Chapter 18
Raul limped across the prison warden’s office to the large leather chair behind the desk, cursing his ankle for not healing faster. At least Odette would not see his weakness. Laying his cane on the carpet, he settled into the chair and nodded to the guards. “Bring her in.”
He had barely slept the night before. His brain had alternated feverishly between imagining his upcoming encounter with Odette and remembering all the pleasures of his time with Erica.
Erica, who had come when he asked for her help, even though he had no right to expect it.
Now, he braced himself to face the madwoman who had caused his family so much anguish.
A knock sounded on the door before it opened to reveal Odette Fontaine in shackles, her arms held by two burly prison guards. A jolt of shock rippled through him. The last time he had seen her, she was dressed in designer clothing, her red hair twisted into a glossy bun, her makeup perfect.
The woman who shuffled into the office wearing a baggy neon yellow jumpsuit was rail thin with dull reddish-brown hair yanked back in a sloppy ponytail. It wasn’t until she raised her head, her green eyes flaring with hatred, that he found something of the madwoman who’d pointed a gun at him.
“Where is Luis?” she asked, the smooth, French-accented voice still the same. Incredibly, it held a note of arrogance.
“He had other commitments,” Raul said.
The guards hustled her to the metal chair in front of the desk and fastened her shackles to a metal ring in the floor.
“You may leave us,” Raul said, nodding to the guards. They exited and closed the door, leaving him alone with his family’s worst nemesis.
“Doesn’t this seem excessive to you?” She raised her hands and let them fall with a rattle of chains.
“It’s standard operating procedure.” Mikel had briefed him on that.
Raul folded his hands on the desk and waited, careful to wipe all expression from his face despite the roil of tension in his chest. He would force Odette to speak first.
For a long moment, she examined him. “So, your father sent you to do his dirty work?”
“Dirty work?” He raised his eyebrows in a question.
“Aren’t you going to threaten to execute me if I don’t stop that imbécile Dupont from talking to the press?” She sat back in her chair, the chains clinking. “After all, I conspired to murder the king.”
That was the one piece of leverage his father held over her to keep her silent about Grace’s parentage.
“I had hoped to find a less extreme solution to this situation,” Raul said.
Odette’s execution would be entirely legal and would solve so many problems, but his father wanted to spare Grace that horror. He would invoke the sentence only as a last resort.
“So Luis is too cowardly to carry out the sentence.” Her mouth twisted into a triumphant smile.
“Believe me, it’s still a possibility,” Raul said, letting his anger show enough to wipe her smile away. “What do you want, Odette?”
“The same thing I always want.” She leaned forward with the speed of a striking cobra. “To make Luis suffer.” Her voice even carried the hiss of a snake.
“Is that really your goal?” Raul asked, trying to get a read on her.
“It is all I have, considering that I am imprisoned here for life. What else could I possibly achieve?” She shook her chains again. “I don’t intend to start a support group for regicides.”
“I think you want something else,” he said. “Something I’m prepared to give you.”
For the first time, she looked uncertain. “Why would you give me anything?”
“Because you’re a nuisance I’m tired of. Like a cockroach who skitters out of its hole in the wall long enough to annoy me and then runs back to hide before it can be squashed.” He chose the repellent insect deliberately, knowing it would insult Odette.
Her features tightened into a mask of fury. “You sniveling little overprotected prince. What do you know of cockroaches? You’ve never had to deal with the realities of real life.”
“I’ve had to deal with you.” Raul loosened the white-knuckled grip of his folded hands and decided to expand on Erica’s idea about paying attention to Odette to see if flattery worked.
“What I don’t understand is why you threw away all you had accomplished in an attempt to punish my father.
You built a small, struggling cosmetics company into an international powerhouse.
You had wealth, respect, and authority. You were on a first-name basis with celebrities and heads of state.
” He didn’t mention that it was her exclusive access to Caleva’s curative lily sap that had given her all that. A favor from his father.
Her posture changed as he spoke. Her back straightened, her chin lifted, and the insane glitter in her eyes subsided. For a few moments, he glimpsed the poised, assured woman he had known as Tante Odette. It gave him hope for his plan.
