by Sharon Wray
Philip nodded. “Pete did a great job. No ruptures or infections yet. The doctor did give me a more powerful antibiotic, though. And I’m supposed to rest.”
“Good.” Rafe drummed his fingers while Calum texted again. “What does Carina say?”
Calum laid his napkin next to his plate and stood. “We have a problem.”
“Fuck.”
“If you didn’t free Rafe,” Philip asked, “who did?”
“I don’t know,” Calum said. “But a favor like this always requires repayment.”
Philip coughed. “What are you going to do?”
Rafe ran his hands over his head. “Return to the Prince. Deal with this later.”
“Could it be Remiel Marigny?” Philip asked. “Or Colonel Torridan?”
“No idea. All I know is I have less than three hours before leaving my family. Forever.”
Calum came around and gripped Rafe’s shoulder. “How can I help?”
He wanted to wake Juliet, but he wouldn’t do that to her. She needed to rest, and he wasn’t sure he could walk away if she were awake. “I have legal things to work out.”
“Philip, please tell Ivers to bring fresh coffee into my study.” Calum straightened his jacket and led the way. “If Juliet wakes, tell her Rafe is gone.”
Chapter 50
Nate paused outside Juliet’s bedroom. He’d slept for five hours without nightmares. Had to be a record.
Calum had offered them guest rooms, and although Nate hadn’t gotten a full night’s worth, he’d make it work. He had things to do, including but not limited to figuring out who’d poisoned him and why.
He reached for the medal around his neck that wasn’t there anymore and felt for the handkerchief in his back pocket. Early this morning, Ivers had brought Nate’s and Pete’s very few possessions from the motel to the mansion. A favor Nate was grateful for.
Later today he and Pete would make a plan, but for now he knocked on Juliet’s door.
He didn’t hear anything and went in anyway. Calum had put her in a bedroom with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river and a king-size four-poster bed. An armoire and dresser dwarfed the hospital equipment. Nate had expected to see Rafe sleeping on the sofa near the windows or on the floor.
But Juliet was alone, sitting up, and reading a large book. “Hey.”
Nate took one of the throws from the couch and draped it around her shoulders. “I wasn’t sure if you were awake.”
“I just woke.” She adjusted the blanket. “Would you pour me some water?”
He found the pitcher on the bedside table and handed her a glass. “Where’s Rafe?”
She pushed back her hair, which hung down to her waist. Despite the bruises on her face, she had more color in her cheeks than he’d seen in days. “I don’t know.”
Nate sat on the edge of the bed and studied his boots. Although he’d changed into clean clothes, his boots still carried mud and other things from the night. “I’m sorry.”
She put the glass down. “I am too.”
He faced her direct gaze. “You’ve nothing to be sorry for.”
“If I’d not been so angry, so stubborn—”
“None of this is your fault.” He took her hand. “We won. You defeated Balthasar.”
“What about Samantha?” Juliet nodded to his arms. “And that?”
“Samantha is with Pete right now, and the doctor says she’ll be fine. They’re both probably still asleep.” Nate held up his arms soaked in a mint-smelling salve and covered in gauze. “I’m okay.” Not really. The burns felt like someone was power-sanding his skin. “The doctor even gave me new anti-seizure meds.”
“And your headaches?”
“Not great. Not debilitating. A win all around.”
“I don’t believe you.” She squeezed his hand. “You were poisoned.”
“And the doc is checking out my blood.” He covered her hand with his other one. “I’ll be okay.”
“There’s more to it—”
“Juliet.” He smiled. “Don’t worry about me.” He didn’t want anyone worrying about him, especially the one person he’d hurt the most.
She gave him a half smile and sank deeper into her pillow. “Thank you for saving me.”
“Rafe is the one who took down Balthasar.”
“I kind of remember that. But not much after. It was like being frozen in my body, aware but not really.”
“I know the feeling.” Nate told her everything that happened after she blacked out, about Balthasar, and about the arms dealer in New Orleans.
“Nate, there’s still so much we don’t know about how my lily is connected to your unit and the horrible things that happened to you. If I hadn’t held on to all that fear, if I’d allowed myself to trust others, we might have found the answers sooner. Before the trials tomorrow.”
“There won’t be trials for the rest of the unit. I just spoke with Kells. A secret congressional committee decided to end our careers instead of having a trial with classified black ops intel exposed.”
She pressed a hand against her chest, her eyes widening. “You were discharged?”
“The men already in prison who were in the theater of battle—including myself—were dishonorably discharged after we were rescued and sentenced. The others back at the command post, including Pete, were dishonorably discharged last night and told to leave Fort Bragg within hours. The men in prison will stay there. Kells’s team is now…on their own.”
“But we have some answers. We can track down Remiel Marigny in New Orleans. Half his family lives on the Isle and poaches on my land.”
“Marigny is supposed to be dead, and no one’s going to believe a story about a Puritan woman and her poison having anything to do with my unit.”
“What are your men going to do?”
