Taylor put her finger to her lips. Obviously she didn’t want to discuss anything until they had more privacy. A smart idea, considering that they had no idea who had started the fire or why. And considering that the powerful chief of security kept appearing where Alex didn’t expect him to be.
When Taylor led Alex out the front door toward waiting paramedics, she actually startled him. He’d thought her concern had been faked to separate him from the men who might recognize him. But she didn’t hesitate to shoulder straight through the disbanding crowd of embassy workers, past the flashing lights of police cars to the large van marked Ambulance. Taylor seemed genuinely concerned about his health as she urged him toward the van, and then appeared relieved after the paramedics released him a few minutes later with a simple warning to go straight to the hospital if chest pains developed.
“I’m fine,” he told her. “But I’d like to change out of these wet clothes.”
“Me, too. Heck of a first day on the job,” she told him as they strolled past several secretaries, obviously intent on keeping their pretence going.
He found the strain of remaining in character a challenge, interesting but damn annoying when he wanted to question his “superiors” and couldn’t. At home, he routinely asked his aide to find out whatever he wished and had thought nothing of questioning people until they satisfied his curiosity, a perk he missed.
Yet, there were other perks to his new status. Alex found himself looking forward to his time alone with Taylor, whom he’d found more than willing to talk to him about possible explanations for the disturbing events occurring at the embassy. He wanted to hear her opinion of Ira’s request, wondered what she’d thought about the handyman’s acceptance of the cash and his agreement to install the cameras. Meanwhile, Alex hoped the Webcams came with installation instructions.
As he and Taylor walked up to the Victorian cottage, he increased his pace, eager to shed his wet garments, to take a hot shower and to order a drink.
Scratch the drink. Alex the Handyman wouldn’t be ordering drinks from an aide or his valet for quite some time. His lower status would take some getting used to. Ah, but he would manage.
Taylor halted halfway across the cottage front yard. “We have company. Someone is on our stoop.”
Noting their hesitation, the man stood. Alex recognized his brother’s secretary of state, Anton Belosova, in the dim light. Anton held out his hands apologetically. “I know it’s late, but I was hoping for a few minutes of your time.”
Anton was just as polite to Alex the handyman as he was to Alex the prince. However, the diplomat’s demeanor did nothing to ease the tension Alex felt radiating from Taylor.
She spoke cautiously. “Excuse me, sir. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“I’m Anton Belosova, Vashmira’s Secretary of State.”
“Then you must be lost,” Taylor told him. “This is the handyman’s cottage. You’ll want to go back to the main entrance, it’s over—”
“I came to speak to you and your husband,” Anton told her kindly but firmly.
“Is there a problem in your quarters?” Alex asked, hoping the smoke disguised his voice. It was rude not to invite Belosova inside, but Alex knew it was safer to remain outside where the darkness hid his features from the man who knew Prince Alexander so well.
Anton shook his head. “I’m sure my quarters are more than adequate. I’m a simple man, just a poor fisherman who has risen above his station.”
“What can we do for you, sir?” Taylor asked.
“I need a favor.” Anton shifted from foot to foot. “When you repair the walls, I want you to secretly install security cameras.”
Beside him, Taylor muffled a snort. He couldn’t blame her. His countrymen sounded as if they spied on one another on a regular basis.
Alex folded his arms across his chest. “Why?”
“Because our country has a traitor, and I’m determined to catch him.” Anton sat back on the step, took out a handkerchief and mopped his brow. “It’s been a long night, but please bear with an old man. My wife betrayed everything I believed in when she attempted to assassinate our new queen.”
“What?” Taylor gasped. “I have heard nothing…”
Alex supposed he should have told her the story, but there hadn’t been time. Besides, he was curious to hear how Anton would speak about his personal tragedy. Despite Anton’s long friendship with Alex’s father and his continued work on Vashmira’s behalf, Alex had never been completely convinced Anton was an innocent.
“King Nicholas kept the story quiet out of respect for me and my daughter, also to keep our country from suffering from a public scandal.”
Taylor tensed, but removed her hand from her pocket and the weapon he knew she kept there. “I’m not sure how this has anything to do with my husband and myself.”
“I cannot in good conscience ask someone to commit an illegal act without him knowing the reasons or the potential consequences for it.”
“Go on,” Alex told him. “We’re listening.”
“Before we were married, my wife hoped to marry King Zared the First. She failed to catch his eye, and she settled for me, an uncomplicated fisherman. To please her, I became a diplomat and have succeeded in serving my country—but I would have been content to remain a fisherman, especially after she disgraced…”
“Disgraced you?” Taylor prodded.
“My wife was also the mistress of General Vladimir for thirty years.”
Taylor sat beside the man on the stoop. “I’m sorry.”
“Perhaps her mind became twisted by her disappointment in me, but I never saw it. She took her own dreams and tried to force them on our innocent daughter. My wife plotted for Vashmira’s new king to marry our Larissa. She attempted to kill the queen to clear the way for our daughter. When she was discovered, she threw herself down a well. She betrayed not just me, but our country, and for that I cannot forgive her.”
