Royal Heist

by Rachelle Mccalla

  The things he’d always felt, but kept buried.

  Push her away or keep her close?

  He could feel her heartbeat as he held her tight against him, each beat increasing the urgency of his answer. If he pushed her away, she’d feel hurt. She already felt hurt. He couldn’t add to that, not when he’d always cared for her, not after she’d shared her deepest fears with him.

  To deny the things he felt would be like lying. He couldn’t lie to Ruby, of all people.

  He bent his head.

  She lifted hers.

  Her lips were soft, warm, blissful.

  The last of the tension she’d been carrying seemed to evaporate under his hands. Perhaps he should have kissed her long before. Perhaps he should never stop.

  She rose up on her toes and he nearly lifted her off the ground, wanting to be closer, as though the fervency of his kisses could make up for all the times he hadn’t kissed her over the years.

  “That friend thing,” Ruby whispered breathlessly between kisses. “Does this change that?”

  Her eyes sparkled mischievously.

  Galen laughed. She’d caught him there. “More than a friend,” he whispered, kissing her again.

  “Galen.” His name echoed from far away. “Galen?” The voice was closer now, not Ruby’s voice at all.

  “Galen Harris.” It was Linus’s voice, and Galen lifted his eyes to see his fellow guard appear through the bushes from the direction of guard headquarters. “Phone call—for you. Rocco Salvatore?”

  Ruby jumped away from him and Galen dropped his arms. “Why didn’t he call me directly?” He found his phone and looked at the screen. “One missed call. Why didn’t I hear it ring?”

  “I have a theory,” Linus volunteered with a smirk, having witnessed enough of the kiss to know why Galen hadn’t heard him approaching.

  “There’s no cell phone service in the vault,” Ruby explained. “It’s too far underground.”

  “He’s waiting on the main switchboard line.” Linus led the way toward headquarters.

  Galen hurried after him, mindful that Rocco wouldn’t appreciate waiting, not after the way they’d inconvenienced him already. He caught up to Linus as they trotted through the maze of bushes. “Please don’t tell the captain what you saw,” he requested.

  Linus laughed. “I won’t.”

  But as they cleared the last of the bushes, Galen saw Captain Selini waiting for them, his arms crossed, his face perpetually stern. “Don’t tell me what?”

  THIRTEEN

  Ruby hurried to keep up with the guards, unsure whether she could find her way through the garden maze if she lost them. Linus hadn’t technically invited her to follow, but she figured whatever Rocco Salvatore had to say was as much her business as anyone else’s, and anyway, Galen was supposed to be guarding her. She was supposed to stick with him.

  She thought she heard voices up ahead, just before she came around a corner and slammed into Galen’s back. “Sorry,” she whispered, steadying herself with one hand at his waist, holding on another moment for the reassurance she felt from the contact.

  “What isn’t he supposed to tell me?” The captain raised an eyebrow, and Ruby realized he seemed to be glaring at the place where her hand still rested at Galen’s waist.

  She moved her hand, guilty. How would the captain respond if he knew she’d been kissing Galen?

  “Harris?” Selini prompted.

  But Linus inserted himself in the conversation. “The phone call, Captain. We don’t want Rocco to get tired of waiting and change his mind.”

  “This way.” Captain Selini led them inside almost reluctantly. The angry look he flashed them promised that he wasn’t going to let the matter drop entirely.

  Ruby hurried to keep up, questions swirling. Why had Rocco called? Was he going to help them? Or was he really guilty, and only calling to feed them misinformation and throw them off his trail?

  They stopped in a conference room, and the captain directed Galen to a phone in a small room on the other side of a glass partition. Galen nodded, clearly understanding what to do.

  Once Galen picked up the phone and started talking, Ruby understood. A speaker in the middle of the conference table allowed everyone in the room to hear Galen’s conversation, but the wall between them prevented Rocco from picking up the noises of the others listening in.

