by Eve Devon
All those years, he’d had to endure the humiliation resulting from the outbursts, the rants, the cries.
The lies.
Cruelty itself to throw his world upside down when it was too late and show him it hadn’t been her who had lied.
And if she hadn’t lied about there being two sons—twins—then she had not lied about them being of royal descent either.
Years after his mother’s death, he had met Monique and encouraged her to use her history degree to research the Zarrenburgs for proof.
He stared at the empty glass case in the middle of the room.
The royal family of Zarrenburg had buried his mother’s ancestry claims, and in doing so, stolen his rightful inheritance and robbed him of the life he’d been entitled to.
So he would rob them of their claim to rule. He would steal the Pasha Star, and he would bury the evidence of the theft with the person who had grown up with everything he had not.
His twin.
The one everyone had wanted.
The one who had got his life.
Perhaps his twin hadn’t lived in a castle, but close enough. Rufus had seen the mansion his brother had grown up in. His twin had been given unconditional love from his adoptive parents, along with every opportunity a child could ever want. He hadn’t had to fight for anything in his life, and that was going to be his weakness.
Rufus was piling on the pressure, stone after stone. Incremental pressure crushing slowly and more painfully than a swiftly delivered blow that extinguished life.
He knew.
He’d had to withstand years and years of it before he seized his life with both hands and made something for himself out of the remnants he’d been left after his mother died.
“How will we know what dress she’ll be wearing,” Monique asked, stealing into his consciousness and parting the cloak of darkness. She had finished stowing away the pieces of equipment they would be using and run her hands down the length of the crushed-velvet, floor-length gown he had given her to rehearse in.
“A personal maid to the princess will be helping her dress for the ball. She will inform me of the details when she has seen it for herself.”
“And how do you know this personal maid?” Monique queried sharply.
Rufus grinned. “You want to know if she was warming my bed while you were in San Francisco?” He watched her pretend it didn’t matter and then thought of how much she had done for him. “Relax, she’s merely a pawn. Now, this time,” he said, bringing things back to business, “as well as keeping to timing, I want you to imagine there will be cameras here”—he pointed to the four corners of the ceiling—“here,” he continued, pointing to the lights that represented the crystal chandeliers that hung from the ceiling in the throne room, “and here,” he added, pointing to the podium the empty glass case sat on top of.
“There will be a camera in the diamond case?” Monique said, frowning.
“Possibly.” He was still waiting on documentation to be emailed to him. He couldn’t be certain yet what this new technology Steel Hawk was planning to introduce came equipped with, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. He made it his business to keep on top of all new technologies coming out of Steel Hawk. In fact, he made it his business to see that certain companies had access to it as well, in order for them to create even better products. For the first time in years, Steel Hawk no longer held premier position within its industry. It had been pleasant to orchestrate that.
“But how will we remain undetected if there are cameras covering three hundred sixty degrees?”
“You forget who I am the spitting image of? I will not only be allowed into the ball, I will be welcomed. And in her dress and with the wig, you will look just like her. No one will question us being there. The main castle security is antiquated. We move quickly enough, and all they’ll get is an impression of you, not enough to enhance imagery and form a sharp picture. To get the diamond, we will not be going far enough into the room for the camera in the case to bother us. The UAV does the dirty work. Ready?”
Monique nodded.
“Then on my mark.” He looked at his watch and counted down the seconds with the fingers of his left hand. On the zero, he signaled for her to start.
Kneeling at the outer edge of the room, Monique unclipped the small robotic copter’s aluminum telescopic arms from around one thigh and slotted them into the six-inch fiberglass platform Rufus had taken out of his pocket and slid over to her. With nimble fingers, she removed the set of wires from underneath the platform and inserted one cable into a telemetry port and the other into the tiny camera, then connected both to the lithium battery and switched it on.
She looked up to confirm Rufus had withdrawn his radio-controlled computer with on-screen display from his inner jacket pocket. When she saw the tiny glow from the camera feed light up the screen in his hand, she unsnapped the rotary-blade propellers from her other thigh and attached them to four of the five arms.
With seconds to spare, Monique completed the assembly. Rufus watched, pleased, as the UAV lifted off the ground. Using the remote control, he flew the copter over to the glass podium and lightly set it down on the glass case.
When they stole the diamond for real, he would hover over the case while one of the motorized robotic arms cut a hole in the glass. The arm would then retrieve the diamond and drop into the case a calling card. He wished he could be around to see the drama unfold when they saw the card, but that would be foolish. He needed to make it look as if the diamond had been stolen specifically, not as part of a larger plan. Only when he’d amped up the pressure for Steel Hawk and the royal family would he embark on delivering the final strike.
“One more time,” he said as he flew the copter off the case. Once he’d landed the vehicle, he turned it over to check how much battery power he had left. “Only this time, we do it with the power out.”
