Prince Incognito

by Rachelle Mccalla

  A moment later there was a tug on the rope, and she looked down to see Alec climbing up.

  Her heart leapt at the sight of him, and she wanted to call down to him to be careful, but at the same time, she couldn’t risk doing anything that might give away his presence.

  His hands gripped the railing, and an instant later he’d hoisted himself over it.

  She pulled him back into her suite, and he stumbled after her, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his face close to hers.

  She hadn’t had any intention of kissing him, but the moment his lips drew near, she didn’t hesitate to return his eager kiss.

  “Are you all right? They haven’t hurt you?” he whispered between kisses.

  “I’m fine, but you’ve got to get to Sardis as soon as you can. There’s going to be a ruling oligarchy. You’ve got to sign it or our family will outnumber yours.”

  “Outnumber?”

  “My uncle and father and I make three. Your two sisters are only two.”

  “You’d sign—” Alec began, and for the first time stopped kissing her.

  “I’ve got to go along with what they ask. If I don’t—”

  Before she could finish her sentence, the lights snapped on. The door to her suite was open, and her room was filled with soldiers, surrounding them with their guns trained on them from every angle.

  David Bardici smiled. “Good work, Lillian. Your cooperation is very much appreciated.” He nodded to the armed men. “Handcuff him. Let’s go.”

  Lily blinked against the sudden light, unsure how or when the men had entered her room. Her entire attention had been so focused on Alec, she’d been unaware of anything else.

  But he didn’t know that.

  As soldiers clapped cuffs on Alec’s wrists, he looked at her with disappointment in his eyes, and she realized with a stab of horror how the situation looked from his perspective.

  He thought she’d worked with her uncle to purposely trap him, didn’t he?

  And she had no way of proving to him otherwise.

  TWELVE

  Alec strained against the chains that bound him, but they didn’t budge.

  He knew there was no point fighting, but he couldn’t help it. He had to do something. He’d been so foolish.

  With his kingdom and the lives of his family hanging in the balance, he’d walked right into a trap. Could he have been any more stupid?

  Good work, Lillian. Your cooperation is very much appreciated.

  David Bardici’s words echoed through his mind, at odds with the expression on Lily’s face. She’d looked startled. Horrified. Desperate.

  Had she betrayed him? He didn’t want to believe it, but the chains on his wrists said otherwise.

  Whatever her role had been, he had only himself to blame for getting captured. Why had he thought he could walk into Bardici’s compound and emerge unharmed? More importantly, why had he given in to his longing to hold Lillian in his arms and kiss her again, allowing himself to be distracted instead of realizing the danger in time to escape? He’d told himself a hundred times as he’d prepared for his visit that it was a fact-finding mission only. He’d had no intention of kissing her.

  But the moment he saw her, there had been no resisting the pull of attraction he felt. He’d been so concerned for her safety, so worried that she might be suffering at the hands of her evil uncle.

  Now he was going to suffer at her uncle’s hands. It was only a matter of time.

  With a reverberating boom, a door opened, and several sets of feet shuffled through the darkness.

  “When your family is hanged for treason and my family takes the throne, don’t blame me, Alexander.” David Bardici’s voice carried through the cavernous space. “Blame yourself. You failed them. You failed God.” He chuckled.

  Alec’s hands clenched, but there was nothing he could do to defend himself.

  “Don’t worry about Lillian’s safety anymore. She did exactly what we asked her to do from the very beginning. She found you during the ambush. She seduced you. She fooled you into thinking she could be trusted and then she betrayed you. As long as she continues to cooperate with us, she will be rewarded handsomely for her work. But if you attempt to contact her, if you ever try to see her again, we’ll hang her right beside you. Understand?”

  Alec said nothing, and a hollow boom told him the general had left.

  In his absence, Alec wrestled with the man’s question. Did he understand?

  Maybe.

  If Lillian really was cooperating with her uncle, would the general have had to warn him away from her?

  There was an undercurrent of fear that carried through the man’s threat, a needlessness that could only be explained one way.

  David Bardici knew that Alec was in love with his niece. And he didn’t want Alec getting close to her again. Why not?

  Was Lillian’s love for him stronger than her fear of her uncle?

  Alec prayed he’d somehow get the chance to find out.

  * * *

  Lillian followed her uncle silently as he shoved her from the dark room, the words he’d used to taunt Alec still ringing in her ears.

  If you attempt to contact her, if you ever try to see her again, we’ll hang her right beside you. She knew the warning was as much for her benefit as for his. Wasn’t that why her uncle had dragged her down to the dungeon to hear him threaten Alec in the first place?

  She told herself he was being a bully, but that knowledge brought her little comfort in the face of the overwhelming reality. David Bardici had made Alec believe that every kindness Lily had shown him since the moment they’d met in the alley had only been to earn his trust so she could lead him into their trap. Worse than that, she was certain her uncle had every intention of killing Alec once he was certain he had no need of him. And once he no longer had any need of her?

