Brandishing a Crown

by Rita Herron

  The blow caught Stefan off guard, and his leg buckled, giving the man just enough time to throw himself from the pit. But instead of attacking Stefan, he ran back toward the warehouse where Jane was.

  The bastard intended to use her as leverage.

  Over his dead body.

  Stefan’s ankle throbbed, but he ignored the pain and aimed at the Russian. He could not let him get to Jane.

  Clenching his teeth, he fired, but the bully disappeared inside the warehouse. Stefan heaved a breath, slowed as he approached the building in case the guy was waiting to ambush him again, then held the gun at the ready as he slowly inched inside.

  “Jane?” He cast a quick look sideways and noticed she wasn’t lying where he’d left her. A silent prayer rolled off his tongue. She had to be safe.

  A loud noise sounded, pipes rolling. Then out of the darkness the sniper jumped toward him, swinging a heavy pipe. Stefan fired again, and the man bellowed as the bullet connected with his chest. The Russian lunged sideways with another curse, but slammed into a wall of pipes.

  “Stefan, get out of the way!” Jane yelled.

  Then he heard it—the rumbling as the pipes began to crash down on top of the sniper. The man collapsed, throwing up his arms to protect himself against the onslaught, but the mounds of metal and steel pelted him, pinning him to the floor and crushing him.

  “Jane?” Stefan spun around searching for her.

  Jane flew from behind the massive metal pile and launched herself into his arms. Stefan wrapped his arms around her and held on to her.

  JANE CLUNG TO STEFAN, afraid if she released him he might disappear again. And that this time he might not come back.

  “I thought that he had you,” Stefan whispered, pulling her closer to him and nuzzling her hair. “That he might have hurt you.”

  She shook her head, her breath uneven as she fought back a sob. “And I was afraid he’d shot you. Or worse…” She couldn’t even speak the words out loud.

  Stefan dying was not an option.

  “No, I am unharmed.” He tilted her head backward and kissed the swollen bruise on her forehead. “When I think you could have been killed, it makes me insane.”

  Tears blurred her eyes. Dammit, she never cried. But her head was pounding as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Come to think of it, that might have been what the bastard used.

  “You need a doctor,” Stefan said, then gently stroked the matted hair away from her face. “And this time you will allow them to examine you.”

  Jane glanced down at Stefan’s torn pants and the blood dotting the floor beside his shoe. “My God, Stefan. You’re the one who needs medical treatment.”

  She pulled away, then stooped to examine his wound. Stefan dropped to his knees and gripped her by the arms. “Jane, stop—”

  “No, let me see how deep the cut is.” She quickly shoved up his pants, then gasped at the bloody gash.

  “You need stitches.”

  “I’ll live. We need to figure out how this guy found us.”

  Jane punched in the sheriff’s number. “Sheriff Wolf, this is Jane Cameron.” She explained about the dead man and requested an ambulance.

  “I’m on my way and so is an ambulance,” the sheriff said. “Do you need another CSI team?”

  “Yes,” Jane said. “If we can match the bullet casings and the man’s prints, we’ll know he’s the same sniper who shot at us earlier and killed Stefan’s guard.”

  “But someone set him up to it,” Stefan said as she disconnected the call. “This man served time in prison. He is a hired killer.”

  “Just as we suspected from the sniper weapon.” Jane nodded. “Now we tend to your injury.”

  Stefan pushed away her hands. “I refuse to be treated like an invalid when you are suffering a head injury,” Stefan said curtly. “Now, I will sit only if you join me.”

  Jane sighed, part disgusted with the way he wanted to boss her around. Part dizzy from the blow to her temple and aching to have Stefan’s arms around her again.

  “All right,” she conceded.

  Laughter rumbled from him as he wrapped his arm around her.

  “What’s so funny?” Jane asked as they hobbled outside and parked themselves on a cluster of rocks.

  He squeezed her to him, then cupped her face between his hands. “It is difficult for you to accept someone actually taking care of you, is it not?”

