Protecting the Prince

by Dana Volney

  When they were alone, Eliam tried to reach for Winter, but he was stopped by the damn zip tie.

  “Do you have a knife?” He stretched his hands toward her.

  She reached down to her boot, pulled out a knife, and cut the zip tie with a little effort. He knew by the stiff way she retracted the knife that they weren’t going to share another kiss.

  Her eyebrow arched.

  “I called them this morning,” he said, rubbing the areas on his wrists that now had a red circle.

  “I know.”

  She already knew? This seemed like one of those things she would’ve mentioned to him before this minute and been angry about. They sure had a lot of secrets between the two of them. Although, slowly, they were all coming to light.

  “They agreed to take care of my problem if I helped them with theirs.” If she already knew that information, then he was the one who was going to start asking the questions.

  “What in the hell were you thinking?”

  “That all of this craziness needs to end. Your house blew up. No, don’t shake your head. That isn’t normal or cool or even something that is okay in your line of work.”

  “I can take care of myself and my clients. We weren’t even hurt.”

  “I had options. I had someone to call, and I was willing to pay their price.” The price being two containers, not one, finding safe passage on his ships. He was screwed if one was detected; adding another had been a no-brainer.

  “We would’ve found a way…” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Really? Because Holland got into this room quickly and had me at gunpoint without you guys even hearing.”

  His words had stung her, he could see it in her eyes. He’d meant them to, but now seeing it, he regretted attacking her professional skills.

  “We could’ve all died today had I not made that call.” He drove the point home. She was definitely better versed at being in this situation, but he wasn’t and he didn’t want to spend one more hour wondering if a sniper was going to kill him or a bomb was going to be placed outside their hotel door. His company was doing God knows what right now thinking he was dead, and every minute that he wasn’t in charge he felt his dream slide through the cracks of his fingers. This little game someone was playing was ending, and whoever this person was wasn’t winning or getting his company.

  “Eddie and Felix had a plan.”

  “Okay, I don’t doubt you guys can take care of yourselves. But nothing you can say will convince me I made a bad choice.”

  “Why didn’t you talk to me about it? We could’ve worked it out.”

  “You’ve kept me half in the dark this entire time. I had no idea what you guys were doing. All I knew was what was in front of me and that it would solve our problems. I wasn’t, and still am not, willing to risk your lives. You are in this because of me. Now, both problems are solved. The Primack family and I have reached an agreement, and Holland has been neutralized. Win. Win.”

  “We don’t know who started all of this. There is still someone out there who wants you dead.”

  “And they probably don’t have any way to make that happen now.”

  “They could decide to do it themselves. Like Holland did today.” Her hand pointed firmly in the direction of where Holland had been standing while holding a gun to his head.

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

  “So, like, what, we’re just supposed to wait until they decide to kill you again? How can we possibly prepare for a lunatic coming after you? I didn’t even get a chance to find out who hired him.”

  “He wasn’t going to tell.”

  Winter could believe all she wanted that she was close to getting information out of Holland, but Eliam knew there was no way he intended to tell her anything. Holland had thought he’d won.

  “Whoever it was hired him for both you and Franklin,” she persisted.

  “So we have narrowed the list and will work it.”

  “Oh my God. I can’t believe you. You should not be making these decisions without talking to me first.” Calm and collected Winter was gone, her volume just below yelling and raising with every word.

  “You were too busy talking to your boyfriend and the person who hired you to kill me.” His pounding head made it a little more difficult to ease the sound of his frustration building.

  Her face scrunched. “And my boyfriend is?”

  “Alex,” he deadpanned.

  “That’s been over for a while.”

  “I knew there was something there.” And what he’d just won by figuring out that information was a big heaping hunk of jealousy and Winter’s angry blue eyes.

  “Settle down. There’s nothing there anymore.”

  “Maybe not on your side. Definitely on his.”

  “Okay, we need to shelve this for a second and get back to you making deals with the devil when you didn’t need to.”

  “Need to? Bomb. Winter, bomb. What part of that don’t you get? If there was someone you could call to deal with this situation, wouldn’t you have made the same decision I did?”

  She was quiet.

  “Exactly,” he said. “There was no question in my mind. I couldn’t let anything happen to you. There’s no way I would’ve been able to reconcile that.”

  She moved closer to him now. “Me, either.” She rubbed her lips together. “That was scary.”

  “You hide it well.” I nearly pissed my pants and you looked like you were trying to decide which cereal to eat.

  “Part of the training.” Her blue eyes looked up into his. “You can’t keep secrets from me.”

  “That’s a pot-and-kettle thing to say.” He stepped closer and kissed her forehead, rubbing his hands on her upper arms.

  She rested her forehead on his chest, and he slid his hands down to her waist.

  “I didn’t want to worry you with things you didn’t need to worry about,” she said.

  “I had a right to know. From the get-go.”

  “Would you have trusted me as much?” She turned her head to the side and stepped into his embrace. “Would you have believed I wasn’t in on the guy in your apartment thing or let me take you to my house?”