  “I thought about your offer. I want to talk with you in person.” Rocco’s voice was deep, his accent distinctly East Coast American; Ruby had never bothered to sort out precisely where. Not Boston. New Jersey maybe? She couldn’t tell.

  “I’m sure we can work something out.” Galen watched the rest of the guards through the glass, his eyebrows up, questioning, looking for input.

  The captain nodded sternly.

  Galen’s face relaxed. “When would you like to meet?”

  “Soon. Tonight, if possible.”

  “That should be fine. Where would you like to meet?”

  “North of the marina. There’s a road—Seaview Drive?”

  “I know it.”

  “It follows the coastline. There’s a trail on the bluffs overlooking the marina—”

  “I know the one.”

  “Can you be there in an hour?”

  Galen raised his eyebrows.

  Selini nodded.

  “No problem.”

  “Good. See you in one hour. And bring Ruby.”

  Galen opened his mouth, but a tiny click cut him off, followed by a dial tone that said Rocco was gone. Shaking his head, Galen rounded the corner and entered the conference room, his eyes darting from the captain to Ruby and back again.

  “Bring Ruby?” Captain Selini repeated, raking his hair back. “Why? Why does he need Ruby?”

  Galen quickly related the handprint theory they’d worked out that afternoon with Kirk and Stasi.

  “So this Rocco Salvatore is one of the Bulldog Bandits?” The captain seethed.

  Ruby cleared her throat. “We don’t know. He claims he’s tracking the bandits—”

  “Yeah, he’s a bounty hunter. I heard his whole cover story.” The captain blew out a furious breath. “Who is he really, and why does he want Galen to bring you out to the bluffs in the middle of the night?”

  “I told him we could work with him,” Galen explained. “He says he wants to capture the bandits for the reward money. We want to keep the crown jewels safe. If he’s really a bounty hunter, this could work out well for both sides.”

  “And if he’s really one of the bandits, what then?”

  “I don’t think he’s a bandit.” Ruby had been puzzling over the question in the back of her mind, and she’d realized a few things.

  “Because he smells like lavender?” Selini didn’t try to disguise the sarcasm in his voice.

  “Because he was a security guard at my school for the last two years, at the height of the Bulldog Bandit heists, most of which took place hundreds of miles from our campus, even on other continents. How would he have had time to stake out those jobs and still show up for work each day?”

  “When were the heists? When was he at work? Have you cross-checked this?”

  “No,” Ruby admitted. “But we could find the dates with the news releases—”

  The captain snapped his fingers at Linus, who’d been standing by since he’d escorted them in. “Get me those dates.”

  “Yes, sir.” Linus hurried away.

  Ruby prayed Linus would find the information quickly. She didn’t know how long it would take them to travel to the bluffs above the marina, but they had less than an hour before they needed to be there.

  And she got the feeling Rocco wouldn’t like it if they were late.

  * * *

  Darkness had fall
en by the time they reached the bluffs. Galen felt uneasy. Even the light of the moon and stars were hidden by streams of clouds that chased each other across the sky, casting shadows that moved like men.

  Or maybe they were men.

  Where were the bandits? How many men did they have, and was Rocco Salvatore one of them?

  “We’ll park the car off the next spur and walk back this way.” Captain Selini reviewed the plan as they approached the trail Rocco had specified. “Don’t be afraid to use your earpiece to contact us. We’ll have your back.”

  “Thank you.” Galen unbuckled his seat belt as the vehicle slowed to a stop. He had no intention of using the earpieces, not unless he had no other choice. The Bulldog Bandits already had every other advantage over them. Why should they be privy to their every conversation, too?

  Ruby climbed from the backseat ahead of him, then waited for him to lead her to the path. Though he’d hiked the bluffs countless times over the years, the darkness transformed the peaceful coastline. As the captain and Linus drove off behind them, Galen paused at the head of the trail to get his bearings.