  She stared up into his eyes, blinking back moisture and hating the vulnerability this case—and Stefan—brought out in her.

  “Yes.”

  “Because you have always had to stand on your own?”

  She chewed her bottom lip. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  He stroked her hair as he pulled her into his embrace. “Oh, Jane, I am going to make your life so difficult.”

  “What do you mean?” Jane whispered.

  He pulled her so close his breath bathed her cheek. Then he laid his head against hers, holding her close, so close she heard his heart beating in his chest, and felt the fine tremor of nerves in his fingers as they brushed her cheek. “I am going to take care of you tonight.”

  Jane’s first instinct was to push him away, to run. “Stefan, no—”

  “Shh.” He pressed his lips gently to hers, a teasing sensation that stirred baser needs.

  There were no cameras here now. No one to see that she was leaning on this man. No one to laugh that plain Jane was in the arms of a prince.

  There was only the peaceful night air, the sounds of wild animals roaming across the land, of birds of prey and night owls and insects buzzing with life and the sound of his breath assuring her she was alive.

  Stefan was strong, a man with a mission, a man who wanted to help his country but also share his environmental research to preserve this land that she loved.

  So she curled into his arms and let him hold her until the ambulance arrived.

  STEFAN SAVORED the feel of Jane in his arms, and simply held her for what seemed like endless time. But more than the titillating sensation of her cheek against his chest, he treasured the fact that this brave woman had just given him her trust.

  He sensed her trust was a rare commodity, a gift to treasure. And it meant far more to him than any woman’s solicitous advances or taking Jane to bed.

  Although he certainly desired to do that.

  A siren wailed in the distance, the twirling lights of emergency vehicles and the sheriff’s SUV brightening the dark sky. Jane sighed in his arms, both of them having grown comfortable and relaxed.

  He hated the intrusion.

  Yet even as he held her, his mind was haunted by the attack on Amir. By the murder of his security agent Benito. By the attack here tonight.

  And as the sheriff arrived, the medics tended to his ankle and Jane, then the CSI agents began to process the scene and gather forensics, questions plagued him along with details that he couldn’t deny. Jane’s comment about an insider leaking information niggled at his brain.

  Who had known where he was going?

  Jane glanced at him from where she sat with a bandage on her head on the gurney, and a sickening feeling clawed at his gut.

  Other than Jane, there were only two people who had been privy of his plans for the evening.

  Two people he trusted with his life.

  And one of them might have given the orders to have him killed.

  Chapter Twelve

  “We need to transport the prince to the hospital for stitches,” one of the paramedics told Jane.

  Jane turned to Osgood, who had arrived shortly after the sheriff and coroner. “I should accompany him until his security team can meet us there.”

  “Fine,” Osgood said. “Tomas and I will handle the crime scene here.” Tomas was photographing and tagging the sites where he located bullet fragments and casings. He’d discovered a motorbike in the woods which had obviously been the sniper’s way in.

  Jane joined Stefan where he sat on a stretche
r. He looked angry and obstinate.

  “I do not wish to go to the hospital,” he said stiffly.

  “I need to speak with my security team at once.”

  “After your ankle is treated.” Jane laid a hand on his shoulder, hoping to assuage his frustration. “The last thing you want is to get an infection from this stab wound and end up on bed rest, unable to attend the summit when things settle down.”

  He pressed his lips together but conceded, obviously seeing the logic of her point.

  Still, as the medics hoisted him into the ambulance, he grumbled, “I’ve had worse injuries than this and walked away without treatment.”

  Jane climbed in beside him, stowing her weapon in her shoulder bag. But as the medics raced toward the hospital, she kept her eyes trained out the back to make certain no one was on their tail.

  “Do you want me to call your security and explain what happened?” Jane asked.

  Stefan shook his head. “No. I will hold a meeting when I return to the resort. I want to see each of their faces when I relay this incident.”

  “Then you do suspect someone on your team of leaking your location?”

