The Lost Princes: Darius, Cassius and Monte. Raye Morgan
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Six
THAT was a very good question and David wasn’t sure he had the guts to answer it, even to himself. He looked at Ayme.
He’d meant a quick glance, but something in her pretty face held him for a beat too long and he had to straighten the car into the proper lane when he put his attention back on the road.
That was a warning—don’t do that again.
For some reason Ayme’s allure seemed to catch him up every time. He didn’t know why. She was pretty enough, sure, but it was something else, something in the basic man-woman dynamic that got to him, and he didn’t seem to be able to turn it off.
“Come on, David,” she was saying. “Tell me. Why did you bring me along?”
He shrugged and tried to look blasé. “Why do you think?”
She made a face. “My charm and beauty?” She managed to put a sarcastic spin on her tone that made him grin.
“Of course.”
She rolled her eyes. “No, really. What was the deciding factor?”
He glanced at her, then looked back at the road and put both hands firmly at the top of the wheel.
“Okay, if you want me to be honest about this, I’ll tell you.” He hesitated and grimaced again. Since this seemed to be the time for truth why not go a little further? She could handle it.
“This won’t be easy for you to understand. You’ll think I’m overstating things. You might even think I’m a little nuts. But just hear me out and then decide.”
“Of course.”
“There are a couple of things going on here. First…” He took a deep breath and went on. “I’ve always had good reason to expect that someone would try to get to me and kill me someday and I’m not going to talk about why.”
She sat very still, but she made a small grating noise, as though she were choking. He ignored it.
“When you arrived on my doorstep I had to consider the possibility that you, or someone who sent you, might be involved in something like that.”
“David.” Her voice was rough. “You thought I could be a killer?” The idea shocked her to her core.
He looked her full in the face and shrugged. “You bet. Why not?”
She sputtered and he went on.
“But it’s more likely to be your Carl Heissman person. Don’t you see that? And if I have you with me, you can’t contact him and let him know where I am.”
She made a gasping sound. “David, what have I done that would lead you to think—”
“Not a thing. And believe me, Ayme, I don’t suspect you of anything at all. It’s the people who sent you who have me on guard.”
“Sent me?” She shook her head, at a loss. “Nobody sent me. I came on my own.”
“Someone found out your plans, sought you out and gave you my name. Why?”
She stared at him, realizing he had a point. She remembered that she had been surprised when Carl Heissman contacted her and wanted to meet. He’d been friendly, concerned, charming and her doubts had quickly evaporated. But now that David brought them up again, she had to acknowledge them.
She could see that but, still, this all seemed crazy to her. People killing people was something she just wasn’t used to. Assassinations. Killers. Spies. Those things were on TV and in movies, not in real life.
Was he for real or just some insane paranoid? But the more she studied his beautiful face, the more she was sure he believed every word he said.
Did that make it all true? Who knew?
“There’s one little problem with that whole scenario,” she pointed out right away. “If you left me behind, I wouldn’t have known where you were within minutes of your leaving. So how could I tell anyone anything?”
His mouth twisted sardonically. This was obviously not a new thought to him. But all he said was, “True.”
She waited a moment, but he didn’t elaborate and she frowned.
“Anyway, I thought you were just protecting me from the bad guys, whoever they may be. Isn’t that what you said?”
“I did say that, didn’t I.”
She frowned again, watching him as though she was beginning to have her doubts. “But we don’t know who the bad guys are. Do we? I mean, we know they’re these Ambrian rebel types, but we don’t know what they look like or what their names are. Right?”
“You’re absolutely right. Rather a dilemma, don’t you think?”
“Kind of nuts, that’s what I think.” She shook her head. “Maybe we should have stayed in the apartment. Maybe if we just stayed in one place and waited for them to show up, we’d find out who they are.”
“We’d find out more than that. Not a good idea.”
“Maybe. But you can’t live your whole life just running all the time. Can you?”
“I don’t know. I’ve only just begun.”
She made a sound of exasperation and he grinned.
“We have a destination, Ayme. We’re not just running for the fun of it.”
“Oh. How about letting me in on where that destination is so I can share that feeling of comfort?”
“Not yet.”
Her sigh had a touch of impatience to it. “In that case, I’m just useless baggage. So I still don’t see why you brought me along.”
“Because I feel some responsibility toward you. You came and you asked me for help. Isn’t that enough?”
“So you’re really planning to help me?” she asked as though surprised that such a thing might be the case.
“Of course. I told you I would.”
She settled back and tried to think. What was the old expression, jumping from the frying pan into the fire? That was pretty much what she felt like. She’d been feeling vulnerable enough just searching for Cici’s father. Now she was still searching for the man and being tracked by assassins, as well. And everyone knew what happened to people who hung out with people who were being tracked by assassins. Nothing good.
It was like reaching the next level in a video game. Suddenly the danger was ratcheted up a notch and you had to run that much harder.
From what she could gather going over the information he’d relayed, he was part of a revolt against the current regime in Ambria. Too bad she didn’t know more about it so that she could decide if he was a good guy or not. From his point of view, he was obviously the “goodest” of the good guys, but that sort of thing tended to be a biased assessment. A strange thought came to her unbidden. What if he considered her a hostage?
The beginnings of a wail from the backseat interrupted her musings and gave notice that Cici was awake again.
“Uh-oh, here we go,” Ayme said with apprehension.
David gave her a look. “You seem to live in dread of this baby waking up. She’s barely announced her presence. And actually she’s been quite good all day.”
She sighed. She knew she shouldn’t be taking it out on the baby. Still. “You don’t know what it was like on that airplane crossing,” she told him.
“Babies on planes.” He nodded, thinking it over. “Yes, I have to admit that is not a pleasant prospect. But it was probably the pressurized cabin. It probably hurt her little ears.”
“You think so?” That put Cici in the category of someone