The Runaway Queen

by Sophie Rodger

  The window was warm against her arm as she leaned closer to the outside view. She was so close yet still so far. This was Kephelai. She was princess regent of this land, and yet she had never really seen it. Yes, she had been to more functions than she could count in local towns and villages, but even then, she knew security had been at its maximum level and the area had been checked and rechecked thousands of times.

  “I’ll be back in a minute.” The jeep door shook as his door shut with a heavy bang, and she shuffled closer to the window, peering out.

  Her stomach flipped when she saw his muscles flex as he pulled the heavy-looking tubing from the petrol pump and began to fill the car. Judging from the admiring looks of the other female drivers and passengers, she hadn’t been the only one to notice.

  Hell. This was one of those chances she had to meet and greet her people without anyone else such as the press being there, and she was mooning over some man who did not even want her around.

  Tia nodded her head at his broad back. Well, no more. Now she was going to start doing what she had come here to do in the first place. She pushed her hand in her pocket, grabbed at the loose change there, and twisted the coins between her fingers. There should be enough there for . . . something.

  She elbowed the door open, breathed in the new scents, and wrinkled her nose. So this was what a petrol pump smelled like. Thank goodness she never had to refill her own cars. This place stunk!

  “Er, what are you doing?”

  She flicked a glance across her shoulder as his words reached her over the loud whirring of the pump and pointed at the shop where people where coming and going like bees in a hive. “I fancied a drink. Do you want anything?” There, that was polite. Unlike some people like him, she was not about to lower her standards of politeness.

  His muscles flexed again and her stomach flipped again as he replaced the pump and made his way towards her. But she made her feet keep walking. Okay, so maybe that was a little rude, but she had been cooped up in a car with him for almost an hour and that was more than any girl should have to take, surely.

  The AC washed over her heated skin like a balm, and she froze in the doorway. She pasted on her best press smile and lifted her hand only to have it pressed lightly back down. She turned quickly and encountered a curious look from Damon.

  “What are you doing?” He hissed.

  Her skin tingled from his brief touch. The words “Greeting my people” sprang to her lips, and she swallowed them quickly. Maybe that was not the most appropriate thing to say.

  “Saying hello.” She lowered her chin and drew her eyebrows together, fixing him with her best “What did you think I was doing?” face.

  “If the wind changes, your face will stay like that. You do know that, right?” he replied, marching past her to the checkout.

  Tia lowered her lashes a fraction as a small group of women flicked their hair and smiled flirtatiously at his passing back, and she shook her head. Honestly! She was not prepared to become distracted by—pretty was not the word—an arresting face.

  She moved to the drinks aisle and pulled a bottle from the fridge. Drats, this was not the best place. She could not exactly interrogate the older gentleman next to her on what he thought of the royal family when he was buying coffee.

  She stood on tiptoes and spied the newspaper stand, then swiveled around quickly to spy Damon in a cue. Goose bumps ran along her skin as his eyes found hers, and she held the cold bottle closer as her temperature rose. Oh God, this would never do. She pushed her hand up and waved the bottle between them only to lower it at his eye roll.

  The newsstand. That normally had more people. She needed to get to the newsstand before he reached the front of the cue and made them leave.

  The loud headlines grabbed her attention. She skimmed the first few pages of each, looking for something, anything that could start a conversation, though—she looked around quickly—even that might be hard with only a teenager for company. A teenager who had giant headphones on.

  Her heart leapt into her throat, and her fingers stilled at the sight of her twin, Sebastian, and evidence of his antics abroad. She flicked over the page quickly. She did not want to be reminded that she should be joining him. She did not want to be reminded of the lies she told him and her parents. It was all for the greater good, but she doubted they would see it that way.

  “Are you getting that? No. In that case, we should go. Like now.”

  The urgency in his voice made her turn around. The words, “We cannot leave yet” died on her lips at the steely look in his eyes.

  “What is the matter?”

  “That guy. The one behind the flower stall— No, don’t turn around!” He inhaled sharply as she stood on tiptoes and twisted her head from side to side. “I knew I’d seen him somewhere before. He was trailing behind us for the past few miles, and now he’s asking me questions about my jeep and the horse stickers on the back and—”

  “And he could just be a horse breeder like you. Honestly, Damon, talk about jumping at shadows. Maybe if you—”

  “And he was asking questions about you and telling me you look familiar. Like someone famous,” he bit out, his arms crossed tightly in front of him. “I suspect he maybe a reporter or something.”

  Oh dear. Oh dear! That was not good. She propped the bottle against the newspapers. “You are right. We should go.”

  Her internal alarm went off as images of her parents danced in her head, and she followed Damon out, keeping her gaze glued to his broad back. If that guy was who Damon thought he was, then she was in bigger trouble than she had thought. And Damon was the only one standing between her and that. Hells bells!

  • • •

  Maybe he was being paranoid. Surely Phillipe could not have sent Tia and this man as well?

  Damon shook his head and swallowed the dryness in his throat. Hell, he should have gotten that bottle of drink after all. He flicked a glance at Tia. She had been silent ever since they had gotten back to the car, and though he couldn’t make out her expression under the stiff curtain of hair that covered her face, he could hear her breathing heavily as if she’d been running a marathon.