Nate clasped his fingers behind his neck, appreciating the stretch in his arm muscles. “They’re coming to Savannah. According to Rafe, this city where Balthasar and Escalus set up an elaborate undercover operation has to be important. So Kells has decided to move the men discharged last night to Savannah. We’ll set up a command post here and work to clear our names and get the rest of our men out of prison.”
“Where will you live?”
“Still working on that. But if Balthasar can con his way into Savannah society, we can too. It’s not quite noon. That gives me and Pete the day to figure this out.”
She sat up higher, and a blue ribbon fell off her pillow. Nate handed it to her while her gaze darted to the empty couch. “What time is it?”
“Eleven.”
She wrapped and unwrapped the ribbon around her hand. “Have you seen Rafe?”
“Not since he came back in to watch over you a few hours ago.”
She threw off the blankets and struggled with her IV.
“What are you doing?”
“You said you were sorry, right? Which means you want to make it up to me.”
“I guess.” Nate didn’t like where this was going.
“I need you to come with me to Prioleau Plantation.”
“Why?”
“If I can save Rafe, I may be able to help your men as well. Oh, and we can’t tell Calum. He’ll freak.”
“Calum isn’t here anyway. Ivers said he left half an hour ago.”
“And Philip?”
“Resting.” Nate moved the monitor and helped her out of bed. She wore a white nightgown that was too sheer and short for his comfort. “Do you have clothes here?”
“Ask Ivers. I’m sure he’ll find something for me.” Her legs wobbled, and Nate caught her before she fell.
“Juliet—”
“I’m fine.” She brushed away his hand and used the bedpost to steady herself. “Just don’t tell anyone. Promise?”
“Sure.” B
ecause why the hell not. “But I can’t drive, and neither can you.”
She pulled out her IV and shut down the machine. “We’ll ask Ivers.”
“Super.”
She took his hand and forced him to meet her gaze. “Being able to drive does not make the man.”
“Not helping, Juliet.”
Now she cupped his face in her palms. “One thing I’ve learned this week is we can’t live in the wreckage of the past and the wreckage of the future. We have to be present to each moment as it comes.” He frowned, and she laughed. “I have a good plan. I promise.”
He didn’t believe her, but he had nothing left to lose. “Where are we going?”
“To talk to the Prince.”
* * *
Rafe and Calum paused near the tabby ruins of the original Prioleau Plantation house on the Isle of Hope. It was noon. He breathed deeply to release the tension in his chest. How could he be back in the same position he’d been in eight years before?
“You sure about this?” Calum wiped his brow with a handkerchief. It had to be almost a hundred degrees in the sun. “You can go into hiding. I have properties, contacts—”
“No. The Fianna will find me and hurt you.” A whistle came from the left. “Come on.”
“You want me to come with you?”
“I need a witness.”
“Wonderful.”
Rafe led the way through the woods to the tomb. The small peninsula was surrounded by a river on one side and gnarled mangrove trees on the other two. The hundred-acre marsh lay beyond the estuary, owned by the Prioleau family but ruled by white egrets and alligators. They entered the clearing and stopped. Arragon wasn’t alone.
When Rafe got within arm’s length, he hit his chest with his fist and bowed his head. “A warrior returns.”
Arragon cleared his throat. “Welcome home, Romeo.”
Rafe raised his head and met the brown eyes of the Prince, who’d changed little in eight years. Wide-shouldered, slim-hipped, with a hard face cut with angles. His pressed trousers and silk shirt only emphasized his physique. While he was better dressed, he was as strong and muscular as his warriors.
“Romeo,” the Prince said quietly. “You came.”
“I promised. But why are you here?”
“You killed Balthasar.”
“I did.”
“Yet you lost the vials.”
“True.” Rafe motioned to Calum, who held up a briefcase. “I did retrieve the briefcase of the lawyer Remiel Marigny hired. There’s information in there you’ll find interesting.”
Arragon took the briefcase while the Prince asked, “And your wife’s King’s Grants?”
“I have them in a protected safe,” Calum said. “Along with her deeds. She is the sole owner of Capel land.”
“No one, not even Remiel Marigny, can get to the land,” Rafe added.
“Unless she decides to make it so,” Arragon said.
“Juliet won’t,” Calum said.
“I’m so glad there are men willing to speak for me.” Juliet’s voice rang out, and all four men turned to see her emerge from the woods, with Nate and Orsino behind her.
Rafe held his breath as she strode forward. She wore a pair of cargo pants that hugged her hips and sat low on her slim waist. Her black T-shirt stretched across her breasts, the color highlighting her pale skin and the bruises and scrapes on her face and arms. She’d plaited her hair into a complicated braid that hung over one shoulder.
Her gaze held grim determination and courage.
“How do you do?” She held out her hand to the Prince. “I’m Juliet Capel.”
The Prince kissed the back of her hand. “A pleasure.”
“I’m here to make a deal,” she said. “I want you to let Rafe go. In return, he and I will continue my father’s work. We’ll protect the secret of the lily and destroy it wherever it grows.”
“Your father did that on his own,” the Prince said. “We had no formal agreement.”
“That’s not true. The Capel family has had a long history with the Fianna, a fact you know. And years ago my father made a deal with Sebastian. You might remember him. He was the Prince before you.”
