By Order of the Prince. Carla Cassidy
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sun had begun to make its descent. Another night would soon be upon them without answers about Amir. Where are you, my friend? What has happened to you?
With each day that passed, Antoine found himself growing more and more paranoid. He was unsure who to trust. Certainly not the local authorities, who had already proven to be untrustworthy. As much as he hated to admit it, he wasn’t even sure he could trust his own security. It had only been a little over a week ago that Sheik Efraim Aziz, a fellow member of the coalition, had discovered that his own head of security had tried to kill him.
There were many people who had been unhappy with the COIN coalition’s goals in working with the United States, many people who would love it if the COIN members simply disappeared.
Until a week ago he’d had his twin brother, the only person in the world he truly trusted, beside him, but Sebastian had gone back home where he belonged. He’d always been the stronger of the two when it came to the leadership of their small country. Barajas needed Sebastian and both the country and his brother would be fine without Antoine.
He glanced toward the door, surprised at the wing of anticipation that swept through him as he thought of Beth Taylor.
He’d noticed her the first day of his arrival. She’d been one of the hotel staff who had greeted him when they’d checked in. In that first moment he’d been struck by the soft curls of her shoulder-length blond hair, the bright green of her eyes and the lush fullness of her lips.
In the last three weeks of his stay here he’d seen her often, her long shapely legs moving her gracefully across the hotel lobby or down a hallway. But, other than enjoying the sight of her, he’d had no other interaction with her.
Now he wondered how easy she’d be to break. He’d definitely faced more daunting adversaries and yet had always managed to get what he wanted out of them.
As a soft knock sounded at the door, he rose from his chair, the sense of anticipation growing stronger. He checked through the security peephole and then opened the door.
“Thank you for coming,” he said. She gave a curt nod but made no move to step over the threshold and into the room. “Please, come in.” There was no way he intended to have this conversation standing in the doorway.
She walked past him and he caught the scent of her, a soft floral that reminded him of a field of wildflowers. It was viscerally appealing and he was vaguely surprised by his immediate response. He pointed her to the sofa. “Sit,” he said.
He hadn’t realized it sounded like a command until she jumped and quickly sank down on the very edge of the rich burgundy sofa. “Would you like something refreshing to drink?”
“No, thank you. I still have a lot of work to finish up before I can go home for the day.”
He sat on the opposite end of the sofa and noticed that not only did she tense slightly, but her gaze surreptitiously swept over him before focusing quickly on her hands folded in her lap.
Interesting, he thought as he read her nonverbal clues. It was possible she was attracted to him. Good, he could use that bit of information in trying to get the truth from her.
“Do you have family waiting for you to get home?” he asked.
She shook her head, her blond curls looking achingly soft and touchable in the waning golden light that danced in through the window. “No, there’s nobody waiting for me, but I like to get home before night falls.” She gave an uncomfortable laugh. “Although that rarely happens.”
“Especially now,” he replied smoothly. He hadn’t missed the slight wistfulness in her voice when she’d told him there was nobody waiting for her at home. “I’m sure our presence here has only increased the workload for the housekeeping staff, for you.”
“Not really,” she countered. “Our high standard of service goes out to each and every guest, whether they are a prince or an accountant.”
There was a ring of pride in her voice. He liked that. His grandfather had always told him that it didn’t matter what you did, as long as you did it well.
Assessing what he knew so far, he recognized that she was a beautiful woman who was probably lonely and had embraced her work to fill the voids in her life. It was information he would use to determine the best way to get her to confide in him.
“It’s been a difficult couple of weeks,” he said and saw the flash of sympathy that crossed her pretty features. “Amir was a good friend of mine. With what happened, I don’t know who to trust anymore.”
“We’re all sick about how things have gone,” she replied. She shifted positions, turning her knees in his direction. “I hope you’re being very careful.”
“It’s difficult to be careful when you don’t know in what form danger might come. I find myself feeling very isolated.” He flashed her the smile that had charmed more than one woman in his lifetime. “I’m sorry to take up your time, I was just feeling a bit lonely and then I saw you and needed a moment of company.”
Her cheeks blossomed with color and one of her hands shifted from her lap to touch the pocket in her skirt. His heart stepped up its beating. Whatever she’d found in Amir’s room was now in her pocket. He was sure of it. Now all he had to do was get her to share it with him.
“I’m sure you know my brother returned to our country,” he continued.
“Yes, it must have been difficult for you to remain behind.”
He nodded. “But I don’t intend to return until I know what happened to Amir. He was like a brother to me. Do you have brothers or sisters, Ms. Taylor?”
“No, I’m an only child.” Now it was not only her knees that faced him, but her entire upper body, letting him know she was open to him, perhaps just a little bit vulnerable.
With cool calculation, he leaned toward her, nearly closing the distance between them. He lightly touched her shoulder. “I can’t rest. I can’t sleep until we find out something about Amir. The local officials have been little help with their issues of corruption. I’m desperate to find something, anything that might give me a clue as to what happened and who is to blame.”
Once again her hand touched her pocket and he saw an uncertainty in the depths of her beautiful eyes. His heart seemed to stop beating as he waited for her reply.
“I did find something in Amir’s room,” she finally said. For a moment she remained perfectly still and Antoine was struck by a quicksilver desire to stroke a hand across the smooth skin of her sculpted cheek, taste the full lower lip she was now nibbling in obvious indecision. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope, but didn’t immediately offer it to Antoine.
“I found it taped on the bottom of a drawer in the bedroom. I was going to turn it over to Sheriff Wolf,” she said. “But I guess it won’t hurt if you look at it first.” Her slender hand trembled slightly as she held out the envelope.
He took it, his heart once again rapping an unsteady beat as he opened it and withdrew the pieces of paper. He read the notes, electrified by the contents. “You read these?” he asked.
She nodded, her eyes wider than they had been minutes before. “They’re terrible.”
There was now no question in his mind that the limo explosion had been meant to kill all of them, that it had been mere circumstance, a matter of sheer fate, that had placed Amir in that limo alone at the time of the bomb blast.
He placed the notes back in the envelope, but didn’t return it to Beth. “Ms. Taylor, I have a favor to ask you. Please let me keep these and see what I can learn from them before you take them to Sheriff Wolf. I meant it when I told you I don’t know who to trust.”
She frowned thoughtfully. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“A little investigating on my own, see if I can find out who is dirty and who isn’t before I give these notes to anyone else.”