telling anyone where he was.
“What’s the princess’s next move?”
“We don’t know yet,” Jameson told his boss. “I’ll keep you updated, though.”
“Are you sure you’re not too badly injured? I can send in a replacement.”
“No,” Jameson said forcefully. “I’m fine.”
“You know, when my wife says she’s fine, I know something’s wrong.”
Jameson grinned at that. “And you know better not to tell her what to do, right?”
“I guess you’re my wife now? Look, just stay in touch. I want regular updates.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jameson disconnected the phone and handed it back to Valeria and attempted to move. He managed not to curse as he pushed up only to notice the complete lack of clothes. “You cut off my underwear?” he asked Ari. “Just couldn’t wait to see, huh?”
Ari’s face flushed and she sputtered before glaring at him. “I’m glad you’re feeling well enough to tease me.”
The door opened back up and Sebastian walked in carrying a garment bag and a hotel boutique bag. “You look to be my size and seem to be in need of clothes.”
“Thank you, Mr. Abel.”
Abel cocked his head and really looked at Jameson. He saw the moment Sebastian made the connection to his parents. “Duke, right?”
“Jameson.” Jameson gave him a nod of greeting and then turned to the ladies. “If you all wouldn’t mind, I’d like to get cleaned up a little.”
Ariana went to help him up and then stopped as she saw that the only thing stopping her from getting the full monty was a towel he held over himself. “Oh.”
“I’m happy to have you be the one to help me.”
He loved the way her eyes darkened before she looked around at all the people in the room. “I’m sure the guys can help you. Val and I need to get cleaned up as well before we go to the hospital.”
Jameson shook his head. “I’m fine. I don’t need to go the hospital.”
“Not you, me. Greer is there. She’s injured. My family and friends might be there too. It’s been hours since the explosion. I need to see them.”
“Oh no.” Jameson shook his head. “I am not taking you to the hospital.”
Ariana crossed her arms and looked down at him. Then she took a giant step toward the door and out of his reach. “I don’t think you’re in a position to stop me.”
Sebastian smirked, Grant muttered something under his breath, and Val told Ari to make a run for it.
“Fine. I’ll take you, but you can’t leave until I’m dressed or so help me, I will chase you into the lobby naked. Don’t think I won’t. There’s nothing I’m embarrassed about showing off.”
Ariana’s eyes drifted downward and Jameson shot her a cocky grin. “Deal,” she agreed. “I’ll go get cleaned up and then we can go. It’s been three hours and I need to make sure my family is safe. All Alex and Kale have said is that they’re alive. I need to see them in person.”
“She’s a spitfire when she wants to be. It’s like there are two warring lassies inside,”
Grant said after Ariana and Val went into another part of the suite with the bag. “One that’s all polished and diplomatic, and then the other that doesn’t give a crap and will do what she wants, however she wants.”
Jameson grunted in agreement as he sat up. Thank goodness his butt wasn’t injured or sitting would be agony. His head throbbed, his body felt battered, and the stitches on his legs, head, and back of his arm pulled. However, he was alive and so was Ari.
Sebastian unzipped the garment bag and handed him a pair of slacks from a top designer. “Jameson Duke. This is very interesting. I know we haven’t met, but I know your parents.”
“My condolences,” Jameson muttered as he slipped his legs in and then stood up to zip up the slacks.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment as he handed over a dress shirt. “Don’t your parents and the Rahmi royal family—”
“Yup,” Jameson said, cutting off the line of questioning.
“Interesting. And here you are guarding Ariana Ali Rahman.”
“And here you are with two members of some top-secret presidential task force,” Jameson said, looking up at Sebastian. “Interesting.”
Sebastian’s lips twitched as two men took full measure of each other. “It is, isn’t it?” Sebastian finally asked before handing him the suit coat. “I was right. We’re about the same size. Try not to get any bullet holes in it.”
“No promises.”
Jameson pulled the coat on and took a deep breath. The door opened and Ari poked her head out. She smiled when she saw him dressed. Her face had been freshly washed and her hair was down and brushed out. She had an NYC ball cap on and had exchanged her suit for jeans and a black sweater. The only thing left from this morning were the high heels that looked sexy as hell with the casual wear.
“Oh, good. You’re ready.” Ari turned to Sebastian and thanked him for the clothes as she headed for Jameson.
He was already standing when Ariana slipped her hand into his, giving him the feeling she was trying to support him. If it kept her by his side, who was he to tell her he was fit enough to pick her up and carry her to one of the many nearby bedrooms? If only he could, but she was his job. Under any other circumstances, she would never even talk to him. He had to remember that. She’s the job. She’s the job. She’s the job. Jameson looked down at her at the same time she looked up and smiled. She was so much more than the job.
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