  He’d put her away for good this time.

  “Through here.” David shoved her into the same office he’d taken her to earlier that day, planting her in the chair opposite his while he picked up one of the computers from the desk along the wall and plunked it down in front of her. Though it looked like any ordinary computer, several cords dangled from it, and he pulled a few more gadgets from a case. “Now that I’ve taken care of that, I have an assignment for you. Give me your arm.”

  “Is that really necessary?” Michael Bardici had followed them silently until now.

  “Don’t question me.” David barked at his little brother without taking his eyes off Lily. “Your arm.”

  Lillian reluctantly lifted the requested appendage, and her uncle put a blood-pressure cuff on her, followed by another smaller cuff for her finger. Then he plucked two unfamiliar cables from the case.

  “Respiration transducers,” he explained as he clipped them to the front of her shirt and plugged the other end into the computer. “It’s a polygraph test.”

  “A lie detector?”

  Her uncle ignored her question and scowled at the computer screen. “You are a nervous one, aren’t you?” He clicked a few keys. “State your name.”

  “Lillian Bardici.”

  His face didn’t leave the screen. “And you’re in love with Prince Alexander, correct?”

  In spite of anything she might have done to stop it, she felt her heart rate pick up and a blush rise straight to her cheeks.

  Her uncle shook his head at her. “Really, Lillian, that’s pathetic.” He rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the screen. “At least you make my job easier. Now, has the prince been in contact with any other members of the royal family since the ambush?”

  Lily didn’t figure there would be any point in trying to lie. “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “H
as he spoken to you about his brother?”

  “Thaddeus?”

  “He’s spoken of him, then?”

  “Just to say that he went out on a boat with a friend six years ago, and never came back.”

  “Is that all he said?”

  “And that you want to know where he is.”

  Her uncle’s eyes narrowed, and he turned his attention from the screen to her face. “He told you that I want to know where his brother is?”

  She nodded.

  “What exactly did he say?”

  Lily tried to recall Alec’s words, but her uncle’s intimidating presence made thinking difficult. “You called him into your office in Benghazi and asked him if he knew where his brother was.”

  “He remembers.” The general appeared to be upset by that revelation. It fit with Alec’s fears that her uncle had used memory-erasing drugs on him. Obviously her uncle hadn’t expected Alec to regain those hidden memories—but then he probably hadn’t expected him to get amnesia during the motorcade ambush, either. “Does he know where his brother is?”

  “No.”

  “Does he know what happened to his brother?”

  Lily could feel her heart hammering in response to the question. She could only imagine what kind of answers her uncle was gleaning before she said a word.

  “Tell me what you know,” David Bardici demanded.

  “Thaddeus went sailing. He never came back.”

  “What does Alexander believe happened to his brother?”

  “He doesn’t know.”

  Her uncle turned to her. “You know more than you’re saying.”

  Lily took a deep breath and tried to think. She’d long ago given up any hope of misleading her uncle. Mostly she just wanted to placate his constant demands. “Thaddeus had a friend who was accused of killing him—Kirk.” She pinched her eyes shut as she recalled the name. “Alec doesn’t think Kirk did it. He doesn’t think Kirk killed Thaddeus, or that he lied about it.”

  “Where does he think his brother went?”

  “He doesn’t know.”

  The general let out a frustrated breath. “Fine.” He pulled a picture from the sheaf of papers he’d carried into the room. “Do you recognize this?”

  Lily looked at the picture—some sort of jeweled scepter, inlaid with amethysts, with a cross on top. There was no caption to identify the object, but it looked a little familiar.

  “You do recognize it,” her uncle surmised, apparently from the expression on her face since she hadn’t said anything for the polygraph to declare true or false.

  “I—I don’t know. I think I’ve seen it in a book somewhere.”

  “Where?”

  Lillian tried frantically to recall. “A long time ago? I don’t know. Maybe not.”

  “It’s the Scepter of Charlemagne,” her uncle reported brusquely. “Has the prince mentioned it to you?”

  “Charlemagne,” Lillian whispered, and closed her eyes, trying to recall what Alec had said. “Charlemagne was the Holy Roman Emperor.”

  “I’m not looking for a history lesson!” the general shouted. “I want to know what the idiot said.”

  “David,” Michael chided his brother, who looked as though he might do something violent at any moment.

  “He didn’t say anything about a scepter,” Lily told her uncle flatly, and had to assume the polygraph backed her up, because she really didn’t know any more than that. But her uncle certainly seemed to think the scepter was important. Lily wondered why he was so desperate for information about it.

  “Fine. Do you intend to sign the covenant and support the Bardici claim to the throne?”

  “Yes.”

  Whatever the computer screen showed when she answered the question, he didn’t approve, but leaned across the table toward her. “I’m watching you, Lillian.” He plucked the transducers from her shirt and jerked the cuff from her arm. “If you want to survive this revolution, you’ll do exactly as I say.” Then he pulled her across the room, past her father, opening the door to reveal soldiers standing guard in the hall.

