Royal Heist

by Rachelle Mccalla

  Head bowed, eyes closed, lost in prayer, Galen paid no attention to the other people who filtered in around him, taking their places and preparing for the worship service to begin. It wasn’t until the choir began to sing the opening notes of their prelude that Galen lifted his eyes and looked around. Far ahead of him, through the crowd, he spotted Ruby’s red hair.

  She was here. His shift wasn’t set to begin until late that afternoon. Ruby sat just behind the royal family, next to Ethan, the royal guard who’d been assigned to her for the morning shift. She was safe.

  But once the service ended, the congregants trickled out of their pews, chatting and milling about as they made their way slowly to the large hall where refreshments were served.

  Galen lost sight of Ruby. He told himself not to be concerned. There were plenty of guards in the cathedral—both on and off duty. And all the royal guards had been briefed on the situation with Ruby. They’d know to be extra alert.

  Still, when he reached the side aisle, Galen used the pedestal riser of an ancient column to gain a foot up so he could peer above the heads of the crowd.

  No sign of Ruby, but the royal family had left the sanctuary, as well. Their pews were nearest the wide doors to the fellowship hall, and tradition held that they mingled among their subjects after worship, emphasizing their accessibility and unity with the people. Most likely Ruby had gone in that direction.

  But since he had the vantage point, Galen looked behind him, too. The sanctuary had been quite full, and no one looked particularly eager to leave. Galen scoured the crowd for a glimpse of red hair, but saw mostly dark hair or gray.

  And bald. Galen focused on the shiny dome atop a thick neck and broad shoulders.

  The man was big.

  And on the back of his neck the darkened tip of a tattoo peeked out from under his white shirt collar.

  Was Luciano Salvatore—or whoever he really was—in the Sardis Cathedral?

  Galen’s first thought was to find Ruby and be certain she was safe. She wasn’t near the bald man, at least. Too many people filled the sanctuary for Galen to try to get any closer to the man, not that Galen was about to push his way past the elderly congregants that filled the wide gap between him and the shiny head near the rear doors. Whoever the man was, he appeared about to exit.

  Galen dropped back to the floor and slipped through the milling throng. Ruby should be safe in the fellowship hall, but he needed to see for himself just to be sure.

  King Thaddeus stood half a head taller than most of those who surrounded him. Once Galen caught sight of the king, he spotted Queen Monica at her husband’s arm, with Prince Peter between them.

  Quickly, Galen located the rest of the royals, their guards hovering nearby. There was Linus with Duchess Julia and Levi with an arm around Isabelle. Stasi stood not far from her sister, chatting with some of the other woman Galen recognized as being on Isabelle’s bridesmaid list. Kirk Covington sipped coffee patiently, watching his fiancée from just a few feet away.

  Galen still didn’t see Ruby, or Ethan, for that matter. He sidled over to Kirk. “Did you see which way Ruby went?”

  Kirk tore his eyes from the princess for only a moment. “She was headed that direction.” He pointed toward the front of the building. “Ethan was with her.”

  “Thanks.” Galen tried not to feel any concern. He couldn’t be certain the man he’d seen from the back was the same man who’d broken into the studio the day before. But the man had been headed toward the foyer that led to the front doors. If Ruby exited the fellowship hall going that same direction, her path would cross that of the man Galen had seen.

  Impatiently, Galen waited for the dense crowd to shift so he could make his way toward where Ruby had last been seen. With each passing second his heart rate increased, pounding against his chest, urging him forward. He told himself Ethan would protect her.

  Then he spotted Ethan in the front foyer, a quizzical expression on his face as he looked all around, even rose up on tiptoe, clearly looking for someone.

  Galen cut through the crowd toward his fellow guard. “Where’s Ruby?”

  “She was just here. She said something I couldn’t quite hear and she pulled on my arm. I thought she was on this side of me. I turned around—”

  “She’s gone?”

  Ethan looked sheepish. “She’s gone.”

  NINE

  Ruby darted out the front door after the familiar bald-headed figure. What was Luciano Salvatore doing in the Sardis Cathedral? Attending the worship service? It didn’t seem likely.

  The sun caught the top of the man’s head as he reached the bottom of the steps and headed up the sidewalk.

  Ruby reached backward to grab Ethan’s arm.

  Where was Ethan? She’d told him to follow her. Granted, with her smaller size, she fit more easily through the crowd and had lost hold of the guard’s arm a second after she’d taken it, but he ought to be behind her. She wasn’t supposed to go anywhere without a guard, and Luciano was getting away, headed up the street in the direction of Stasi’s studio.

  Ruby needed to follow him, but she also needed a guard.

  She looked back inside the foyer, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light inside. “Galen!” She grinned when she saw her favorite guard darting toward one of the front doors.

  “Ruby.” He leaped toward her.

  “Can you come with me?” Ruby clutched his sleeve as she looked back in the direction Luciano had gone. His shiny head was just visible as he neared the corner. “I lost Ethan and I don’t want Luciano to get away.”

