“Sounds good, mon ami.”
Max was happy when the dinner service was over and everyone had moved on to dessert. His nerves were stretched tight, and he was dying to find out what was going on. He left his staff to continue with cleanup as he made his way out to check in with the princess and make sure the dessert tables were well stocked.
He lucked out and found the princess by one of them. “Greetings, Your Highness. Has everything been to your liking so far?”
“Max! Everything has been wonderful. Thank you so much for all your hard work. The dinner was fantastic, and the cake turned out exactly how I pictured it. I was just about to walk to the kitchen to thank your staff. They have done a marvelous job.”
“That is very kind of you. I’m sure my staff will be thrilled for you to do that. I will walk with you, and I will also make sure Pierre knows you approved of the cake.” He offered his arm to Katarina and escorted her to the kitchen. “Everyone! Your attention for a moment, please.” The noise of the kitchen faded, and everyone turned to see what Max needed. Several gasps and quick bows and curtseys occurred when they realized who was with him.
Katarina smiled at everyone. “I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for your hard work. The food has truly been amazing.”
More bowing and curtseys with some ‘thank you’s and ‘my pleasures’ mixed in were the reply and Katarina’s smile broadened.
“I truly could not have pulled this off without you all. Now I must run. I have one final official duty for the evening, which is to start the dancing. If you will all excuse me. Thank you again.”
Max escorted the princess back out of the kitchen and turned her over to her father’s care.
“Good job, Max. Tell your staff I said thank you.”
Max nodded his head toward Katarina. “She already did. That’s where we were just now, but I will pass on your thanks as well.”
King Raul’s eyes glowed with parental pride. “Well done, Katarina. Are you ready to start the dancing? Who have you chosen as your first dance partner?”
“You, Papa.”
“Really? You pick this old man over one of your many suitors?”
“I wouldn’t want anyone to get their feelings hurt, and I have no time for male posturing tonight. Besides, you’re the best dancer I know. Mama has trained you well.”
“Ha. I’ll have you know I was dancing long before I ever met your mother.”
“If you say so. That’s not how Mama tells it.”
The king gave an exaggerated eyeroll. “Come along, daughter of mine. We have ballroom dancing to kick off. Let’s show them how it’s done.”
They joked back and forth with one another as they left him. A throat clearing to his left caused him to notice his old mentor, Howie Klein, standing there. “Hello, sir. Glad you could make it.” Max extended his hand to shake, not at all surprised when Howie pulled him in for a hug instead.
“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world. You did an amazing job, as usual.”
“I have a great staff and I learned from the best, old man. Did you see your son?”
“Yep. We sat at the same table. It will be great having him back full-time. My wife has missed him horribly.”
“Just your wife, huh?” Max lifted an eyebrow that he hoped showed his disbelief of that comment.
“Well, I might have missed him a little. Although, my grocery bill has certainly been a lot less while he has been gone.”
“I just heard he bought the house next door to Christian.”
“Yep. Little place next door to the house Christian inherited from his grandmother. Christian is nice enough to keep an eye on Ryan’s place for him whenever he is gone.”
“Yeah? I didn’t even realize until today that Christian was even on the island.”
“They kept it pretty quiet after what happened.”
Max was going to ask more but thought better of it. The ball wasn’t exactly the best place to discuss confidential matters. He excused himself and made his way back to the kitchen, letting himself relax for a moment after he walked through the door. Everything looked like it was well on the way to being cleared, the only things still on the counter being additional desserts and another urn of coffee. He ran a hand through his hair and removed the chef’s hat he only wore for formal occasions. Normally he chose to wear a beanie cap instead. Rolling his shoulders to try to get the tightness to loosen, he rolled his head from side to side and jumped when a hand grabbed the back of his neck and started kneading. He turned his head to the left to find Christian standing beside him.
“Where did you come from?”
“I have ninja training. I’m like the wind.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised by that, actually.”
Christian’s warm chuckle made Max grin, but the amusement was offset by seeing Christian’s obvious exhaustion. The smile fell from his face as he remembered the earlier events. “You ready to tell me what’s going on?”
Christian responded just loud enough for Max to be able to hear. “Yep, but not here. Do you mind if I meet you in your apartment in a couple of hours? I have permission to tell you what’s going on then and I need to ask you some questions.”
Max nodded.
“If anyone asks, tell them we’re just catching up, okay?”
“Will do.”
Louder, Christian said, “I can’t wait to see you later, babe.” He then leaned in and placed a kiss on his cheek. “You did a fantastic job. Everyone is raving about the food tonight. You and your team deserve a lot of credit.”
Max shook his head at Christian’s antics and ignored the smirks and knowing looks his staffers were sending them. “Thanks. Right now, I have to finish up. I’ll see you later.”
Christian matched his grin. “Later.”
