Chapter 9
As Erica approached the door to Raul’s palace suite the next morning, the guard on duty murmured into his radio. She smoothed the hair that she had already brushed about a thousand strokes and smiled as the guard opened the door.
“Erica! Genial! Come in! Have a seat!” Raul was sitting on the sofa, his injured foot resting on a pillow on the coffee table. His face lit up with a smile that made her insides go hot and liquid.
“No company this morning?” She scanned the room while she got her reaction under control. He had texted her the night before to request she come for an update on the missing dragon. Her heart had leaped before she could control it and type yes .
“Grace just left. At least she’ll talk palace business with me,” Raul said. “Everyone else insists that I’m on vacation.”
He picked up the tablet lying on his thighs.
The thighs she had watched flex as he climbed the cliff while joined to her on a belay rope.
The thighs she had pressed against as they sat talking and gazing at the mountaintops.
The thighs now covered by worn denim and stretched out directly in front of her.
Heat bloomed low in her belly, and she shifted on her chair.
Fortunately, Raul was swiping at the tablet. He found what he was looking for and held it out to her. “Quinn did some digging into the finances of park rangers and dragon wardens.”
“Quinn? Isn’t she busy with wedding stuff?” Erica took the tablet, the aluminum warm with Raul’s body heat. That didn’t help her self-control.
“Mikel said she begged him to let her take on this assignment.” Raul’s smile returned. “She needed to take her mind off walking down the aisle with hundreds of dignitaries staring at her.”
Erica’s stomach felt a sympathetic queasiness at the thought of all those critical eyes focused on the royal bride. “The whole thing must be pretty overwhelming.”
“I think they’ll both be relieved to have you fly them away from here the next day,” Raul said.
“Honestly, the wedding is the only reason I’m still sitting around with my foot up.
The media would come up with some lurid story about my injury—like that Gabriel and I had a fistfight at the bachelor party—and that would be the big news. ”
Even if his ankle were killing him, Raul would walk normally on Gabriel’s wedding day because the prince couldn’t be anything less than perfect for his cousin.
She looked down at the tablet to see a list of about a dozen names. “Are these the people Quinn thinks might have sold the dragon’s nest location?”
“She’s put them in order of most to least likely, but they’re all candidates,” Raul said. “If you tap the name, her notes will come up.”
Erica was surprised to see a name she recognized on the list. “This park ranger, Marc Sablon. I know him. He would never endanger a dragon.” She tapped on Marc’s name to see why Quinn had flagged him.
“Ah, I see. It’s the debt he’s run up in the last year.
” She took a deep breath. “His wife was diagnosed with glioblastoma, so they decided to go to all the places they want to see together before the disease makes it impossible for her to travel. That’s why he’s carrying these huge balances on his credit cards. ”
“ Ay, I’ll get my assistant to see what can be done to help him,” Raul said, his voice low with compassion. “Any others ring bells?”
Erica skimmed the remaining half dozen names and shook her head.
“Scroll up to read Quinn’s summary,” Raul said with that touch of command in his voice that he probably didn’t know was there.
Swiping at the screen, Erica found the summary that explained Quinn’s methodology in selecting the names.
The last paragraph made Erica suck in her breath. All of the names on this list have a significant need for large sums of money. However, none has received any unusually high deposits in the past six months. Nor have any of them begun to reduce their debts.
Erica looked up at Raul. “Does that mean these people aren’t involved, or does it mean—”
“That the eggs and dragon haven’t been delivered, so they haven’t gotten paid yet?” Raul finished for her, his face lit with hard-edged excitement. “That’s what I hope. If the poachers are still in Caleva, we have a chance to find them.”
He had said we . “I assume you’ll turn this investigation over to Mikel now.”
“Mikel has his hands more than full with security for Gabri and Quinn’s wedding.” Raul locked his gaze on her face, intensity burning in his blue eyes. “I hoped you would help me until I have healed enough to get off this maldito sofa.”