  “Let’s hurry. I don’t want to lose him again.” Galen pulled out his phone but still kept up with her as she hurried down the wide front steps and along the street after the fast-disappearing man. “I sent Ethan back inside to look for you. He said he didn’t know where you’d gone—we split up to find you.”

  “He was supposed to follow me once I saw Luciano.” She pointed out the moving figure, still a long city block ahead of them, and moving quickly.

  “I saw him, too. I’m calling Ethan to tell him what’s up.” Galen punched a button on his phone.

  “Stay with me.” Ruby still had hold of his sleeve, but slid her hand down his arm and took hold of his hand, afraid he might lag behind during his phone call. She didn’t want to lose him just as she’d lost Ethan. The contact with his hand was reassuring, even if it sent an unwelcome thrill through her. She ignored her feelings and focused her attention on the darting dome ahead of them.

  Galen trotted beside her as he updated his fellow guard on what they were doing. “Grab a couple guards and catch up to us—but stay off the earpiece radios if at all possible. We already know they accessed our frequency, and I don’t want these guys to figure out we’re on to them. It looks like we’re headed to Princess Anastasia’s studio. You know the way?...Good.”

  Traffic filled both lanes of a cross-street as cars trailed in an antlike line down the hill from the cathedral to the restaurant district. Ruby scanned the cars, waiting for a break so they could cross. Luciano turned the corner far ahead of them. He was out of sight, but Ruby was nearly certain she knew where he was headed.

  “Now.” Galen squeezed her hand and they darted through a gap in the flow of vehicles. They scurried down the next block, slowing their pace as they reached the corner. “Let’s try to stay out of sight.”

  Ruby nodded. She’d been thinking the same thing. True to the neighborhood, the building on the corner housed offices that were closed for the weekend. Ruby bent low as she shuffled over to the very corner of the building and peeked around. Galen hovered above her, peering in the same direction.

  “Do you see him?” Galen asked softly.

  “No sign of him anywhere. Do you think he may have gone inside again?” She pulled her head back and blinked up
at Galen.

  “I hate to think he can slip in and out so easily in spite of the security system.”

  “It didn’t stop him yesterday.”

  “No, but we’re getting the locks changed this afternoon, so it should stop him the next time.” As he finished speaking, he peeked around the corner again. “There!”

  “Where?” Ruby bent to look.

  “Across that street, among the pillars where we hid yesterday.”

  Ruby looked. Luciano—or whatever his name was—lurked in the shade of the colonnade, his face turned upward toward the windows of Stasi’s studio where she and Galen had spotted the intruder the day before. “What’s he looking at? Do you think he has men inside again?”

  “Could be.” Galen pulled back and flattened himself against the building, looking the way they’d come. “I’m calling Ethan. If he approaches from that direction, he might scare Luciano off before we get a chance to find out what he’s up to.”

  Ruby kept an eye on their suspect while Galen spoke with Ethan—who appeared behind them a moment later, accompanied by his brother Adam, who was also a royal guard.

  “He hasn’t moved,” Ruby told Galen as he put away his phone.

  Galen explained the situation to the brothers, pointing out the suspect before conferring about their next move.

  “I think we need to find out what he’s looking at,” Ruby insisted, curiosity and concern burning through her. “Something’s holding his attention up there. I hate to think what might be going on. They may be finishing whatever business we interrupted yesterday.”

  “We’re supposed to have a guard inside the building around the clock from now on,” Galen reminded them.

  “Selini assigned Sam to guard it this morning,” Ethan explained. “He should be inside.”

  Ruby swallowed. She’d met Sam. She’d hate to think what could happen to him if he interrupted a robbery in progress. Obviously Sam hadn’t called anything in, or there would be more visible guard activity. Was Sam incapacitated? “I have my key,” she reminded them. “We can get inside.”

  “Should we try calling Sam first?” Adam asked.

  The men weighed their options. Galen was against using the earpieces. Ruby understood his reluctance. The devices had betrayed him in the past.

  “I’ve got his cell number,” Galen pulled out his phone again. “But if he’s in there, moving in on these guys, or watching them, we’ll give him away if we ring his phone. And he could very likely have his phone set to chime for incoming texts, so that’s out of the question, too.” The risk carried through his words—if they gave Sam away, the intruders might kill him.

  Ruby glanced around the corner to monitor Luciano. The place where he’d stood was empty. “He’s gone,” she whispered, just as she spotted him walking down the sidewalk on their side of the street. “He’s headed this way.” She pulled her head back quickly, hoping the man hadn’t already seen her. “Don’t look. He should come around this corner in less than a minute,” she estimated. It wasn’t scientific by any means, but she wasn’t about to risk looking again just to check his progress. None of them dared show themselves.

  “What do we do?” Ethan asked in a hushed voice.

  “Jump him?” Galen raised an eyebrow.

  The other two nodded, and Galen pulled Ruby back, away from the corner, depositing her in the relative safety of the nearby doorway. “Stay here,” he whispered next to her ear, his cheek brushing her as he turned away, raising feelings of intimacy that made her long for his presence the moment he stepped away. “Don’t move.”

  Ruby flattened herself against the cold limestone, pressing her hands against the flounce of her floral skirt, staying out of sight as much as possible, knowing that anything might happen when they captured Luciano. She prayed the guards would be safe. That Galen would be safe.

