Ransom for a Prince Read Online Free PDF

weapon he held.
    Maybe the boss was right. Maybe the prince’s military experience meant nothing. But the tightening muscles in Dmitri’s gut told him that when the time came, Prince Sebastian Cavanaugh might not be all that easy to kill.

    W ITH HANDS TREMBLING , Jessica slid the dead bolt closed. Then she peered through the sheer curtain over the window in the door. Nothing had pulled into the dirt driveway behind the Suburban, but there had been vehicles following her. First the van. Probably the reporters from the sheriff’s office.
    She shuddered at the thought of their cameras catching her on film to be broadcast everywhere…
    She’d also heard another engine—one more powerful than the van’s. Then the crunch of metal grinding against metal had echoed throughout the valley. Due to the winding road, she hadn’t caught a glimpse of an accident in her rearview mirror—unlike the night of the explosion when the flames and wreckage had been unavoidable. She wished she hadn’t seen what she had that night. So today she hadn’t been about to stop to find out what had happened or even to find out who was following her.
    She was damn sure she knew to whom one of those vehicles belonged. Prince Sebastian. Had he been involved in a crash?
    A pang of concern stabbed her heart, and she gasped. While she didn’t trust him, she would hate for him to be hurt—not because she personally cared what happened to him, though. She just hated the thought of anyone getting hurt.
    Except one man.
    “Someone follow you back from the resort?” Helen asked, peering over Jessica’s shoulder.
    She sucked in a breath. “Where’s Samantha?”
    “In her room, cleaning up like you told her. She’s such a good kid—always minds her mama,” Helen said with so much pride that she could have been the little girl’s biological grandmother instead of just her honorary one.
    Her breath escaped in a ragged sigh. “If only I’d do what I tell myself to do…”
    Helen chuckled. “You’re a good girl, too, Jessica. What are you talking about?”
    “I didn’t go to the resort,” she admitted.
    “You went to town.”
    Choking on regrets, she could only nod.
    Helen squeezed her shoulders. “That was a lot of money.”
    “I didn’t collect it,” she said. “I didn’t tell him anything.” Sure, the prince had seemed genuinely concerned about his friend, but she knew too well that concern—even love—could be faked to mask someone’s true nature or agenda.
    “So that’s why you’re worried he followed you back here?” Helen asked, continuing to stare down the long gravel driveway. It was so long that they couldn’t see the road, though. Someone could have turned off behind her, and she would not know.
    “I don’t think he was the only one following me,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
    “For what?”
    “For bringing trouble back to the ranch.”
    “I don’t see any cars out there, honey.” Helen stepped back. “You must have lost them.”
    “For now,” Jessica said, turning away from the door. “But someone in town might have recognized the Suburban, and if he—or anyone else—asks around…”
    “They’ll know where to find you.”
    “At the Double J. I knew Samantha and I would have to leave here someday, but I’d hoped to do that before I brought trouble to you.” She shouldn’t have stayed in one place for so long. When she’d first run away, she hadn’t stayed anywhere for more than a few weeks. But then she’d had Samantha, and the little girl had needed a home. “After everything you’ve done for me, that’s the last thing I ever intended to do.”
    Helen shrugged off Jessica’s concern. “Because the bottom of the J rotted off, it’s the double T . Double Trouble, honey. Trouble’s been here long before you showed up in Wind River County. Trouble will end here, too.”
    That was what Jessica was afraid of…

    “S O THE VAN’S GONE ?” Antoine asked, his voice sharp with frustration as