Prince Incognito

by Rachelle Mccalla

  He was running away.

  FOURTEEN

  Alec rested most of his weight on Titus and Julian as he hopped quickly toward the car. They didn’t have a moment to lose. Even with the streets empty in the middle of the night, it would likely take them all of fifteen minutes to reach the Hall of Justice.

  And then he still had to get inside.

  A soldier ran ahead, opening the car door for him, and Alec balanced himself on the open door as he ducked in.

  “Alec!” Panic infused the familiar voice behind him, and Alec turned to see Lily’s father Michael running toward them. “They have Lily! They’re taking her with them!”

  “Who?” Alec’s stomach plunged.

  Michael’s answer didn’t surprise him. “Sandra and David. They’re holding guns on her—they mentioned a helicopter.”

  Titus grimaced. “The copter’s in the front courtyard. Get in the car. It’s fastest this way.”

  Alec dived into the backseat. “To the front courtyard!” he screamed at the driver.

  The man put the car in gear and peeled out. “I thought we were going to the Hall of Justice.”

  Alec’s heart clenched. If he went after Lily, there might not be time to make it to the Hall of Justice by midnight. But if her armed uncle took her, he might never see her again.

  Not alive, anyway.

  There would have to be time for both. “The front courtyard,” he repeated. “Quickly!”

  Tires squealed as the driver took the corner at a tight clip. Titus and Julian hadn’t taken the time to get in, but ran behind the car as they cleared the corner of the mansion.

  Alec had the door open as the car squealed to a stop. He leapt out on his good foot, balancing his weight on the open door. Ahead of him the copter’s rotors surged through the night air as Sandra shoved Lily ahead of her through the open side door of the helicopter.

  “Alec!” Lily screamed at him, but arms reached through the door and jerked her in.

  Sandra spun around with her gun, shooting wildly in his direction before diving inside the aircraft just as it lifted off.

  Boots skidded across the cobblestones as Alec’s fellow soldiers came to a stop.

  Already the helicopter was high above them. There was no way to reach them.

  Lily was gone.

  He’d failed her.

  Alec pounded a fist impatiently on the hood of the car, then turned to his friends. “Get in. We’ve got to hurry if we’re going to make it to the Hall of Justice.”

  Titus and Julian piled into the car with him, and the driver took off. Alec watched the digital minutes on the dashboard clock moving relentlessly closer to midnight.

  11:53 p.m.

  11:54 p.m.

  They entered the city with three minutes to go before midnight, and Alec felt sick fear creep up from his stomach. Though the men had been silent so far, Julian offered, “Perhaps they won’t mind if you’re a few minutes late.”

  11:58 p.m.

  11:59 p.m.

  They squealed to a stop in front of the Hall of Justice at 12:02 a.m., and Titus jumped out, pulling on the double doors, which didn’t budge.

  “Try the side doors,” he suggested, piling back in.

  They pulled around the corner in time to see the red taillights of another car pulling away.

  Titus jumped out again and checked the doors while Julian leapt out the other side and waved at the car that had just pulled away ahead of them.

  The taillights blinked as the car shifted into reverse, coming to a stop just in front of them. A man stepped out, and Alec recognized Kirk Covington, the man who’d been accused of killing his brother Thaddeus six years before.

  Alec hauled himself out of the backseat. “Kirk!” He tried to call out, but was disappointed by the weakness in his voice and the stars that danced across his vision at the sudden exertion of standing.

  “Alec?” Kirk trotted toward him. “Is that you?”

  “Am I too late?”

  Kirk shook his head regretfully. “We had to beg them to keep the building open until the clock chimed midnight. There was nothing we could do after that.”

  “Alec?” A female voice pierced the night, and Alec watched his little sister Anastasia emerge from the car ahead of his. She ran toward him and threw herself into his arms.

  Alec slumped against the car, nearly toppled by the petite princess.

  “Careful!” Julian warned her.

  Concern filled Stasi’s face. “Are you okay? You look awful.” She patted his cheek.

  “I barely made it here.” Alec felt himself waver, and he looked at the locked doors. “I didn’t make it here in time.”

  The realization sunk in slowly as he watched the excitement on his sister’s face turn to disappointment.

  He had arrived too late. He’d failed his family.

  He’d failed everyone.

  Leaning heavily on the doorframe, he fought to keep his eyes open.

  “Alec?” Stasi’s voice seemed to come from far away. “Are you okay?”

  And from even farther away, he heard Julian say, “We need to get him to the hospital.”

  * * *

  “We should be glad the Bardicis have fled,” Levi Grenaldo insisted as he paced in the small hospital room. “The three of them have a majority over Isabelle and Stasi, but as long as they’re afraid to show their faces, they won’t be able to exercise their right to rule.”

  Alec groaned impatiently from his hospital bed. Thankful as he was that his sisters and their new fiancés had filled him in on all that had happened, he still didn’t like what he was hearing. “Parliament won’t budge on the forty-eight-hour rule?”

