“Yes, Alex?”
“You’ve more than earned your pay today, my friend.”
“What do you mean? What’s going on?”
Alex wished he knew. “It’s my ring, Leo. One I parted with a long time ago, but the memory is hazy.” Since that experience he’d done everything in his power to be a good king, including agreeing to marry the princess his parents favored. No hint of scandal had touched his life until now, less than a month before his wedding…
“When exactly?” the other man fired.
“Thirteen years ago while I was on a trip, Chaz and I spent a wild night drinking with some girls. Things got out of control. I’d forgotten until I saw the photos.”
Leo let out a low whistle. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“Don’t be fooled. I have a few skeletons lying around.”
His friend made a strange sound in his throat. “This one might have come back to bite you, if you follow my meaning.”
“I know exactly what you mean.”
Depending on this woman’s agenda, she could hurt him and the people he loved in ways he refused to let happen.
There was a palpable silence, then Leo asked, “How can I help? I’ve done everything to keep this suppressed, but you never know.”
“Tell me about it,” he muttered. “I’m going on a private fishing expedition, Leo. Alert your most trusted men to board my jet within the hour. The second this woman’s flight leaves the ground, I want to be notified.”
“Consider it done.” After another silence, “Alex—”
“I know what you’re going to say, Leo. But I’m afraid the time for damage control was years ago.”
By the time Darrell Collier’s jet landed at the Denver airport, she’d cried all the tears she was going to cry. Her final, fool-hardy attempt to unite her adopted son with his phantom father had completely failed. To her deep-felt sorrow, Phillip would never know the name or the whereabouts of the man who’d impregnated Darrell’s sister before disappearing from her life.
Deprived of the father he’d never known, Phillip was entering his teens with a giant chip on his shoulder.
Darrell loved him with her whole heart and soul, but his anger at fate had made him so difficult to handle these days, she realized she needed to get professional help for him.
Things were building to a crisis state. She felt more helpless now than when Melissa had died after giving birth twelve years ago, leaving Darrell to raise her sweet little dark-blond boy alone.
It had been the two of them against the world.
After her final effort to make contact with his father, it was still the two of them forging ahead alone. That was the way it would always be.
She could only hope that in time he would let the anger go and embrace his life. He had everything to live for, but right now he couldn’t see beyond the unfairness of an existence without a dad. Emotionally he reminded her of Melissa, who’d also felt deprived because of a car accident that had robbed them of their parents.
Her pain had turned her into a willful and tempestuous teen their grandmother couldn’t handle. It appeared history would be repeating itself unless Darrell took an active stance to help Phillip before it was too late.
Having a plan was better than no plan, she told herself as she took the train to get her luggage. After retrieving it, she left the terminal and headed for the parking lot, anxious to get home. She’d been gone three days and missed him horribly. She couldn’t wait to pick him up.
Eventually she reached her compact car. As she was putting her suitcase in the trunk, two men suddenly appeared out of nowhere dressed in shirt sleeves and Jamaica shorts.
“Ms. Collier?”
Though it was midafternoon and there were other people around, she suddenly felt nervous. “Yes?”
They flashed her their photo ID cards.
FBI?
“If you’ll come with us, we’ll take you to a place where you can meet with the king of Valleder in private.”
Darrell was convinced she was hallucinating. After the balmy temperatures in Switzerland, this long walk in the sweltering one hundred degree July heat must have gotten to her.
“The king is here? In Denver?”
“Yes, ma’am. He’s made it possible for you to discuss a certain private matter with him.”
The other federal agent handed her the envelope containing the photos she’d left with the police in the capital city of Bris.
So he had recognized the ring.
After giving up all hope, she was incredulous this was happening now. In a daze she slowly shut the trunk lid.
“The king is waiting. We’ll bring you back to your car later.”
The next few minutes passed in a blur as she was helped into the back seat of an unmarked car. One of the agents sat next to her. The other sat in front next to the driver. At a glance she realized there were several unmarked cars with agents forming a cortege.
The driver left the airport and took the E470, a toll road that eventually led to the Centennial Airport where the private jets landed. They wound around to a gleaming white jet with the Valleder royal coat of arms on the side.
She saw the stairs being lowered. Security people were everywhere.
One of them greeted her after she’d gotten out of the car. Another stood at the bottom of the stairs.
“His Majesty is just inside. Go ahead.”
Feeling she was in some sort of trance, Darrell climbed the steps, wondering if she’d wake up before she reached the opening.
“Oh—” she cried softly when a well honed male who stood six foot three stepped out from the interior.
He was a stranger, yet because of certain physical traits that reminded her of Phillip, he looked familiar, too.
A relentless afternoon sun gilded the natural highlights of his wavy dark-blond hair.
The Internet pictures of the king of Valleder could never do justice to his rugged masculine appeal, let alone capture the intensity of his unique hazel eyes.
His gaze traveled over her classic features that hadn’t seen makeup in twelve hours. It lingered on her puffy, tear-swollen eyes the color of drenched pansies. With her shoulder-length ash-blond hair needing a shampoo, and her aqua blouse and skirt looking less than fresh, she’d never felt a bigger mess.
The realization that she was standing before the king she’d risked a great deal to meet was so surreal, she couldn’t think clearly.
He had her at a distinct disadvantage. As his gaze swept over her feminine attributes, heat rose through her body from her curling toes to the crown of her head.
Compelled by a force stronger than her will, her gaze took in his white sport shirt covering a well-defined chest. He wore tan chinos that molded his rock-hard legs, hinting at powerful thighs.
Looking at him made her realize that one day her tall, lanky son would resemble his attractive father in quite a few ways.
“Ms. Collier, I presume?”
Still in disbelief that he’d flown all this way, she was too tongue-tied to think with any coherence. She cleared her throat. “Yes. I know you’re the king, but I—I don’t know what to call you,” she stammered in embarrassment.
“I