  Probably not. “I guess we’ll never know now, will we?” He laced his hands around her back.

  She half-chuckled. “Oh-kay.”

  “Besides, Louis recommended you. I trust him implicitly.”

  “You didn’t see your face. You were paranoid. You still are.”

  “This whole thing has made me reevaluate some life choices.”

  “Like what?”

  “Things that can’t be changed now is all, except going forward.” He wasn’t about to get into his mother’s death, his father’s death, and his lack of family right now.

  “Speaking of which, we need to change locations.”

  She tried to step backward but he kept her close.

  “What about my place?” He spoke into her hair then kissed the top of her head again. He wanted to kiss so much more, but she was right. They needed to get out of there.

  “You’re still dead. Remember?”

  “Yeah, about that.” He kissed her on the lips. Once. Just one more kiss. “Holland is gone. I think we can stop with the ruse.”

  She studied him, and just then Felix and Eddie returned and her cell phone chirped.

  He had to straighten up his life. He wanted to go back to his company and make sure nothing had been cocked up already, solve his Primack family problem, and then figure out what was happening between him and Winter.

  • • •

  Winter broke free of Eliam’s grasp to check her phone. Noor had texted—they’d collected everything from what was left of her home and boxed it up, putting it in a storage area close by.

  Perfect. What’s left of my life is in boxes somewhere. Ugh, her head hurt. She looked to Eliam. Yeah, he wasn’t about to stay dead. Her client had a point. And the only way to find out who was trying to kill him
, if they still were, would be to resurrect Eliam and monitor him. Although if they kept Eliam in hiding, would the person who stepped up be the killer?

  Her adrenaline was gone and she started to feel the drain. She needed coffee.

  “Eliam wants to be undead,” she announced to the entire room. From now on she wasn’t going to keep him in the dark.

  Felix nodded and Eddie said, “Okay,” and patted Eliam on the back. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Alright. Let’s get back to his house, set up more security, and go from there.”

  Winter and Eliam gathered their belongings. I need a shower. She could stop home really quick—wait. Nope, she couldn’t. She was homeless. Shit. How did she keep forgetting that wretched fact? What in the hell was she going to do? She certainly couldn’t stay at this hotel again. She was going to have to find something temporary until she decided what to do permanently. Now that Holland was taken care of, she didn’t have to be on the run.

  One mess at a time. Staying at Eliam’s tonight was a given to make sure no one broke in, and then tomorrow she would just…decide what to do tomorrow when it happened.

  As if he were reading her mind, Eliam said, “You can take a shower at my place. I’m going to get cleaned up, too.”

  “We have some stuff to put up that we never had a chance to, cameras and some extra security measures.”

  “My place is pretty secure. Unless someone is willing to scale thirty stories on a chilly fall day.”

  “Who knows? I wouldn’t count anything out at this point.”

  After all, Eliam had just had a gun pointed to his head. His head could’ve been blown off right in front of her. Oh God, if that had happened, she would’ve gone ballistic and emptied her magazine in Holland’s face and then kicked him until his lifeless body brought Eliam back. The way she couldn’t bring Brenn and Malcom and Wes back after she’d let them down under the hot Afghanistan sun. She mentally shook off the bloody image and picked up her overnight bag.

  “Ready?” she asked the group and then walked out, leaving their keys at the front desk.

  Her phone vibrated. “Hey.”

  “Any more news on Holland?” Alex asked.

  Alex was not necessarily the type to ask a question he already knew the answer to, but there was a first time for everything. “Not really.”

  “You need to get out of there. A car registered to him was caught on some cameras coming your way.”

  “We’re already headed out.” They all loaded in Felix’s SUV, Winter and Eliam in the back. “When was he spotted?” She locked eyes with Felix in the rearview mirror. Had they taken care of Holland’s car, was the Russian going to do it, or were they just leaving the car behind? As long as no one was caught on tape talking to Holland, they all had deniability.

  “About forty-five minutes ago.”

  “We’ll keep an eye out.” She didn’t want to know what the Russians were doing with Holland’s body, and she knew Felix and Eddie were smart enough not to ask questions. It hopefully wouldn’t be too suspicious that she dropped the Holland angle; she might have to play it up a little later so Alex didn’t suspect she’d been involved in getting rid of Holland. Shit.

  Was she a callous and jaded person for not batting an eye when the Russian had snapped Holland’s neck? If he hadn’t, though, Eliam would’ve been dead. She would do some soul searching later on a warm beach far away from reality.

  She disconnected and shifted in her seat to face Eliam, who sat behind the passenger seat. “How did you know the Primack family was going to show up and take out Holland specifically when you needed them? How did you know any of that?”

  Did he know Holland was coming for them at the hotel? How did the Russians get there so quickly? And Holland had been expecting them, too.

  “Because I asked them to help.”

  “And you knew Holland was on his way and didn’t think to warn us? You’d rather have a gun to your face?”

  “No. I would rather never feel the steel of a gun pushed up against my temple again, thank you very much.”

  “Then how?”

