Christmas Conspiracy (12 page)

“Y…yes, Your Grace,” the man stammered.

Pushing past Niko, Sarbonne strode out of the prison, up the winding staircase and through the secret passage. His servant’s quick steps hurried behind him.

“Leave me,” Sarbonne ordered, his grin twisted at the relief on Niko’s face. He was too much of a coward to be of much use except catching and carrying, but he also feared for his life too much to betray Sarbonne.

The duke dialed a familiar number. “Someone is double-crossing me,” he said as a man answered. “It had best not be you, Victor. I need that princess alive. Here. Get her for me.”

“That was not part of our arrangement.”

“Well, it is now, if you ever want those mineral rights.”

Dead silence filled the phone. “You dare threaten me, Sarbonne?”

“I
dare
anything. It is my destiny to sit on the throne of Bellevaux. If you want a taste of my power once I get there, you’d be wise to not cross me now.”

Another pause. “I see. I am glad you clarified our arrangement.”

The duke relaxed his furious death grip on the phone at the quiet comment. “I’m glad you understand, Victor. I don’t care how you arrange it—or who you have to kill—but have your men find her and bring her to me within forty-eight hours.”

“Any other…requests?”

“Yes.” The duke smiled. “I want her too terrified to make one wrong move once she gets here.”

Chapter Six

Logan’s phone rang. Again. He pulled it out of his pocket and scowled at the screen.

Kat’s face tensed, and she worried her bottom lip. “The king wasn’t happy. Maybe…”

“He threatened you.” She didn’t need to doubt herself. Logan turned off the power and stalked into the situation room. “Zane, I need you to delve into King Leopold’s finances. I want solid proof I can use to keep him out of Kat’s life.”

His computer expert crossed muscular arms in front of his chest and grinned. “I love taking down royalty,” he said, and cracked his knuckles. “Can I bring Sierra Bradford in? She’s got Europe wired. Particularly the banking system.”

“Sierra?” Logan scratched his neck. “You trust her?”

“Oh, yeah. I thought about suggesting she join the team, but she had a personal matter to deal with in Denver. I was going to mention it when she straightened things out.”

“You think she’d agree?”

“She’s the best. Worth asking.”

“
You’re
the best.”

“For cybersecurity, yep. I won’t deny it, but Sierra’s a true genius when it comes to financial tracking. Especially in the EU and former Soviet Union. She’s so intuitive about where these scumbags try to hide money, she’s downright scary.”

“Make the call.” Logan needed leverage, and Sierra Bradford had the security clearance to make things happen. He didn’t need to tell Zane, but Sierra had been on Logan’s shortlist for a while. The fact that she was his friend Noah’s sister made the situation tricky, though. Noah lived a very dangerous double life, and Sierra may not be aware of Noah’s extracurricular activities. Working for Logan would change that.

Kat looked between Zane and Logan, her eyes curious. “What’s Sierra going to look into? What do you plan to do to my father?”

“His irregular finances have been on my radar awhile. He’s up to something. I’ll use the knowledge any way I have to.”

“Blackmail?”

Logan smiled, the plan coalescing in his mind. “I prefer to call it…wielding a strong influence over his future decision making. He backs off you and the kids, or I’ll reveal what I discover.”

Zane snorted. “A rose by any other name, buddy.”

“What has he done?” Kat asked.

“The last few years, King Leopold has had an unusual inflow of cash from an unknown source,” Logan said. “I was tracking it, but when your brother, Prince Stefan, was killed, my main link to the information disappeared.”

The grief of Stefan’s murder hit Logan in a fresh wave. His friend had valued integrity over everything, and it had cost him his life. “With the king threatening you and the children, I have more reason than ever to identify the source of Leopold’s secret funds—especially if his duplicity resulted in the bomb attack against the royal court and the assassins coming after you.”

Kat shuddered. “You think finding out his secrets will make him stop? He’s a king.”

“Of a country on the brink of extinction. Leopold will do anything in his power to prevent information leading to his downfall from being revealed. We need to convince him it’s in his best interest to leave us alone—and alive—while he comes up with another heir.”

Kat frowned. “He seems awfully confident in his power, Logan. The truth is, he scares me.”

