“You are in no position to give orders, my love.”
“I will give this order, and you will obey. Otherwise, you will need to kill us both right now. For I will never go with you willingly, should you kill Carlotta.”
Piercing eyes searched hers, as if gauging her sincerity. At last, he motioned toward the trunk. “Untie the old woman. She will ride with us in the car,” he told the driver, grasping Sidra’s arm in a painful, viselike grip.
Once in the car, Carlotta kissed Sidra’s hands and cheeks, overjoyed to see the woman she recognized as royalty instead of the child she had rescued so many years ago.
“Move back,” Philippe said, nudging Carlotta’s leg with his shoe. She winced but remained silent as she obeyed, moving away from Sidra with her head bowed in shame.
“Don’t touch her again!” Sidra cried.
His shoe caught Sidra in the leg this time, and she gasped in pain.
“You seem to have forgotten who is in charge here, Princess,” he told her. “We are playing by my rules now.”
“When the little princess came, she was small and scared, covered with blood and tears. They followed her here, killed the others, and they meant to have the child as well.”
“She’s talking about me,” Sidra breathed, leaning forward so she wouldn’t miss a word of what Carlotta was saying.
“Yes, of course, she is,” Philippe agreed.
“Who killed them, Carlotta?” Sidra prodded. “Who is after me?”
“They were horrible people, cruel and cold. They were determined they would have her. They killed my poor, sweet sister and left her body in the forest. They tried to find the child, but I had already found her and turned her into an American.” Her thin pale lips turned up in a triumphant smile. “They would never recognize her as our princess.”
“And yet they found her.”
Carlotta’s head snapped around at Philippe’s observation, and her eyes blazed to life.
“Mateo!” She spat the word out as if it disgusted her, and Philippe’s eyes grew even colder.
Just as suddenly as her moments of lucidity began, they ended, and Carlotta was lost once again. She turned her face away from them, seemingly fascinated by the scenery that flew by.
“What is Mateo?” Sidra asked him.
He shrugged nonchalantly.
“It is the name of an old and proud family in Medelia. Distant cousins of your mother’s. Some say they should have ruled, but they were forced from power when the only girl child in their line was one born out of wedlock. Apparently, bastards can’t be queen.” He met her eyes, a dark warning within their depths. “Mateo is the name of the people who many suspected of your abduction. I believe Miriam and Gabriel discussed the theory with you.”
“Yes, but I don’t understand,” she said. “Why would the Mateos have abducted me?”
“One of their young men, Jerald Mateo, was your fiancé. He died when he was only seventeen. Instead of honoring the bond between the families, your father betrothed you to another before Jerald was even buried.”
“To you, you mean?”
He shook his head, and she gasped as she suddenly realized what he was saying.
“You are not Philippe Beauchene!”
“No. Philippe is still safe in Medelia, believing you are dead, and courting your cousin Estella. They have no idea you are alive after all these years and that, very shortly, you will be my bride.”
“And if I refuse to marry you?”
“You, the old woman, and your lover will die.”
****
Levi had never felt so helpless in his life. The ride to Jacksonville was the longest five hours of his life, and by the time they pulled into the airport terminal, he felt as if he’d run the entire way. His heart seemed to have ceased beating hours ago, and it now sat in a clenched, painful knot in his chest.
Miriam and Gabrielle had spent the first three hours detailing the cruelty of the Mateo family and how desperate Sidra’s parents had been to keep her out of their clutches.
“By the time Jerald died, Jeanne and Rupert realized they could not let Sidra marry the next Mateo brother,” Miriam explained. “Jerald’s meanness and delusions had been blamed on his illness, but his younger brother, Vincente, had no such excuse. They say he has been cruel and filled with the lust for power since infancy. He will stop at nothing to gain the power he would have as king.”
“But he is not her fiancé. How can he force her to marry him?”
“He will use the old woman. She will be his leverage and his tool to make Sidra do whatever it is he wants her to do.”
