Christmas Conspiracy

by Robin Perini

  “Why would Hayden go in there?”

  “He was trying to jimmy the outside lock to visit the kittens. Apparently, he wanted to play with them. Gretchen said he almost had the door open. I’m going to have to get a dead bolt to keep him in.”

  “God, he really is a little Houdini,” Kat muttered in frustration.

  “Okay, enough kid talk. It’s time for a grown-up question.” Logan held out his hand. “What’ll it be? Stay here or my room?”

  “What a sexy proposal.” She laughed. “Do you have to ask?”

  “You want sexy? How’s this?” He swept her in his arms and carried her the short walk to his bedroom. Once inside, he kicked the door shut. After sliding her down his body, he started removing her blouse. “Better?”

  “Much.”

  When his lips caressed her shoulder, Kat sighed. “I think we’d better lock the door. We’re going to be doing some things that little eyes should not see.”

  Logan laughed. “I promise we will be.”

  Logan’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and cursed. “It’s King Leopold.”

  Kat sighed. “Do you think he’s decided to leave us alone?”

  “If he hasn’t,” Logan said with a growl, “then Zane’s information about Leopold’s rare earth metal dealings ought to make him think twice.” Logan pushed the speakerphone. “Your Majesty.”

  “Get my daughter on the phone now,” Leopold barked.

  “Kat’s right here and you’re on speakerphone. She can hear every word.”

  The king huffed. “Katherine, I’ve had enough of your stonewalling. The situation here is growing desperate. You must listen to me. Come to Bellevaux now and bring your son. It’s imperative you leave immediately. I sent my private jet back for you. You could be here by morning.”

  “No.”

  “Dammit, woman. I’ll give you whatever you want. Houses, cars, jewelry. Anything you desire, but you must come now. This week. We’re out of time.”

  “Why won’t you listen to me? I’m not a princess, I never wanted to be and I never will be.”

  “Katherine—”

  She cut him off. “And one more thing, Your Majesty, I have two children. A son and a daughter, and I have a life in this country. Find someone else to be your heir.”

  “There is no one else! This country will cease to exist if you don’t become my heir before Christmas.”

  “I’m illegitimate. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be accepted by your people.”

  The king cleared his throat. “My great-great-grandfather was a bit adventurous. When he had a child out of wedlock, his father changed the law. All you have to do is agree for me to adopt you, and you and your children will be legitimate.”

  “If that king could change a law, then you do it, too. Make up a law that will work. I’m an adult. I’m not going to be adopted by a man who doesn’t want me.”

  “I didn’t know you existed until your mother sent your birth certificate and some photographs in the mail.”

  “What? She would never do that.”

  Leopold cursed. “I don’t have time to argue with you about it. I don’t know whether or not she had second thoughts, but by the time I tracked her down, she’d passed away.”

  Kat’s head swam. Her mother had lied all that time, then sent Kat’s birth certificate to the king when she realized she was dying? “How did you find me?”

  “I hired Logan three years ago.”

  “Three years?” Her gaze met Logan’s. “I was your…assignment?” She hissed. “The chance meeting? The instant attraction? It was a setup? All of it?”

  Oh, God. It was true. She could see it in his eyes.

  She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. “Has everyone been lying to me all along? My mother. My father…and you? Was any of it real?”

  Logan reached for her, but she stepped away from him. Oh, God, she couldn’t breathe. Her knees shook. “Did he hire you to sleep with me, too, or were the extra heirs a bonus? I hope you got paid.”

  “Katherine, don’t be crude. We don’t have time for this.”

  Logan grabbed the phone. “She’s not coming back, Leopold. And if you call again, that secret deal you’ve set up with your friends from Russia and Yemen will become public knowledge. I’ll make sure the right people hear about it. Do I make myself clear?”

  The king sputtered and Logan hung up.

  He thrust his hand through his hair. “I was going to tell you—”

  “When? Obviously not before we went to bed and had hot sex for a week. It’s amazing how that never entered into our discussions about your job description. I believe you said you were a rancher?”