“Information—in the right hands—is more powerful than most people recognize.” Logan caressed her cheek with his finger. “Let Zane do his work. We’re running out of time and Leopold isn’t the only one we have to stop.”

* * *

L
OGAN TOOK
K
AT’S HAND
and they climbed the stairs to the main level where Lanie and Hayden were freshly bathed, sacked out on the floor of the living room, huge pillows tossed everywhere. Gretchen watched them with an eagle eye.

“Cartoons,” she whispered. “They’re entranced.”

Were the kids “entranced” enough that Logan could steal some time away with their mother? He let his gaze rest on Kat, taking in the curve of her cheek, the light hitting her blond hair, the smile on her face as she watched their children. They’d been caught up in a whirlwind of events. They needed some time to settle things between them. Did they have a future? Did the heated looks he occasionally caught from her mean anything, or was the ranch merely a safe haven until she could hightail it out of here? He sure as hell didn’t want her to sleep alone in that king-size bed again tonight, but…

“If you could do watch duty for a few minutes, I’m going to put the laundry in,” Gretchen said. “I’ll be right back.”

Kat knelt down on the floor between their kids and tickled them. Both children squealed with delight, then rolled around in a jumble of blankets as they tried to tickle her back. Finally, they both tackled their mother, smothering her with hugs and kisses as she held them close.

Logan’s heart warmed at the sight. This house hadn’t seen much laughter since his mother had left. Even before then he could remember too many times when he’d barricaded himself in his room with the music blaring so he didn’t have to listen to his parents fight.

Watching Kat with Hayden and Lanie, Logan longed to join them, but he hesitated. They seemed so much like a…family. Close and loving. Complete. Would he be welcomed?

Gretchen walked back into the room. Her face was stark white and tears filled her eyes. One fist clutched tight to her chest. “Oh, Logan…”

He raced to the older woman. “What happened?”

Wordlessly, Gretchen opened her hand and held out a scratched, heart-shaped necklace.

Logan couldn’t catch his breath. “It can’t be…”

With a trembling hand he took the jewelry and weighed it in his palm. So light and so devastating in its implications. His mother had been wearing it when she had walked out on him and his father. He felt like the bull gored him and left him to bleed out slowly where he stood.

“It’s your mother’s,” Gretchen choked out. “I’d know it anywhere.”

“Where did you find it?” He forced the hoarse whisper from his throat. He couldn’t take his gaze away from the tarnished locket, or the dark spots that flaked off the broken chain. If he wet the chain, would the flakes turn red with blood?

Gretchen swallowed back tears. “In Lanie’s jacket. The one she wore today when she fell in the well. I turned her pockets before putting it into the washing machine. The necklace fell out.”

His mind whirled with the possibilities, and they ate at his gut. He knew the truth. Holding this necklace meant his mother had never made it off the ranch.

Kat came closer. “Logan?” She peered over his shoulder. “What is that?”

A nightmare
. He fought the memories of anger and accusations from that last day.
A blessing. A curse.

An answer, and the start of a million dark, ugly questions that he didn’t want to ask. Dear God, how could it still be here?

“It’s my mother’s necklace. I gave it to her when I was ten. She wore it every day and swore she’d never take it off.” He met Kat’s troubled gaze. “As far as I know, she kept that promise.” He looked down at the broken chain, knowing the force it would take to wrench the links apart.

Struggling to hold himself together, Logan walked into his office off the living room and unlocked the lower drawer in his desk. He removed an evidence bag, a clean sheet of paper, then donned plastic gloves. How convenient, he thought, to be the kind of man to have a crime kit ready for a possible murder on his own property.

What was wrong with this picture?

Gretchen’s sob filtered through the doorway, but he couldn’t speak. She recognized what his preparations meant. The possibility of his mother’s disappearance being a homicide had been raised more than once. Logan knew it, but he couldn’t let his mind go there. For a minute…just a minute, couldn’t he be a son who might have lost his mother in a far different way?

He sank into the leather chair behind his desk and flicked the clasp. The heart locket opened. A tuft of black hair and the picture of a toddler grinning made his eyes sting.

