Chapter 31 — The Second Kidnapping
The plan was simple.
That should have worried Alexander immediately.
The royal fleet would sail in two days. Most of the family remained aboard the ships or inside the heavily guarded residence near the harbor. Rourke was still missing, but several members of his network had already been arrested.
Everyone believed the greatest danger had passed.
Everyone except Alexander.
That afternoon, Amara wanted to visit Lela, who was staying with relatives in another building near the waterfront.
“I can walk there,” Amara said.
“With guards.”
“It is three streets away.”
“With guards.”
She looked at him.
Alexander corrected himself.
“Would you please take guards?”
“Better.”
Four royal soldiers accompanied her.
Alexander watched until she disappeared into the crowded street.
He still felt uneasy.
He should have trusted that feeling.
The first attack happened less than ten minutes later.
A wagon overturned directly ahead of Amara’s group, blocking the narrow street. Two men immediately rushed forward as though trying to help.
One royal guard noticed the weapons beneath their coats.
He shouted a warning.
Everything changed.
More men appeared from an alley.
Amara understood instantly.
They had come for her.
Again.
One attacker grabbed her arm.
She struck him across the face.
Another tried to pull her backward.
“No!”
The word exploded from her with all the fury of the first time she had been taken.
But this was not the same frightened woman.
Amara kicked, fought, screamed, and forced one man to release her. The royal guards drew weapons, but the narrow street had become chaos. Horses panicked. Pedestrians ran.
Then someone threw a cloth over Amara’s face.
A strange smell.
Her strength disappeared almost immediately.
The last thing she heard was a guard shouting her name.
Alexander knew something was wrong when a wounded soldier stumbled into the residence.
“Captain!”
Alexander stood.
“Princess Amara.”
Everything inside him went cold.
“What happened?”
“Ambush.”
Alexander was moving before the man finished.
King Adisa and Kellan entered from another room.
“Where is she?” Kellan demanded.
The soldier struggled for breath.
“They took her.”
Silence.
Adisa’s face changed.
Not grief this time.
Fury.
Alexander forced himself to remain calm.
“How many?”
“Eight, perhaps ten. They had a carriage waiting.”
“Direction?”
“North.”
Kellan immediately called for soldiers.
Within minutes, the royal residence erupted into action.
Adisa ordered the harbor closed.
No vessel would leave.
Every road was watched.
Alexander studied the map.
“They won't take her to the port.”
Kellan looked at him.
“Why?”
“Too many royal ships. Too many soldiers. They need somewhere quiet until they can negotiate.”
“Ransom,” Adisa said.
Alexander nodded.
“They know who she is now.”
The King’s expression became terrifying.
“They stole my daughter twice.”
Alexander looked at him.
“This time they know exactly what they've stolen.”
Amara woke on a dirty floor.
Her wrists were tied.
For one terrible second, panic overwhelmed her.
The ship.
Rourke.
Chains.
Then memory returned.
The street.
The wagon.
The attack.
She forced herself to breathe slowly.
Not again.
She looked around.
A warehouse.
Three men nearby.
Another stood at the door.
One of them noticed she was awake.
“Princess.”
Amara hated the satisfaction in his voice.
“So you finally learned.”
The man smiled.
“Your father has ships full of gold.”
“No. He has ships full of soldiers.”
The smile weakened.
Amara sat upright.
“You made a very expensive mistake.”
“You are worth more alive than every man in this building will earn in ten lifetimes.”
“You think my father will pay you?”
“He will.”
Amara almost laughed.
“You do not know my father.”
“He crossed an ocean for you.”
“Exactly.”
The man frowned.
Amara leaned against the wall.
“If you were intelligent, you would release me now and start running.”
He struck the wall beside her.
She did not flinch.
That angered him more.
Amara smiled.
“You should probably start running.”
The ransom demand arrived an hour later.
A boy delivered the note and disappeared.
King Adisa read it once.
Kellan read it next.
Alexander took it last.
The amount was enormous.
But one detail mattered more.
The kidnappers demanded that a small vessel be prepared outside the northern harbor by midnight.
Alexander pointed to the line.
“They need water.”
Kellan frowned.
“What?”
“They cannot be far inland if they intend to reach a vessel tonight.”
They studied the map.
Warehouses lined an abandoned section of the northern waterfront.
Alexander remembered the suspects arrested several days earlier.
“One of Rourke’s associates used warehouses.”
Kellan understood immediately.
Within minutes, scouts were sent ahead.
This time Alexander and Kellan did not argue.
They worked together.
The report came shortly before sunset.
Movement had been seen near an abandoned warehouse north of the harbor.
Alexander reached for his weapons.
Adisa stopped him.
“Bring her home.”
Alexander met the King’s eyes.
“I will.”
Kellan joined him.
“So will I.”
For once, neither man insulted the other.
They rode.
Inside the warehouse, Amara had already begun her own escape.
The rope around her wrists was poorly tied.
Apparently her kidnappers believed princesses were decorative rather than dangerous.
Amara worked at the knot behind her back.
One guard remained near the door.
Another was drinking.
The third kept looking through the window.
The knot loosened.
Almost.
Then gunfire sounded outside.
Everyone froze.
Amara smiled.
“Too late.”
The guard rushed toward her.
She pulled one hand free.
He reached for her.
Amara grabbed a wooden bottle from the floor and smashed it against his face.
He fell backward.
She ran.
The warehouse door opened.
Another man entered.
Amara struck him with everything she had left.
Then someone shouted her name.
“Amara!”
Alexander.
She had never heard anything more beautiful.
He appeared through the smoke with Kellan behind him.
Amara ran directly toward Alexander.
He caught her.
For several seconds, he simply held her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Kellan reached them and embraced his sister next.
“You have got to stop being kidnapped.”
Amara laughed despite herself.
“I agree.”
A shot sounded from the rear of the warehouse.
Alexander pushed Amara behind him.
Royal soldiers surrounded them.
Within minutes, the remaining kidnappers surrendered.
One tried to escape through a rear window.
He discovered that King Adisa had sent soldiers around the entire building.
The second kidnapping had lasted less than six hours.
It was also the last.
Outside, Amara saw her father waiting beside the soldiers.
Adisa crossed the distance quickly and embraced her.
Then he looked at Alexander and Kellan.
“Alive?”
“The kidnappers?” Kellan asked.
“Yes.”
“Most of them.”
“Good.”
Amara looked at her father.
“Good?”
Adisa’s voice was cold.
“Dead men answer no questions. These men will tell us where Rourke is.”
Alexander nodded.
The King was right.
This was no longer simply a rescue.
The failed kidnapping had given them witnesses, evidence, and men frightened enough to talk.
Rourke’s network was collapsing.
That night, Amara sat with Alexander aboard the royal ship.
Neither wanted to sleep.
She rested against him while harbor lights moved across the water.
“I thought I had lost you again,” he said.
“You didn't.”
“I know.”
Amara took his hand.
“The first time they kidnapped me, I waited for someone to rescue me.”
“And today?”
“Today I was halfway out of the ropes before you arrived.”
Alexander smiled.
“I am extremely proud of you.”
“You should be. Your rescue was becoming unnecessarily slow.”
He stared at her.
“Six hours.”
“Far too long.”
Alexander laughed and kissed her forehead.
Amara closed her eyes.
The second kidnapping had failed because her captors had made the same mistake as the first.
They had looked at Princess Amara and seen money.
They had seen a ransom.
They had seen something valuable enough to possess.
They had never understood the woman herself.
This time, neither Amara nor the people who loved her intended to give them another chance.