Levi knew it was a cunningly effective tool.
“The Mateos are cousins who were once set to inherit the crown. We share a common ancestor, a queen of Medelia who had two daughters. The younger was Jeanette, my great-grandmother. The older was the Mateos’ great-grandmother. She had only one child, a son. His only child was an illegitimate daughter, born to a girl in their village. That child could never be queen, even though the Mateos believe she should have been. As it was, our great-grandmother had three female children, the youngest was my grandmother and the oldest was grandmother to Jeanne, Sidra’s mother. The crown has been passed down to every oldest daughter for the last three generations and will go to the fourth when Sidra becomes queen.”
Gabriel took up the explanation from there.
“While most of the Mateos have adjusted to my wife’s branch of the family being the rulers, there has always been a small faction, all descendants of that one ill-bred daughter, who have felt disenfranchised and vengeful. They have threatened a coup for many years and, just before Sidra’s birth, very nearly succeeded. It was then, in an attempt to broker peace, that Rupert and Jeanne bound the ties between Sidra and Jerald Mateo. At the time, he was nothing but a child, a boy of nine or ten, and his symptoms had not manifested themselves. Once they did, there was no choice to be had. If they wanted to maintain peace, Rupert and Jeanne had to let the betrothal proceed.”
“How convenient that he killed himself,” Levi said dryly.
Miriam looked startled, but she and Gabriel chose to ignore his words as Gabriel continued.
“Rupert hastily betrothed her to Philippe Beauchene, the young son of one of his most trusted advisors, but it became apparent within a few days that the Mateo faction was not going to accept it, so Rupert made a plan to get Sidra away from Medelia.”
“He sent her here?” Levi could barely comprehend it. “She was a six-year-old child!”
“He didn’t send her alone, Mr. Tanner. Her nanny accompanied her, and the two of them were to disappear until he sent for them to return to Medelia. I don’t believe he ever thought the Mateos would follow her, or that she would be lost to us for twenty years. He believed that as time passed the faction would turn their attention to someone else.”
“Like your daughter?”
“Yes, perhaps that is what Rupert hoped for, but it never happened. Soon after he and Jeanne received proof that Sidra had been killed, the Mateos faded into the background, and we have rarely heard of them since. The first and second generation of the faction died, and only Vincente is left.”
“Who exactly is Vincente Mateo?”
“Vincente is Jerald’s younger brother. He wants nothing so much as to be king, and he is perhaps crueler and more ruthless than Jerald.”
“How much danger is Sidra in?” His heart froze as they both looked at him sadly.
“The moment she marries him, she’s as good as dead.”
“Why?” Levi demanded. “He can’t gain the crown without her.”
“We believe he has someone waiting to take her place, someone similar enough that Queen Marie, with her failing eyesight and high hopes, would never suspect the truth. After all, Sidra was only a child when she was taken from Medelia, and she has lived in America for many years. Vast changes are to be expected.”
“But you’ve seen her. Surely he doesn’t think you would keep quiet ab
out it.”
“Once he is king, it will no longer matter. Still, I am certain he has already arranged for our demise, as well,” Gabriel informed him. “If we are lucky, our deaths will be quick and painless. I only pray we reach Medelia before it’s done, as I would much prefer to die on my homeland’s warm, golden shore.”
“No one’s going to die,” Levi assured him. “Especially not Sidra.”
They grew silent then, each one of them lost in their own thoughts as they sped toward Sidra and her captor.
He tried not to remember the photo of Sidra’s nanny, tried not to imagine the torture and pain Vincente Mateo could be inflicting on Sidra at this very moment. Although he knew he was the gruffer half of Tanner and Tanner, he had never considered himself a violent man. Yet, as he thought of Sidra’s smooth white flesh being torn and bruised, or pain riddling her body as she screamed in agony, he knew he could kill the man responsible.
For the first time in many months, he closed his eyes and prayed.
