Royal Heist

by Rachelle Mccalla

  If that was the case, he and Ruby had just a few minutes left to live.

  Galen opened the next case, counting down in his head. Vincent’s sack would be full once he emptied this case. If the other two men each cleared out another case, they’d be ready to leave in a minute or so, just in time to meet with Roxanne when she circled back around.

  As near as he could figure, Galen would cease to be useful to them once he opened the next two cases. At any point after that, they might decide to end his life. And they only needed Ruby’s handprint to open the door. All they needed were the codes in his head, and then only for a few more seconds. After that, he and Ruby would no longer be necessary to their plans.

  Milton took his time circling the cases, his greedy eyes bulging as he tried to choose what to leave and what to take.

  Galen shuffled closer to Ruby. Vince had finally let go of her arm as he held his bag open with one arm and transferred jewels with the other. If Galen could get in between Ruby and the others, if he could maneuver her behind a case somehow, maybe he could figure out a way to hold her back when the door closed. The bandits had to leave the vault—with guards already likely swarming the tower, there was a chance they might be caught on their way out, if the guards could get to the other side of the wall in time.

  The longer Galen could delay them, the better the odds were that the guards would catch them.

  Ruby watched him approach, caution in her eyes. The bandits’ attention was absorbed in their work. He took another step toward her.

  “Hey—” Milton pointed his gun at Galen “—this one here.” He gestured with the firearm.

  Galen nodded and stepped toward him to open the case. “These pieces are all small. You could take more. What about this next case—would you like me to open it, as well?”

  Milton raised his gun when Galen spoke—clearly the man didn’t like anyone making suggestions. But then the elder Verretti looked at the jewels, and his greedy eyes widened.

  Would he go for it? Galen prayed the man would get selfish. The more he had to carry, the slower he’d move.

  But how much time did they need? Would the guards realize the bandits had come in from the other side of the wall? Or would they gain clearance to enter the passage and storm the vault, igniting a firefight that would leave everyone dead?

  “Yeah, this case, too.” Milton glanced at his watch as he scooped jewels into his bag. “But make it quick.”

  “You better hurry, Dad.” Vincent closed his own bag, grabbed Ruby by the arm, and pulled her toward the door. “Have him open it, then shoot him and let’s get going.”

  Galen stepped toward the code panel on the second case. Would they shoot him the very second he opened it?

  “Look, Vincent.” Ruby pointed to another full case as Vincent tugged her toward the door. “Yellow diamonds. Your favorite. Galen can open this case for you, as well.”

  The bandits looked at each other as tense seconds crept by. Milton checked his watch. “You got time. Those are nice yellow diamonds.”

  “Open it,” Vincent demanded.

  Galen finished the code for the second case Milton had requested, then crossed the room toward where Vincent stood.

  Vincent still had a tight hold on Ruby’s arm. How would Galen get her away from the thief and behind the safety of the bulletproof cases?

  “I want this case.” Carlton gestured to a fourteenth century display dominated by sapphires.

  “We need to get going.” Milton tightened the drawstring on his bulging bag.

  “It’s only fair. You and Vince got three.”

  Galen hesitated, fingers above the panel for Vince’s case. Once he entered the numbers, Vincent could shoot him just to keep his little brother from having his way—unless their father said otherwise.

  “Hurry, then.” Milton gestured with his gun.

  Galen entered the numbers for Vince. As the lid rose upward on its hydraulic hinges, Galen pushed back on the case and felt it roll backward ever-so-slightly. The movement caught his attention, and he looked quickly at the other display cases in the room.

  They were all on wheels.

  The bulletproof lids they’d opened gaped upward still, providing a clear protective barrier. Galen had been trying to figure out how he could possibly get hold of Ruby and duck behind a case without getting shot. Impossible—he’d have to cross the room twice, surrounded by trigger-happy thieves. But if the cases moved, perhaps the task wouldn’t be quite so impossible.