  “What is it?” Ruby looked up at him with uncertainty.

  “This way.” Galen extended his hand and Ruby took it. If they hadn’t been in such a hurry, he might have taken a moment to reassure her, to hold her tight again as he longed to. As it was, they’d debated whether Ruby would be allowed to come with him up until the moment it was time to leave. Linus had dug up the dates of the Bulldog Bandit heists, but they’d overlapped enough with school holidays and other various unknowns that they couldn’t determine whether the evidence they had proved or disproved Rocco’s cover. There hadn’t been time to dig any deeper.

  Was Rocco Salvatore one of the Bulldog Bandits? They simply didn’t have enough information to say either way.

  Now Galen had to focus on watching and listening, and staying on the trail in the darkness. He’d been against the idea of bringing Ruby along. The risks simply seemed too great. But Ruby stood fiercely by her earlier determination that Rocco wasn’t her attacker from the week before, and Captain Selini felt the risk was worth taking if it meant they might learn more about what was going on.

  Galen understood. The captain wanted to put the whole issue behind him so the guards could focus on the wedding later in the week. From a purely practical standpoint his position made sense. There would be hundreds of guests in town for Princess Isabelle’s wedding to Levi Grenaldo, including media representatives and many prominent families from the region. And the captain had that bully of a wedding planner hounding him at every turn.

  Of course the captain wanted to cooperate with Rocco.

  “Watch out.” Galen took half a step back and held out his arms to prevent Ruby from stepping past him as pattering gravel rained down from above, peppering the trail just ahead of them.

  “What’s that?” Ruby asked quietly.

  Galen strained to see, but between the lip of the cliff above and the thick darkness of the cloudy night sky, he couldn’t see anything but blackness and shadows.

  Ruby stepped forward. “Is it safe?”

  She’d hardly spoken when more gravel fell, this time with larger rocks that clattered loudly down the cliff.

  “Stay back.” Galen wrapped an arm around her waist and ducked against the wall of the cliff, under the relative safety of the outcropping above. “Shh,” he urged her silently when she opened her mouth again.

  He listened carefully. The rocks had stopped falling, but that didn’t mean the trail was safe. Something had dislodged the gravel above them. Galen was familiar enough with the bluffs to know that the ledges above the trail were off-limits to hikers, with warning signs posted about in various languages, warning adventurers of the deadly hazards of venturing up the crumbling sides.

  Ruby leaned past his arm just as the skittering clouds sped past the moon, sending silvery rays streaming down upon them. Suddenly Galen could see Ruby’s pursed lips so near his face, her eyes darting from trail to cliff, alert, tense.

  Beautiful.

  Galen realized it didn’t matter if they were supposed to meet Rocco somewhere on the trail in the next few minutes. They were on the trail. They were where they’d said they’d be. Rocco could find them.

  He needed to talk to Ruby about the kiss they’d shared.

  The distant sound of crunching gravel reminded him that Linus and the captain would be following them, might already be close behind them, and could overhear anything Galen might say. Still, he had to say something. He’d just have to be careful that he didn’t give away too much. “Ruby?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Are you okay?”

  Her eyes met his, reflecting the silvery light of the moon. Like the one-way glass of the interrogation room, she could see out, but he couldn’t see in.

  His attention fully on her face, Galen startled when a line swished past the edge of his field of vision. He turned and tried to focus. A rope dangled from the dangerous cliffs above, swishing back and forth as it settled from being flung.

  More gravel pattered down along with larger rocks.

  Galen pulled Ruby tighter against the cliff face, praying the ledge above would provide them adequate cover against the stones raining down. Ruby’s heartbeat hammered beneath his hands, her fright so pronounced he could feel it in her back through her shirt.

  The rope moved, thrashing this way and that like a long snake twitching in the throes of death. Something blunt appeared below the lip of the cliff. It swung near them, and Galen jerked away, ducking protectively over Ruby as a second object appeared.