The airport came into view and Levi barked out orders for the driver to let him out at the gate. He refused to waste precious time parking and walking into the terminal. He had to find Sidra, and he meant to find her now.
He pushed his gun into Teddy’s hands and leaped from the car while it was still rolling.
He searched the sign for the next flight he thought they might be on, and chose the same one Miriam and Gabriel had planned to use. He dashed toward the gate, trying to move around it as the woman in charge commanded him to calm down.
It would only take him longer if they tackled him to the ground and carted him away, so he forced himself to stop and turn to her.
Panting from the run through the building, he tried to tell her he needed to speak with someone on the plane.
“No one has boarded yet, sir,” she informed him. “The plane just arrived, and there is a forty-five-minute delay.”
He was so relieved he nearly choked on the lump that formed in his throat.
“Thank you,” he told her. “Thank you.”
He looked around for a seat out of the way enough that he wouldn’t be seen but could still have a view of the gate and every possible angle.
When he had decided on one, he went to it and dialed Teddy’s cell phone.
“The plane hasn’t boarded yet, so I’m going to wait here at the gate. They’ll have to go through security, so I need you to stay nearby and let me know when you see them get in line. I don’t want to alert Mateo to our presence until he’s right here on me. I don’t know what he’ll do if he realizes we’re onto him, and I don’t want to risk him hurting Sidra or the old woman. Tell Miriam and Gabriel to move along the corridor between security and this gate. If they see them, I want them to keep their distance and call me immediately.”
“You’re no match to a gun, you know,” Teddy warned.
“Yeah, I know. But there’s not much chance he’s getting a gun into the airport.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Sidra walked beside Vincente, trying to remain as calm as possible with his mini-revolver resting against her side. She wasn’t willing to find out how much damage the palm-sized gun could do to either her or Carlotta, so she did as he commanded and proceeded through the terminal, holding tightly to the old woman’s hand.
Before leaving the car, he had forced her to dress herself and Carlotta in dark burkas, with veils that covered their faces. Their new attire exempted them from the security line. He had also removed his blond wig, transforming from a blond Adonis to an exotic, dark-haired prince.
Sidra’s eyes darted about, searching for any escape route that might present itself. She nearly gasped in relief when her eyes caught sight of Teddy standing near the security line. His canes were nowhere in sight and he had an FSU ball cap pulled low over his face as he read a fishing magazine that blocked the view of his mouth. She stared hard at him, praying he would look up, fighting the urge to scream when he straightened from the wall as if he’d seen her but then looked past her to a blond woman walking toward them.
Disappointment colored his face when he realized the woman wasn’t her, and he relaxed and lifted the magazine once more. Praying her ruse would catch his attention without sending a bullet through either her or Carlotta, she tripped forward, catching herself just before she hit the ground. Since she was holding Carlotta’s hand, the poor old woman lurched forward too, and a cry of dismay escaped her lips as Sidra twisted to catch her.
Over Carlotta’s shoulder, her eyes met Teddy’s, but before she could tell if he recognized her or not, Vincente jerked both of them to their feet and was once again forcing them down the hall.
As they passed an empty waiting area, he jerked her behind a small wall divider that hid them from view of the passing crowd. He backhanded her, hard, across her cheek with his empty hand, then raised it to Carlotta.
Ignoring the pain that shot through her cheekbone and the warm trickle of blood, she met his cold green eyes.
“You touch her, and I’ll raise such a ruckus you’ll have to kill us both right here in the airport,” she promised him. “I know you’ll kill me eventually, but you will have little chance of escaping alive if you do it here.”
He lowered his hand and stepped back as triumph trumpeted through her. They were safe for now.
Just before they reached the gate, he stopped and turned away, leading them in the opposite direction.
“Where are we going?” she demanded. If Teddy was here, Levi was here. And the logical place for Levi to await them was at the gate where they would board.
“I’ve changed my mind about flying to Paris,” he said. “Rome will work just as well, and we won’t run as much risk of someone following us.”
