Читать книгу The Lost Princes: Darius, Cassius and Monte - Raye Morgan - Страница 11

THAT was a very good question and David wasn’t sure he had the guts to answer it, even to himself. He looked at Ayme.

He’d meant a quick glance, but something in her pretty face held him for a beat too long and he had to straighten the car into the proper lane when he put his attention back on the road.

That was a warning—don’t do that again.

For some reason Ayme’s allure seemed to catch him up every time. He didn’t know why. She was pretty enough, sure, but it was something else, something in the basic man-woman dynamic that got to him, and he didn’t seem to be able to turn it off.

“Come on, David,” she was saying. “Tell me. Why did you bring me along?”

He shrugged and tried to look blasé. “Why do you think?”

She made a face. “My charm and beauty?” She managed to put a sarcastic spin on her tone that made him grin.

“Of course.”

She rolled her eyes. “No, really. What was the deciding factor?”

He glanced at her, then looked back at the road and put both hands firmly at the top of the wheel.

“Okay, if you want me to be honest about this, I’ll tell you.” He hesitated and grimaced again. Since this seemed to be the time for truth why not go a little further? She could handle it.

“This won’t be easy for you to understand. You’ll think I’m overstating things. You might even think I’m a little nuts. But just hear me out and then decide.”

“Of course.”

“There are a couple of things going on here. First…” He took a deep breath and went on. “I’ve always had good reason to expect that someone would try to get to me and kill me someday and I’m not going to talk about why.”

She sat very still, but she made a small grating noise, as though she were choking. He ignored it.

“When you arrived on my doorstep I had to consider the possibility that you, or someone who sent you, might be involved in something like that.”

“David.” Her voice was rough. “You thought I could be a killer?” The idea shocked her to her core.

He looked her full in the face and shrugged. “You bet. Why not?”

She sputtered and he went on.

“But it’s more likely to be your Carl Heissman person. Don’t you see that? And if I have you with me, you can’t contact him and let him know where I am.”

She made a gasping sound. “David, what have I done that would lead you to think—”

“Not a thing. And believe me, Ayme, I don’t suspect you of anything at all. It’s the people who sent you who have me on guard.”

“Sent me?” She shook her head, at a loss. “Nobody sent me. I came on my own.”

“Someone found out your plans, sought you out and gave you my name. Why?”

She stared at him, realizing he had a point. She remembered that she had been surprised when Carl Heissman contacted her and wanted to meet. He’d been friendly, concerned, charming and her doubts had quickly evaporated. But now that David brought them up again, she had to acknowledge them.

She could see that but, still, this all seemed crazy to her. People killing people was something she just wasn’t used to. Assassinations. Killers. Spies. Those things were on TV and in movies, not in real life.

Was he for real or just some insane paranoid? But the more she studied his beautiful face, the more she was sure he believed every word he said.

Did that make it all true? Who knew?

“There’s one little problem with that whole scenario,” she pointed out right away. “If you left me behind, I wouldn’t have known where you were within minutes of your leaving. So how could I tell anyone anything?”

His mouth twisted sardonically. This was obviously not a new thought to him. But all he said was, “True.”

She waited a moment, but he didn’t elaborate and she frowned.

“Anyway, I thought you were just protecting me from the bad guys, whoever they may be. Isn’t that what you said?”

“I did say that, didn’t I.”

She frowned again, watching him as though she was beginning to have her doubts. “But we don’t know who the bad guys are. Do we? I mean, we know they’re these Ambrian rebel types, but we don’t know what they look like or what their names are. Right?”

“You’re absolutely right. Rather a dilemma, don’t you think?”

“Kind of nuts, that’s what I think.” She shook her head. “Maybe we should have stayed in the apartment. Maybe if we just stayed in one place and waited for them to show up, we’d find out who they are.”

“We’d find out more than that. Not a good idea.”

“Maybe. But you can’t live your whole life just running all the time. Can you?”

“I don’t know. I’ve only just begun.”

She made a sound of exasperation and he grinned.

“We have a destination, Ayme. We’re not just running for the fun of it.”

“Oh. How about letting me in on where that destination is so I can share that feeling of comfort?”

“Not yet.”

Her sigh had a touch of impatience to it. “In that case, I’m just useless baggage. So I still don’t see why you brought me along.”