  Boots.

  On legs.

  An instant later a hefty man let go of the rope, dropping to the trail in front of them, landing on his feet. He looked at them, his scarred face in a grin, an instant before the clouds swept across the moon, blocking the light.

  “Rocco,” Galen greeted the man, though he could no longer see him.

  So he didn’t see the arm that moved, the hand that grabbed him roughly as the big man spoke. “This way. Hurry.”

  FOURTEEN

  “Climb up.” Rocco shoved the rope into her hands.

  Ruby looked upward into the darkness. She wasn’t dressed for rock climbing—there hadn’t been a moment to change clothes, barely time to grab a sandwich from the palace kitchen, with everything that had happened that day. She still wore the same skirt she’d worn to church.

  “I—I don’t know how,” she confessed.

  Rocco grunted unhappily, but dropped the rope and tugged them farther down the trail. “You can’t see as well from here. Up is better.” He paused a few times, moving, darting about in the darkness. The man appeared to be looking toward the marina, searching for something. Finally he stopped. “Here.”

  Cold metal pressed into her hands. It took Ruby a moment to realize Rocco had handed her a pair of binoculars. “There. Luxury motor yacht, third from the end. Light on in the salon—you can see straight through. See them?”

  Ruby struggled to focus the unfamiliar binoculars, to find the spot where Rocco wanted her to look.

  “I see the boat.” Galen spoke beside her ear, his voice infinitely more gentle than Rocco’s harsh tone, his guiding hand welcome as he pointed with one hand, steering the binoculars with the other until they aimed at the boats in the marina. “I can’t make out anything of the occupants from this distance.”

  “Sorry. Only one pair of binoculars, and I want Ruby to recognize them before they go below.”

  “Who?” Ruby asked. She could see human figures now and cranked the adjustment to focus on their features. Pale hair. Broad shoulders. Big guys sitting at a table, its surface blocked by the galley window. An instant later she had the answer to her own question. “Vincent Verretti. And Carlton.”

  “And their paren
ts, Milton and Roxanne,” Rocco added. “Can you guess why?”

  Confused, Ruby admitted, “I can’t imagine.”

  “I felt the same way two years ago when I saw a checked baggage tag on Vincent’s backpack as he walked across campus just after spring break. The tag said SFO, clear as day.”

  “SFO?” Galen repeated in a whisper. “That’s an acronym for a U.S. airport?”

  “Yup. San Francisco International.”

  Ruby’s thoughts flew. She’d just analyzed the list of Bulldog Bandit heists with the guards. The dates and places were fresh in her mind, along with the corresponding gaps in the school schedule. Spring Break. San Francisco. She leaned against Galen’s arm, which was still steady around her shoulder.

  Rocco continued, “I asked Vincent where he’d been for spring break, pretended I hadn’t already read the tag.”

  “What did he say?” Ruby asked, her mouth dry.

  “He told me, ‘nowhere,’ and kept walking. When he reached the end of the block he pulled the tag off his bag and threw it away. Now I’m sure lots of folks traveled to San Francisco for spring break, but how many of them care about jewelry? And how many of them don’t want to admit where they’ve been?”

  “Can I see?” Galen whispered near her ear, his hand moving to the binoculars.

  “Please.” Ruby gave them up happily. She’d already seen more than she wanted to see. Rocco hadn’t come out and said anything yet, but Ruby could see in the pieces he’d laid out the finished product, just as clearly as she could visualize Stasi’s jewelry from a quick study of her design notes.

  But this picture wasn’t nearly so pretty.

  “I’d heard about the Great Bay jewelry heist, and I knew they’d raised the reward for the Bulldog Bandits the moment they found the hairs at the scene of the crime. So I did a little digging,” Rocco continued. “Did you know the Verrettis’ summer home is right next door to Roxanne’s parents’ house? And do you know what her mother does for a living?”