Chapter Three
Christian knocked on Max’s door three hours later. He had waited a half hour after he’d seen Max head toward his rooms on the security monitors, giving the man time to grab a quick shower and change. If he were really lucky, maybe Max hadn’t had time to get redressed yet and would answer the door in a towel. He sighed when the door opened to reveal a fully clothed Max in sweatpants and T-shirt, before squaring his shoulders and putting on his professional face.
“Hey, Max. You ready for me?”
“Yep. Come on in.”
Max stepped aside and waved him into the apartment suite. Christian surveyed it with interest, as this was the first time he had been there. The head chef generally lived on-site so they were available at all times. Ryan’s family had lived in a large three-bedroom apartment, but Christian had been surprised to learn that Max still lived in the smaller two-bedroom he had been assigned when he’d first come to work at the palace.
“Out of curiosity, why didn’t you move into the larger head chef’s apartment when you were promoted?”
Max seemed embarrassed for a moment and hung his head. “It’s just me, and I work a lot. I didn’t see the sense of it when my assistant James has a wife and three kids. I let him have the space.”
“That was nice of you.”
Max’s head came up quickly. “You’re not going to tell me I’m crazy?”
“Nope. You do what’s right for you.” He pointedly looked around the comfortable and colorful space. “I like what you’ve done here. It’s open and yet cozy—like your own little bear cave.”
“Thanks.” Max rubbed the back of his neck in one of his nervous tells. “One day, I plan to buy a place outside the palace so I can get away on my days off, but I just haven’t done it yet.”
“Yeah. I was lucky to inherit my grandmother’s place. Anyway, on to more serious matters. The incident with the cake.”
“Yeah. What was up with that?”
“We will probably want to sit for this. It’ll take a while for this conversation. We might as well settle in for it.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry. Where are my manners? Please, sit. Can I get you something to drink?”
“No. No. I’m good, too.” Max moved to the couch to sit down then leaned forward, clasping and unclasping his hands in a gesture that Christian recognized from the past. Christian had studied everything about him back then. He pulled a small tablet out of his inside jacket pocket. “Do you mind if I take some notes for my report?”
“Of course not. Do whatever you need to do.”
“Thanks.”
Max jumped in before Christian could ask his first question. “That was weird. Why did the dog lie down and bark at the first cake but not at the second? Who were those guys?”
“First, what I’m going to tell you can go no farther than this room. Okay?”
Max nodded multiple times. “Yeah. Okay.”
“The dog went to the lay position and barked because he smelled explosives. Someone basically tried to bring a bomb onsite during the ball.”
“A bomb? In the cake? Holy shit.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself. Holy shit indeed.”
“Why?”
“That, we don’t know. At least we don’t know what they hoped to achieve by sending a bomb to the ball. We think it was sent by an organization we have been hearing noises about that wants to overthrow the monarchy.” Christian held up a hand to stop Max’s questions. “Let me finish explaining, then I’ll answer any questions. No one has claimed responsibility since we discovered the bomb, and we don’t know exactly why they want to overthrow the monarchy. It’s all been pretty vague, other than needing fresh blood, etcetera, etcetera. For the most part, the monarchy is adored, and they have led the country well for centuries. The country is certainly thriving under their leadership. Chatter has gotten louder lately. We don’t know why, just that they seem to be getting more organized, which brings me to my questions for you.”
“Okay.”
“You said Katarina changed the cake plans last week. Who knew about her original cake plans and who knew she’d changed them? Obviously, whoever planned this didn’t know about the change.”
“Only myself, Katarina and Pierre and his staff at the bakery knew about the changes to the cake. Katarina wanted it to be a surprise. I know you won’t be shocked to hear that Princess Zia had definite opinions on what Katarina was doing and had strong-armed Katarina into a cake design she didn’t want,” he offered with more than a touch of sarcasm.
“Yeah, I am not surprised by that at all.”
Max spread his hands in a helpless gesture before dropping them to his knees and rubbing up and down his thighs. “It got bad. Zia showed everyone the two computer generated pictures the bakery did of Katarina’s original ideas. One of the ideas was actually Zia’s design. Zia campaigned hard for her choice and got all her friends to tell Katarina how silly and immature Katarina’s idea was, too.”
“So Zia told a lot of people what the cake was going to look like?”
“Yep. With pictures. She gloated hard for weeks when Katarina caved.”
“But Katarina wasn’t happy about it?”
“Nope. Which is why the queen sat her down and talked to her—told her it was her ball and her plan. She needed to do what made her happy and that having things the way she wanted was one of the perks of being in charge.”
Christian couldn’t help his chuckle. “That sounds like Queen Tania.”
“Right? She’s an amazing woman.”
“One of the best.”
“Agreed.”
Max finally sat back on the couch and seemed to relax a little bit. “I’m guessing you’re thinking someone in Zia’s friend group gave the picture to whoever wanted to send the bomb.”
“That’s my working theory at the moment.”
“That sucks.”
“Yep. And will be very hard to track from there if Zia involved all her friends.”
“Not to mention it means that it’s someone wealthy, since Zia doesn’t associate with anyone below a certain income level.”
