Claimed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

worthwhile considerations. But she is an American, a guest in our country. She is also untrained. We will be taking her into unmonitored territory, where the Turkish military will be the least of our concerns. She has already demonstrated that she does not follow orders well, and that is of paramount importance. Make no mistake—this is a military mission. I’m being asked to secure information or possibly recover Ari’s remains from a potentially hostile environment, with nationals who may not be willing to give up those remains. It could get ugly very quickly, and an American would be at minimum a liability, and at worse collateral damage from which we would not recover.”
    His statement caused everyone to pause, and he regarded them impassively. In his mind’s eye, he saw Nicki’s distant form windsurfing on the wide ocean, imagined her smile, her laugh, the sun warming her as the wind whipped the waves around her to a frenzy. He could not—he would not be weighed down with someone who made him this protective. He couldn’t put it quite that way to the others, of course, but—
    “Stefan raises a good point,” Jasen said. He seemed more tired suddenly, and something in Stefan’s chest tightened. “We need to weigh the costs against what we may or may not achieve.”
    “Ari is there though—you know he’s there.” Kristos spoke up, his attention swinging from Dimitri to Jasen—neatly skipping over Stefan’s icy glare. “And the location couldn’t be better for a simple op.”
    The prince stood, moving quickly to one of the larger screens and with a few deft taps of the inset keyboard, pulled up a map of coastal Turkey.
    Alaçati was nearly as far south as Athens, and perched on a strip of countryside that stuck out into the Aegean before the land broke away to form several small islands. “We’re talking maybe two days by boat, going slowly—one long day if you’re focused. Slow would probably be better for this mission, to convey the tourist nature of it. Then you stop here.” He jabbed a thumb at a non-descript island. “That’s where the scavenger gang dealt their goods.”
    “That’s an unusual stop. Explain how we would make that a reasonable detour, so close to the city?”
    Kristos shrugged. “Diving. Nicki dives, right?”
    Stefan thinned his lips. “It would not surprise me.”
    “So do the research, I bet someone somewhere has written about the diving off that island. Have her blog about the story—”
    “You can’t be serious—”
    “Blog about the story using Wi-Fi via a satellite uplink, take a few pictures showing how beautiful the scenery is, and done. Meanwhile, your men go ashore, maybe you go ashore and see what’s what.”
    “We don’t know if the encampment is still there.”
    Kristos shrugged. “Where would they go? Mainland is too crowded, and that place is desolate. Easy to get to by boat, but no reason anyone would be looking there. And it’s an island.”
    He stared at the map a moment longer. When he spoke, his voice sounded strangled. “Ari could be there, Stefan. Dead or—whatever. Eleven months is a long time, but not so long that he couldn’t still be alive.”
    Alive. Stefan didn’t say the words, but all of them were thinking the same thing. If Ari was still on that island, he was dead. He’d been disoriented when he’d sold the watch to the scavenger—for food and a boat. But even the fisherman had shaken his head at that story, relayed to him by the scavenger leader himself. Ari had asked for a boat, but he’d accepted a leaky-hulled wreck. For a watch that fine on the open sea, he should have known its value. He should have asked for something more, perhaps safe passage aboard a real boat.
    So what had happened to him?
    Cyril grunted and began arguing with Kristos about the logistics of the trip—no matter who was on the boat. Stefan swung toward Jasen, then stopped for a moment as his gaze swept past the blank screens lining the opposite