Ravishing Royals Box Set: Books 1 - 5

by Holly Rayner

  “That’s great.” I took another swallow of coffee, trying my best to savor it. The coffee fiend in me craved it like air, but I didn’t know how long it would be before I could have another cup, so I did my best.

  “Yes, another happy ending with a very bad start.” He took a swallow of coffee and drew his brows together thoughtfully. “Given all the stiffness and pain you’re experiencing, I definitely think we should get a cane for you; I’ll cut you one myself if necessary. Until then, I want you off your feet as much as the day will allow.” He gave a stern look.

  I nodded.

  He sighed. “Well, this was lovely, despite the circumstances that led to it. I suppose you’ll be wanting to check on everyone yourself.”

  “Yeah, I should.” I got up gingerly, glancing longingly at the bag of coffee on the counter before straightening. “I want to keep on working, even if I have to spend a lot of time in a chair.”

  “That’s my favorite nurse in action.” He beamed at me and I felt that warmth again. But then his smile faded. “Just don’t overdo it, all right?”

  I nodded, glad for his concern. “Thank you. No, I won’t. Yesterday was more than enough for me.”

  “I was wondering…” he ventured, actually sounding a bit tentative. “When may I see you again outside work?”

  I waited for myself to bristle…but a million things had changed between yesterday afternoon and today, and I knew it. Come on, Rose. The man has more than earned a second chance, and you now know he can behave himself.

  “Well…I would be open to dinner again. If there are no more explosions, of course.”

  He smiled broadly. “Lovely. I’ll see what I can find at the market. And I’ll be counting the hours until dinner.”

  His wink made me blush in spite of myself. “Okay, I uh…will catch up with you after my shift if I don’t see you before then.” I turned to the door and heard him push out his chair.

  “Need help back?” he asked brightly.

  “I’m just walking back to the admin office and checking in with Yvonne,” I said. “It’s like three hundred yards, I’ll be fine.”

  Outside, the wind had shifted and was coming in off the sea steadily, leaving everything outside cool and fresh compared to yesterday’s baking heat. I idly hummed the same tune I had heard Vincenzo humming, favoring my uninjured leg but still making slow progress across the courtyard.

  Birds sang in the sparse trees; I saw an orange tabby cat walking across a roofline, and I heard some shouts of wares for sale from the vendors on the street and near the docks. My heart lifted. It seemed so much better and more peaceful here today.

  I could have really enjoyed my time in Al-Rasmah if only more of my days were like this. But then again…I was in Al-Rasmah to save lives, not to enjoy myself.

  Vincenzo, on the other hand, seemed determined to do both and encouraged me to do the same. And maybe he was right. This place could be so bleak, so frightening. Wasn’t it better to enjoy myself instead of moping around between harrowing bouts of saving lives? I certainly felt better prepared to face the day now that my spirits were lifted.

  And I had just agreed to dinner. Knowing, this time, that we were attracted to each other, and were coming to care for each other. Knowing that it might lead to something more. But also knowing that I was going to take this slow, and that I had already informed him of that.

  My dream about Karla came back to me as I crossed the courtyard. Something about how she had never expected me to live my whole life in mourning just because she was gone. I didn’t know why that comforted me so much; it was obviously just wish fulfillment brewed up by my subconscious. But it also sounded like something she would have said.

  Move on. Karla had come from a hard background too; she had always seemed tougher than I, in part because she had let herself move on from setbacks and tragedies. Meanwhile, I had tended to brood over things until she poked at me to stop. Slowly, I had learned not to mope so much…at least, until she was gone.

  It was one of the many reasons why I had been so attached to her. She had inspired me so much.

  But the other potential complications between myself and Vincenzo were still there. As much as my heart wanted to no longer be alone, I still had no idea what would end up happening because I was letting myself get closer to Vincenzo. I just found that I didn’t care as much anymore. I just wanted a chance to be happy for a while, even if the relationship never really went anywhere besides a handful of excellent dinners.

  As I passed by the gate to the courtyard, I heard the groan of its hinges and looked over to see around half a dozen black-masked, armed men bearing down on me. A moment later, a battered gray van with an open side door roared up to the gate.

  My blood froze. Oh, God.

  I looked frantically between the door to the complex and Vincenzo’s trailer, trying to figure out where to go for help. The trailer was closer.

  I turned and tried to run back, but my leg felt like lead weights were hooked onto it and I could only manage a rapid hobble.

  Terrified, lungs and injured leg burning, without breath to spare to scream for help, I struggled along. How did they get into the city? The insurgents were still miles off! They must have snuck in!

  I was almost to the door. The sturdy, metal trailer door of the sturdy, metal trailer. With protective Vincenzo inside, who would help me. Sobbing in terror, dizzy from lack of air, I lunged for the door handle—just as three sets of hands grabbed me from behind.

  “No! Let me go!” I screamed as they hauled me backward, saying nothing to me or each other as they pulled me thrashing and kicking off my feet. I managed to kick one of the men in the side of the head and he staggered, but the other two simply lifted me between them and left me to dangle as they headed for the van.

