“I don’t know what he’s told me in the past. But that doesn’t mean you can’t tell me who these people are.”
No dice. It was more than obvious now that the discussion was at an end.
“I really should get back in. We have more Dyholm business to deal with,” Bryan said.
“Please don’t do this. If there’s something I should know, something that affects my life with Christopher, I deserve to know. As you are well aware, I’m more than a little lost here. My memory . . .”
“You’ll have to ask my brother.” Bryan began walking away, but he turned back toward her. “Please don’t head anywhere near the cliffs, Adara. They can be . . . dangerous.”
He glanced toward those jagged rocks with a lost look in his eyes, but then the same blank expression as before took over his features again. And this time he actually left.
What had put that look into his eyes? Adara decided she was in no way ready to return to the palace. Yes, Chris was currently tied up in business meetings, but he could be done at any time, and she wasn’t prepared to see him. With the new information that Bryan had given her — though not much of it — she had even more to think about.
Maybe marrying Chris was a bad decision. If she had all of these doubts, shouldn’t she take her time? She smiled briefly and thought that she, with a background in studying the stars, should consult her horoscope. But that little joke didn’t comfort her.
Why wasn’t her life easier? She headed toward those cliffs, and when she reached them, she leaned against the black iron railing to look over at the water far down below. Closing her eyes, she imagined being there in prehistoric times. So much simpler.
Of course, she wouldn’t have had much of a choice whether to marry back then. The men were the ones in charge. Hell, maybe they still were, though women had proved in the modern world that they were just as capable as men. If not more so.
But what a lonely life it would be to go it all alone. That wasn’t what she wanted. All she wanted was to make sure she was marrying the right man. Divorce? No. Definitely not.
Opening her eyes again, she turned a corner, following the path where it led. Peace filled her as she got away from view of the palace. There, eyes were always on her, everywhere she went, and it was an eerie feeling. At least no one was watching her this far from the palace.
Or so she thought.
She heard a noise behind her, and she whirled around to see three people approaching. Her eyes widened when she recognized the one in the lead.
“We meet again, Adara.”
The woman who’d threatened her in the restroom at the restaurant stood before her, and two very large men were directly behind.
“What are you doing here?” Adara asked. “What do you want?”
“Interesting question,” the woman said. “But you’ll have to wait to find out.”
“Vanessa, we really must go,” one of the men said.
“Shut up, Edwin. I will go when I please,” she snapped. “And I told you not to use my name.”
“What does it matter? She won’t be able to tell anyone,” he shot back.
“Look, I really don’t want any trouble,” Adara told them all as she cast about for any exit strategy.
“It’s far too late for that,” Vanessa said as she pulled out some sort of gun and pointed it at Adara.
“Don’t do this,” Adara said as she took several staggering steps back.
“Have a nice nap, dear,” Vanessa said before firing the weapon.
A dart entered her shoulder, and Adara didn’t know whether to feel even more panic as blackness began overtaking her, or to feel relief that she wasn’t dead yet — it wasn’t a bullet.
She never got a chance to decide.
Chapter Thirteen
You have a telephone call, Your Highness.”
Chris moved over to the desk and picked up the line, a smile still on his face.
“Hurry up, brother,” Xander told him. “I want to end this meeting so I can get back to my wife.”
“This is Christopher,” the prince said into the mouthpiece.
“We require that you meet us at the southern end of the Rinalde Mountains.”
Chris bristled and sent the full force of his royal voice hurtling through the phone lines. “Who is this that you think you can command me in this way?”
“All you need to know is that I’m a member of the Arcano. We are displeased in the extreme with the royal family, as you can easily imagine. You’ve broken away from centuries of traditions that we instituted, decided that your family can rule without our help. We cannot let that happen. We have your intended bride. It is her life or yours that we take. The choice is up to you.”
The phone line went dead, and Chris dropped the receiver, turning toward his brothers without knowing what to say.
“What is it?” Xander asked. He and Bryan rushed up to their little brother.
“They have Adara.” Chris’s knees were suddenly unsteady, shaking.
“We’ll get her back,” Xander said. The king’s eyes were flashing dangerously.
“Where are they holding her?” Bryan demanded.
Neither bothered to ask who had Adara. They all knew there was only one enemy. The Arcano.
“They are never going to go away,” Chris said, coming out of his shock, and rage beginning to take over.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever get all of the Arcano, but someday it will end,” Xander said. “Because each time we take out one of them, it weakens the collective. And we’ve done rather well. One day they will no longer pose a threat to us or our families.”
“They want me to meet them at the southern end of the Rinalde Mountains,” Chris told them. He moved away from the desk and past the conference table, and he headed toward the door.
Bryan grabbed Chris’s arm to stop him. “What are you doing?” the middle brother asked.
Chris turned around and growled. “I need to go there, to save Adara,” he said. “Take your hands off me, dammit!”
&nb
sp; “Be reasonable,” Xander said. “You aren’t going to just rush in there like a fool. We need to figure this out. They won’t kill her if you’re not there. They want you to suffer. What exactly did they tell you?”
“How can you be so calm? It’s really pissing me off, and I was already beyond angry, Xander,” Chris told him.
“Trust me, brother, if it were Reanna they were holding, you would be the one having to calm me down.”
“I know that, but I need to move, need to get there and do what I can save her life.”
“Tell us what terms they laid down,” Bryan said, still gripping Christopher’s arm.
“They told me it’s either her head or mine — they didn’t care which,” Chris said through clenched teeth. “They can have my life if that’s what it comes down to, but they won’t take hers. I can’t allow that.”
“Do you honestly think they’ll let either of you live?” Bryan asked. “They will execute her in front of you as a form of torture. To rip you apart. And then they’ll kill you. And if they get the opportunity, they will come after me and my family, and of course Xander’s, since he’s now our king.”
“He’s right, Chris,” Xander said. “We must think this through. They picked the southern end of the mountains because there’s only one way in and one way out that they are aware of. I’m sure they have men staked out at strategic points. We can’t take a chopper in there — they’d see us first, and they’d take us out easily. Shoot us down in the air. We’ll have to walk in. But we aren’t going in there blind.”
“I just want to go,” Chris said.
“Not yet. What we have to do could have grave consequences. We’ll be risking almost our entire royal line, Chris, and yet I’m willing to risk it all. Family will always come first to me. But we need to think for a moment, to make the most effective plan.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Chris asked tensely, bitterly. He was tired of all this talking. They should be moving.
