King Nicholas took Hunter’s arm, led him into Alex’s bedroom and shut the door. “You’re taking Tashya with you?”
“The kidnappers have left me no choice. There’s no time to find her a double, Your Majesty.” Hunter thrust several of Alex’s shirts into a bag along with jeans and socks. He searched for underwear, then recalled that the prince didn’t wear any, an item he’d never have let slip his mind if he hadn’t already been so concerned over taking an untrained woman, a civilian, on a dangerous mission.
Nicholas frowned. “You can’t guarantee my sister’s safety, can you?”
“I don’t make promises I can’t keep.” Hunter savagely zipped the duffel. “However, I assure you that I will do my best to protect her.”
“I’m not sure I should allow you to take Tashya into danger. You could all be killed.”
“But we may save the kids and survive.” Hunter saw the indecision on Nicholas’s face. “I’ve been in worse spots, Your Majesty.”
“Take this.” Nicholas handed him a thick envelope stuffed with cash.
Without counting, Hunter estimated and roughly divided the money into thirds. One third he tucked into a money belt, one third he shoved into his wallet, and the last he jammed deep into his duffel. He always kept the duffel fully stocked with essentials and packed to go on a moment’s notice. Inside were tools of the trade, tools he could do without if necessary, but experience told him they would come in handy.
“Before you arrived, I sent two guards to search the palace to make sure the kids aren’t still here. I instructed them to report to you.”
Nicholas nodded. “If we find them, you’ll be the first person I call.”
Since Tashya had already stated her willingness to help, they’d best move quickly. Hunter swung the duffel over his shoulder, his heart heavy with the knowledge that he was most surely leading Tashya into a trap. A trap that could get them all killed.
Chapter Six
While Hunter had spoken to Nicholas, Tashya’s maid had packed her a backpack with toiletries and clothing. Tashya had changed into jeans, a shirt, sneakers and a denim jacket that would not only keep her warm but also help her to blend in with the tourists who vacationed in Vashmira during the summer.
Tashya hugged Nicholas goodbye and asked Ericka to take care of Sophia, as Hunter hustled her out of the suite. She was stunned, putting one foot in front of the other automatically, her thoughts so muddled by the sudden turn of events that she couldn’t seem to concentrate. First, she and Hunter had shared that fantastic kiss. The next, tragedy had struck like a lightning bolt out of a quiet sky.
That someone was using two innocent children to get to her and Alex sickened her. While she was glad Alex was safely gone, she couldn’t help but worry over the rest of her family. Sophia looked as if she’d aged ten years in the last ten minutes. Nicholas had that hunted looked in his eyes again—a look that he’d worn for months after their father’s death and that Ericka had banished.
They had to find the boys quickly. She couldn’t even imagine how terrified they would be to find themselves among strangers. They might be precocious, but they were loved and pampered, too. Sick at heart, she wished she could think clearly. They’d been up for hours, but resting wasn’t possible. Neither was escaping the iciness that gripped her with nightmarish tentacles. She’d never felt so scared in her life. Her palms were clammy. She couldn’t drag enough oxygen into her starving lungs. Nausea rose from her stomach up into her throat. Despite her jacket, she couldn’t seem to get warm.
While she would trade her life to save Dimitri and Nikita, the rational side of her doubted that any of them would come out of this venture alive. She didn’t need Hunter to point out the obvious to her; they were walking into a trap.
However, she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try to get the boys back. She would do her very best. Then she would do more.
To outsiders, Princess Tashya might have led a sheltered life, but she’d had to overcome much adversity during the previous two and a half decades. As a small child she’d lost her mother and, last year, she’d lost her father. While she could call upon both emotional strength—hard won from overcoming the losses of parents she’d loved—and physical strength—developed by riding and training horses—she worried that she might not be able to keep up with Hunter.
He was the ace in the hole. The kidnapper expected Alex, not a trained military strategist, or spy, or CIA agent, or whatever the hell he was. Since the information was classified, she didn’t know which branch of the United States’ government Hunter worked for, but it didn’t matter. All their lives rested on his ability. She couldn’t slow him down. Even if her knees felt like water, she would walk. If she felt terror, she would swallow it. She had to be strong, for Sophia, for the boys, for Hunter.
When Hunter gripped her arm and steered her through a side door of the palace, she stiffened her resolve. Outside the protective stone walls that two thousand years ago had surrounded an entire city and protected the populace, it appeared an ordinary summer night. The occasional dog barked. A balmy breeze brushed her hair. The scent of freshly mowed grasses teased her nostrils, and the crescent moon played peek-a-boo with scudding clouds.
Beside her, Hunter whispered. “Nicholas arranged for us to use an armored car. It’s parked across the street.”
The gray sedan must have come from the motor pool. Tashya didn’t know if she felt more exposed crossing the street or more of a target once inside the vehicle. Hunter turned off the car’s interior light. She strapped herself into the passenger seat, wondering how long the armored car could protect them.
She clasped her hands together. “I feel as if someone’s watching us.”