“Rome, Rome, Rome,” Carlotta began to mumble. She peered at him through her veil. “I knew a man from Rome. He had eyes like yours. Do you know him, boy? Do you know my Antone?”
“Shut up!” he hissed, but she kept rambling on.
“He was a man among men,” she crowed. “A man any woman would throw herself at. He had so many women. I was only one of them.”
“If you don’t shut her up, I’ll kill her.”
“Carlotta, hush,” she soothed. “You can tell me about Antone later.”
“You know him, then?” The rheumy eyes brightened.
“Yes, of course.”
“Ah-ha!” she laughed, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “You have known him, too.”
She spoke his name quickly and repeatedly under her breath as they walked, and several people looked their way as they passed.
“He gave me a child,” Carlotta confided. “A boy child with hair as black as night and eyes—”
“Shut her up,” Vincente hissed again, sounding panicked as the pistol moved up her side.
He was becoming nervous, and Sidra was suddenly reminded of something she’d learned long ago. Dangerous people were even more dangerous when they felt cornered or nervous for some reason. She had watched children come into the homes where she lived, and many times if they were prone to lash out, it happened when they felt they were losing control.
“It’s okay,” she soothed. “She’s an old woman. People will realize she has dementia. They won’t pay her any attention.”
“Is the lady all right, sir?” a familiar masculine voice said from behind them, and Sidra nearly collapsed under the crushing wave of relief that swamped her.
“Of course,” Vincente turned to Levi with a patronizing smile. “You must excuse my mother-in-law. She has lost much of her mind and repeats her dead lover’s name day and night.”
“Sorry to bother you, then. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t need any help.”
“Thank you for your concern, but I assure you we would ask for assistance if it were needed.”
She fought back tears of frustration and fear as she realized Levi was walking away. He hadn’t recognized Vincente as Philippe, and there was no way he could have recognized her. He had been a hair’s bre
adth away, and she had allowed him to walk away. But the fear that Vincente would kill him along with her and Carlotta had forced her to remain silent.
“Sidra!” Levi’s voice echoed around them, and her breath caught in her throat. “Sidra!”
She swung around, her eyes meeting his across the busy terminal. He stalked toward her, eyes blazing with determination as Vincente lifted the gun away from her side. The barrel caught a ray of light, and someone near them screamed.
“Gun!”
The gun made hardly a sound when he pulled the trigger.
“No!” she screeched as Carlotta crumpled to the ground beside her. “No!”
Screaming and footsteps filled her mind as Vincente threw her across his shoulder and ran. He would never escape, and she guessed he knew it as well as she did, but he ran anyway, determined to try. His shoulder pounded against her chest and stomach, knocking the air out of her with each impact, making her dizzy and ill.
“Mateo!” Levi yelled from just behind them, and somehow Vincente managed to twist around and fire a shot toward him.
She heard Levi’s grunt and low curse as the bullet caught him, but his footsteps barely slowed as Vincente burst through a doorway onto the tarmac.
They were in the open now, police officers surrounding them from every direction. She was as bound to die as he was in a hailstorm of bullets and gunfire.
The first shot caught him in the knee, and he stumbled but righted himself. His breath was coming in hard, deep pants, and she wondered why he didn’t throw her down. It couldn’t be easy to run with her over his shoulder, yet he kept a death grip on her as he ran toward a small plane nearby.
The second bullet pierced his back, and he dropped to his knees, a groan of pain issuing from somewhere deep inside. Still he held her, and although she fought against his grip, he held her tight. Then Levi was nearly on them, rushing toward them, and she felt Vincente shift, his arm lifted, and she screamed out a warning as he turned.
“Levi! No!”
The bullet that hit Vincente’s temple sent him toppling forward, bringing Sidra to the ground with him as he fell.
Her head hit the pavement, and she saw stars as she heard running footsteps and frantic voices racing toward her.
Broken Ties Page 15