  “I am.”

  She shook her head. “You’re so much more than that, though. Aren’t you?”

  “It didn’t bother you a half hour ago.”

  “And, it wouldn’t have mattered now if you’d told me the truth when we met, Logan. But you didn’t bother. You just lied.”

  “I can’t change what’s happened.”

  Why didn’t he tell her it was all a mistake?

  Logan stepped toward her. She backed away. “I need room. I can’t breathe.”

  He stilled. “I didn’t know you were his daughter, but he did hire me to find you.”

  She stared at the ground. “We didn’t just run into each other. You knew who I was. You were paid. Whatever you told him must have been impressive. He never contacted me.”

  “I told him where you worked. What you did for a living. That’s it, Kat. What happened between us was real.”

  She snapped her head up and glared. “Nothing was real about that week, Logan. Nothing.”

  “We have two children together, Kat. You can’t just walk away from that. You might still be in danger.”

  “I’m not walking away. I know I’m still in trouble and I won’t risk my children’s lives because I’m angry and hurt. But I want Rafe to watch over me. Not you. Everything I believed about my life has been thrown up in the air and my future threatened by other people who thought lying to me was for my own good. I need to make some decisions on my own. I’ll let you know what they are.”

  She left his room and went into the guest room next to the kids’.

  Kat sank to the floor and she let the tears fall.

  She’d almost had it all. Now she had to figure out what was left.

  * * *

  THE FIRST RAYS OF daylight broke over the frost-covered hills. What a night. The extra guards had played havoc with his plans, but he and Hans had finally finished setting the charges.

  Deke hated to see the dawn, knowing what he was about to do. Innocent people would be killed and he couldn’t figure a way out of it. Maria’s life was forfeit if he failed. According to Hans, even if Deke succeeded she might not survive. His hands shook as, for the hundredth time, he verified the connections on the electronic controller that would set off the explosions.

  “Would you quit playing with that thing,” Hans muttered, scanning the property with the binoculars. “You’re taking forever.”

  “It takes as long as it takes,” Deke bit out. “Did you place everything exactly like I told you.”

  Hans yawned. “Of course, and I took out three of Carmichael’s guards. I don’t know why we can’t just shoot them all and be done with it.”

  “Because the boss wants this place decimated. Evidently Carmichael screwed up some special deal in Uzbekistan a couple years ago.”

  “Carmichael killed Victor’s son. No wonder.” Hans whistled. “How do you know all this?”

  Deke froze in place. He couldn’t let slip that Maria’s father was a loyalist and part of the underground resisting the Duke of Sarbonne’s attempted takeover. If the terrorists knew of her link, Maria would be tortured for that information, as well. “It’s my job to know. Did you hide the bodies of the men you killed?”

  “Most of them.” Hans spit on the ground. “It’s not going to matter in a minute. There will be b
ody parts flying everywhere.”

  Despite the cold temperature outside, sweat rolled down Deke’s back. He couldn’t stall much longer or Hans would figure out that Deke half hoped someone would find a body and sound an alarm. He didn’t want to press that detonator.

  After today, he would be a murderer.

  He thought of the two young children he’d seen the day before and shuddered. But, if he didn’t go through with this, his own child might not have a chance to live.

  “Hold on. What’s that movement near the house?” Hans put the binoculars to his eyes and smiled. “Check it out. The rest of the kills may not be so impersonal, after all.”

  Deke squinted. A blond-headed little boy peeked out of a small doorway on the side of the house. Deke remembered breaking the lock on the outer door of the little shed full of wood. It had been a great place for a few explosives to keep the chain going.

  He clenched his fists as he watched the child climb over the wood pile and jump down before walking across the yard toward the bull pen. The boy had something red and white clutched in his hand. Had he disrupted the explosives?

  Guilt washed through Deke. The boy wouldn’t have escaped if Deke hadn’t broken that lock.

