by A. C. Arthur
“It was just pizza.”
Rafe chuckled then, a deep, full-bodied laughter that filled the entire room.
“It was the beginning,” Rafe told him finally. “And the ending will be what you make it. Remember that, Kris.”
Kris had forgotten the conversation with his father almost immediately as he’d returned to his office to see a message from someone he needed desperately to speak to. He handled the call, made private travel arrangements and then thought about what his father had said. He was responsible for the ending. Landry had said something similar that night in the garden.
“You create your own circumstances, control your own destiny. It doesn’t have to be prewritten. Unless you want it to be,” she’d said. The way she’d looked at him had been brutally honest because she believed every word of it.
She and his father obviously believed more than he did.
Kris wondered if they were both right. Landry had walked away from him that night in the garden. She’d asked him not to contact her again and he’d done as she’d requested because he understood why she needed it to stop. The real truth was he hadn’t thought he had the strength to stop their affair himself; his need for her seemed so urgent and unceasing. Yet, she’d done it. She’d said the words and she’d meant them. He admired her for that.
He admired her and he hated seeing her in Roland’s arms, all at the same time.
They were dancing close together, Roland’s hand was around her waist, the other holding her hand. He’d even bent forward and kissed her forehead. Kris’s fingers tightened on the stem of the champagne glass.
“Looks like Roland is stealing your woman,” Sam said as she came to stand beside him.
Once again, he was prepared to deny the way he felt, but he had been staring at Landry and thinking about her, and dammit, his father must have been right.
“I’ve seen the way you look at her and I saw the pictures of you and her at the museum in the paper. While the island is speculating, I know firsthand how different you’ve been behaving since she’s been here.”
Kris finished off the champagne and immediately looked for a place to dispose of the glass. Catching the eye of one of the staff members, he waited until the man came over and took the glass from him, before replying to his sister.
It was a stall tactic, but one Kris desperately needed. He’d seen the papers as well so he knew what was being said after he’d taken Landry to the opening ceremony of the new exhibit at the museum two weeks ago. It had been an impromptu invitation. He’d fully intended to go alone, as usual. But then he’d thought about her and before he could stop himself he’d gone to her room and made the request. She’d looked hopeful and he knew it. The moment he’d asked her to accompany him, she’d thought it was a date. It wasn’t; it was business and he’d been sure to make that known. After explaining that to her, he hadn’t touched her or stood too close to her at all during the ceremony and when it was done, he hadn’t even offered her dinner, instead telling Tajeo to bring them straight home.
It wasn’t a date. He wasn’t courting her.
They were just...just...
“Just how do you think I’ve been behaving? I haven’t done anything out of the ordinary,” he replied to Sam, even though he knew deep down how big of a lie his words actually were.
“For one, you took her to the museum unveiling and that was after you insisted that she be at the family dinners. You’re also keeping tabs of her comings and goings with Jorge.”
“As you well know, I’m concerned about everyone riding in our cars now, so that doesn’t count.”
“You let Jorge pick her up from the front of the palace when everyone else leaves from the back. I know you know about this and you must have approved it or Jorge would not be doing it.”
“I’m just concerned for her safety, like everyone else here.”
“Yeah right, Kris, tell that to the reporters—they might believe you. But I certainly don’t. You’ve been staring at her since she walked into this room and now that Roland’s got his arms—very tightly I might add—around her, you’re about to explode with jealousy.”
Kris forced himself to look away from where Landry and Roland were; just as Sam said, they were dancing very closely together. He wished for another glass of champagne but knew that it wouldn’t look good for him to be seen drinking too many. “I’m not jealous.”
Sam was nodding when he looked in her direction. “No, you’re not stupid,” she told him, “which is what I would have to call you if you stood here like a silly oaf instead of going over there and interrupting their dance. If you want something in life, Kris, you’ve just got to go out there and grab hold of it with both hands.”
He frowned at her then. “Mom used to say that.”
“She sure did,” Sam admitted. “And it’s never been truer than it is now. So get yourself out there and grab what you want.”
Kris wasn’t taking advice from his younger sister. Nor was he heeding his father’s words. He was simply going to ask her to dance with him. It was polite and it would also keep him from having to dance with anyone else, at least for the moment. So he walked out onto the dance floor, excusing himself through the crowd as others danced around him.
Just as he was close enough to them to tap Roland on the back, another woman appeared with a smile.
“Good evening, Your Highness,” she said before falling into a deep curtsy, her gaze going from him to Roland and back to him.
Roland had stopped dancing but still held Landry in his arms.
“Well, look what we have here,” Roland said with his signature grin in place. “A situation.”
Landry looked up to Kris and let her hands fall slowly from Roland’s shoulders.
“I believe introductions are necessary,” Kris said.
“Yes, they certainly are. Please, let me, big brother,” Roland added with a wink.