“Because I feel some responsibility toward you. You came and you asked me for help. Isn’t that enough?”

“So you’re really planning to help me?” she asked as though surprised that such a thing might be the case.

“Of course. I told you I would.”

She settled back and tried to think. What was the old expression, jumping from the frying pan into the fire? That was pretty much what she felt like. She’d been feeling vulnerable enough just searching for Cici’s father. Now she was still searching for the man and being tracked by assassins, as well. And everyone knew what happened to people who hung out with people who were being tracked by assassins. Nothing good.

It was like reaching the next level in a video game. Suddenly the danger was ratcheted up a notch and you had to run that much harder.

From what she could gather going over the information he’d relayed, he was part of a revolt against the current regime in Ambria. Too bad she didn’t know more about it so that she could decide if he was a good guy or not. From his point of view, he was obviously the “goodest” of the good guys, but that sort of thing tended to be a biased assessment. A strange thought came to her unbidden. What if he considered her a hostage?

The beginnings of a wail from the backseat interrupted her musings and gave notice that Cici was awake again.

“Uh-oh, here we go,” Ayme said with apprehension.

David gave her a look. “You seem to live in dread of this baby waking up. She’s barely announced her presence. And actually she’s been quite good all day.”

She sighed. She knew she shouldn’t be taking it out on the baby. Still. “You don’t know what it was like on that airplane crossing,” she told him.

“Babies on planes.” He nodded, thinking it over. “Yes, I have to admit that is not a pleasant prospect. But it was probably the pressurized cabin. It probably hurt her little ears.”

“You think so?” That put Cici in the category of someone transgressed against instead of the transgressor. She looked back at the baby and gave her a thumbs-up.

“Sure,” he said. “It’s not likely she’s going to cry that way all the time.”

He was right. She hadn’t been all that fussy lately. But Ayme attributed it to David’s calming influence. It certainly had very little to do with her. She only wished she knew the secrets of how to reassure a baby and get it to stop howling.

Cici was awake but gurgling happily as they came into the seaside area where they were going to spend the night.

“Where are we going to stay?” Ayme asked, looking longingly at the Ritz as they cruised past it. Then there was the Grand with its long, sweeping driveway and uniformed attendants standing ready to help guests as they arrived at the huge glass doors. They zipped right by that one, too.

“It’s just a little farther,” he said, leaning forward to read a street sign.

She noticed that the farther they went from those elegant hotels, the farther they also went from the bright lights and sparkling entryways. Soon they were surrounded by gloom.

“Here we are,” he said at last, pulling into a driveway that immediately plunged them down a dark tunnel and into a broken-down parking lot. “This is the Gremmerton.”

She took note of the oily puddles and stained walls. “Might as well be the Grimmer-ton,” she muttered softly to herself.

“What was that?” he asked, glancing at her as he parked and shut off the engine.

“Nothing,” she said, feeling sulky and knowing she was being a brat. “Nothing at all.”

He grimaced. He knew exactly what she was thinking but he didn’t bother to explain why they were staying here. She would have to figure it out for herself. When you were trying to travel below the radar, you had to stay in places where people would never expect to find you. And at the same time, you had to be low key, so that people wouldn’t look at you and sense the incongruity and say among themselves, “Hmm. What is someone like that doing here? You would think someone like that would be over at the Grand.”

“We’re running low on formula,” he noted as they unloaded the car and prepared to carry things up into the room.

“I saw a small market on the corner when we drove up,” she said. “If you’ll watch her for a while, I’ll run out and get some. After we get settled in.”

“Good.”

They climbed two flights of stairs and found their room. It wasn’t really too bad, although it did have wallpaper peeling from one corner and a single light bulb hanging down from the ceiling.

It also had only one bed.

She stared at it for a long moment, then turned to look at him, perplexed. “What are we going to do?” she asked. “Maybe we can order in a rollaway.”

“No,” he said calmly. It was fascinating watching the sequence of emotions as they played across her face. “We’re pretending to be a family. We’ll share the bed.”

Her eyes widened. “I don’t know if we ought to do that,” she said, gazing at him with huge eyes.

That one statement, along with her horrified look, told him everything he needed to know about the state of her innocence—as well as the state of her media-fed imagination. He bit back a grin and coughed a bit before he could respond.