Astonishment made her sit bolt upright in the chair. “I don’t know anything about investigating a crime. Do you?”
Oops, that might have been too direct a question for a prince.
Raul didn’t flinch. “It’s like any other matter that comes before the crown. You talk to the people involved, you collate and analyze the information, and you find the solution.”
How many of the people he usually talked to were desperate enough to poach the national symbol of Caleva?
“There must be someone else more qualified than I am,” she said, even as her heart sped up at having a legitimate reason to spend more time with him.
“No, you are perfect. You can talk to people without raising their suspicions.” He leaned toward her, and the angles of his face sharpened. “We can’t delay. If the dragon and her eggs leave the country, that is almost certainly a death sentence for all of them.”
Was this about Gabriel’s kidnapping? Raul had been forced to let that happen. Maybe he was not going to allow another abduction, especially one so symbolic. The royal family’s surname was Dragón, and Pascal had said Raul was especially protective of his family’s namesake.
“I…of course I will help you.” Honestly, what choice did she have? He was her prince. It just happened to be convenient that she was thrilled at the thought of working side by side with him and could satisfy her boss’s request at the same time.
Raul gave her a smile so dazzling her heart flipped.
“ Muy bien! I have been thinking about how to approach this. What if you contact all the people on Quinn’s list—except the park ranger you mentioned—and tell them you want a special wedding gift for a good friend?
You don’t want anything illegal. Just an eggshell from a hatched dragon egg that could be incorporated into an artwork that an artist you know has offered to create. ”
“I—what?” She was still reeling from the smile. “You’ve done a lot of thinking.”
“I have nothing better to do right now.” Irritation edged his voice before determination took over. “And I have a theory about how the dragon and her eggs will depart.”
“I’m listening” she said, intrigued to see his mind at work.
“It would be hard to smuggle a large heavy dragon or even her eggs out of Caleva by air, especially with all the soil they dug up. Security is pretty tight, even at private airfields. It’s much easier to sneak cargo onto a boat.
If I might have the tablet back?” He held out his hand, the dragon ring’s emerald catching the light.
As she stretched across the table to return the tablet, he leaned forward, and her gaze snagged on the slight scruff outlining his jaw.
What would that feel like against her skin? Rough or soft?
She jerked back so fast that he had to catch the tablet. “Sorry,” she muttered as a flush of heat climbed her cheeks at the direction of her wayward thoughts.
He gave her a questioning glance but swiped at the screen.
“Quinn sent me a list of the wedding guests and their means of transportation. What do you want to bet that the buyer is a very rich wedding attendee who’s coming in on a yacht?
There will be so much extra activity at the seaport that loading an extra crate or two aboard a yacht wouldn’t be noticed.
The timing is too close to be a coincidence. ”
“You mean one of the wealthy sleazebags you were talking about? Would el duque have such people on his guest list?”
A cynical expression marred Raul’s face. “This is a royal wedding, so the guest list was compiled with an eye to political protocol. There are plenty of people on it whom Gabriel and Quinn have never met.” He gestured to the cushion beside him. “Let me show you the possibilities I’ve picked out.”
Mierda, she would be pressed up against his side just like their evening on the mountain. She walked around the coffee table and eased down beside him, leaving a foot of space between them. However, she had to lean in to see the list on his screen.
Which brought her even closer to the tempting scruff and the strong chin beneath it.
And the thick waves of his blond-streaked hair that made her fingers itch to comb through it.
He smelled so damn good too. Clean, potent male with an overlay of something expensively exotic like sandalwood.
She took a deep breath to calm herself, but it only intensified the scent stroking erotic places in her body.
He was pointing to a name and talking, but her brain wasn’t absorbing the words.
“Sorry, could you start over?” She forced herself to focus. “I got ahead of you reading the names.” Which were a who’s who of the rich and/or royal.
