Chapter 21 #2
“Yes, Senor, ” Dario said with a bow.
Al-Buya waved one of his crewmen forward. “Take them to the staff lounge.”
The crewman led the two bodyguards away. Erica wondered how they would escape their escort to search the yacht, but she had confidence they would figure something out.
“Come in, come in!” Al-Buya gestured through the door. “Let us enjoy some food and drink before we tour.”
Raul gave a convincing little lurch, and she pretended to steady him.
“ Ay, querida, perhaps I had one Scotch too many,” he said before giving al-Buya a rueful smile. “Have to celebrate my cousin’s marriage with enthusiasm. Maybe we could skip the drinks and snacks.”
Al-Buya looked annoyed but said, “Of course, my friend. Follow me.”
He warmed up as he showed off his yacht.
Erica did her part oohing and aahing and generally pandering to his ego.
There was a lot of marble, crystal, and gold, but some of the decorations were unique and spectacular, like the ornate geometric tiles in the bathrooms and the pages of exquisite calligraphy hung on the walls.
She found herself asking al-Buya real questions about those, which made him beam with pride.
Raul maintained his tipsy demeanor, but even he occasionally interjected a knowledgeable comment or query about the yacht.
He also kept his arm wrapped around her waist. The warmth of his palm resting on her hip and the brush of his thigh against hers as they walked sometimes made it hard to focus on their purpose.
She wanted to turn into Raul’s arms and press herself against the length of his body.
Eventually, al-Buya began to wind down, but Dario had not called Raul to say they’d found the eggs or dragon. So Erica decided to stir up a little competition to keep their host talking.
“Have you seen Kyran Redda’s yacht?” She had no idea if the rock star had a yacht, but she figured al-Buya wouldn’t know either.
Their host looked startled. “No, I haven’t. Is it here in Caleva?”
“I think he flew in for the wedding,” Raul said. “Time constraints in his performance schedule, but he sailed his yacht here for last year’s DragonFest.”
“And it has this amazing glass-bottomed boat so you can watch all the cool fish underwater,” Erica said. “Do you have one of those?”
Al-Buya’s face lit up. “I have something much better! Let me show you.”
She threw a questioning glance up at Raul, but he shrugged. They followed their host to a marble-lined elevator that descended to what al-Buya called the Fun Deck. “This is where we keep the water toys,” he explained as he opened a door and gestured them through.
“Oh. My. God,” Erica said, genuinely stunned at the number and variety of WaveRunners, Jet Skis, and all shapes and sizes of watercraft. In the center of the room, suspended from chains, was a small submarine.
“Estupendo!” Raul said, walking her over to it and running his hand along the sub’s sleek hull. “You have a submersible. If only it weren’t dark. I would love to have a ride.”
She was fairly sure his enthusiasm wasn’t an act. Thank God it was dark, because that sub looked like her worst nightmare.
Al-Buya and Raul discussed the sub’s specifications and capabilities while Erica tried to keep her mind off the terrifying idea of being a hundred feet underwater.
She finally pulled away from Raul’s side to inspect a speedboat on the other side of the storage space.
She’d moved on to a two-person WaveRunner when Raul came up beside her, leaning down to nuzzle her ear while he whispered, “No luck yet with the search, so we need to keep talking. You’re doing an excellent job. ”
She turned her head as though to kiss Raul and murmured against his lips, “I don’t know how much longer al-Buya is going to put up with my inane questions.”
He pulled her in close against him so her breasts were crushed against his chest. God, it felt so good. Then he nipped at her neck. “Let’s change the subject, then.”
“Raul, my friend, I have many staterooms for you to choose from,” al-Buya said, a leer in his voice.
“You know, I’ve gotten hungry…for food,” Raul said, matching al-Buya’s lascivious tone. “We’ll take you up on the offer of something to eat.”
Irritation clouded al-Buya’s face, but he swept his hand toward the door. “Of course.”
Just then, Dario came through the door and closed it behind him. He sounded as though he’d been running. “ Senor, we know where the dragon and the eggs are.”
Excitement sparked through Erica. Raul had been right! He would get his dragon back.
Raul went from charmingly inebriated guest to snarling prince as he stalked up to al-Buya. “You fucking, thieving bastard! You think you can steal the most endangered creature in my country, the symbol of my family?”
For a split second, the amir flinched, but he recovered, drawing himself up to full height. “How dare you accuse me of being a thief?”