  Surrounded, helpless, I fought with waning strength. A hand covered my mouth, and the men hauled me the rest of the way over to the van; the black space beyond its side door yawned like a monster’s mouth. I burned through the last of my strength in a desperate fight to get away.

  Then they threw me into the van’s dark interior and I hit the bare floor hard, seeing stars.

  Chapter 15

  Rose

  I have to get out. If my kidnappers closed that door while I was inside, the next time I saw the sky could be days from now. Rolling onto my belly, I crawled frantically for the entrance. Miraculously, I heard them running away from the van.

  Except that’s no miracle, that means the whole aid station is in danger! Everyone!

  I stuck my head out, desperate, planning to scream for Vincenzo. I needed to at least tell someone so he could get the warning out, even if nobody could save me now. But when I looked out, I saw where four of the men had gone.

  They stood at Vincenzo’s door with a small battering ram between them—the handled metal ones that SWAT used back home. In three swings, they got through the door while all I could do was stare in horror.

  No! Not him! No! Tears blurred my eyes as they dropped the battering ram and poured inside his trailer.

  The horrifying thought that I might have somehow led them to him rushed through me, closing my throat. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? They had gone in this way, not through the front. They had been looking for someone specific—looking for him, the only doctor who lived in a trailer out back.

  I was just a bonus catch.

  Chaos inside the trailer. My vision blurred with more tears as I waited breathlessly.

  Suddenly they emerged, dragging Vincenzo out as he fought with them. Two had blood on their clothes and one was holding his nose; Vincenzo’s hair was askew. He was fighting them with everything he had, even lifted off his feet; one of them went down from a kick to the head and lay on his hands and knees for a moment before getting a kick to the ribs as well.

  Vincenzo looked up at the van and our eyes met. He hesitated.

  A huge man stepped into view from around the edge of the doorway and grabbed me before I could do anyt
hing. Fingers digging brutally into my shoulder, he pulled me halfway out of the van and up, displaying me for Vincenzo.

  Then he put a pistol to my head.

  I went rigid, feeling the cold metal ring of the muzzle pressing against my temple. Oh, God…

  Vincenzo’s eyes widened in horror—and he stopped fighting.

  The men set him down but kept their hands on him; he put his own up.

  “The woman knows nothing and is of no use to you,” he told them in the local dialect. “Let her go, and I will go with you quietly.”

  They ignored him, shoving him ahead and forcing him toward the van while the cold metal of the gun barrel stayed pressed against my temple. I couldn’t remember ever feeling this terrified in my life.

  Once the group got close, the man shoved me back inside the van and pointed the pistol without saying a word to me. I stared back at him: his small black eyes, all I could see of his face, terrified me with their cold blankness. I balled up against the wall as they shoved Vincenzo in next to me and then piled in after him. They pulled the side door closed, plunging us into nearly total darkness.

  The big man who had put a gun to my head shook the van a little as he got into the driver’s seat. The engine gunned, and as I bit back a cry of terror, the van roared away, back out of the gate and into the dusty street beyond.

  I could feel the men around us; hear them breathing; smell the rancid mix of sweat and gun oil, and I trembled. I pressed myself as far back against the van wall as I could.

  I slowly slid my hand across the floor until it found Vincenzo’s and clasped it. His fingers closed over my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

  “What is this?” I whispered to him. “The insurgents are kidnapping aid workers now? Is that why rockets keep coming our way too? How much crazier is this going to get? And why are they targeting us?”

  Vincenzo sat silent, not answering. But after a moment, one of the men chuckled.

  “It seems you have been deceiving your lover along with everyone else,” said one of the men in a thick accent. His pistol gleamed in the light trickling back from the dusty windshield as he kept it on us. “How cowardly.”

  Vincenzo said nothing.

  “Do you truly think the revolution cares about some well-meaning fools and their mission to save this city?” He laughed at me. “Hardly. Our motive here is purely financial.”

  I felt Vincenzo tense slightly, his fingers going stiff around mine.

  I could hear the smirk in the man’s voice. “The Crown Prince of Sordonna may have come here to play doctor, but now that he has been delivered into our hands, he will fetch an excellent ransom that will do much to support our cause.”

  …What?

  I turned to Vincenzo, who was looking away from me, his posture stiff. He did not turn to me, nor speak a word.

  “Vincenzo,” I said. “What are they talking about?”

  Still nothing. He looked almost angry.

  The man who had spoken to us laughed, and then clambered up front into the passenger seat. “You were foolish to think you could hide the truth from us like you do from the fools in the aid center and the sheep who inhabit this town.”

  Once the guy was done with his speech—words the others didn’t react to, making me suspect he was the only one who spoke English—Vincenzo continued to sit silent, not speaking. I stared at him, then reached over and gently cupped his face in my hands, nudging at him to turn his head and look at me.

  He finally did, letting out a low sigh.

  I stared into his eyes in the semi-dark, and asked in a very soft voice, “Vincenzo…was he telling the truth about you?”

  It took him several seconds of staring at me before he blinked and then lowered his head slightly, another sigh leaving him. “Yes.”