  “Lock her in her room.” He shoved her toward them. “And see that she doesn’t get out!”

  * * *

  Lillian went straight to her window, but saw to her disappointment that the rope she’d tied to the balusters earlier was gone.

  Not that she expected to get very far without Alec’s help.

  With her door locked, she didn’t have any way of reaching him, if he was even still inside the compound. Instead she fell backward on the bed while the tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Did Alec think she’d betrayed him? Did he hate her?

  For a moment, she let herself remember the way he’d wrapped his arms around her, kissing her as though she meant the world to him, too wrapped up in the love between them to pay attention to any possible threat that might be lurking in the dark room.

  Lillian shuddered as she thought about the number of soldiers who’d entered without her realizing it. Had her uncle suspected what she was about to do? Had he been spying on her and watching her create the signal with the window curtain? Or had he simply acted quickly the instant a wary guard had caught sight of Alec scaling her wall?

  However he’d pulled it off, Lillian figured it didn’t matter anyway. Her uncle was king of this castle, and he ruled with an iron fist. If he got control of the entire kingdom of Lydia, there would be no end to the trouble he might cause. The man was cruel and ruthless.

  She couldn’t let him get away with his plans.

  But how could she stop him?

  * * *

  No sound penetrated the dark chamber where Alec was chained. Had he been there an hour? A day? There’d been no sign of anyone, save General Bardici and his hostile warning. Alec hadn’t had anything to eat or drink. Were they planning to leave him there to die?

  A hollow echo reverberated through the still air, and Alec wondered what it meant. A door had opened somewhere, not far from him. The slightest shift in the air whispered past his skin.

  Someone was coming.

  A moment later the light switched on, and Alec saw that he was in a stone-walled room. A soldier stood opposite him with keys in his hands. A greenish bruise colored the left side of his face.

  The soldier touched the bruise with his fingertips as he approached. “It’s been almost a week since you hit me with a cast-iron floor lamp and gave me this bruise.”

  Alec braced himself, trying to judge how upset the soldier was about what had happened. At the same time, he recognized the man from basic training. “Titus.” Putting the pieces together, Alec recalled that Titus was the name of the soldier who’d dropped the canteen near them in the desert. He’d never determined whether the canteen had been offered as a lifeline or a trap. “I’m sorry.”

  The soldier shrugged off his apology. “I’ve asked myself since then what I would have done had our roles been reversed.”

  Alec considered mentioning that if he’d meant to kill the soldier with the blow, the man wouldn’t have been standing there to accuse him. He’d only been trying to get away.

  The man took a step closer. “I’d have probably broken your neck. That way, I wouldn’t have to worry about what would happen when you got up.” He reached for him.

  Alec shifted to the side, but with his hands and ankles chained to the wall, he had no way of defending himself.

  * * *

  Lillian boarded the helicopter obediently and was relieved when she was allowed to sit in a seat, instead of being shoved into the luggage compartment this time. But then this helicopter was much more comfortably equipped than the military craft she’d been transported in the week before. Their ride back to Sardis would be considerably more luxurious than the tri
p to the desert had been.

  While her father and uncle sat toward the front discussing their plans in low tones, Lily sat opposite her mother and wondered what role Sandra Bardici had been playing in the unfolding events. Since the woman was only a member of the family by marriage, and not a descendent of Lydia, she wasn’t eligible to sign the covenant that Parliament had prepared. If Lily had been asked to describe her mom, she’d have called her submissive. Quiet. Dutiful.

  For most of her life, Lily had watched her mother follow her father around, doing whatever he asked her to do, going where he told her. Rarely did the woman question anything.

  Lily looked up at her mother, who offered her a pinched smile.

  “Did you want something to drink? A sandwich?”

  “I’m fine.” Lily was tempted to ask if her mother realized what was going on, if she cared about what they were up to, but even if her mother had wanted to say something, the Bardici brothers were right behind her. Besides, what was there to discuss? Parliament had given all eligible descendants of Lydia forty-eight hours to sign the covenant. If Alec didn’t get to the Hall of Justice in Sardis before that narrow window closed, he’d be left out.

  There was nothing she could do to help him now.

  * * *

  Alec stumbled over the chains that bound his legs as Titus led him toward the waiting helicopter. Unlike the military craft that had brought him to North Africa, this copter was a sleek corporate craft, a limousine of the sky. Through the windows, Alec caught sight of several figures seated inside. The Bardicis?

  Rather than seat him in the same comfortable compartment the passengers rode in, Titus led him to the rear door, a cramped, low-ceilinged secondary compartment filled mostly with luggage.

  Another soldier appeared behind them as they climbed in. “Bardici said to secure him to the retaining rail.”

  Alec glanced at the metal bar high on the sides of the compartment. If they looped his cuffs through the rail, he’d dangle uncomfortably for the length of the trip.