“Ayme, do you think I’m not going to be able to control myself? Do you really think I’m going to attack you during the night?”

She looked very stern. Evidently that was exactly what she was worried about.

“Okay,” she said. “Here’s the honest truth. I’ve never slept in a bed with a man.”

“No!” He pretended to be surprised, then wished he hadn’t. He didn’t want her to think he was mocking her. It was really very cute that she was so concerned. Compared to most of the women he’d become accustomed to, it was delightful.

“No, really,” she was saying earnestly. “I don’t know what will happen. I…I don’t know men very well.” She shook her head, eyes troubled. “You read things…”

“Ayme, don’t pay any attention to what you read.”

He reached for her. It seemed a natural enough instinct to comfort her. He took her pretty face between his hands and smiled down at her.

“Pay attention to what I tell you. I won’t pretend I’m not attracted to you. I am. Any man would be. But it doesn’t mean a thing. And anyway, I can handle it. I’m not going to go mad with lust in the middle of the night.”

She nodded, but she still seemed doubtful. What he didn’t realize was that she was reacting to only one of the things he’d mentioned: the fact that to him being attracted to her didn’t mean a thing.

He’d realized by now that he shouldn’t have touched her at all and he drew back and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Then he frowned, watching emotions play over her face and wishing he’d never started down this road.

But now she could add missing the wonderful feel of his warm hands on her face to the fact that to him, she didn’t mean a thing. He’d actually said that. Any attraction between them was a biological urge, nothing more. She could have been any woman, it would have been the same.

Wow, she thought sadly. Talk about crushing a girl’s spirits. Didn’t mean a thing.

But what did she expect? She looked at him, at how large and beautiful he was. He was an exceptional man. He probably dated a lot of exceptional women. And he probably thought she was young and silly. Meanwhile, she’d begun to think that he was pretty wonderful.

He cleared his throat, wishing he understood women. She appeared unhappy and he didn’t know if it was because of the bed situation or if something else was bothering her. “So let’s just play this by ear, okay?” he tried hopefully.

“Okay,” she said softly.

“You sleep on your side, I’ll sleep on mine. If it would make you feel better, we can make a barrier down the middle with pillows.”

Her smile was bright but wavering. “Like an old Puritan bundling board?” she said.

“If you want.”

She seemed to be somewhat reassured, but he wasn’t. He could still feel the softness of her face against his hands. He shouldn’t have touched her.

“Where’s the bathroom?” she asked, looking about the room.

“Down the hall,” he said. “You can’t miss it.”

“What?” Ayme shuddered. This on top of everything. “Down the hall?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, no, I can’t share a public bathroom.” She was shaking her head as though this were the last straw. “Are you crazy?”

“This is the way old hotels are set up,” he told her. “You’ll have to get used to it. You’ll be okay.”

“I won’t,” she cried dramatically, flopping down to sit on the edge of the bed. “Bring me a chamber pot. I’m not leaving the room.”

She bit her lip. Deep inside, she was cringing. That hadn’t really been her, had it? Couldn’t be. She didn’t play the drama queen, didn’t believe in it. But it seemed a combination of circumstances had come against her all at once and for just a moment, she’d cracked.

She was tired, she was scared, she was exhausted, and she didn’t know where she was going or what was going to happen once she got there. It was no wonder she was on edge.

But she didn’t have to take it out on David. When you came right down to it, he was being very patient. In fact, he was a super guy. Which made it that much worse that she was having a silly tantrum. She could feel her cheeks redden.

Slowly she raised her gaze to his.

“Okay,” she said. “I’m done.”

“You sure?”

She nodded.

“I’m sorry,” she said, trying not to cry. “I’ll go check out that powder room now. I’m sure it will be lovely.”

It took all his strength to keep from laughing at her sweet, funny face. He pulled her to her feet by taking both hands in his.

“Come on. You can do it. Others have and lived to tell the tale.”

He smiled down at her as she looked up. He was so close. For a fleeting second or two, she had a fantasy, just the flash of an image, of what it might be like if he would kiss her.

But that was ridiculous. There was no reason for him to kiss her. This was not a kissing situation, and anyway, they weren’t in a kissing relationship. And never would be. Besides, any feeling between them didn’t mean a thing. Hadn’t he said so?

Get it out of your head, she scolded herself silently.