Kris resisted the urge to frown.
“Landry Norris, this is Valora Harrington,” Roland began with a flourish of his arm between the two ladies. “Valora, this is Landry. She’s a guest to the palace and is assisting Malayka in preparations for the wedding.”
Valora nodded, her short dark hair an intriguing contrast to her buttery skin tone.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Valora said. “I read in the paper how you’ve been visiting the local dressmakers. They have wonderful things to say about you.”
Landry accepted the hand that Valora extended and smiled in return. “Thanks. I’m happy to meet you as well. As for the dressmakers, there’s an amazing amount of talent on this island. I just hope to be able to share it with those in my country soon.”
“Of course you will,” Roland quipped. “Especially since the gowns you and Malayka are both wearing tonight are made by Detali.”
Kris had no idea how his brother knew that, since he obviously had no clue, but he found that he was pleased by the knowledge.
“Your gown is beautiful,” Landry said to Valora.
Valora smiled and accepted the compliment but Kris was certain something else was going on there. He could feel the edges of tension and wondered for a moment if it were solely due to his presence.
“Well, Valora. Why don’t we take a spin on this grand dance floor,” Roland offered. “Kris, you dance with Landry.”
Before he could say a word—even though he fully planned to agree with Roland’s suggestion—Roland had taken Valora’s hand and they were walking away. Kris didn’t wait for Landry to respond, he simply stepped in front of her and took her hand. He held her just as Roland had, except their bodies were not nearly as close. They moved slowly, almost mechanically in the same spot.
After a few quiet moments, she sighed.
“You don’t have to do this,” she told him. “I understand if you wanted
to dance with Valora. I mean, I know that you two aren’t actually engaged. Roland told me. But still, I get if you’d rather be seen with a native, instead of with me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? And how did you find out about me and Valora?” Kris asked as they continued to move.
She looked away, then back to him like she was really considering walking away and leaving him alone on the dance floor. He was thankful when she let out a sigh but looked as if she’d stay.
“Malayka told me you were engaged,” she admitted.
“When did she tell you that? Is that why you ended things between us?”
“What?” she asked, surprise clearly on her face. “No. She didn’t tell me until after I’d done that. I said we could no longer do what we were doing because it was wrong, for both of us.”
“You cannot speak for me,” he said. He was getting really tired of people telling him what he felt, and how he should react to what he felt.
“No, but I can speak for what I was involved in. We both knew it was pointless from the start,” she said and still would not look directly at him.
She blinked when a camera flashed close to them. On the other side, another flash went off and this time Kris was the one blinking.
“Great,” she said with a sigh. “Now they’re going to print in the paper that you were dancing with the American stylist. Perhaps they’ll say you took pity on me or some other nonsense.”
“They’ve already snapped pictures of us and I would demand a retraction if they dared to insult you in any way,” he told her as he looked over her head for one of the guards.
When he saw a familiar face and they exchanged a look, Kris relaxed a bit. But that was short-lived.
“There you are,” Malayka said tightly as she came behind Landry to take hold of her arm. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. It seems I’m having a wardrobe malfunction.”
“Oh no, really? Did something happen to the dress?”
“Something happened alright. A reporter just asked me about my Detali original. I wasn’t aware that I was wearing a Detali original, or who the hell Detali is for that matter,” Malayka argued.
Kris was just about to say something when Landry shook her head at him. “I can handle this on my own. Let’s go,” she told Malayka and they walked away.
The cameramen had just taken a flurry of new shots and Kris could imagine what the headline would read.
Soon-to-Be Princess Argues with Crown Prince’s Mistress.
He clenched his fists at the thought.
“Hey, we can go over those reports first thing tomorrow. I think I’ve found something interesting,” Gary said after he and another guard had moved the photographers along.
“Sure,” Kris said as he looked around the ballroom to see if he could catch a glimpse of the direction Malayka and Landry had headed.
He wasn’t comfortable with Malayka’s tone and felt like he needed to be close just in case.
Then suddenly noise became deafening. The floor and the walls shook, smoke filled the air instantly and screaming immediately followed.
Chapter 14
Pandemonium quickly ensued as smoke and flames filled the back portion of the ballroom.
Garrison “Gary” Montgomery, Kris’s college friend who also happened to be a former captain in the United States Army, had just come to stand by Kris and immediately pushed him to the floor, using his body to cover Kris as the explosion rocked the room.
“You okay?” he’d asked almost immediately.
Kris nodded. “I’m good. Find my father!”
By that point he was getting to his feet and then he was looking around. People were still screaming and running around, falling over each other. Kris instantly began moving. He did not run, but walked quickly, touching people as he went so that he could move by them without knocking them down. When he saw a guard he grabbed the man’s arm.
“Get all guards down here. Call the police and the paramedics and find my sister and brother, now!”