“Two someones.” Hunter started the engine. “Ira will have ordered a palace security guard to follow us. He may also have planted a tracking device on this car.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because in his position, that’s what I would do.”
She shook her head. “Nicholas wouldn’t have allowed Ira to risk it.”
“Nicholas may not know.”
Hunter took his time, driving slowly through mostly deserted city streets toward the National Museum. They passed a newspaper delivery truck and a fuel tanker. At this late hour, every shop was closed. Even the pubs had shut down by 2:00 a.m.
Hunter’s voice was calm. “The second tail is military.”
“How can you tell?”
“His erect bearing is a dead giveaway. The man’s a rank amateur. Whether or not he’s been sent by the children’s kidnapper is another question. How’re you holding up?”
He shifted topics on her quickly, but she still had time to make up a lie. “I’m fine.”
Obviously she wasn’t, and he knew it. “It’s okay to be scared. Scared makes the adrenaline gush. Adrenaline keeps you alert. That’s why you thought someone was watching us. Your subconscious picked up the tails.”
He might be trying to reassure her, but he wasn’t succeeding. Although she knew she wouldn’t see anything suspicious, she had the strongest urge to look behind her. She had to force herself not to turn to glance over her shoulder. Without being told, even she realized that giving away their knowledge of their tails would be foolish.
“What worries me is the tails you don’t see.”
“That’s an optimistic thought.” He didn’t seem the least perturbed that she’d openly questioned his ability. In fact, he almost seemed pleased that she didn’t relax.
“What’s your plan?” she asked him, wondering how he could be so calm. She supposed that to him this kind of mission was old hat. Was he one of those men who didn’t feel alive until he risked his life? Did he live for the adrenaline rush like a race car driver addicted to speed, or a mountain climber always in search of a more difficult climb?
Hunter spoke in an offhand manner. “The mission is simple. We rescue the kids. Put the kidnapper behind bars.”
“Just how are we g
oing to find the kids?” she asked softly.
“I have no idea.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“I’m afraid not.”
She bit back a gasp. She’d expected him to tell her what to do, how to react, what to say. “What do you mean, you have no plan?”
“We don’t know what will happen after we reach the museum, so planning’s impossible.”
She had thought that the kidnapper would be waiting at the museum for them. But she realized that wouldn’t be smart. Nicholas could send a contingent of police to surround the museum, and the kidnapper would be trapped.
Somehow she’d assumed that one way or another, whatever happened would occur within the next hour. Idiot. Hunter had told her to pack clothes almost immediately after reading the kidnapper’s note. He’d suspected right from the start that this mission could last longer than tonight.
As the moon peeked out from behind a cloud, she prayed for courage. Prayed that when the time came, she would do what had to be done. Prayed that she wouldn’t let the boys or Hunter down.
Hunter drove right past the National Museum, a three-story gray building with soaring columns and wide stairs that led up to solid-looking front doors flanked by urns stolen by the Ottomans. As they drove by, she didn’t see anyone. No suspicious cars. No one lurking in the bushes. Nothing.
“You’re going to park?” she asked.
He pulled an illegal U-turn. “By the pay phone.”
She hadn’t noted the phone booth at the bottom of the stairs until he’d mentioned it. “Why?”
“Just a hunch.”
He parked the car, then reached into his duffel bag and extracted a square device with a keypad and several dangling wires. Before she could ask one question, he unfastened his seat belt and exited the car.
He spoke to her through the open door. “Lock the car behind me. Don’t get out. If there’s trouble, drive away. You do know how to drive?”
“Yes.” But she didn’t drive well. Although she had a valid driver’s license, she didn’t often practice. Her driver usually chauffeured her through the busy streets in the limousine.
As Hunter straightened, the phone in the booth rang. Without haste, as if he’d expected the call, he strode around the car, keeping the odd-looking device hidden in shadows.
The phone rang again.
Hurry, Hunter. Answer it.
He didn’t rush. Instead he cracked open the phone booth door just enough to smash the overhead light before it illuminated him. Made him a target.
Again, the phone rang.
Reaching under the return coin slot, he jacked in a wire and attached the keypad device to the receiver. He carefully ran his fingers along the seat and under it, checking for…explosives maybe?
Finally he picked up the ringing phone.
From inside the protection of the armored car, she couldn’t hear what he was saying. But she was so focused on him that she didn’t notice the three men until they were only a few steps away.
One man tried to jerk open her car door. The heavy-plated door with security locks didn’t budge. But her breath hitched, and the nausea in her tummy burned. Hunter was out there, outnumbered three to one.
In the blink of an eye, Hunter left the phone dangling off the hook and escaped the limited confines of the phone booth. As one man slashed with his knife, Hunter smoothly shifted out of the line of attack, grabbed his foe’s wrist and twisted the weapon loose, then slammed the off balance man’s head into the corner of the phone booth.
Hunter released his grip on the downed man in time to take on a second one. His movements a blur of speed and grace, he fought with a combination of kicks and punches until his foe lost his club and tackled him. The men grappled and tumbled to the sidewalk.
The third man tried to smash her window with a tire jack. But the special glass held. Seeing that his actions against the car were futile, her foe turned his attention and the tire iron to Hunter and his opponent.