Alex watched Taylor’s face soften with compassion as they heard real pain in the secretary’s voice, but he also heard the edge of anger.
“What does your story have to do with the illegal act you mentioned?” Alex prodded him back to their current situation, curious to hear the connection between his past and present circumstances.
“I have no proof, but I believe that General Vladimir influenced my wife’s thinking, encouraged her to attempt to assassinate our new queen. That’s why I’d like you to install a camera in his office to spy on the man. If I can catch him, I can repay my king for his continued faith in me.”
And take his revenge on the man with whom he’d had to share his wife’s favors for more than three decades. Did Anton Belosova hate the general enough to want revenge? How could he not?
But it could just as easily have been Anton who’d sanctioned his wife’s plotting. Perhaps Anton had encouraged his wife to go to the general. Perhaps husband and wife together had plotted for their offspring to become the next queen.
Anton removed a roll of bills from his pocket. “This is my own money. If it’s not enough—”
Alex held up his hand. “Keep your money, sir.”
Head high but shoulders slightly stooped, Anton stood and brushed off his hands. “I’m sorry for taking your time. I should never have asked you—”
“I didn’t refuse,” Alex said.
“Darling?” Taylor cocked her head in Alex’s direction, her tone questioning his decision.
“I need to think,” Alex answered.
Anton nodded. “One more thing. If you are caught planting the extra security cameras, my government will accuse you of spying. However, since you are an American citizen and since my country wants to deepen our relationship with the West, I believe the worst that could happen is that you would lose your position here.”
Alex appreciated the man’s honesty. “I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
SCHEMES WITHIN SCHEMES. They trudged up the stairs and Taylor wondered, not for the first time, i
f she was in over her head. She didn’t like operating in the dark, didn’t appreciate that Alex had failed to supply her with information necessary to solving this case.
Not only was Taylor in the tough position of trying to keep Alex alive, but she was also pretending to be his wife, a role in which she was not comfortable. Wet, sooty and irritated, she didn’t conceal her frustration. “How can you expect me to discover the traitor when you haven’t told me more about the internal problems of your country?”
“I intended to fill you in,” Alex replied reasonably. “We’ve been somewhat busy.”
As if he needed to remind her. Most of her cases were slow and boring, involving hours and hours spent watching and waiting to catch a man cheating on his wife. But in this case, the action had been almost nonstop since Alex had first spoken to her. No wonder she was irritable, she needed space and time to think. But first she needed more facts.
“Are there any other assassination attempts you’ve neglected to tell me about?”
“Well, my little brothers were kidnapped last week.”
“You’re kidding?” She took one look at his serious face. His deep-blue eyes were hard and narrowed. “You aren’t kidding.” She breathed in and out but the tactic did nothing to calm her. “I didn’t even know you had little brothers.” She ran a hand through her wet hair and stopped on the stairs halfway up. “This isn’t going to work. You need someone familiar with the backgrounds of—”
“I’ll brief you.”
Surely that couldn’t be amusement in his tone, not with the danger surrounding his family. The one certain thing she’d learned about this man was that, however cavalier he appeared on the surface, he cared deeply for his family. Then she realized that he found her irritation with him amusing. The man had the oddest and seemingly inappropriate reactions, and sometimes she wondered if he deliberately used that touch of devilry just to distract her.
She countered by sticking to business. “Look, this case needs someone from Vashmira. Someone who understands how your system works.”
He removed his sunglasses and stuck them into his pocket. In the darkness, his eyes remained enigmatic. Had she earlier imagined his amusement or had he switched tactics after realizing she intended to have a serious conversation? “Are you forgetting the generous fee I agreed to pay you?”
Yes. “No.”
She had a reputation to maintain. Clients came to her because of her record, word of mouth in this city was better than placing an ad in the Yellow Pages. But even more important, she didn’t easily accept failure, and she didn’t see how she could possibly succeed when she didn’t understand the dynamics, the interpersonal relationships and the politics in Vashmira. “Look, would you expect your generals to plan a war without proper intelligence?”
“I will fill you in,” he promised with that oh, so charming look that had probably inveigled thousands of women into doing exactly what he wanted.
Damn it. She wasn’t one of those women, and she resented that look, resented it down to her toes. Although the tiniest voice inside her admitted that it was agreeable to know he did realize she was of the female persuasion.
She really could use the fee he offered. And if she were successful, the case would probably receive publicity that could enhance her reputation. Plus, she’d already installed both of them undercover. To pull out now would hinder Alex. Besides, she wasn’t a quitter.
“Tell me about your little brothers.” She continued up the stairs. “I thought there was just Nicholas, Tashya and you?”
“Our mother died during my county’s revolution. My father remarried about ten years ago. He and Sophia, his second wife, have three little boys. Dimitri is five, Nikita is three and Pavel is just seven months.”
