“Someone took her from the property. We don’t know what they want yet. If you know anything, you need to tell us now.”
The older woman went pale. “I should have said something earlier. I hired a woman, Alethea Narcharios, to follow her. I thought she could keep her safe from anything. I haven’t heard from her in two days,” Delinda said, clutching at the king’s arm as she sagged in shock. “Alethea can be headstrong. I thought she was investigating something she wouldn’t want me to know about. But Rachelle might not have been the first they took. Oh my God, what have I done?”
The king murmured something to Delinda that Magnus was beyond caring about. Someone had to have seen something. He would grill every royal guard and their families if that’s what it took to find Rachelle.
Just then, two royal guards entered the great hall half carrying, half dragging a man. “Your Majesty. Your Royal Highness. We found this man on the property.” They deposited him at Magnus’s feet.
The man stood, brushed himself off, and said, “Before you congratulate them on nabbing me, you might want to explain to them the difference between walking toward the house to tell you something and running away.”
He reminded Magnus of a man Rachelle had once described. “Reggie?”
The man held out his hand. “Yes. Nice to meet you, Mr. Prince, or whatever people call you.”
As insane as it was to hope, Magnus shook his hand and asked, “Did you see something?”
“I saw everything. That’s why I’m here.”
“You saw Rachelle get kidnapped?” Delinda asked in a high pitch.
“Easy, lady,” Reggie said. “I was on a hike with my family, mostly minding our own business. The kids wanted to see how far we could get onto the palace property before someone caught us, but when I saw that the guards had guns, I sent my wife and kids back to the hotel.”
“While you did what?” Phillip asked.
Reggie shrugged. “Just checked things out. Eric asked me to watch over Rachelle, and I try be around if she needs me.”
“Did you see who took her?” Phillip asked.
“Yes.”
“And you did nothing to stop them?” Magnus growled.
Reggie threw both hands up. “Four guys. All armed. I could have tried to fight them myself, but then I wouldn’t be alive to tell you what happened.”
“No, but she might be. You let someone take her while you did nothing?” Magnus wanted to strangle the man.
His father moved between them. “Magnus, let the man speak.”
“He doesn’t deserve to live to voice another word. He should have done something. Every moment she’s gone is one he could have prevented.”
“I tried to call your emergency numbers, but they thought I was pranking. Sorry if you don’t have a 1-800-Someone-Stole-Rachelle hotline. I rushed here as fast as I could. And not all of it was pleasant.” He glared at the guards who had brought him into the palace. “Now we can stand around all day and discuss what I could have done better, or I can tell you who took her and where they went.”
Magnus grabbed Reggie by the shirt collar. “Who took her? Where did they go? What did you hear?”
Reggie pulled himself free and squared his shoulders. “I’ll tell you as long as you all keep your damn hands to yourself. I might have some of this wrong, because I couldn’t exactly ask any questions, but I stayed and listened to what the men were talking about after one of them left with Rachelle. I guess you have some crazy cousin who thinks you cheated him out of his crown or something. He’s waiting with his son at some cabin or lodge or someplace he thinks your father, pardon what I’m about to say about you, Mr. King, sir, stole from him when he took the crown. I would have come to tell you sooner, but those guys were real chatty, and I had to wait for them to leave before I came out from the rock I was hiding behind. I gave myself a real cramp, too.”
A cold fury rose within Magnus. He’d faced and won against his cousin in the past, but he should have exiled him or worse. Like a cancer, time had only allowed him to get worse. “I know where he would take Rachelle. I’ll need a sniper team, Phillip.”
His father straightened to his full height. “Reggie, would you recognize those men if you saw them again?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then you’re coming with us. Phillip, have the royal guard lined up in the driveway. Reggie, if you see one of those men, point them out to us. We’ll deal with this on a larger scale once Rachelle is safely back with us.”
“I’m coming with you,” Delinda said, straightening.
“No,” Magnus started to say, but his father raised a hand to silence him.
“When you go to war, son, bring your allies with you,” the king said.
Reggie waved a thumb toward the king. “I’d listen to your father. He seems pretty smart.”
Magnus glared at Reggie, but he could not deny that without Reggie, he and his men would still be chasing their tails. By hiding and then delivering information to him, Reggie might just have saved Rachelle. “Okay, we go together. But this happens on my command.”
His father nodded. “Not even I would dare stand between a man and the woman he loves.”
Magnus took a moment to absorb his father’s declaration, then decided it was accurate. No one could have come between him and Rachelle. She was a part of him now.
Reggie spoke to the royal guards who had hauled him in. “Hear that? You guys might have worked here longer, but I bet I end up a knight or something.”
Delinda, still clutching the king’s arm, said, “I have people I trust, but they’d take too long to arrive. I don’t know how to help you. Tell me what I can do that won’t put her in more danger.”
“Trust my son,” the king said. “He will bring her home.”
Delinda wiped tears away from beneath her eyes. “I don’t have a choice, do I?” She turned her attention to Magnus. “If there is anything you need, any way I can help you, just say the word.”
Magnus nodded toward Reggie. “Keep him away from me.” Then he turned to Phillip. “We don’t have time to drive. Get us and those snipers in a chopper. We have the element of surprise, but not for long.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
A short time later, still bound and silenced with duct tape, Rachelle lay on her side on the floor of a large cabin deep in the woods. The royal guards who had carried her in had tossed her to one side, uncaring of how she landed. Rachelle was sure she had bruises, but she’d discovered that adrenaline canceled discomfort. She had never been so afraid in her life.
In the movies it all looked simple. She should be able to wiggle or squirm, release the restraints, and be given some kind of opportunity to escape. The reality she was facing was that duct tape didn’t allow for that kind of wiggle, and fear was paralyzing.
Soon after the guards had deposited her as if she were nothing, they’d walked into another room. She had strained to hear what they were saying, hoping to hear something useful. What she’d heard were several shots fired, then the thud of bodies hitting the floor. Had someone killed them? Had they just killed someone else they’d taken? She had no way of knowing, and asking herself those questions didn’t help.
Was there time to get away? She rolled away from the wall and knocked into the side of a chair. She attempted to rise up enough to inch forward, but her dress slipped and bunched beneath her, sending her back to the floor each time without successfully moving her ahead.
She heard two male voices coming toward her and froze. There was nothing she could do, no way to escape. All she could do was pray they wanted something that required not killing her.
A man who looked to be in his seventies looked over at her and made a sound of disgust. “I wish we could kill her now. We can’t. He may need to hear her voice. Get her out of the middle of the room before she knocks something over.”