  Hans laughed, drawing out his knife. “Could this get any better, or what? I get to kill a royal rugrat today. But I want to play with him first.”

  “Hans. No!” Before Deke could stop the psycho, Hans sprinted across the field, the sun glinting off the deadly blade in his fist.

  A moment later, a young man opened the barn door to Hans’s left. The ranch hand reached for his gun, but Hans was on him before he could fire. They wrestled, and the man managed to yell, “Hayden, run!”

  His cry turned into a garbled scream as Hans slit the man’s throat in one motion then turned toward the boy.

  Hans grabbed the kid, clamped a hand over his mouth and ran toward the outlying buildings where Deke hid. “Blow it. Now!”

  Deke’s stomach churned. He couldn’t do this.

  The little boy kicked and scratched like a wildcat. With one hand, Hans ripped the detonator out of

  Deke’s grasp and slammed the button down. “Let’s get out of here.”

  It was done. The countdown had started. Within five minutes this whole place would explode. Stunned, he watched Hans take off with the boy, knowing he planned to torture the child. Deke couldn’t do it. He couldn’t let Hans kill the boy.

  A Sig Sauer clutched in Deke’s fingers, he ran toward them. He had to stop Hans. There had to be another way to end this nightmare.

  The boy bit Hans and the big man threw the child to the ground and raised his knife.

  Blood roared in Deke’s ears. He couldn’t let this happen. Not even for Maria.

  The arc of the knife swung down.

  “No!” Deke raised his weapon and pulled the trigger.

  Hans jerked and fell to the ground.

  The boy got up and ran, but Deke couldn’t move.

  Chapter Nine

  At the sound of the gunshot, Logan bolted upright in the chair in the guest room where he’d held vigil over Kat. He shook her awake. “Grab the kids. You’re going to the panic room.”

  Streaks of dawn slipped through the window shutters, giving him just enough light to see the shock register on her face. “What happened?”

  “Gunshot. Move it.”

  She threw back the covers and hopped out of bed, tugging on her jeans and sweatshirt over the T-shirt she’d worn to bed. He pressed a button on his cell phone. “Rafe? What’s going on?”

  “We’ve been compromised. At least three men down. Two dead.”

  A sharp curse escaped Logan. “How?”

  “The accident. The kid’s tires didn’t blow. They were shot out. It was a diversion to take down the fence and sensors.”

  Logan’s mind whirled. “It takes some pretty sophisticated equipment to detect our sensors.”

  “Zane called. They entered on the most vulnerable side of the ranch. The ravines and dry creek bed provide natural hideouts. They took out the patrols there. According to the survivor, there’s at least two men, and one has a serrated knife,” Rafe added meaningfully.

  Logan’s blood chilled. Paulina’s killer. “Find them.”

  Logan disconnected and grabbed Kat. “Move. Now.”

  They raced down the hall. He pushed open the door to see Lanie asleep and his son gone. His heart stopped. “Hayden!”

  He scared Lanie awake, but Hayden didn’t appear. Logan whipped the baby out of bed, along with her pink blanket and shoved her into Kat’s arms. “Take Lanie to the panic room. I’ll find Hayden.”

  Kat bolted for the stairs, while Logan ran from room to room. The second floor was deserted. He did a quick sweep downstairs and headed into the kitchen.

  Gretchen hovered near the window, peering out. “Was that a gunshot?” she asked.

  “We have a security breach,” Logan said quickly, moving to check the house alarm, which was still armed. “Have you seen Hayden?”

  Her face paled. “No.”

  “He’s got to be here somewhere.”

  Kat hurried over to him, clutching their daughter. “Gretchen can take Lanie. I’ll help you look.”

  “No!” Logan said. “You should already be in the panic room. Everyone go. Now.”

  Armed with his Glock, Logan did a quick check of the windows near the stairwell then motioned for them to follow him downstairs. Zane was shoving movable carts of electronics into the panic room and locking everything down.