  She heard pounding footsteps that sounded as though they came from around the corner. Was Luciano running? Had he spotted them? An instant later the guards were running, too, and Ruby peeked past the edge of the doorway in time to see Galen leap onto the much bigger bald man’s back.

  The man staggered forward, hampered by Galen’s weight. Luciano attempted to fling Galen off, but Adam and Ethan caught up to him, grabbing him by either arm as they reached the far sidewalk. Luciano grunted something, but Ruby couldn’t make out the words.

  Galen dropped from the man’s back and swept his hands down Luciano’s body, pulling a gun from Luciano’s lower back and another from under the cuff of his pants. From what Ruby could hear of the conversation, Galen was doing the Lydian guard version of reading the man his rights. She hung back. She’d have liked to be close enough to hear, but Galen wanted her to stay where he’d put her.

  When Galen seemed satisfied that the brothers could hold their captive, he pulled out his phone. After a brief conversation he trotted over to Ruby’s side.

  “We’re bringing him in. I called headquarters. They’re coming in two cars—one to take in the suspect, the other to make sure you get back safely.”

  Ruby appreciated Galen’s thoughtfulness. “Has he told us anything?”

  “Just that he’s innocent.” Galen shrugged as he hurried back to where the two guards held Luciano. A moment later the first car appeared. To Ruby’s disappointment, Galen rode in the vehicle with the suspect, leaving Ethan behind to accompany her back to the palace.

  She slid into the backseat of the second car and told herself she had no right to feel disappointed. They’d caught Luciano. She should feel some measure of relief, but she still would have preferred to have Galen sitting beside her.

  “Sam checked in,” Ethan informed her as he buckled his seat belt. “He saw our scuffle from the window and called my phone. He said he’d spotted the man outside, but that no one’s disturbed the studio since he’s been there.”

  “That’s a relief.” Ruby felt glad Sam was okay, but she didn’t understand the rest. Why had Luciano been looking up at the studio if no one was inside? What was he doing in the area, anyway, and why had he been at the cathedral? Too many questions swarmed through her thoughts. “Are we going to question Luciano right away?”

  “We?” Ethan laughed. “I’m sure he’ll be questioned as soon as possible, but you’re not going to be part of it.”

  They finished the short drive to the palace as the guard spoke. Ruby didn’t argue with him. It wasn’t his decision to make whether she was there or not, but she felt strongly that, given her role in the events thus far, she ought to be present as he was questioned. The guards wouldn’t know anything about the jewelry. They weren’t the ones who’d been attacked, and they didn’t know the details of Luciano’s time as a security guard at her school, or any of the finer subtleties of her conversation with Carlton Verretti. She needed to be there.

  Somehow, she’d have to make the guards understand that.

  * * *

  “You’ve got the wrong man.”

  Luciano Salvatore’s words echoed through Galen’s thoughts as he typed quickly, prepping interrogation notes for Jason Selini as he waited for the captain to arrive at headquarters.

  The suspect was bluffing. Had to be. Still, Galen agreed with the same innocent-until-proven-guilty policy the American had voiced as they’d brought him in. Now his stomach churned with doubts. Too many things felt wrong, like why Luciano had been hanging about the studio without going inside, and why they’d captured him so easily. Why would the guilty party return to the scene of the crime, just to circle the building and get himself caught?

  Galen would have liked to ask the man himself, but when he’d called his superior officer to let him know they’d apprehended the suspect, Selini had insisted on interrogating the man personally. The captain wouldn’t even let Galen in the same room. He’d offered to let Galen watch the conversation from through the one-way glass.


  Knowing it would be the best offer he’d get, Galen had thanked the captain and asked if he could submit questions.

  To his relief, Captain Selini had seemed reluctantly pleased.

  It might be a step in the right direction. Unless Luciano was right and they had the wrong man.

  After silently handing his questions to the captain, Galen stepped outside. He’d silenced his phone several times since the church service and didn’t want it distracting him again during Salvatore’s questioning. He checked the log of missed calls. As he might have guessed, his brothers had been wondering where he was.

  Knowing he’d have a few moments while the captain prepared for the interrogation, Galen chose to call Adrian, the youngest of his three older brothers. He had hardly dialed Adrian’s number when he saw Ruby approaching from across the terraced lawn. He caught sight of her red hair as it bobbed from behind the bushes, drawing closer, until she bounded out, her flared skirt bouncing as she hurried toward him. He drank in the sight of her—the orange-red poppies on her skirt the exact color of her hair, the green blouse that matched the poppy leaves bringing out the green in her jade eyes.

  His heart rate rose with awareness of her presence, but as always, he reminded himself that he had no right to feel what he felt for her. She was his to protect, but never to hold. Whatever she’d been trying to tell him during her apology the day before, she’d never finished speaking, and he wouldn’t torture himself with the possibility that she might soften her earlier request for space.

  He nodded at her as she approached. She saw his phone and waved silently, hovering some feet away to allow him privacy.

  “You missed church.” Adrian’s voice pulled him back to the purpose of his call.