But her lips drew back from her teeth in a sneer. “ You were the reason.”
He forced himself not to flinch as her words smacked him in the chest.
“ You , looking so cocky and privileged in your perfectly tailored militia uniform.” She pointed at him, her chains clanking. “ You , being fawned over by the whole royal family. You , being the focus of your father’s beaming pride. It should have been my child who Luis looked at like that.”
He pressed his lips together to stop from pointing out that it had been Odette’s choice to put her daughter up for adoption. That would not serve his purpose here.
Odette sat back with a malevolent grimace.
“But you evaded my grasp because that cretin Dupont got tricked into kidnapping Gabriel instead. How did it feel to know that someone else took the punishment meant for you? That your cousin who you claim to love like a brother had his ear cut off because your cowardice let him take your place?”
He clenched his hands together so tightly they ached as Odette’s words struck him like thrown knives. His father’s warning blared in his mind. This woman might be insane, but she knew where to aim for maximum damage.
He took a deep breath as Erica’s voice from that evening on the mountain filtered through the agony searing through him.
She did not blame him for letting Gabriel take his place.
She wasn’t a royal, but she had upheld his decision as the right thing for the Prince of Caleva to do.
The memory of her profound understanding steadied him.
Odette watched him with hungry eyes, clearly wanting a reaction. No matter how much it might help his plan, he refused to give her that satisfaction.
He forced his hands to relax. “You could never comprehend why Gabriel and I acted as we did.” He injected a note of contempt into his voice, but stopped short of further insult.
Disappointment clouded her face, and her voice lost its edge. “So what do you have to offer me, Little Prince?”
“Attention.” Raul let the word hang between them. He caught a flash of curiosity in her expression.
“I already have ways to get that,” she scoffed.
“But it’s infrequent, and you have to work very hard at it.” He stopped himself from twisting his ring. “When you’re not making trouble, we forget all about your existence.”
Her lips drew back in a snarl. “Cabrón!”
He had hit a nerve…which meant that Erica’s idea might work.
He hesitated for a long moment. If Odette agreed to his offer, he would have to come to this grim place regularly and let this terrible woman flay him with her ugly words. Even worse, because she was a madwoman, he had no guarantee that she would stick to her side of the bargain.
But if it worked, his family would be free of her extortions.
Swallowing against the bile rising in his throat, Raul unlaced his fingers and laid his palms flat on the desk.
“I will visit you here when my schedule permits, as long as you make no further trouble for my family. If you menace any member of the royal family in any way, my visits will cease forever. There will be no more negotiations.”
She went still. Not a rustle or a clink of chain indicated she was even breathing. He could see calculation in her eyes, but she gave no indication of her reaction.
“When your schedule permits? That could be every five years,” she scoffed. “You must swear to come monthly.”
“I will not negotiate with you, but you have my word that it will be more than once a year.” He wanted to keep her guessing when he would arrive, but he would time it as that escape valve Erica had described.
“I hope your word is worth more than your father’s,” she said.
That jab bounced off him harmlessly. His father had done nothing dishonorable.
“We will meet here in this office?” she asked.
Why did she care about the location? The warden’s office was as secure as the rest of the prison. He glanced around. Except for the ring on the floor and bars on the window, the room did not look like a prison. Perhaps the change of setting was why she wanted to be here.
“Yes,” he said and waited.
“You, the Crown Prince of Caleva, will come to prison to converse with a criminal.” She stared at him.
He nodded.
“Poor Raul.” She laughed. “Your father has made you the sacrificial lamb.”
“My father knows only that I am meeting with you today. Nothing more.” Luis would not have approved had he known about Raul’s plan, but Odette had to be defanged.
“How intriguing.” Odette shifted so her chains clanked against the metal chair. “I will accept your offer with one condition.”
“You aren’t in a position to make conditions,” Raul pointed out.
“It’s a small one.” She lifted her hands. “I would request that I wear only handcuffs. You may lock them to the chair, of course.”
The heavy chains seemed to weigh down her thin body, and she would be thoroughly searched for any hidden weapons, as she had been today. However, her insane hatred burned hot enough to fuel an attack.
“If your chains are removed, there must be a guard in the room with us at all times,” Raul said.