  Logan ushered them in. “Hayden’s missing,” he told Zane. “Run a heat scan on the house and outside.”

  Zane raced to one of the units and tapped the keys. “Scanning.”

  “What the hell happened?”

  “Whoever did this is good.” Zane’s face was red with fury. “They looped video through the cameras to look live. I’m not sure if someone inside didn’t help them get the footage.”

  “If he did, we’ll find him dead. These guys don’t leave people behind,” Logan said.

  Zane hit a few more buttons and studied the monitor. “No heat signature in or near the house, just the cats underneath.... Wait a minute.” He pointed at a blank spot on the electronic map of the house. “The sensor on the outside wood box door is not responding. Does Hayden know about the shed?”

  Logan swore. “I caught him in there yesterday. He heard meowing. The shed is right above the cat’s new nest for her litter.”

  “If he unlocked the kitchen access door, he’s small enough to crawl over the wood. That door—” Zane indicated the dark sensor “—leads to the outside…” His voice trailed off.

  Kat gasped. “Hayden could be anywhere.”

  “I’ll find him.” Logan rounded on Zane. “Get the security systems back up. I want audio and video STAT.”

  “Take this.” Zane handed Logan an earpiece. “I switched channels. There’s no way to monitor them, even if they’ve taken an earpiece from one of our missing men.”

  Logan turned to Kat and pulled her into his arms, working to wipe the terrified expression from her face, but knowing only Hayden’s return would slow the pounding of her heart. “I’ll find him. Lock yourself inside.”

  “Let me help.”

  “I need to know you’re safe. I can’t be distracted.”

  She bit her lip and grabbed his arm. “Find our son.”

  Logan leaned in and kissed her, tasting her desperation. “He’ll be back for a ‘time out’ before you know it. Take care of Lanie.” He punched the code and the panic room’s steel door slowly began to close. “Don’t leave until I give the all clear. No matter what you see or hear.”

  With one last look at the woman he’d grown to love, he rushed up the stairs. The kitchen access door to the wood box was unlocked and he peered through the small shed and saw daylight. Cursing, he ran out the front door. Dawn had barely broken through the sky, and most of the regular ranch hands hadn’t arrived yet. Thank goodness.


  He tapped the headset. “Everything secure inside?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Any sign of Hayden? The wood box is open.”

  “No, but I don’t trust the camera feeds. I’ve identified three so far that were compromised. On the west end of the property leading up to the house. I’ll keep trying.”

  “Pull most of the guards to the house. Keep the ranch hands away. And maintain contact.”

  Logan scanned his property as he rounded the house to the woodshed. The outside lock had been tampered with, and he could see where Hayden had displaced the wood climbing out.

  He glanced under the house, and, to his surprise, the kittens were gone. Where the hell would they go now? Hayden must be looking for them. He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hayden? Are you out here?”

  Dread surged within him. Between the barns and construction area, there were too many places for a little boy to hide.

  The bull snorted from behind the fence. Surely his son wouldn’t have—

  An explosion rocked the ground as one of the outbuildings blew. The hot rush of air slammed Logan to the dirt.

  Shooting fire arced over him, pelting his back with burning debris. He dragged off his coat as another fireball lit the dawn sky. Logan stumbled to his feet. Panic tore at his heart. “Hayden!”

  The distant sound of a car engine roared and Logan ran toward it. The noise grew fainter.

  He ran past the propane tank and a blinking flash of red caught his eye. Another bomb! The pace of the blinking quickened.

  “Hayden!” He tore through the site, yelling for everyone who appeared to get down.

  The tower blew. Fire surged like a hungry beast, decimating everything it touched. The inferno rose higher than the barn roof. Billowing smoke poured out from the tank making the world hazy.

  Screams of the wounded assaulted him as he frantically searched for his son. Soot and ash stung his eyes. Then, to his left, another explosion rocked the barn. Shards of wood and metal bombarded the surrounding buildings.