Raul loomed over the shorter man. “Don’t even try! We know you took the mother and her nest. We found the smuggler you hired.”
Raul’s features had sharpened into harsh angles, and his voice was a whipcrack of fury.
Erica wanted to cheer even as she hoped she was never the object of his anger.
“Where is she?” Raul asked, turning to Dario.
“Behind a locked door that only the amir has the code for.” Dario nodded toward al-Buya.
The amir recovered and lifted his chin. “Your claim is absurd. If you cannot open the door, you cannot know there’s a dragon behind it. Do you have X-ray vision?” he scoffed.
Dario lifted a device that looked like a chunky video camera with a large screen. “Yes, I do. The dragon’s skeleton is unmistakable with this portable X-ray machine.”
“Make your life easier, al-Buya,” Raul said. “Let us have the dragon, and I won’t drag you into court.”
“I am the ruler of a sovereign nation.” Al-Buya waved his hand in an imperial dismissal. “Your laws do not apply to me.”
“No one is above the law in Caleva,” Raul said. “Not even my father.”
“I am not a citizen of your insignificant little island,” al-Buya sneered.
“There is always the court of public opinion,” Raul pointed out. “Would you like your countrymen to know that their ruler is a thief? Not only that, but a thief who got caught red-handed?”
Raul’s eyebrows were raised, and he looked down at the amir as though al-Buya were a particularly loathsome insect.
“I should mention that your prized dragon will die,” Raul continued. “No one has been able to keep one alive in captivity anywhere in the world except Caleva.”
“I have hired the finest experts in saurology,” the amir said. “They assured me that the dragon would thrive once I brought her back to my country.”
“There,” Raul said. “You just admitted to stealing the dragon to take back to Symari. Are her eggs with her?”
All of a sudden, the amir seemed to deflate as he muttered in his own language. Erica suspected that whatever he said wasn’t flattering to any of them. “The eggs are in an incubator in the same room.”
Without another word to Raul, al-Buya swept out of the storage room.
Raul nodded to Dario to follow before he held out his hand to Erica, his face alight with satisfaction. “Let’s go get our dragon back.”
She put her hand in his, savoring the strength of his fingers wrapped around hers.
He walked like a conquering king as they followed al-Buya through the corridors of the ship.
A couple of the amir’s crew passed them, giving little bows.
How many staff members did al-Buya have on his yacht?
There must be dozens, among them his bodyguards.
There were only four Calevans, so what would stop the amir from ordering his employees to toss his unwelcome guests in the ocean?
A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of plunging into that inky black water.
No, Raul was a prince. Drowning him was probably against some code of royalty, not to mention bringing the wrath of King Luis down on al-Buya.
She shook away the terrifying thoughts as al-Buya stopped in front of a door with a keypad and a thumbprint reader.
He typed in the numbers and pressed his thumb against the reader.
The door swung open, and the earthy scent of raíz dulce, the Calevan dragon’s favorite food, wafted out into the corridor.
“Take your dragon and get off my ship. You have fifteen minutes until I order the captain to full speed,” al-Buya said before he walked away.
Raul went first, then Dario and Pascal. Erica followed, coming up beside Raul at a glass half wall that cut across the spacious room.
On the other side of the wall was an amazingly accurate replica of the clearing where Raul had sprained his ankle, complete with grass, flowers, and bushes.
In the middle of it, sitting atop her recreated—but empty—nest was a magnificent teal-green Calevan dragon, her frill spread wide and her mouth open as she hissed at them to protect the eggs that had already been stolen.
“Wow! She’s a beauty!” Erica murmured, not wanting to distress the dragon any further.
“Estupenda!” Raul said quietly. “Wait! Is she wearing a harness?” Anger edged his voice.
Erica sidestepped to look at the dragon from a different angle. Sure enough, a leather harness that glittered with jewels was fastened around the dragon’s body.
“Well, that will make it easier to get her off the ship,” Pascal said with a pragmatic calmness.
“That gilipollas, ” Raul muttered. “I should drag him through the mud of public opinion.”
Before leaving the airport, they had discussed obtaining some kind of tranquilizer for the dragon, but Raul had ruled it out.
None of them was expert enough to administer an injection without fear of hurting her, especially since they didn’t know if al-Buya had already drugged her.
That meant they would be herding a wide-awake mama dragon through al-Buya’s yacht while racing against the clock.
The difficulty of it hit Erica like a truck.
But one step at a time.