  Stefan ran a hand through his thick dark hair. “I do not wish to, but I must.”

  Compassion for him filled Jane. Confronting his coworkers, friends and staff would be difficult for Stefan. She hoped that one of his men—or his friends—hadn’t betrayed him.

  But if they discovered the person who’d ordered the attacks was amongst them, she wouldn’t hesitate to make an arrest.

  TENSION THRUMMED through Stefan as the doctor cleaned and stitched his ankle. He mentally reviewed the details of the last few weeks in his head, and could not believe where his train of thought was taking him.

  When they first arrived, Jane had explained to the doctor about the shooting, swearing him to secrecy.

  “Don’t worry,” the doctor said. “We adhere to a strict patient-confidentiality rule here. You don’t have to worry about anyone on my staff communicating with the press.”

  “Thank you,” Stefan said, although he had a bad feeling the media would find out anyway. Somehow the American press and paparazzi had the senses of a vulture, and the electronic means to invade their privacy at the most inopportune moments.

  Just as the doctor finished bandaging his ankle, a nurse appeared with a wheelchair.

  “I am perfectly capable of walking,” Stefan said, ignoring the pain as he stood and forced himself to put weight on his ankle in order to prove his point. He was a soldier, not a helpless invalid.

  He could not afford weakness.

  “Don’t argue,” Jane said with a small smile. “It’s hospital policy.” She patted her purse where she had stowed her weapon. “Besides, we’ve mapped out a route to sneak you out of here without the press seeing.”

  “The media is outside?”

  Jane nodded. “Afraid so. Danny Harold is waiting at the front door, camera ready.” She pointed to the chair.

  “So just sit down, Stefan. And let me get you back to the resort.”

  Stefan growled but dropped into the chair, anxious to leave. Jane led the way, checking the corridors and ducking around corners until they exited through a back delivery door. Her SUV was waiting.

  “How did you retrieve your vehicle?” Stefan asked.

  “The sheriff had one of his men drop it off. Get in.”

  He bit back a retort as she helped him stand, then he slid into the passenger seat. A minute later, Jane fastened her seat belt and drove toward the exit. He checked the sides and rear entrance, expecting to see the media, but Jane’s plan seemed to work.

  Behind him, he spotted the whirling lights of another ambulance arriving, and the rush of the media swarming toward it.

  He would have chuckled at her cunning plan had he not been tied in knots over the fact that one of his people might have deceived him. “Very good job, Jane,” he murmured.

  She glanced at him, a frown marring her forehead. “How are you feeling?”

  He zeroed in on the bruise on her cheek and bandage on her forehead. “Like I’m going to tear someone apart if I find out they deceived me and masterminded these attacks.”

  Jane clamped her teeth over her bottom lip, but didn’t reply. Instead she focused on the highway, giving him time to assimilate his thoughts as they drove to the resort.

  The sky was dark, the moon almost nonexistent, making the twinkling lights of the resort dance in the sky as they approached. Stefan texted Edilio and asked him to meet him in the office of his suite and requested Hector be present as well.

  Jane parked in the private parking spot beside his cottage, visually scanning the area as she went in. Stefan did the same. Jane thought she was protecting him, but he’d already decided that keeping her close to him was the only way he could be assured of her safety.

  The last thing he wanted was for someone to use her as a bargaining chip to get to him.

  Seconds later, he stood in the office of his suite, staring at Edilio and Hector.

  Edilio’s stern dark brows pinched together. “Prince Stefan, what happened?”

  “Miss Cameron and I were ambushed tonight at the oil drilling site.” Stefan glanced back and forth between his head of security and his chief aide and loyal friend.

  “And you two were the only ones who knew of my plans tonight.”

  Hector paled and pressed a hand to his chest, gulping for a breath. Edilio squared his shoulders, his body rigid, his face a mask of steel.

  “What are you suggesting, Prince?” Edilio asked.

  “That one of us betrayed you?”

  Stefan’s chest ached more severely than his ankle. “I have to ask. We weren’t followed, so that indicates that someone on my staff might have leaked my whereabouts to this sniper.”