  Thinking quickly, he crossed the room to Carlton. The cabinet he’d selected stood near the vault door between two open cases, their clear lids stretching upward, two feet high by three feet wide—big enough to hide behind if he was quick. While Carlton set his bag down, Galen grabbed the edge of the open case beside them.

  Carlton pulled the drawstring open on his bag. Galen punched in the code.

  Behind him, he heard Milton pull Ruby away from Vince. “Let’s get this door open. Boys, you’ll have ten seconds. Don’t forget to clean up behind yourselves.”

  Galen understood the man’s insinuation—he wanted his sons to shoot them in the vault. As the lid before him began to open, Carlton got his bag open, grabbed his gun and pointed it at Galen.

  Quickly, deftly, Galen pulled the other wheeled case in front of him, stepping behind it and ducking low just as Carlton’s first two shots hit the bulletproof glass, fracturing it into crystalline spiderwebs, but stopping the bullets from going through. Across the room, Ruby pressed her hand to the security panel.

  As Galen propelled the case toward her on the smooth floor, the vault door slid open, the green numbers counting down.

  Ruby had done her job.

  Milton stepped through the door with his bulky bag over his shoulder.

  Spinning around with the wheeled cabinet between him and the bandits, Galen grabbed Ruby and pulled her close to him, then backed quickly toward the line of cabinets on the other side of the room. Above them, the green light illuminated the numbers in sequence, counting down.

  “Come on boys, we gotta go!” Milton called.

  Carlton sent two more shots in their direction, missing the spinning case entirely as it settled to a stop in front of them. “Vincent!” He shouted at his brother.

  Galen couldn’t see past the case, but the numbers above them told him the brothers didn’t have many seconds left.

  “This way,” Ruby tugged him toward the line of cases. Galen understood. With the glass already shattered, the case above them wouldn’t remain bulletproof if it was hit again, especially at such close range. Still wearing his body armor, he covered her as best as he could as they ducked behind the row of cases.

  Bullets hit the shattered glass behind them, sending it raining down in the spot where they’d been crouched a second before.

  “Where’d they go? We can’t leave them alive!” Carlton shouted from near the door.

  “Carlton, we gotta go!” Vince’s voice echoed from the chamber beyond the vault door as the numbers counted smoothly down. Three, two, one...

  NINETEEN

  Carlton sprayed a volley of bullets behind him and jumped through the doorway just as the one changed to zero.

  Bullets hit the glass case, ricocheting off the walls even after the doors slid closed. Galen felt pain shoot through his shoulder, but he kept his head ducked low over Ruby and prayed. The explosive sound of bullets was followed by a tomblike silence.

  Galen held tight to Ruby in the utter darkness of the sealed room. Pain speared through his back and arms as he listened closely, unsure whether any of the Verrettis had made it back through.

  Silence. The family of thieves would be making their escape, racing against time to stay ahead of the guards who were surely swarming the tower on all sides by now.

  “Ar
e you okay?” Galen asked Ruby as he sucked in a breath.

  She trembled beneath him. “I’m okay.” Her small hands swept over his shoulders, across his back.

  “Thank God. Ah.” He winced as she brushed against a painful spot.

  “They shot you,” she whispered in the darkness. “You’re bleeding.”

  “How bad?” The adrenaline that had kept him going eased from his system as he sagged to the floor. The room was completely dark. Should they try to exit? Not yet, not any time soon. He didn’t want the Verrettis to hole up in the vault if the guards chased them back down the stairs.

  “It’s hard to tell in the dark.” Her hands swept across his back again, gently, her touch soothing in spite of his pain. “Should I try to stop the bleeding, do you think? Or does that only make it worse?”

  “Gentle pressure.”

  Ruby sniffled, and wetness splashed his face. Was she crying on him? Suddenly he wondered if she’d been hit after all. He wished he could see.

  “Are you okay, Ruby? Are you injured?”