“There’s that too.”
“Now what?”
“Now I ask you to keep an eye out for anything unusual. You did well today. Though, I have to ask… Why didn’t you go get my father?”
Christian was fascinated by a blush that rose up Max’s neck and onto his cheeks. “I had been wondering why someone of your caliber was sent to the castle as the liaison for the ball. Rumor has it you’re an amazing soldier, with a reputation for getting the job done. It didn’t make sense to take you out of the field to be at the castle, even with an injury. The Royal Military Liaison position is usually assigned to someone near retirement. When the cake arrived right after the bakery called to tell me their delivery van had been stolen and they were running late, I just figured that maybe there was another reason you were actually here.”
“Yeah. Well, we thought people would just assume it was a cushy job for me since I was friends with the prince.”
“Which is what most people are saying, to be honest. No offense.”
“No. It’s all good. I needed a reason to be in the castle as an extra set of eyes. My injury and connections were logical reasons for me to be here without too many questions. So why didn’t you go to my father, though? I mean, it’s been ten years since we’ve even talked.”
Max winced. “Your father and I don’t exactly get along. He would have probably blown me off as having an overactive imagination.”
“Has he done that before?”
“Yeah. We had an incident a few months back where a bottle of the expensive brandy that the king favors went missing from the wine cellar. The king had received a case of it as a Christmas gift from Doctor Guttschein. When I went to get a new bottle to place in the king’s study, a bottle was already missing from the case. I reported it to your father, but he wasn’t bothered by it. He said it would show up, that I’d probably misplaced it.”
Max clenched his hands in anger. “Which you would never do…you or your staff.”
“Exactly. A couple of days later the brandy did show back up, which was odd, but when I looked at the bottle, it appeared it had been tampered with. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong, but I just felt like something was. I don’t know if the seal wasn’t quite right or the color, but I again went to your father. He told me I was being ridiculous. I called a friend of mine who works at the hospital and asked him to analyze the contents.” Max looked up at Christian with sudden intensity.
Christian sat forward in his seat. “Was there something else in the bottle?”
“Yeah. Ipecac powder had been added. If the king had drunk any of it, he would have at the minimum been violently ill, but it could have killed him.”
“What did my father say then?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t tell him. I went right to King Raul.”
“And you said this was a couple of months ago?”
“Yeah. As I said, the king received the case of brandy as a Christmas gift. He also received a bottle of cognac from Prince Sebastian. He drank that first, so he didn’t open the brandy until around Easter.”
“Do you know if the king spoke to my father?”
“Yeah. He did. Your father came and yelled at me for daring to go behind his back to speak to the king about a security matter. I replied that he’d blown me off before, so I’d had to take matters into my own hands. It probably would have escalated from there, but visitors arrived that he had to greet at the front gate, so he had to go. He’s all but ignored me ever since.”
“Okay. Well, that gives us something else to check into. Do you still have the report, and can I get the name of the person who did the analysis?”
Max pulled out his phone. “I can forward you the email I received with the report attached. It has all of my friend’s contact information in it.”
Christian typed up everything Max had just told him into a report and forwarded it, the copy of the email and the lab anal
ysis to his superior. He’d hit send when his phone rang, and he pulled it from his inside jacket pocket. “Hey, Sean, what’s up?”
“Castle Commander Diaz found out about the cake incident, and he is here in your office wanting to speak with you.” Sean’s formal tone set Christian on red alert.
“Is he a bit irate perhaps?”
“Yes, sir. Definitely.”
“Hand him the phone, please.” Christian only counted to six before his father barked into the phone.
“What is the meaning of not letting me know when something happens in this castle? I am the Castle Commander. You have no right to keep information from me.”
Christian used every mental trick he had ever learned to keep himself calm, imagining ice water flowing through his veins for a moment, before he responded to his father. “Are you quite finished?”
“Who do you think you are?”
“I am Lieutenant Christian Diaz, former companion to the Crown Prince Sebastian and current liaison between the castle and military here at the request of King Raul Hart, ruler of the Kingdom of Corazón. I have been tasked with an investigation into happenings here at the castle and within the country, and I decide who is included in this investigation. If I decide you are to be read in on this mission, I will let you know. I have not yet made that decision. Now, I have things to do. Please schedule a time with my assistant for us to talk tomorrow.” Christian then hung up the phone, ignoring his father’s spluttering. Christian looked over at Max to find him smiling. “What?”
“That was amazingly satisfying…to hear you tell your father off.”
“Yeah. It was kind of satisfying to do, too. For the record, you are not to speak to him about this incident until I tell you it’s okay. The military has officially taken over the investigation. I just came from speaking with His Royal Highness and was given his authorization to take lead on this.”
The smile fell from Max’s face. “Your father is going to hate that, especially since it’s you leading the investigation. I’m not sure what happened right before you left, but he hasn’t been the same since. He wasn’t friendly before then, but he’s been downright mean since, especially about you.”
The Way to a Man's Heart Page 3
