kinds of guilt on Her Highness.”
“She’s not going to England.” There was no way Dane would
allow it. Especially now that he was pretty sure she was still in potential
danger. He would talk Talib into putting her on lockdown if he needed to. And
if, for some reason, she left anyway, he would have to quit and follow her
because he couldn’t leave her unprotected and alone.
“I don’t think she really wants to go,” Landon replied. “But
the British fuckwad sure seemed interested in her being a bit more than a
traveling companion.”
“I got a shot, boss. I can take him out in one,” Coop said,
his voice serious.
“I think that’s a damn fine idea, Coop,” Landon interjected.
“Can you aim for his pecker?”
“Don’t know, brother. I suspect that is a mighty small
target, but I’m a damn fine marksman.”
Dane hated it when he had to be the voice of reason. “You
can’t kill him. Not here anyway. I’ll run a check on him, guys, but seriously,
we can’t go around assassinating every man who looks at her twice.”
“I don’t see why not. We’re good at assassinations. If Tal
had let us take out Khalil when we wanted to, we could have avoided a whole lot
of heartache.” Coop sighed over the line. “Are our ‘friends’ here yet?”
Lawson and Riley Anders were private investigators with the
prestigious Anthony Anders firm. It was made up of the brothers, Lawson and
Riley, and a badass named Dominic Anthony. They had come with the highest
references from the two PIs who had tracked down Alea when she’d been
kidnapped. Burke and Cole Lennox were good, but they also had married a really
sweet girl named Jessa and now had one son with another on the way. They
couldn’t do the kind of twenty-four seven work that Dane had demanded after the
death of Khalil al Bashir.
With the prime suspect dead, he had to know once and for all
if Khalil had been the one responsible for Alea’s abduction. In fact, he prayed
that Khalil had been the guilty fucker. That would set his mind at ease. But it
didn’t add up.
The report the Lennox brothers had filed had stated plainly
that Alea had been held for months in a state of “training.” She’d been moved
from New York to Colombia and housed in a brothel. Yet the physician who had
treated her after she’d been returned to Bezakistan had said there was no
sexual abuse evident. According to him, Alea remained a virgin.
So he feared the random act of slavery was bullshit. Dane’s
guess was that someone had paid for her to be taken. Someone had wanted her to
disappear and suffer. Money had been on the line. Money and maybe something
else. Revenge? Pride? He couldn’t be sure until he had more information.
Once, Khalil had seemed like the best suspect, but Dane
hadn’t been able to connect him yet to the crime either via physical evidence
or motive. He prayed that Law and Riley gave him the proof tonight. He would be
thrilled to find out that Alea’s abduction had been a random act or that the
asshole who had sold her out was dead.
But it felt too fucking easy.
Dane shook off his suspicions and brought himself back to
reality, answering Coop about Riley and Lawson. “I have confirmation that they
landed about half an hour ago. They should be here any minute. It’s bad timing,
but this is the best window they could give us, given the tight schedule
Dominic keeps.” Plus, if the perp was still alive, he might well be attending
tonight’s event and wouldn’t notice a few more visitors to the palace that
might raise suspicion. “We’re going to meet in Tal’s office to go over what
they’ve learned.”
“Won’t someone notice if the sheikh disappears from his
wife’s coronation ball?” Coop asked.
“Not for a few minutes. We’re going to make this short and
sweet. Rafe and Kade will keep Piper occupied.” In fact, Tal planned to give
Rafe the signal,