  “I’m fine. But they got away with the jewels. And they shot you. Oh, Galen, I was so afraid of letting myself fall for you, afraid if you kissed me I wouldn’t be able to leave Lydia.” Her lips brushed his cheek, left a trail of kisses down the side of his face. “Don’t leave me, Galen. Don’t leave me.”

  He turned his head just far enough to kiss her full on the lips. His back protested the movement, but he didn’t care.

  Ruby returned the kiss, her gentle hands holding him in the cold darkness. “I’ve been so stupid. I thought if I didn’t feel anything for you, it wouldn’t hurt to leave. But what have I gained? Nothing. And I’ve wasted all the time we could have spent together.”

  “We can still spend time together.”

  Ruby found his hand and laced her fingers through his. “For a few weeks, maybe months, but I’ll have to go home and fix my parents’ stores. I should have taken advantage of the time we had together.”

  “I could leave with you.”

  She pulled away slightly. “What do you mean?”

  “When you go back to the United States.”

  “But you could never leave the royal guard,” Ruby protested softly. “Being a guard means everything to you.”

  “When I had to choose between protecting the crown jewels and protecting you, I realized what was most important. I’d give everything up to be with you. Besides, I won’t be a guard after this.”

  “What?” She bent close to his face, her breath warm on his skin in the cold vault, her presence reassuring in the darkness.

  “I helped the bandits steal the crown jewels. I’ll be fired.”

  “You were shot. You did everything you could.”

  “It won’t be enough. Captain Selini is already upset with me.”

  “You saved my life,” Ruby whispered. “Won’t that be enough?”

  Galen doubted it would, not after the specific warnings the captain had given him. But he wasn’t about to argue with her. She pressed her lips to his again, and he lost himself in her kiss, ignoring the pain and the cold of the floor, praying that somewhere above them the guards were arresting the Verrettis and bringing back the crown jewels.

  * * *

  “The princess calls you a hero, but the captain of the guard is mad at you.”

  Galen’s brothers surrounded his hospital bed, plying him for more information. Galen didn’t know much, only that the Verrettis had gotten away. The guards had thought to check the other side of the wall, but because of the roundabout route necessary to reach it, they’d arrived too late, the swiftest foot soldiers running up the path to the tower just as the boys piled into Roxanne’s SUV, leaving their grappling hooks dangling from the tower as they pulled away.

  The guards’ earpiece radios had been jammed again, preventing clear communication and hampering their every effort. By the time they got a helicopter over the spot, there was no sign of the SUV.

  Officially, the palace had not disclosed what the thieves had taken, only that items of value had been stolen and the royal guard would be following several leads. Pictures of the Verrettis were being circulated throughout Lydia and the surrounding region. And Galen had yet to be fired.

  “What did they get away with?” Adrian asked, who had friends in the guard. All Galen’s brothers were career army men. Four years of service in the Lydian army was a prerequisite for being a guard. Galen’s brothers had gone through basic training with many of his fellow guards. The guards wouldn’t share classified information.

  Clearly, his brothers didn’t like being kept in the dark.

  Galen didn’t like it, either. He wanted to be out of bed and back at headquarters. Linus had come by—mostly to learn how badly he’d been injured—and had briefed him on the bare essentials. It wasn’t enough. Galen needed to know if they had any idea which direction the Verrettis had gone, if they’d found the boat, if the guards had talked to Rocco, if Ruby was okay.

  Ruby.

  Had she been injured? She’d told him she was fine, but it had been dark in the vault, and once Kirk had rushed in with the guards at his heels, everything had been chaotic. As one of the few with high-level clearance, Kirk had led a team in SWAT gear through the long way. They’d been inside the wall when the bandits had escaped, and had missed them completely.

  The guards had escorted Ruby out first, forcing Galen to lie still until they determined he could walk out, injured though he was. He’d been trying to describe the SUV, shouting at them to check the place where the boat had been docked, insisting they leave him and head after the bandits. Kirk thought the other guards would be after the getaway vehicle by then. But they couldn’t communicate because their earpieces had been jammed and there wasn’t a phone signal in the vault.