“And they were kidnapped?”
“The baby wasn’t taken. We believe the kidnapper wanted to exchange the older boys for Tashya and me.”
He believed? “You don’t know?”
“Tashya and Hunter rescued the children. During the shooting, General Vladimir killed the kidnapper.”
Funny how the general was the one man who hadn’t approached them tonight. Didn’t he need spy cameras, too? Alex had carefully made no judgments, giving her only the facts. So she could make her up own mind?
Yet something in his tone told her there was more. “And?”
“The kidnapper turned out to be the general’s top aide.”
They’d reached the bedroom, and she spun around on her heel to face him. “First the general’s mistress tries to kill the queen, then his aide kidnaps your half brothers and attempts to kill your sister. That’s highly suspicious.”
He nodded, a water droplet coasting through the soot on his aristocratic forehead down to his noble nose, spoiling his regal gesture. “But without the general’s help during the revolution, our country would not be independent, and my father would never have been king. My father and my country owe this man a lot. And don’t forget, the general did save my half brothers by shooting his aide.”
Was he trying to convince her? Or himself? “Could he have shot his aide to keep the man from revealing where his orders came from?”
“Possibly.”
From the way Alex answered, he’d clearly asked himself this question and had probably discussed it with his brother. Since he’d held back critical information she couldn’t help wondering what else had he’d failed to tell her. “What I don’t understand is the motive for all these assassination attempts. Why is someone trying to kill off your family?”
“We don’t know.”
“It seems to me that as the reigning king, Nicholas should be the primary target and that with him, you and your sister out of the picture, Sophia and her sons have the most to gain by your deaths. Could she be plotting with the general to put her sons on the throne?”
“Sophia and the general’s aide were close before the man’s death,” he admitted.
“How close?”
“We thought he might have been trying to marry her, do away with everyone except the baby.”
He hadn’t exactly answered her question but she let it go, for now, intending to return to it, no matter how painful. She had enough sensitivity to respect his feelings, but not at the risk of his life.
Taylor moved on to other questions. “If the aide had eventually succeeded in killing the entire family except the baby and then married Sophia, he would have been the power behind the throne?”
“Yes. But since Nicholas’s marriage to his American queen, the royal couple has been protected by your Secret Service. We believe the traitor is pursuing easier targets first. Like Tashya and me. After Nicholas and Ericka’s wedding ceremony, someone shot at our carriage.”
“What about Sophia? Could she have been plotting with the general’s aide?”
“Maybe.”
The briefness of his reply told her this was a tender point. He clearly liked his stepmother. “But?”
“Sophia’s not the ambitious type.”
Okay. She’d think about that later. She could understand how the idea of a conspiracy had only come to the royal family slowly. The assassination attempt on the queen had seemed like the plan of an insane woman intent on putting her daughter on the throne. The children’s kidnapping and the attempted assassination of the princess seemed unrelated to earlier problems. But with this newest attempt to murder the prince, the events simply had to be related—but how?
Taylor suspected there was more she needed to know, but her brain could absorb just so many facts at one time. “I need a shower. We both do.”
Alex opened the bedroom door and stepped back, his motion gallant. “You can go first.”
She recalled from her earlier inspection of the house that there was only one full bathroom. The idea of sharing it with Alex, even assuming they would take turns, suddenly seemed too intimate. And to take off her clothes with him in the next room…no, she didn’t think she could…
Alex must have read the misgivings in her
expression. “You want me to go first?”
From the glint of humor in his eyes, she knew that he was teasing her, that he understood how uneasy she was. She had to give the man credit, he hadn’t pried, and she probably owed him an explanation.
“I’m not real comfortable around men.”
“I’ve noticed.”
Again, no questions, just an easy acceptance and a step back to give her a little breathing room. The man could be amazingly perceptive when it suited him. Sometimes she had the feeling he was a master manipulator.
“If my past history is anything to go by, I should avoid the entire male race. My father abandoned our family when I was three. And my older brother…” She swallowed hard.
Alex’s eyes burned with a cold blue flame. “He raped you?”
She shook her head. “He hit me. Not often but I never knew when he would vent his temper.” And the fear of always wondering when and how her brother would strike out next was worse than the actual beatings. No one could understand the pressure of living with someone who could erupt at any time and for no reason unless they had experienced it.
Concern darkened his eyes. “Why didn’t your mother stop him?”
“He was five foot ten and two hundred and twenty pounds by the time he was sixteen. He hit Mom, too. Things were so strained at home that to get out, I married the first guy who looked at me. Three years later, I came home from working a double shift as a waitress to find my husband in bed with…another woman.” The scene still gave her nightmares. “At least I had the sense not to get pregnant.”
He winced. “I’m not sure what to say except that all men aren’t bastards.”
“My head keeps agreeing with you. But in my profession, all I see are cheaters. So, I’m just not that comfortable around men.”
“You want me to leave the house while you shower?” he offered.
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