  “I felt foolish asking.” Isabelle wrapped her arms around Levi and stilled his pacing. “They’ve done all they can to support us, but they’ve got the United Nations looking over their shoulder and the media criticizing their every move. They can’t change a rule two days after they made it. They’d lose all their authority in the eyes of the people and the nations of the world.”

  “Then we’ve got to find Lillian.” Alec swung his legs around to the side of his bed.

  “Oh, no.” Kirk lifted his feet by the ankles and spun him back around again. “We’ve been over this already. Just be glad she’s gone.”

  Alec sat up higher and stared Kirk down. In spite of Stasi’s reassurances that their brother, Thaddeus, was still alive, Alec still wasn’t completely over the six-year grudge he’d held against the man who’d been accused of killing Lydia’s heir. He glared at the man who’d proposed to his sister the day before. “What would you do if they had Stasi locked away somewhere?” He turned to Levi. “How would you feel if Isabelle had been taken?”

  He looked back and forth between them. “Lily risked her life for me.”

  Isabelle shook her head. “She’s a Bardici. She’s the enemy.”

  “She is not the enemy,” Alec seethed. How could he make them understand? “As long as David Bardici remains at large our family will never reclaim the throne.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment before Stasi sighed. “We don’t even know where they’ve taken her.”

  Hope fluttered its weak wings inside his heart. “We haven’t been able to find her anywhere in Lydia. That leaves only one likely place—Bardici’s compound in the North African desert.”

  “But we have no authority there, no allies on the ground.” Levi was a lawyer specializing in international law and Isabelle’s new fiancé. He stepped closer to Alec’s bedside. “From what you’ve told us, Bardici’s compound is manned by Lydian soldiers. If they’re under his control, you can be sure he won’t have told them anything that would make them question his orders. He has every a
dvantage over us.”

  “Levi’s right,” Kirk concurred. “Even if Bardici only has a few dozen men at his disposal, we’d need a team at least as big to secure his stronghold. How are we going to transport that many men there? We’re down to one helicopter.”

  “Sanctuary International has helicopters,” Isabelle began, referring to the organization Levi’s family operated, which had helped her escape the ambush.

  Her fiancé cut her off. “Not in the vicinity. By the time we arrange to have them flown here, we might as well fly commercially into Tripoli and rent a bus to the compound.”

  “Aah.” Alec made an impatient noise and swung his legs over the side of the bed again. “I’m not going to sit here bickering while Lillian is imprisoned by her uncle. I’ve let you all down by not signing the document. The only way I can make things right is by bringing Bardici into custody with Lillian’s testimony to put him away for his crimes.”

  His sisters and their fiancés exchanged worried looks.

  “But Alec?” Stasi questioned softly. “How can you be so sure she’ll testify against him?”

  Alec rose shakily onto his one good foot. “I will find her. And then you won’t have to question her allegiance anymore.”

  * * *

  Lily knotted the bedsheets to the curtains and let them fall past the balcony almost to the ground. If Alec had made it climbing up, she could make it climbing down. And then she’d find him. She’d get back to Lydia somehow, and give Alec the papers that proved her uncle had no right to rule. And maybe, if she was really lucky, he’d be willing to overlook all the nasty lies her uncle had told about her intentionally betraying him.

  The sheets held as she climbed down, and she hurried through the night across the open sand, mindful of the dangers of the desert that Alec had taught her about. She had a single bottle of water, and knew where to find the trickling waterfall where they’d left the horses. Would the animals still be there, or would they have given up and gone in search of more plentiful forage? For their own sakes, she prayed they’d be okay.

  * * *

  The rotor blades sliced the evening air as Alec leaned his head through the open door of the helicopter, his binoculars trained on Bardici’s compound looming on the horizon. His eyes landed on a familiar sight—the knotted sage green window curtains extending from a window.

  “That’s Lily’s signal. She’s there.”

  “She has a signal?” Titus questioned him. He and Julian had agreed to accompany him along with four other men—the maximum number their copter could safely carry.

  “Is she expecting us?” Julian asked. “It might be another trap.”

  Alec leaned against the doorframe as the helicopter moved toward the compound. “I’m not going to ask any of you to go in—” he began.

  “We volunteered for this mission,” Julian reminded him. “We just want to know what we’re getting into.”

  “There’s no way of knowing until we’re on the ground,” Titus reminded his friend. “When Kirk and Levi tried to come along, we told them they needed to stay behind to keep the princesses safe. We told them we’d take care of it. So, let’s take care of it.”

  Alec grinned at the soldiers. “You two are better friends than I deserve.”

  “Nah.” Titus shoved him in the shoulder. “We just don’t want you to do anything stupid, like trying to head in alone. You don’t need another injury.”

  “Take it easy on that foot,” Julian insisted, nodding at the stiff walking boot that allowed Alec to hobble, however gracelessly, without further injuring his foot.

  The helicopter sank toward the ground inside the compound courtyard. Alec and his men had gone over their plan and its contingencies plenty of times.