Sure, there had been a couple of hot looks between them when they had struggled over the body search incident. And certainly, his hands on her skin had sent her into some sort of sensual orbit for a moment or two. But that was just natural sexual attraction stuff. It might have happened with anyone.

Maybe.

She had to face facts here. She knew her own nature and was inclined to try to find a little romance in almost anything that happened. When she saw a film or a TV show and there was no love interest, her attention would wander. She wasn’t a deep thinker. Speculative theories could hold her interest for just so long and no longer. What she wanted to see and to think about was people loving each other.

Maybe it was because she’d never had a real romance of her own. She kept hoping, but no one really wonderful had ever come her way.

Until David, a little voice inside was saying.

Well, she couldn’t deny he was pretty darn good. Still, he could never be for her and she knew it. Right now they were thrown together. They were hiding. They were running from someone. They were both taking care of a baby. There wasn’t much romantic in all that, but it did keep them involved. She was just going to have to learn to keep his theory in mind at all times.

No matter what happened, it didn’t mean a thing.

And then, gritting her teeth, she made her way down the hall and found that the bathroom wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d expected. In fact, it was rather cozy, with newer decorations and more accessories than the hotel room itself.

The worst thing was the huge mirror set over a vanity area with a chair and small table. There she was in living color, looking even more horrible and haggard than she’d thought. She was a mess. Her hair resembled a bird’s nest. Her eyes were tired and the dark circles beneath them were epic. She groaned and immediately went to work, splashing water on her face and pinching her cheeks to get some color in them. As she tried to comb her hair into a more pleasing tangle, she realized what she was doing and why she was working so frantically to make herself look a bit better. She cared what David thought of her.

“Doggone-it,” she whispered, staring into her own eyes in the mirror. There was no hope. He’d already seen the worst of her.

She made her way to the corner market and found a brand of formula that looked like it would do. She was standing in line at the cashier when it occurred to her that she didn’t have the right money.

“Uh-oh.” She made a pathetic face to the bored-looking young woman behind the counter. “All I have are American dollars. I don’t suppose…”

The cashier shook her head, making all her many piercings jangle at the same time. “Nah. We’ve had some bad experiences. We don’t accept American money after six.”

Ayme stared at her wondering what difference the time made. “Uh…what if I…?”

“Sorry,” the girl said dismissively, pursing her brightly painted lips and looking toward the customer behind her.

Ayme sighed, starting to turn away. She might as well go back, climb the two flights of stairs, get some proper money from David, and do this all over again. But before she could vacate the premises, someone else had intervened, stepping forward to stop the clerk from going on to the next customer.

“Allow me, madam,” he said with a gracious nod of his head. In his hand was exact change. He gave it to the clerk with a flourish.

Ayme gasped.

“Oh. Oh, thank you so much.” She smiled at him, thoroughly relieved. What a nice man. He looked like her idea of what a composer or conductor should look like—eyes brightly seeing something over the horizon, white hair flying about his head, seeming to explode out from under a smallish felt hat, a supernatural smile as though he could hear music from the heavens. All in all, she thought he looked delightful, and she was so grateful she was bubbling with it.

“You are so kind. This is incredible. I wouldn’t accept it but I’m just so tired tonight and the baby is out. But I do have the money. If you’d like to come with me to the hotel room where we’re staying…”

Even as she said the words she realized this wasn’t a good idea. They were supposed to be in hiding, not inviting in strangers. She made a quick amendment to her suggestion.

“Please, give me your name and address so I can make sure you get repaid.”

He waved all her protestations away. “Don’t think twice about it, my dear. It’s not a problem.” He tipped his hat to her and turned to go. “I hope you have a safe journey to the continent.”

“Thank you so much.”

She smiled, but as he disappeared into the crowd on the street, her smile faded. How did he know she was on her way to the continent? She barely knew that herself. But this seaside town was a bit of a launching location for trips across the channel. So maybe she was taking his words too seriously.

Still, it did give her pause.

“I assume we’re going to the continent?” she said as she returned to the room and began to unpack the little bottles of formula. David already had Cici sound asleep in her new car seat, tilted back and rigged as a bed. “Is that our next move?”

“Yes. Tomorrow we’ll be crossing the channel,” he told her. He gave her a quick glance to make sure she was suffering no lasting damage from the earlier trip into a public facility, and the fact that she looked calm and pleasant seemed to confirm that all was okay.

