Ransom For A Prince. Lisa Childs
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busy. I’m busy. We just see each other occasionally, you know. Nothing serious.”
Was that really because they were too busy or because they both had their reasons for avoiding involvement? Jessica understood their reasons; she had her own. But then the prince’s face filled the television screen again as the station replayed the earlier live broadcast. His deep blue gaze implored the witness to come forward, to ease some of his anxiety over his missing friend.
“Can you watch Samantha for me for a little while?” she asked the older woman.
Helen nodded. “Of course I can. And I don’t blame you. That’s a lot of money.”
“I’m not claiming the reward.”
“But, Jess—”
“I need to pick up my last check from the Wind River Ranch and Resort.” She’d worked part-time as a dishwasher there because she had thought she would be safe hiding away in the hotel kitchen. She’d been wrong. About everything. “Then I’m packing up Samantha’s and my things and leaving the Double J.”
Helen gasped in surprise.
“You probably thought that you’d never get rid of us—”
“Never wanted to, honey, you know that,” her friend assured her. “I don’t want you to go now.”
“I have to,” Jessica insisted. “It’s getting too dangerous here. I should have left earlier—right after it happened. Hell, I should have left before the royals even arrived. I knew their meeting would bring the media down on Dumont.”
But she hadn’t expected the rest of it: the explosion, the murder…
“PRINCE SEBASTIAN, I wish you wouldn’t have done that,” Sheriff Jake Wolf said with a long-suffering sigh.
The younger man had had his hands full since they’d come to his county for their summit meeting. According to what the royals had learned, Wolf had already had enough to deal with since getting elected the year before, like corruption within his department and perhaps within the police department of Dumont. That was why Sebastian had chosen the sheriff’s office in which to announce the reward for information.
“You agreed to the press conference,” he reminded him.
“The amount of the reward you offered is the problem.” Wolf groaned. “Danny Harold was right. It’ll draw out every kook. Hell, it already is drawing ’em out.” He gestured toward his deputies and office staff, all of whom were on a phone.
“It’s been a couple of weeks since the explosion, but this witness has yet to come forward,” Sebastian pointed out, frustration gnawing at his tense stomach. “Apparently this person needs more incentive than the satisfaction of doing the right thing.”
“Or he or she is too scared to come forward,” the sheriff replied.
With good cause, too, given the evidence that had recently come to light. The royals had only just learned about the witness when Sheik Efraim Aziz discovered a posting on a special internet bulletin board that had promised to “take care” of the witness.
“The proper incentive has been known to make a person overcome his deepest fears,” Sebastian said. But how would the witness know he was in danger unless someone had acted upon the “hit” put out on him?
“Maybe this person isn’t able to come forward anymore.” The sheriff voiced Sebastian’s deepest fear.
If the witness had already been disposed of, then he and his friends may never discover what had happened to Amir. They wouldn’t know if he, too, had already been disposed of.
One of the deputies stood up and gestured wildly for the sheriff’s attention. When Wolf headed toward the young man’s desk, Sebastian followed, his pulse quickening in anticipation. “What is it?” the sheriff asked.
“The prince is actually right here,” the deputy replied—but to the caller, not his superior. He pressed his palm over the receiver and held it out. “She’ll speak to only you, Your Highness.”
Despite the trepidation clutching his heart, Sebastian reached for the phone with a steady hand. He had learned long ago to control his physical reactions because he’d had to have a steady finger on the trigger. But he couldn’t control the curse from slipping through his lips when he heard only a dial tone.
“She’s gone?” the deputy asked.
Sebastian jerked his head in a rough nod. “Did you get the number from the caller ID?”
“It was blocked,” the young man replied.
“Can you trace it?”
The deputy’s face flushed. “I don’t think the call lasted long enough.”
“Then maybe she is coming here—to talk to me. Maybe she only wanted to know if I was here.” That had to be it. To collect the money for her eyewitness account, or her cockamamy story if the persistent reporter and the sheriff were correct, she needed to talk to him.
“Or she’s setting up a trap,” Sheriff Wolf said. “You and the other royals have been threatened. There have been previous attempts on some of your lives.”
Sebastian gave in to a slight grin. “You believe it is now my turn?”
“And thanks to that press conference you just held, they know where you are.”
“So they will storm the courthouse to kill me?”
“Prince Stefan was nearly shot outside this very building, his security guard killed,” the sheriff reminded him, his voice pitched low so that any of the lingering reporters would not overhear. “These are bold criminals.”
The royals had been warned that they were all in danger even before they’d landed on American soil. Then the limo had exploded, probably when someone had suspected they would all be riding in it. No one had been able to determine who was behind the explosion, so they were still in danger. “We have taken precautions.”
“Your security force?” the sheriff scoffed.
“It is true that some of our men have proven themselves without honor and allegiance.”
“As you said, with the proper incentive…”
Money. Vengeance. Jealousy. Sebastian wasn’t certain exactly what had compelled their men to turn against them, and because of that, he wasn’t certain he could trust any of the others to not turn as well. “That is why I must remain here, in case the witness does want to talk to me. No one else can be trusted.”
“No one?” the sheriff asked, his jaw tensing with anger.
“It is not only our security team that has been bribed.”
“True.” Law enforcement had also been involved in some of the attacks.
“Because no one can be trusted, we have no option but to protect ourselves.”
The sheriff shook his head. “You have another option. Go home. Go back to your islands and away from the danger and let me do my job without your interference.”
“We will not leave until our friend is found.”
“Then I hope like hell that was the witness on the phone and that she’s coming in to talk to you.”
Sebastian narrowed his eyes and studied the younger man’s face. Was he telling the truth? Of everyone Sebastian had met in Wyoming, he almost trusted Sheriff Wolf. But with lives at stake, he couldn’t allow himself to trust anyone but Antoine. “I can take care of myself, Sheriff.”
“Danny was right about your military training?”
Sebastian nodded.
“But being a sniper is different than being the one who’s hunted. In the service, you remained a safe distance from the action. If