  Edilio clicked his heels. “I would never betray you, Prince. I am as always your loyal employee.” He removed his weapon and extended it to Stefan. “But if you wish to have me removed from your presence and incarcerated to prove that point, then I relinquish my weapon to you.”

  Hector’s expression looked tormented. “Prince…”

  “Hector?” Stefan’s body went numb with shock as fear set in. “Hector, are you all right?”

  Hector sank into a chair, rubbing his chest and wheezing for a breath. “I’m sorry, sir, I’m sorry…” His voice trailed off as emotions overcame him.

  Jane felt his pulse. “It’s weak and thready. Did you leak the prince’s whereabouts, Hector?”

  Hector groaned, his head lolling back slightly, his complexion a pasty white.

  “Hector?” Stefan asked. “Tell me this minute what you have done.”

  Tears blurred the old man’s eyes, and Edilio moved to his side as well, his stance aggressive as if he planned to attack if Hector tried to bolt.

  But Hector gasped for air, rocking forward in the chair. Jane caught him and helped him sit back, then glanced at Stefan, panic in her eyes. “I think he’s having a heart attack,” Jane said quietly. “I’ll call a doctor.”

  She stepped aside to use the phone, and Stefan knelt by the old man. “Hector, tell me what’s going on. You have been my father’s friend, my friend, why would you do this?”

  “They have…my family.” Hector made a choking sound. “They…threatened to k…ill them.”

  Stefan’s blood ran cold. “What do you mean? Who has your family?”

  Hector closed his eyes and swayed, and terror streaked through Stefan. “Hector, tell me who has them.”

  “Don’t know,” Hector rasped. “Called me, told me I had to help them or else…” He choked on a breath.

  Jane rushed over and loosened Hector’s collar. “Dr. Leonard, the doctor on call for the resort, will be right here.”

  Stefan wiped perspiration from Hector’s brow, remembering Hector doing the same for his father when he’d first become ill. Hector watching over him when he was a child. Hector and his family sharing holidays with his family. Hector bounc
ing his baby granddaughter on his knee. “Do you know who has them, Hector, or where they are holding them?”

  Hector shook his head. “No… So sorry, Prince Stefan…couldn’t let them die…” Fear, sorrow, regret thickened his voice. “Didn’t mean for Benito to get killed. God forgive me…”

  Hector started to cry then, a big wailing sob that ripped at Stefan’s gut.

  A knock sounded at the door, and Jane rushed to open it. “Dr. Leonard.” Jane gestured for him to enter. “Mr. Perro is over here. I think he’s having a heart attack.”

  Stefan patted Hector’s shoulder. “Do not worry, my friend. I will find your family and make sure they are safe.” He stood so the doctor could examine Hector then turned to Edilio.

  “Have one of our men guard him at all times. And monitor any calls he receives.”

  Edilio nodded and Stefan knotted his hands into fists. If Hector or his family died, he would make certain whoever was responsible suffered for their crimes.

  JANE’S MIND RACED. She hated the pain on Stefan’s face, but Hector obviously cared a great deal for him and betraying him had cost him big time.

  It might even cost him his family, too.

  She had to do something to help.

  “Let me see Hector’s cell phone,” she said.

  Stefan frowned, distressed, and Jane’s heart ached for him. If Hector’s family was hurt or murdered because of him, Stefan would suffer as well.

  “Stefan, the phone,” Jane said. “Maybe we can trace whoever threatened Hector.”

  Her words seem to jar him out of his shock, and he nodded. “Of course.”

  Edilio reached inside the man’s pocket and retrieved the cell phone. Dr. Leonard gave Hector an aspirin and was checking his vitals as the ambulance arrived and two medics rushed inside.

  Jane punched the number for the crime lab and requested a trace be placed on Hector’s number in case he received any more calls. Then she began to search the phone log as the medics loaded a despondent Hector onto the gurney and rushed him to the ambulance.