The guard took off in another direction and Kris continued to move. Until he stopped to help an elderly woman who had either fallen or had simply sat on the steps, one hand clutching her chest, the other one shaking as she tried to hold on to the railing.
“Ma’am, it’s best if we get you out of here,” he told her and slipped his arms beneath her to hoist her up off the floor.
She was shaking her head, tears streaming down her face as she said, “My Carl, my husband. I don’t know where he is.”
Kris nodded. “We’ll find him. But he would want you to get to safety. I’m going to help you get out of here.”
After another wail she wrapped her arms tightly around Kris’s neck leaned into him as he led them around the stairs to another door.
This was the staff hallway, which they used to get to and from the kitchen quickly. Kris walked her through the passageway where there were still people, but a smaller amount since nobody really knew about that area but the staff. When he came to a back door that led out to the side of the palace, he used his foot to kick it open and then hurried through with the woman.
They both inhaled the fresh evening air, sucking in gulps and coughing a little from the smoke that had already began to fill their lungs. Uniformed guards were coming from around the front of the house and Kris waved one of them down.
“Get her out of here,” he told the guard. “And find her husband, Carl.”
When Kris turned to go back inside, the guard protested.
“Your Highness, you should come this way. We’re clearing everyone from the palace,” he told Kris.
Kris only nodded. “That’s good. Get everyone out. Get them all out and hurry!”
He then walked past the guard, through the door and ran down the hallway. In seconds he was in the ballroom once again. Lifting his jacket to cover his mouth and nose Kris proceeded through the crowd, yelling at them to keep moving to the exits as fast as they could. At the same time he came to another door, the one that he knew was a back stairwell leading up to the second floor. This was where he’d seen Malayka and Landry go only seconds before the explosion.
Kris took the steps two at a time, stopping only when he came to another door which he yanked open. Running down that hallway he let his jacket fall from his face because there was no visible smoke there. This side of the floor housed conference rooms and the room Kris knew that Malayka was now using as a dressing room. That’s where they had to be.
He wasn’t certain they’d had enough time to actually reach the room but Kris ran in that direction anyway, until he saw her lying on the floor. With fear threatening to choke him, Kris ran faster until his feet were skidding across the floor as he tried to stop. Dropping to his knees he lifted her head and let it rest on his arm as he called her name.
“Landry! Landry! Talk to me!”
He wanted to smack her face to wake her but was too afraid of further hurting her. Instead he grabbed her cheeks between his fingers, shaking her as gingerly as his trembling hands could manage.
“Landry!”
Her eyes fluttered after a few seconds then opened again slowly, her lips parting.
“What did you hit me with?” she asked groggily.
“Not me, baby. Never. I would never hurt you. Ever.”
But somebody had.
Somebody had hit Landry and set off an explosive in his house.
* * *
“Everybody is accounted for,” Roland said as he entered the room about half an hour after the explosion. “Malayka is in her room resting, per your orders. And I stopped by Sam’s room before coming back here. She’s more pissed off than afraid, but there are four guards with her.”
Kris watched as his brother gave a nod to their father and then crossed the carpeted f
loor, stopping at the end of a leather couch to sit on its wide arm. His jacket was gone, the white T-shirt he’d worn beneath it smudged with dark marks. Rafe sat in a wide, cushioned chair, an unlit cigar between his fingers.
The moment a guard had found him to tell him where his family was Kris had stood, knowing he needed to go to them. He’d taken Landry to her room by then and she’d sat on the sofa, her still-shaking hands holding a glass of water. Another guard had seen Kris bring her in there and immediately offered his assistance. Kris instructed the guard to stay with Landry and had given her one long last look, as she sat huddled beneath his black commander’s jacket, which he’d wrapped around her shoulders.
She was alive.
He breathed a sigh of relief and went to make sure the rest of his family were fine as well. They were all accounted for, and all pissed off.
“Brakes have been tampered with, someone broke into the bank and now this,” Roland said, the tension in his voice filtering throughout the room. “An explosion at the palace. Who the hell is behind this?”
Roland had shouted the question, displaying the fury that was no doubt going through each of them. They were in his father’s private rooms. Kris stood close to the bar but hadn’t allowed himself to fix a drink. They could all probably use one, but he refrained because he wanted his mind to be perfectly clear when the police arrived.
As if he’d silently summoned them, there was a soft knock on the door. Roland stood and walked the length of the floor to answer it. They came in, Salvin leading the way, followed by Captain Vincent Briggins, head of the Grand Serenity Police Force, and Garrison Montgomery. As Roland closed the door and followed the men, Kris walked over to stand near them.
“Let me introduce Garrison Montgomery—he’s a retired captain in the United States Army and a personal friend of mine,” Kris told them.
“Should he be here right now?” Roland asked.
Kris nodded to his brother. “He’s the security expert I hired after our conversation.”