  The Bulldog Bandits had gotten away.

  In his hospital bed, Galen tried to sit up. He needed to get to headquarters, needed to share everything he knew.

  “Whoa there.” Timothy, his middle brother, nearly tackled him flat on the bed. “You’re not going anywhere. You still have an IV in your arm. You haven’t been discharged yet.”

  Galen followed the line from his hand to the dripping machine. He couldn’t imagine why he still needed it. Granted, the bullet that had ricocheted off the vault wall had grazed his shoulder, scraping away a wide swath of skin, causing him to lose a great deal of blood. He was supposed to have his bandages changed periodically as the doctor was afraid of an infection.

  But the Bulldog Bandits had the crown jewels. Galen couldn’t just stay in bed.

  “If you guys are going to hang around anyway, sign the papers to get me out of here.” Galen ripped the tape away from the IV, pulled the needle carefully from his vein and applied pressure to keep it from bleeding. “I’ve got places to go.”

  “Dressed like that?” Milos, the oldest, laughed at Galen’s hospital gown.

  “I’ve got clothes around here somewhere.” He found them in the wardrobe cupboard and pulled on his pants.

  Timothy held up Galen’s blood-splattered shirt. “You’re not wearing this.” Sunlight from the window highlighted the bloodstain and the gaping bullet hole.

  Pain shot through Galen’s back as he straightened and zipped his pants. He looked at his brothers. Timothy wore a polo over a T-shirt. All the brothers were nearly the same size.

  “Tim, give me your shirt.”

  The brothers teased him about taking the shirts off their backs, but they helped Galen pull the polo on when he discovered he could hardly raise his arms above his head.

  “You’re seriously busting out of the hospital?” Milos looked at him like he was crazy, but there was something in his voice that edged on respect.

  “I’ve got things to do. In case you hadn’t guessed it, something big is going on. I’m not
going to lie here while—” Galen caught himself, while his brothers looked at him expectantly hoping for intel. “While something big goes on.”

  Milos nodded. “I’ll sign you out of here and find out if that IV was important.”

  “You’ll need a car.” Adrian pulled out his keys. “I’ll drive.”

  “I need to get a fresh shirt.” Timothy followed them into the hall. “I don’t want to miss this.”

  * * *

  Captain Selini saw Galen privately in his office. “We found the boat on the dock where you said it would be. It was swept clean, no personal effects, no fingerprints, nothing but a few stray bulldog hairs.”

  “Rocco might know—”

  “Rocco’s phone goes straight to voice mail, ditto the phone number we have for the Verrettis. We tried to call and get a ping-back from the towers, but they won’t pick up, so we can’t trace their signal. We’ve tried everything, but we’ve got nothing.”

  “So we have no idea where they are?”

  “We know a few things. We don’t believe they’ve left Lydia. We put up checkpoints on all the roads leading out of the country. They couldn’t possibly have made it to any of the borders before that. And we’re checking all commercial flights out of Lydia.”

  “What about private planes?” Galen knew the Verrettis could afford their own jet or helicopter.

  “None that have taken off from registered airfields, and there have been no reports of any unregistered flight activity—just the military and guard helicopters that were sent out to look for them.”

  “And by sea?”

  “That’s our weakest point. We checked all boats at the marina, but given Lydia’s rugged coastline and the archipelago, watercraft could be hiding anywhere. We’re searching from the air, but so far, nothing.”

  Nothing. The word echoed in Galen’s thoughts. “We’ve got nothing else to go on? No other possible leads?”

  The captain looked at him evenly, his face tired, even haggard in spite of his relative youth. Jason Selini seemed to be weighing something, debating a decision he didn’t want to make. Finally he leaned forward, his voice low, as though he feared the walls themselves might hear. “Princess Anastasia ordered tracking devices.”