  They were Lydian soldiers. Bardici’s men were Lydian soldiers, too. Alec had an order, signed by his sisters and Michael Bardici—the ruling representatives of the monarchy according to the Oligarchy Covenant outlined by Parliament—removing David Bardici from his post as the General of Lydia’s army. He also had a warrant to arrest the man for treason.

  Whether the men at the distant outpost were aware of the events that had unfolded in Lydia, and whether they would recognize the order remained to be seen. If the soldiers opted to follow their general, Alec and his men would be easily overcome by the forces that outnumbered them.

  Armed soldiers surrounded the copter before the skids touched down.

  As planned, Julian and Titus exited first. As high-ranking officers who had recently been stationed at the compound, their authority was quickly recognized, and they explained to the men on the ground the need to capture Bardici.

  To Alec’s immense relief, the soldiers grinned at the news, and saluted him when he stepped from the copter.

  “This way.” One of the men on the ground waved them toward the building. “We’ll have to move quickly.”

  Alec hobbled after the men as they poured into the building. He heard shouting up ahead, and wished he could move fast enough to see what was happening. When he came around the corner of the hallway, he found the men clustered around a closed door.

  “Bardici’s in there.” Julian waved him forward. “He ran in just ahead of us with a woman beside him. They’ve barricaded themselves inside.”

  “David Bardici,” Alec called. “You have been removed from your post and are wanted on charges of treason. Come out nicely, or we’ll shoot the door down.”

  “You don’t dare shoot into this room,” David Bardici’s unmistakable voice called back. “I have Lillian in here with me. If you ever want to see her alive again, you’ll go back to where you came from.”

  * * *

  The Arabian filly pranced nervously under Lillian as she tried to hold her still, inching closer to her uncle’s compound in hopes of catching a glimpse of the helicopter that had landed.

  Was it Lydian? She thought she recognized the helicopter, but she wasn’t nearly an expert on flying machines. Still, she wasn’t about to leave the area if there was any chance that Alec or his men were aboard the craft. Without a passport or any money, she didn’t know how she was ever going to get back to Sardis. The helicopter could be a godsend. She prayed God would give her wisdom, even as the half-wild horse beneath her trotted unbidden toward the fortress that loomed above the desert.

  * * *

  “Lillian?” Alec called from where he crouched with his men on either side of the doorway, protected by the sturdy stone walls from anything those inside might shoot at them. “If you’re in there, tell me you’re okay.”

  Silence.

  David laughed. “She’s in no position to speak right now.”

  Alec’s stomach sank. What did the tyrant’s cryptic response mean? Had he already disposed of Lily? Alec couldn’t bear the thought. And yet, how else could he explain her lack of response?

  He looked at his men. “Did you see Lillian go in there with him?”

  “We came around the corner right behind him. He had a female with him, but I didn’t get a close look.” The soldier answered in a hushed whisper.

  “Can anyone ID the woman who was with him?”

  With regret on their faces, the soldiers shook their heads.

  Alec pinched his eyes shut. Had Lily gone willingly with her uncle? “Was the female showing any sign of resistance?”

  The soldier nearest him answered without hesitation. “She appeared to be accompanying him of her own free will.”

  FIFTEEN

  Three soldiers rode out on horseback toward her. Lily wanted to rein her horse in, but the wild filly refused to be controlled. Besides, the armed men had clearly already spotted her, so there would be little point in trying to run away.

  “Halt.” The lead rider raised his gun.

  At the sight o
f the automatic rifle, the filly had the good sense to come to a stop.

  “Lily?” one of the soldiers asked.

  “Yes.”

  “How did you get out here?”

  Before she could explain, another soldier pulled close to her horse, grabbing the halter. “You need to come with us.”

  * * *

  Silently, so that Bardici wouldn’t hear, Alec dispensed the men in teams. “I want the windows to this room guarded. Don’t let him escape. Make a sweep of the compound. I’m not convinced Lily is in that room.”

  Moments after he sent the last group of men down the hallway, Titus approached from the other direction, motioning to Alec with his finger. “This way.”

  Though reluctant to leave the room where Bardici was barricaded, Alec hobbled around the corner in time to see three men leading a smaller, feminine figure.

  “Shh.” The soldiers shushed them both as Lily stifled her squeal upon seeing him.

  David Bardici’s shout echoed down the hallway. “If you want to see Lillian alive again, you and your men will back away from this door.”

  Alec pulled Lily into his arms as he turned back to respond to the man’s threats. “I repeat, David Bardici, you have been removed from your post and are wanted on charges of treason.”

  “You don’t have the authority to arrest me! The monarchy is head of the armed forces, and the Bardicis have a ruling majority on the oligarchy council.”

  “Do they?” Alec questioned loudly as his men began to gather again in the hallway. With Lily safe in his arms, he had no qualms blasting his way past the general’s barricade, though he’d prefer to take him without a fight. He didn’t want to risk the lives of the men who trusted him to lead them.

  “Of course we do!” David shouted from the other side of the door. “The Bardicis have three against two.”

  “No, Uncle David,” Lily called out from under the protective drape of Alec’s arm. “At best, you have two against three. I will always side with the Royal House of Lydia.”