He touched the photo and closed his eyes, letting memories swim through him. There had been good times. Particularly when his father left on one of his frequent out-of-town trips. His mother’s footsteps had lightened; her laughter had pealed through the house.

Lavender scent wafted over him. He blinked at Kat over his shoulder.

“I see Hayden in you.”

Logan paused, a bittersweet recollection breaking through his emotions. “My mother said she hoped I’d have a little boy just like me. She loved me so much, she wanted me to be just as happy as her.” He snapped the locket closed.

He clenched the evidence bag in his fist. “Do you know how much I hated her for leaving me?” Logan stood up, and stared at the necklace in his palm. “What if she didn’t? What if someone stopped her?”

Gretchen and Kat watched him warily, not answering.

He slipped the necklace into the plastic evidence bag, reaching for control he didn’t feel.

Logan strode into the living room, plucked his daughter from the pillow jungle and sat with her on his lap in his big leather recliner.

Lanie’s eyes had gone wide with uncertainty.

Great. He was scaring his daughter. He could interrogate terrorists or criminals, but how did he drag information out of a two-and-a-half-year-old?

“Sweetie,” Logan said, gentling his voice. “Where did you find this necklace?”

Her eyes brightened. “My neckwess! I found it.” Lanie reached for the baggie, then scooped it into her hands to thrust toward Kat. “It’s for you, Mommy. I saw it and got it all by myself.”

Logan, recognizing the pride in his daughter’s face, forced himself to calm down.

Kat gave him a supportive smile. “Thank you, Lanie.” Kat retrieved the locket. “Now, where did you find it?”

Lanie’s bottom lip trembled slightly. “Where the kitty got lost.”

Logan could feel the urgency rise within him. “Can you show me?”

His daughter looked down at her hands. “No.”

“Honey, why can’t you tell us?” Kat asked.

Lanie frowned, obviously upset. “I’m not s’posta go there. Daddy yelled at me cuz I got stuck in the bad place.”

Logan turned his daughter to face him. “Lanie, I’m sorry. I was scared. I couldn’t find you and I didn’t want you to get hurt.” He held up the evidence bag. “Was this in the bad place?”

Lanie nodded. “Where the mommy kitty hides her babies. It was stuck on a pointy rock. I had to try really hard to reach it.”

“You don’t have to go, honey,” Kat said, meeting Logan’s gaze. “Gretchen, could you distract our little adventurers while we go outside?”

A few minutes later they had donned coats and picked across the construction site until they reached the hundred-year-old well. Logan’s crew had moved some of the old boards back over the opening. Years of grit and dirt had covered the original planks, hiding the presence of the well.

He swallowed hard, then pulled the locket out to stare at it again. “I thought she left.”

She touched his hand lightly. “I’m here if you need me.”

He wanted to believe her. Logan put the locket away. He’d heard words like that before and trusted them. From her. From his mother. From Daniel. On a mission, the situation was different. Lies were part of the game. He could handle the betrayals. He expected them. But when it was personal…he’d been burned by believing in those “implied promises.” He’d been wrong—at least twice. He didn’t know what to think anymore.

Logan peered under a large pile of discarded barn boards and beams where the mother cat had hidden her kittens. His mind churning with dark thoughts. He snagged a flashlight from his coat pocket, flicked it on and ran it across the ledge where he’d found Lanie. Dried blood still marred the rock, but the stain was darker now, almost black. A lot like the ones on the sharp rock several inches away from the ledge.

He could picture the worst case in his mind, driving dread straight through him. Lanie could’ve tumbled all the way down the well. Struck her head. His heart twisted in pain. He could have lost her.

If his mother’s necklace had been yanked from her throat when she struck that sharp rock on the way down, then she might be… He shone the light into the recesses, slowly scanning one section at a time. Debris blocked most of the view of the bottom, but finally the beam passed over several areas of white and a few flashes of color.

Logan paused his movement, his heart pounding, and leaned against the stone wall, trying for a closer look. Did he want to find his mother here? Knowing if she’d fallen, she’d been injured and probably calling out for help for days before dying? Or had she looked into someone’s eyes…a man who’d sworn to always love her…before he pushed her to her death?

Would Logan ever know?