He could kill Hunter with one blow from the tire iron. She had to do something. Act.
Without hesitation Tashya unlocked and pushed open her door, slamming it into his body. He yelped, fell with a thud and dropped the tire iron, the weapon clanging as it rolled across the pavement.
Should she pick up the tire iron?
Hunter, mimicking the sound of Alex’s voice, shouted, “Get back in the car,” as he rolled out from under his opponent.
He must truly have eyes in the back of his head to be able to fight someone and keep track of her at the same time—all while remembering to stay in character.
Hunter waited until Tashya slammed home the lock, then checked on the man she’d clipped with the door to ensure he wasn’t going to rise back to his feet. Gesturing for her to stay put, he relieved the downed men of their weapons and wallets.
“Pop the trunk,” he mouthed, then motioned what he wanted.
She found the button, pushed it, then watched him place all three men into the trunk. A normal car would never have held three men, but everything on the armored vehicle was oversize.
Finally, Hunter retrieved his phone device and got back into the car. He placed his electronic device between them on the seat. He wasn’t even out of breath. “I told you not to open the door for any reason.” His cool tone told her he wasn’t pleased by her actions.
Too damn bad. She hardly intended to sit in safety while someone bashed in his hard head—even if he wasn’t appreciative.
“You said to lock the door. I did. You said not to get out. I didn’t.”
“And I said, if there was any trouble, you were to drive away.”
“I never agreed to that.”
“Do you think we’re having a debate in the Vashmiran cabinet? When I give you an order, you will follow it, Princess.”
“Of course I will.” As long as I think it’s the correct order.
Tashya had spent a lot of time around strong-willed men. She found agreeing with them, then doing whatever the hell she wanted was much easier than arguing with a male loaded to the gills with testosterone. “I was about to drive away like you suggested—”
“It wasn’t a suggestion—”
“—but then that man gave up on smashing the car into smithereens and targeted you instead. I just got scared and—”
“Decided to save me?” he asked wryly.
“Why, no, I was trying to save the tire iron,” she muttered sarcastically. Now that they were once again more or less safe, disappointment and frustration set in. So did the shakes. They hadn’t even seen Dimitri or Nikita and were no closer to finding them. “I thought the tire iron might thank me for my effort. Obviously I was mistaken.”
“I appreciate the thought, but I didn’t need help.”
“Of course you didn’t,” she agreed. “Your head is much too hard to crack. Why, I’m thinking you don’t even bleed.”
“I could have taken out each of those men with one blow, but I’m a prince, remember?”
“I didn’t know you could fight like that.”
A thud in the trunk reminded her of the prisoners he’d taken. She was glad he hadn’t killed them. The thought sickened her, and although she knew she was being a weak, squeamish woman, she’d never seen anyone die and had no wish to witness such violence. “Are we going to question them?”
Hunter started the engine. “There’s no time. When I answered the phone, the kidnapper instructed me to drive to the park next.”
A car swung onto the road directly behind them. Tashya picked up the lights in her side-view mirror. “Our tails are still with us.” If they had been sent by the military and/or palace security as Hunter had suggested, why hadn’t they helped during the fracas? Instead they’d stayed back and watched Hunter handle those men, fight with a ruthless skill Alex didn’t have. But would whoever had been watching know that? Had Hunter blown his impersonation of the prince?
Another thought came fast and hard-hitting. Since the kidnapper had given Hun
ter instructions, was the kidnapper oblivious to the attack? Or had the call been a setup to distract Hunter from the danger to make him open to attack? Or were they dealing with more than one group? “I’m confused. Who are those men who attacked us?”
“They may or may not be connected to the kidnapper.” He checked his watch, then dialed a number on his cell phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“The cops. We have just enough extra time to drop the men off at the police station.”
“But—”
“We don’t have time to question them. Besides, they probably either won’t talk or won’t know anything. We have a more serious problem to discuss.”
“We do?”
He turned the radio up so high her ears hurt. Then he whispered, “There’s a chance this car may be bugged. Be careful what you say and how loudly you say it.”
“Okay.”
“I traced the kidnapper’s call,” he whispered.
She pointed to the keypad. “With that?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t pinpoint the kidnapper’s exact location because he didn’t—”
“He?”
“The voice was disguised. It could have been a he or a she. He spoke educated English. No accent,” he continued without pausing while the radio music camouflaged his words. “As I was saying, while I couldn’t pinpoint the kidnapper’s exact location because he didn’t stay on the line long enough, I know that the call didn’t come from the park.”
“But after the police station, we’re going there?”
“We have no choice. Unless you want to turn back?”
At least she could answer that particular question. “Not until we have Dimitri and Nikita.”
HUNTER DIDN’T LIKE discussing the situation with Tashya, even with the radio loud enough to drown out their conversation. Normally he worked alone and had only himself to worry about. Protecting the princess complicated the mission and limited his options. Yet he couldn’t leave Tashya behind—not when there was a chance the kidnapper might still exchange the kids for the prince and princess.
Royal Ransom Page 8