  My heart pounded in my ears as I digested this. Then the van went over a bump, jolting my leg, and I hissed from a twinge of pain. He’s a prince. A Crown Prince. No wonder he kept talking about his father’s family meddling in his life. It’s a throne and royal responsibilities he’s running from!

  That was probably also why he kept moving around, I realized. He wanted to be a doctor. He was required to be a prince.

  This is all insane. How bad can his family be that he gave up the throne to get away from them?

  “My full name is Prince Vincenzo Pierre Marino,” he said in a low voice. “My father is the king, and his people have been trying to retrieve me for almost a decade. I keep my identity as a member of the royal family secret for that reason, Rose, and to avoid bringing trouble to those around me. I had no intention of lying to you.”

  I bit my lip, conflicted. On the one hand, as terrified as I was to be a captive, I was angry at him for being dishonest and putting us all in danger. On the other…I could understand why he would want to devote himself to saving lives instead of being forced to live among people he despised.

  “What happens now?” I asked. “Will your family pay the ransom?”

  He shook his head. “Not likely. My father will likely see it as a just punishment for me for leaving, and expect me to handle the situation myself. If I cannot, I am unworthy of the throne.”

  So even his money couldn’t get us out of this. I closed my eyes, trembling so violently that my teeth chattered.

  Before now, I had seen the war neutrally, as a tragedy that harmed both sides and where there were no real heroes. Now I knew that though there might be no heroes in this war, there were definitely villains, and we had just been captured by some of them.

  Chapter 16

  Vincenzo

  Well, this is another fine mess my family ties have gotten me into. And now, far more unforgivably, Rose was at risk as well.

  I could tell she was angry at me, and terrified, and I could understand both sentiments. I didn’t regret being caught; I had gotten myself out of a few harrowing situations since I had started working in conflict and disaster zones. But I certainly regretted Rose getting caught up in this—and I had to think fast about how I would protect her.

  I spoke up in Arabic. “You gentlemen should be made aware of a few things that I fear will put a kink in your plans. You see, although you may have discerned my real identity, my family has no idea where I am. If some stranger from a foreign country shows up with a ransom demand, they will very likely disbelieve that you have me. How do you plan to get money for my release if you cannot prove your claims?”

  The men in the back all stared at me blankly—and then the man in the passenger seat let out a roar of laughter.

  “Do you honestly believe that you are convincing us to let you go with your little speech?” he demanded. “You’re a fool! The evidence I will send will be part of your skin. They can conduct a DNA analysis and know it is you.”

  “You still cannot provide proof of life without my cooperation. Cooperation I will not give if any of you lay a finger on us.”

  A kidnapper sitting nearby with evil eyes pulled his gun on me, trying to make me stop talking, but I stood firm.

  “Call off your dogs,” I said. “Or you’ll never see that payout.”

  The man looked back. “Atif, control yourself or I will beat you in front of the others,” he snapped.

  Atif flinched back, glaring sullenly at us, while the other three in back suddenly took a great interest in looking at everyone but us.

  I silently thanked God and moved back against the wall, taking Rose’s hand again. “Don’t worry,” I reassured her. “I won’t allow anything to happen to you.”

  “Well, I appreciate the effort, but Atif there almost shot you, ransom or no ransom. You think they’ll behave now that you’re threatening them?”

  “Their leader wants that money or he would never have risked going this far behind enemy lines,” I murmured. “They have been losing too much and they have grown desperate. He needs this to work.”

  She stared at me. “You’re talking like this isn’t the first time you’ve had to deal with kidnappers.”


  “It isn’t.” But I didn’t feel like dwelling on that part of my past, except to remember the lessons I had learned from it. “And I’m still here and in one piece, so that should tell you something.”

  She took a deep breath and nodded. I wanted to put my arm around her, comfort her, but I was too aware of the men, who had gone back to staring at us. Atif was still sulking and glaring.

  All this time, I had done my best to stay detached from the conflict itself, and focus instead on fixing its effects on the locals. They had fired rockets at the aid center, presumably to try and flush me out, but could have killed me in the process. And the stupidest, most savage, most counterproductive thing they had done so far was to drag Rose into this.

  Anger would not serve me, however. Observation would. And so I held Rose’s hand and watched them, listened to their muttered conversations, and waited until I knew enough to formulate a plan.

  “Vincenzo?” I heard Rose’s soft voice at my ear and turned to her, seeing her staring up at me like she was pretending no one else was around. “May I ask you something?”

  This is going to be awkward, I thought grimly. But I owed her the truth. It was all I could give her right now besides promises.

  “Of course,” I said.

  “I understand why you didn’t want anyone knowing who you are, but I still…I still don’t quite understand why you would leave if your whole country is going to depend on you someday.” She bit her lip and looked down shyly.

  “Well…” I whispered after choosing my words carefully. “My father is barely sixty. Barring an assassination, he will likely live another fifteen-odd years. All that time, my people have no need of me. But my father is extremely controlling and has no sympathy for my ambitions or my desire to help others. If I allowed him to know where I was, or any member of my family for that matter, he would send troops to collect me. If I return, I will spend my time at meaningless court functions while our hospital system languishes, our people suffer, and I could do nothing.