  He shuffled in his seat and looked beyond her to the businesses they drove past. “I don’t know. Maybe it was dumb luck that Holland knew them, too, and had obviously asked for help. Or maybe they made it happen because of the deal I made with them. Whatever the case, I don’t really care. They showed up, they were on my side, and Holland was taken care of.”

  “Just like that. You’re okay with today’s events?”

  He paused. She could see his faith in his actions waver by the way he was grinding his teeth and the pain flitting across his eyes. What was this like for him? Seeing someone killed right in front of you—knowing you took the steps to make that happen? Eliam was a good guy and now he had blood on his hands. That was not an easy reality for good people to handle—she knew; she’d been in his place once. She knew it was going to take a lot of reconciling in his mind to justify his actions. He wouldn’t soon forget what he did and the outcome he’d witnessed firsthand.

  She’d been right all along—Eliam wasn’t innocent and he was definitely the CEO type. He saw a problem and took care of it to his favor, no matter the consequences.

  “I’m okay with the outcome,” he finally said. “You’re safe. We’re all safe.”

  “It matters how that happens, and when that catches up to you—you let me know.” She didn’t dare move her gaze from him. She wanted to take in his lips, the scruff on his cheeks, and the way his eyes were squinting at her—like he was trying to read her mind.

  They rode the rest of the way in silence and waited in the car at his place while her team swept the condo for bugs.

  She wanted to ask him how he was doing, she wanted to have a serious conversation about this psyche. But she couldn’t go right at him with questions; no doubt he’d shut down. She put that in the back of her head to attempt later, after this morning’s events had sunk in a little more and they were alone in his apartment. Last night they’d spent a healthy portion of their night in each other’s arms. Would tonight be like that? Were they both in a place to want that connection again?

  “Have you told people you’re alive yet?”

  “Yep. Texted the president of my board and my VPs—even the ones overseas. We are going to conference call tonight. How long will Eddie and Felix take to set up equipment?”

  “Not too long unless they encounter a problem.”

  He brought his phone out of his pocket and started to text, no doubt to let his people know when he’d be available. Back to business—always back to business for him. And she could relate. That was the problem.

  • • •

  Winter shuffled around the contents of Eliam’s fridge. The service he hired to bring him groceries weekly had delivered this morning—they must not have heard the news he was dead. She loved the idea of not having to go to the store. He had everything she would need to make a good steak dinner.

  They’d cleaned up after Felix and Eddie had set up cameras and motion detectors in the space between the elevators and his front door, and left strict instruction not to let anyone up to his apartment unless it was them.

  Eliam had been in his office all afternoon. The conference call with his company was set to start soon, and Winter was left to her own devices. If she were at her own house, she would sit on her couch, drink a bottle of wine, and go to bed. But she wasn’t; she was on duty. Although cooking was not part of her job description, she had to eat, too, and Eliam didn’t need protection while in his office.

  Just as she got the potatoes prepped and in a boiling pot of water on the gas stove, Louis called.

  “Hey,” she answered, leaning against the dark granite countertop.

  “We have a lot to catch up on.”

  “Yes, we do.” She’d never called Louis to fill him in during the last twenty-four hours. Part of her only wanted to report good news to him—explaining some ba
d decisions she’d made while trying to protect him, like the Russian warehouse incident, wasn’t appealing. What was a bit more surprising was that it was evening and she was just now hearing from him. “He’s alive.”

  “So I gathered. Mind telling me how he died in the first place?”

  How many more people was she going to have to tell? She hated saying the words with a fiery passion that made her want to hop on the next plane to a warm climate to sit on a beach where no one knew her name or that she was homeless.

  “There was a little scuffle. We got him to safety and wanted to stop the attacks. This was the best way.”

  “Did they stop?”

  “So far. But, ya know, the night is still young.”

  All of the incidences seemed to happen at night—her subconscious must’ve been more aware of that fact because all of the knives she’d been using were currently laying on the counter, in a row, handle toward her, ready to be thrown quickly.

  “Franklin died last night,” Louis said.

  “He did. It was a good thing Eliam had me or he would’ve probably died, too.” And about five other times in the last couple of days.

  “I agree with you, but I’m not exactly pleased all of this is still an issue. It wasn’t Franklin causing the problems, then?”

  “Appears it wasn’t.”

  “Then who?”

  “Working on that. Maybe Eliam being undead will flush him out.”

  “Let’s hope so. This needs to be wrapped up. The longer it goes, the more danger he’s in.”

  Don’t I know it. The longer he wasn’t protected and the guy wasn’t caught, then the more likely it was that he’d strike when Eliam was least prepared. She wasn’t sure how many more days Eliam would keep her and her team around if nothing happened. He might think the threat had ended even though she knew better. There was some whackadoo out there who’d wanted to spend a lot of money to take Eliam’s world and thought they’d succeeded, only to find out they hadn’t. She’d bet everything she had left that this person was spiraling out of control at the loss of the win. They were going to attack again. She just hoped she could stop it, and that she could do it from beside Eliam instead of from afar, because even if he stopped her services, she wasn’t going to give up until the threat on his life was over and he was still alive.