  The question was, why? Especially as they were potentially on the same side. A side that he loathed with every breath in his body. Damn his father and all of his ilk to hell!

  “Do . . . do you think we lost him?”

  Was her voice trembling? He couldn’t be sure. God, she was a better actress than he gave her credit for. Hell, if he weren’t waiting for the time closer to Montcroix’s election day, he would be tempted to ask her outright who she really was and who she was working for. But he couldn’t. He had to be patient. It was a shame he was as close to being patient as he was to becoming the king of Montcroix himself.

  He glanced quickly in the mirror, and his heart sank as heavily as a rock in water. “No.” He ground his teeth together and swung the car into the next lane. Her sharp hiss next to him made him cringe. He would have been sorry, but they didn’t have time for that now. Now they had to escape. “I think I’ve almost . . . lost them . . . You’ll have to . . . trust me.”

  His chest hurt. He could not afford to look at it, not when there were lights up ahead that were now turning from yellow to red. When had they been installed?

  He flicked his gaze to Tia and her still ramrod-straight back. Her fingers were twirling a loose cotton thread around them, and the tips had turned white. “Surely he will not follow us all the way to Arios?”

  She swivelled her head towards him, and his chest tightened again at the ashen pallor of her face. Either she was a better actress than he gave her credit for or she was genuinely scared.

  His eyes narrowed as a new thought came to him, and the lights turned green. He gunned the engine, making the people in the car next to them shoot daggers. The jeep roared its disapproval at its ill treatment as he left the other drivers in a cloud of smoke. “We are not going to Arios.”

  “But . . . but . .
. you said you were taking me to Arios!” The cry in her voice made him wrap his hands tighter around the wheel. He couldn’t look at her. He had to focus on the man who he could still see on their tail.

  “And I am, but first we have to lose him. Since this is the main route to Arios, he will probably guess our destination and follow us there. Unless that is what you want?” He couldn’t hold back the disgust in his voice, and he swung the car off the main road to a route he knew like the back of his hand.

  “No, of course I don’t, but . . . where are you taking me?”

  He swung his head around to look at her. No, he hadn’t been mistaken. From her wide-eyed stare, she really was scared. “We are going to a village in the mountains. It is my . . . where I have a house.”

  “It’s your home? I thought the farm was your home?”

  “I never said it was my home. The farm and that land were my mother’s family home. It was the place I grew up. This is the first place I purchased with my own money.”

  He wouldn’t classify it as his home. In fact, he didn’t have anywhere he would classify as his home.

  “So where are we going?” Her voice had relaxed, but her fingers were still playing a game of cat’s cradle with the loose thread.

  Tethys, a small part of his brain wanted to tell her. He did. But the rest screamed to use his common sense and stay quiet. “Somewhere safe. It’s a village in the mountains.”

  “But the mountains are miles from Arios!”

  “All the better if we want to lose him.”

  He could see her sneak a glance out of the car’s side mirror before the squeaking of the seat alerted him to the fact she had turned around. “I can’t see him, and I demand to know exactly where we are going.”

  “Demand? Issuing those royal orders again are we, your highness?” he bit out.

  “If that is what you want to call it, then yes, I am. After all, you are a stranger to me, and although you were kind enough to let me stay at your farm and give me a lift, I don’t know you and—”

  “First, you are as much a stranger to me as I am to you, and second, you will know it when we get there. Despite what you may think, you can trust me.”

  He would have laughed at her small humph if his blood wasn’t pounding around his body thanks to the Starsky and Hutch car chase.

  “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

  “What do you think it means?”

  Her elbow knocked against his as she folded her arms in front of her, and his scalp prickled at the faint touch. He shook his arm quickly. It must be all the adrenaline that was creating this . . . confusion and . . . feelings. Things like this did not happen to him. He was not vain, but he knew he was popular with the opposite sex and had been from his early teens, as much as it had given his mother a headache that he had not settled down.

  “I think that . . . ” She stopped abruptly and cleared her throat loudly at the faint sound of a rumble. That sounded suspiciously like the growl of a stomach, and as it wasn’t his . . .

  Gentle shades of pink crept into her cheeks as she whacked her hand over her stomach. “Excuse me. That was not very ladylike. I should have gotten something at the petrol station but—”

  “I rushed us out of there because of the guy.” The guy he couldn’t see anymore.

  “Yes, you did. Thank you for that, by the way.” Her feet tapped rhythmically and lightly against the floor as if even thinking those words had been enough, let alone saying them.

  “You’re welcome, and I think the guy is gone.”

  “So we can go to Arios?” The hopeful note crept back into her voice, and he quelled the feeling that he was just about to kick a kitten. It was absurd. Even if, and it was a big if, she was - who she said she was, from the shady actions of the other guy, he definitely was not an honest guy. And it was best they stay away from the main roads where he may still be prowling.

  “No. It’s best if we stay off the main roads. Besides, this road leads us past a farm owned by some friends of mine. The farm makes its own bread and honey so we won’t starve.”

  “That really is not necessary. I can wait if it gets us to Arios quicker.”