“Heading for France?” she asked hopefully.

France! Paris! She would love to see it all.

But he gave her an enigmatic smile and avoided the issue.

“Possibly,” he said.

“Or possibly not,” she said mockingly, making a face.

He grinned.

“I almost didn’t get the formula,” she told him as she began to set up a feeding for Cici. She explained about the cashier and the white-haired man.

“It was so nice of him,” she said.

Alarms went off in David’s head but he quickly calmed himself. After all, she was a very attractive woman. Any man worth his salt would have stepped forward to help her in a moment of need. He would have done it himself. Hopefully that was all there was to it.

Still, he was wary.

“What did he say?” he quizzed her. “Tell me every detail.”

“Oh, he was just a nice old man,” she insisted, but she told him everything she could remember, and he couldn’t really find anything extraordinary in it.

“Let me know if you see him again,” he told her. He briefly considered changing hotels, but then he decided he was being a bit paranoid. There was really no reason to suspect the man of anything at all. “Right now I want you to lie down on that bed.”

“What?” she said, startled.

His mouth twisted. She was so predictable on certain subjects.

“I want you to get some sleep. I’m going out for a while, but when I get back, I’ll take care of Cici should she waken. We may have to take off at an odd hour. I want you to take this chance to get the rest you need.”

She turned to look at him. He was handsome as ever, but his eyes did look tired.

“But what about you? You’re the one who’s been driving and you need some sleep yourself.”

He gave her his long, slow smile that he only handed out on special occasions. “I never sleep.”

She laughed, charmed by that roguish smile. “Oh, please. What are you, a Superhero?”

“Not quite. But close.”

It occurred to her that she knew precisely what he was—wary and mistrustful of something. What exactly did he think was going to threaten them? What was it he was running from? He’d given her a brief sketch of his theories, but not many specifics. She wished he would tell her so she could worry, too.

“Ayme, do what I say,” he said firmly when she still hadn’t moved. “We don’t have time for long, drawn-out discussions.”

“Aye aye, sir,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“That’s the spirit,” he said approvingly. “Consider this a quasi-military operation. I’m the superior officer. You do what I say without questioning anything.”

She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Oh, that’ll be the day!”

“Indeed.” He shook his head and turned to go. “I have to go out to make a phone call.”

“Why can’t you do it from here? Don’t you have your cell phone?”

“I’ve got my mobile,” he responded. “But it’s not the phone I want to use for this call.”

“Oh.” More likely, she thought, it was a call he didn’t want her to overhear.

“I’ll be back.”

She didn’t bother to ask again. It was confusing at times. For whole moments he would seem to warm to her, and that special connection would spark between them. Then, in an instant, it was gone again. She wished she knew how to extend it.

But she had other things to think about. She got up off the bed and puttered for a bit, putting clothes away in the closet and cleaning off the dresser of things David had thrown there. Cici still slept. Maybe she would be able to get that nap in as David had suggested she do.

Something drew her to the side window, and peering down into the gathering gloom, she could see the walkway along the front of the hotel. Suddenly, she caught sight of David. He had a cell phone to his ear and seemed to be carrying on an energetic conversation with someone. She could see him gesticulating with his free hand. As she watched, he ducked into the side alleyway beside the hotel and she lost sight of him. She wondered who he was talking to. Hopefully it was someone who knew Cici’s father.

Funny how she always thought of him that way—Cici’s father—instead of Darius, the Ambrian Prince, or the lost royal. Was that because, deep down, she was pretty sure that either Sam had been fooling her or someone had fooled Sam. The story didn’t really seem to hold together. But maybe David would find out the truth.

It was interesting how she trusted him and she really didn’t want to analyze why that was. She had a feeling it had something to do with a deep need for a sense of stability in her life. She wanted him to be good. Therefore, he had to be good. Simple as that.

She looked at Cici. Babies were so adorable when they slept. She was starting to get a handle on how to care for a baby. At least, she thought she was. She was trying to copy everything that David did. It was obvious that a strong, steady hand, a soothing tone of voice and a sense of confidence made all the difference. Cici hadn’t been crying much at all and that was certainly a relief.

“I’m a fast learner,” she muttered to herself. “I will survive.”

Turning from the window, she lay down on the bed and fell instantly to sleep.