The Prince’s nostrils flared. “I don’t deal with civilians, Miss Capel.”
Rafe glared in frustration at his wife. “What are you doing?”
“Saving you.” She took her phone out of her pocket and held it up to the Prince. “See these texts? I thought they were from Balthasar, but they’re from Sebastian. He’s been protecting me since you forced Rafe to join you. Now I want Rafe to come home with me.”
“Romeo tithed to me. He belongs to me.”
“Yet you believe a man cannot serve two masters. You knew that if I came looking for Rafe, he’d choose me instead of you. That’s why you made him tattoo those names on his arms. So I’d give him up, I’d let him go.”
The Prince crossed his arms over his chest. “All warriors give up their world when they join. It’s voluntary.”
“Except neither one of those things is true in Rafe’s case. He was married to me in a sacred ceremony, and he’d promised fealty to a Prince when he was sixteen. When you used his grief over his momma’s death to blackmail him into giving me up, you never asked him to forswear Sebastian.”
The Prince’s eyes narrowed. “When Sebastian lost, his fealties transferred to me.”
“Not true.” She spoke simply, without anger or reproach. “I read Hume’s. A warrior is given the choice to offer his oath to the new Prince. You forced Rafe to join, tortured him by threatening me and my family. Yet did he ever offer to serve you instead of Sebastian?”
Orsino snarled. “This is absurd, my lord.”
“She speaks true,” Arragon said.
“’Tis a play on words,” Orsino said. “A play on meanings.”
“Yet”—Calum came into the circle, his gaze on the Prince—“legally, she has a point.”
The Prince moved until he was a breath away from Juliet. “Are you willing to take over the contract between the Capel family and the Fianna? Do you know the cost?”
“I am,” Juliet said. “And I do.”
“It means never selling the land. Never moving away. Always preparing for another attack like last night’s.”
“I understand.”
“I’ll be with her, my lord.” Rafe moved next to her. “If you’ll allow it.”
“They won’t be alone.” Calum nodded at Nate. “They have friends and family to help.”
“And you, Major Walker?” The Prince shifted his attention to Nate. “What about your men? What are you willing to do for them?”
“Anything,” Nate said.
“I heard about the discharges and that Colonel Torridan is moving his civilian operation to Savannah. Do you have any idea what your unit is getting themselves into?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
The Prince laughed. “With what? You and your men have no money. No power. No influence. Just the clothes on your back and whatever weapons you can scrounge.”
“Nate won’t be alone,” Juliet said. “He’ll have me, Rafe, Detective Garza, and Calum.”
Orsino scoffed. “You’re naive and unprepared.”
“But we can fight,” Nate said. “I’d take Juliet, Rafe, and Calum over a dozen Fianna warriors.”
“Which brings me to my next request.” She raised her chin. “While Rafe and I rebuild our home on the Isle and protect my lily, Nate and his men will move into Prideaux House, which Balthasar was purchasing with Fianna money. I want you to give it to Kells so his men can live there.”
“I’m impressed with your courage, Miss Capel. But I don’t own Prideaux House. It was purchased by another party.”
Calum coughed. “As of yesterday, I own the house and a few other
new properties. I’m sure I can work something out with Colonel Torridan.”
“It’s settled then,” she said. “You let Rafe go and allow Colonel Torridan and his men to live in the city undisturbed. Your warriors leave town, and you keep your issues with Remiel Marigny away from us.”
“I’ll agree to letting Rafe stay with you to protect the land—”
“My lord!” Orsino stepped forward until the Prince held up a hand.
“But Rafe will always be a Fianna warrior.” The Prince stared at Rafe. “You will heed when I call. Regardless of the situation.”
Since it was the best Rafe could hope for, he squeezed her hand. “Aye, my lord. And my accounts?”
“You’ll have access to all that was yours by this afternoon.”
Rafe bowed his head. “Thank you.”
The Prince added, “Major Walker, while you help your men, you must keep Romeo’s truth. You know what happens to those who speak?”
“I do,” Nate said. “Do you know if Remiel is the one who set up my men? Or why?”
“I can confirm the former, not the latter. That, I’m afraid, is up to you and your men to figure out. I suggest you do so before his next move.” The Prince paused. “As tempting as it may be to tell Kells Torridan who I am, I expect you’ll keep my identity secret. Or all of these agreements here today”—he waved to Rafe and Juliet—“will be forfeit. As will your life.”
Nate crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, sir.”
Juliet looked at Nate. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell Detective Garza about all this.”
“On the contrary,” the Prince said. “To withhold truth puts him in even greater danger. But the same rules apply to him. Those who speak, die.”
“One more thing.” She wrinkled her nose. “RM Financial. The bank that bought my business loan. I know you own it, and I don’t appreciate you using my business as a pawn in whatever games you’re playing.”
“I do apologize,” the Prince said. “It was a desperate move on my part.”
“Thank you.” She blew a stray hair out of her eyes. “As a businesswoman, I respect that you also have a business to run. But I want to renegotiate my loan and expect better terms on collateral and interest rates. And I’m not paying closing costs on a loan I didn’t initiate.”