  “While that may be the case for you, I am hungry and we won’t be that long.” If it hadn’t been for her stomach’s growls, then he wouldn’t have paid attention to his own. Typical. Typhoon Tia strikes again. The thought made him smile.

  “I am glad in the midst of all this disaster, you found a reason to smile. Care to share?”

  What would she say if he told her? The thought made him smile more, and he shook his head.

  • • •

  She could not see what was so funny. She was not on her way to Arios, and she had been chased by some unknown . . . she was not even sure what he was. A follower of the pro-Republican party, paparazzi, a representative from Montcroix and Antoine?

  Tia cast aside that last thought. It would not be anyone from Montcroix. As much as she fancied herself infatuated with Antoine when she had been a teenager, she had never been Antoine’s true love and he had never been hers. Their arrangement had been a bond between two people who had lost someone who they both loved dearly. Someone who would have liked to see them together. If she had stuck around, she could have seen the e-mail that had informed her when Antoine had read her Dear John e-mail to him. He had to have read it already.

  That narrowed it down to either the press or people who wanted to put an end to the monarchy. Either way, both of those would have known who she was. Unless . . . She snuck a glance at Damon. Unless they were after him? The farm had looked run down; that was true. And other than the obvious need to help the mare and foal, she guessed a lot of money had to be riding on the foal being healthy for selling purposes, which meant he needed money. Was he involved in something illegal? “Why was the man asking you questions? Why do you think he did not just come to speak to me? After all, I think I look more”—she looked up, searching for the right word as her gaze locked on to the ceiling of the jeep, which was as equally worn out as the rest of the vehicle—“approachable than you.”

  “Is that so? I’ve no idea. Maybe he liked a challenge.”

  Mm, if he thought being cool about it and trying to palm her off with a ridiculous notion like that would work on her, then clearly he didn’t know her—even the side of her he did know.

  “Perhaps. After all, why else would he take on this mint-condition jeep in his high-powered BMW?” She pasted on a saccharine smile and curled her fingers into her palm.

  He wound his window down and pushed one elbow out of it as if he were cruising along on an average spring day—as opposed to attempting to get away from whoever that man was.

  If you don’t like the answer, then ask a different question.

  His words banged through her brain. Well he had said it. Here went nothing. “Did he recognise you from somewhere? I mean, your face looks very familiar . . . ” She let her voice trail off. Okay, so it had been a semi-question, but it had gotten his attention at least.

  His eyes shone like the blue of a churned-up ocean as they found her, and her heart beat like wild birds trapped in a cage. She pushed her hands into her lap to avoid rubbing them across her chest. Maybe that had not been the right question to ask after all.

  “You know, that is the same thing he said about you? It seems we both have those kinds of faces that get mistaken for other people.”

  Tia swallowed heavily. She hated to think what face that man said she had, especially when she had just seen a picture of her brother and his amour du jour spread across one of the cheap tabloids before they left the petrol station.

  Drat! She had almost caught Damon, in a very loose way. Okay, maybe she didn’t, but he had been very sensitive about it. Who was it people said he looked like enough to cause that reaction?

  “Maybe he saw one of your horses in a race?” she pushed, silencing the small sound of warning bells in the back of her head.

  He exhaled loudly and resumed hi
s staring competition with the road, blocking her out. “That is highly doubtful. At the moment, the only races the Olympians race in are the minor ones, and to get to the bigger ones, you need a bigger trainer.”

  “Then why not get one?” Did it make sense to just her?

  “You’re kidding right?”

  She could sense him looking at her, and she fixed her gaze on the road. This whole journey would be a lot easier if she avoided looking at him altogether. “Let’s say I am. Humour me. Why not just get a higher-category trainer? After all, Mr. Kavilas is your vet and he looks after the royal ponies. I mean, Alena said so,” she added in quickly. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she knew the vet personally. Even if she did.

  “Mr. Kavilas is an old friend of the family. He went to school with my mother, and his rates are acceptable. It’s his time that is hard to come by. As for a higher-category trainer, who did you have in mind? Someone like Nico Baros?” He chuckled heavily. It was not the laugh of someone who was amused.

  Nico Baros? Tia mulled the name over in her brain. Of course! Nico! She pressed her lips together. She could not smile. Nico was one of the best trainers on the island, after his father at least. Not that the older Baros trained anymore, but Nico was good friends with Sebastian.

  “Yes, someone like Nico Baros.” she concluded, nodding at her own idea.

  “And how do you suggest I get in touch with Nico Baros? Wave my magic wand and make him appear out of thin air?”

  Tia bit her lip. How to tell him without giving herself away? Besides, when had this become about the horses? It was not supposed to be about them. It was supposed to be about finding out the identity of the man in the petrol station. “Mr. Kavilas would know him if they all tend to the royal horses. You know, probably.”

  His mouth twisted up into a grim smile. “You’re probably right. What the royals want, the royals get, don’t they?”

  Her toes curled into her boots at the set of his jaw. She had meant to sound helpful and only proceeded to make him more hateful. Great job, Tia, great job. Boy, was this going to be a fun journey to his friends.