While Monique set about dismantling and rehousing all the UAV components, Rufus picked up a remote control and aimed it at the far end of the wall. The wall slid back to reveal his office, and he stepped inside.
Uncuffing and then pushing back the sleeve of his shirt, he plunged his hand into the fish tank that sat on top of his ebonized, giltwood eighteenth-century cabinet. Making sure not to disturb the freshwater lionfish he kept inside, he dug through the gravel bed with his fingers and went fishing for the small bronze key he kept hidden there. Pulling out the key, he then grabbed a towel from inside the cabinet and, drying his forearm and key, walked back over to his desk and used the key to open the pedestal unit that was screwed into the floor. From inside the deep drawer, he withdrew a small black disc-shaped object. The electromagnetic pulse it emitted was supposedly strong enough to wipe out power to a small building. It would be fun to test it tonight. And afterward, if Monique did well during their full dress rehearsal, he would let her soothe his headache in all the ways he had taught her he liked best.
Feeling pleased, he glanced down to the other contents of the drawer before locking it all back up.
The explosives and timer would be put to use when he deemed the timing perfect.
Because after the confusion, loss, and pain, he did intend to make them feel the final blow.
* * * * *
Adam gritted his teeth as the limousine rolled over the cobbled street up to Zarrenburg Castle. He looked out of the tinted window, gazing at the Zarrenburg pennants that had been placed every few yards. As the red and white colors of the flag flashed by, Adam couldn’t help thinking it had been a long flight on top of a long few days.
Before he and Honeysuckle had boarded their flight, the police had informed them they had no leads regarding the vandalism to Honeysuckle’s apartment, and no one at Steel Hawk had been able to discover who had written the biography that seemed to have set all this in motion.
He’d gone over it and over it in his head
and concluded that the biography getting published was supposed to have been a catalyst. One point in a well-designed plan. Which begged the questions, how many points on the plan were there, and what was the end point?
If they couldn’t find out who was behind it, maybe they needed to come at it from another angle and look at why.
Not for the first time, he considered all the other things that had happened at Steel Hawk recently and weighed them against the book coming out and now this trip to Zarrenburg.
Was Steel Hawk being played? Maneuvered into some sort of position that left them exposed?
Edward Long’s justification for going to Zarrenburg had been impressive, giving Adam just enough space to make him feel like it was his idea to go. Had that been deliberate?
He didn’t like that he’d realized there were two people at Steel Hawk who, if they had it in mind to combine their knowledge of Steel Hawk prototype products, could come up with enough of a complete package to give to another competitor.
Edward and Honeysuckle.
His gaze slid, as it kept on doing without his permission, to his executive assistant as she talked on her phone. After his visit to Rumors, he’d ruled her out of having something to do with what was happening.
Mostly.
Or mostly it was that he didn’t want her to have anything to do with what was happening.
Not now he’d kissed her and admitted to wanting her.
Today she was in full-on professional mode. With extra bite.
He didn’t need to spend hours analyzing why that irked him so. He was still smarting over the fact that since admitting he wanted her, Honeysuckle’s response was to revert them straight back to a working relationship.
Something he found impossible now he’d tasted her.
She ended the call, slipped her phone into her bag, crossed her arms, and crossed long legs over each other. He heard the whisper of silk stocking gliding over silk stocking and felt awareness pulse through him.
“You know you’re going to have to curb your attitude toward me when we’re inside the castle. We’re supposed to be showing a united Steel Hawk front,” he reminded her.
“I expect I’ll find it easier to remember when we’re not alone,” she clipped back. Turning to look at him, she added, “That was Edward on the phone. He’s arrived in London.”
Adam sighed. He didn’t much want to talk about Edward. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to talk about the kiss and what he’d revealed after it, but he really wanted into her head to see what she was thinking. See what she was feeling.
“I’ve asked Edward to phone again if he finds any discrepancies between Nathaniel Hawk’s timeline and the newspaper articles he’s researching for us,” Honeysuckle said. “Otherwise, he should arrive in Zarrenburg in time for the coronation ball.”
“Fantastic,” Adam muttered. One more pissed-off person to deal with. Honeysuckle had asked the lawyer to stop over in London to see if he could access archived newspaper articles from 1851, before then flying on to Zarrenburg.
Adam had asked Max to organize a discreet follow-up in London after Edward left. Wouldn’t hurt to ensure any information they received from Edward was correct.
Honeysuckle unfolded her arms to delve once more into her bag. Withdrawing her Steel Hawk tablet, she switched it on and appeared to be checking notes she’d made. “We’ll be notified as soon as all the equipment makes it to the castle,” she informed him. “I asked them not to unpack any of it. I thought you’d want to sign for it and check it all over for yourself.”
“I would. Thank you,” he added belatedly.
Her finger swiped over the screen, and he wanted to catch hold of her hand and force her to look at him.