“ Bien . I started with the people coming in by water…which aren’t that many, considering the size of the guest list. I narrowed that down based on what I know about the guests personally.
These are the assholes I can imagine paying someone to steal a dragon to prove how rich and powerful they are, even though the dragon will probably die. ”
He actually knew all these insanely wealthy people whose names she only recognized from the media.
Of course, she had met several celebrity musicians while piloting Gabriel’s jet, but the people on Raul’s list were a whole different level of money.
And he knew them personally, proving yet again that she had no business wanting to touch him.
“Even worse,” he continued, his voice raw with anger, “they might want to turn the dragon’s skin into a belt or a handbag to show off to their asshole friends.”
“Okay, so how does that help us?” None of the guests had arrived yet, and she couldn’t figure out how Raul could ransack giant private yachts.
“We put surveillance on their ships. The docks have plenty of security cameras to deter smuggling. If anything suspicious gets carried on board, we’ll know which yacht to search.”
We again. When had she and the Crown Prince of Caleva become a crime-fighting duo?
Common sense kicked in.
“It’s a great idea, but I think we should let someone else do the hands-on stuff,” she said. “We’ve both been out of basic training for a while. My stealth skills are rusty. And, well, you’re the prince .”
She hated it when the exhilaration in his voice flattened. “ Ay, you’re right. I was just thinking that I could get on board a yacht without raising suspicions since I am, as you point out, the prince.” His tone was sardonic.
Without thinking, she laid her hand on his, savoring the warmth of his smooth skin. “We’ll figure it out when the time comes. It’s better to stay flexible until we know what we’re dealing with.” Especially since the dragon and her eggs could be anywhere by now.
He laid his other hand over hers, and she nearly gasped. His palm was so warm, and his long, elegant fingers felt so strong as he gave hers a brief squeeze. “ Gracias . Isn’t that a quote from Sargento Duro in basic?”
She waited for Raul to release her hand, but he didn’t. “Y-yes,” she stammered, wondering how rude it would be to pull out of his grasp before she did something she would regret. “You had him for basic too?”
“He made my life miserable, and it was the right thing to do.” Raul feathered his fingers over her knuckles without seeming to be aware of it. A delicious tingling radiated up her arm and tightened her nipples to points.
Joder.
He turned to look at her, his face so close that she could see the striations of light and dark blue in his irises.
“My father is coming to have lunch with me, so we’re about to be interrupted.
I don’t want him to know about this investigation of ours.
Will you come back tonight for dinner to finish our planning? ”
Could he feel how her pulse accelerated? God, she hoped not.
“What time should I be here?” She would have to cancel drinks and dinner with her friends at their favorite dive bar in Ciudad Militar, but they wouldn’t be offended when she explained why.
“Eight o’clock.” He grinned and lifted his hand off hers as though it was no big deal that he’d been touching her. “If you want to avoid Pater, you should leave now.”
She choked on a laugh at his accurate assumption. “ Gracias. I mean, your father is incredible, but he’s a little intimidating.”
“Don’t I know it.” Raul’s tone was wry.
She stood. “Will we eat dinner here in your apartment?”
He nodded. “You can wear jeans if you want.”
Funny and a little weird that he knew his guests needed that information. His life was bounded by protocol. No wonder he had asked her not to treat him like a prince on their camping trip.
“Muy bien. Adios!” She glanced down at his face and had an overwhelming desire to kiss the sculpted lips that were curved in a half smile.
That got her moving toward the door.
“ Hasta luego!” Raul called as she reached for the doorknob. “Until this evening.”
A thrill ran through her at the thought of more time spent in his company.
However, the reason for it made her queasy.
Stealing one of the highly protected dragons and her eggs was a high-stakes crime, both for the thief and for the recipient, because the punishment would be harsh.
So there had to be a lot of money changing hands in this situation, which made it even more dangerous.
As she speedwalked down the corridor to avoid encountering the king, she wondered if she might have to start carrying the gun she had put away after the camping trip.