“Have you read through all the etiquette documentation that came with the official invite?”
Adam barely managed to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. “Yes, Adam has read through the etiquette brochure. You know I read through about twenty complex briefs a day. I’m pretty sure I can handle a bunch of instructions about when to bow, how to introduce myself, and what to wear when.”
She looked up and smiled, catching him off guard. Something weird happened in the region of his heart. Sort of like a loosening. “What’s with the sudden smile?” he asked, his eyebrow rising in query.
“You referred to yourself in the third person. You only do that when you’re reaching exasperation point with me.”
Huh. So maybe she’d been pushing his buttons deliberately, exerting a little payback for hurting her feelings over paying Lou. “You know,” he said running his gaze over her face, stopping to linger a little on the hollow of her cheekbone, “you almost seem pleased you’ve gotten me to the point of referring to myself in the third person.”
It didn’t escape him that normally he wouldn’t like knowing someone had that kind of knowledge about him, but with her… Had she really gotten that far under his skin? Far enough to be able to decode and reset his fears?
“Wow, Adam. You say that as if you think you know me at all.”
He leaned across the black leather divide and said, “I know you make this hot little mewing sound when my lips leave yours.”
Dark-blue eyes flashed incredible fire at him. “They say the ground floor of the castle gatehouse was once used to house the king’s guards’ horses. Today, it staffs the admin departments.”
He couldn’t stop his own smile from forming. Maybe he’d picked up more about her than he’d ever let himself think. “Are you going to do the stats-and-facts thing every time I mention something personal I’ve discovered about you? Because I have to say, for a guy like me, that’s also pretty hot.”
He’d wanted her to flirt back, but instead she frowned, stared down at the tablet on her lap, and quietly said, “If you really knew me, you would never have paid Lou.”
“I told you. I did it for Steel Hawk. I saw an opportunity to ensure Lou’s ability to affect Steel Hawk ended right there, and I took it. Now he can’t ever use your name or the Raven in conjunction with you, the company, or his club. It was business. That is all.” Of course he was going to protect Steel Hawk whenever he got the chance. He owed them for asking no questions when he’d been hurting over what Alexa had done to him.
“I wanted to deal with Lou myself. My name is half of Steel Hawk too. You’re not the only one who wants to stand proud and protect that. I was there to do exactly that, not to discover that the person who hates getting involved in anyone’s personal business, out of fear they’ll become involved in his, thought it okay to go all recon on me and then wade in and save the day.”
Adam’s gaze narrowed in on her. “Are you angry because I took care of a problem, or because of what happened after?”
“I’m angry because you have known me almost two years and yet you obviously believe me capable of doing something like that.”
Adam shifted uncomfortably against the car seat. He knew what it must have looked like, witnessing what she’d always suspected firsthand. She’d been served up more than a taste of how much he struggled to trust.
“As soon as Lou told you about finding me in his office staring at the security camera that night,” she said bitterly, “you thought I’d done what he said and stolen the week’s takings as some sort of security or payback or something.”
“I notice you keep avoiding the fact that you saw what you saw—and jumped to a mighty big conclusion.”
“Exactly. I saw. With my own eyes. Lou told you I’d stolen from him, and with nothing to back it up, you did exactly the same. You assumed the worst.”
Adam felt his chest tighten. “But during my long chat with Lou I realized you saw something through a camera lens with no sound and no context. If you’d stuck around that night, you’d have learned a valuable lesson, that sometimes what you see on camera is not the whole truth of the matter.” He knew that bett
er than anyone. His whole life, how he saw himself, who he thought he was, had changed at the hands of camera footage of him. Camera footage that didn’t come with a nifty explanation, because what it showed was exactly what happened. If anyone ever saw it, they wouldn’t require background or context. That would be completely irrelevant.
But if Honeysuckle ever found out what he’d given up to ensure the footage wasn’t put on the Internet… Jesus—if she had ever thought him the same quality of person as the rest of the Steel family members, she’d be changing her mind.
And that he had allowed her good opinion of him to come to matter so much floored Adam.
Chapter Ten
Honeysuckle tried to keep a leash on her hurt feelings as the limousine drove through the castle’s impressive gatehouse. She stared determinedly through the sunroof as they passed under the gates, and tried to remember what she had read about the castle’s huge portcullis. Something about when it had been taken off the flag of Zarrenburg.
Beside her, she could feel Adam torn between pursuing their conversation and shutting it down.
There were times, like now, when she wished she had the wherewithal to ask what had happened that he had built a fortress around his heart—a fortress that kept trust out and suspicion in.
“Honeysuckle, I—”
The car slowed down, and she pulled herself together. They had arrived.
She shook her head at him. “Not now.”
“We shouldn’t leave it like this.”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t want to dwell on the fact that Adam could want her, but only in spite of himself. What mattered most now was holding her head high and representing the company they both loved.
