The Royal Treatment

And maybe he was a masochist.

At any rate, it’d certainly be the most interesting assignment he’d been given since joining the RII.

He looked at Franklin. “A few days?”

The man nodded slowly. “At the most.”

“I’ll do my best,” J.T. told him.

“I knew I could count on you.”

A few minutes later, Jeremy was letting himself out of the security office and heading back to the guardhouse. Autumn sunshine spilled out of a cloudy sky and he told himself that he should enjoy it while it lasted. He had a feeling he was headed into stormy weather.

Three

The next morning, J.T. sat through the security briefing, but his mind was several miles away. Five, to be exact. He imagined Jade in a plush office, snapping orders at a battalion of minions. Once she’d finished making heads roll, she would no doubt sit back in a comfortable chair, sip a morning cup of tea and plan how next she would try to ruin his life.

And she’d do it all with a smile curving that fabulous mouth of hers.

Around him, the other members of the RII shifted and muttered to one another, but as far as J.T. was concerned, they had the easy jobs. All they had to do was concern themselves with defense of the palace. Routine tasks, with only the occasional chance to jump in front of some crazed assassin. He, on the other hand, would soon be dealing with the only woman who’d ever been able to get to him.

His fingers tightened around the pen in his right hand. Just to torture himself, J.T. had started his day by watching her early morning report on PEN-TV. Real investigative stuff, he mused now, making a point of relaxing his hand. Jade Erickson had looked directly into the camera and, with a beaming smile on her face, reported a story on the old smugglers caves. Then she’d even launched into the local belief that ghosts of long-dead pirates still haunted the dank caverns.

His amusement had died quickly enough, though, when he reminded himself that she’d walked out on him and what they might have had together for the opportunity to smile into a camera.

Of course, he didn’t want to think about just how good she’d looked, standing in the wind, with the roaring sea just behind her. How her auburn hair had flown about her face with abandon and how her sea-green eyes had seemed to stare directly into his.

All right, he thought, pushing her image out of his brain. He didn’t need to think about her now. He’d be seeing her all too soon as it was.

After a sleepless night, Jade was in no mood to be stonewalled at the palace gates today. She’d thought about it long and hard during the hours she’d spent sitting straight up in bed, gripping her self-defense weapon—a golf club. For weeks now, she’d been receiving those vaguely threatening letters. Only recently had they begun to get a bit creepier. But the video stalking was definitely upping the ante.

Yet she couldn’t allow this individual, whoever it was, to affect her work. If she crawled off into a hole and hid away, then the person trying to scare her would have won. Besides, there was no guarantee that hiding would protect her. Maybe it was safer to stay in the public eye. Certainly, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for someone to kidnap her out of the station. Or from in front of a news camera.

No, the thing to do was to go on with her everyday life as if nothing were wrong. To surrender was to lose power in this, and she wouldn’t allow that to happen. She’d fought for a long time to have the kind of career she’d always dreamed of. She’d given up the man she loved. She’d made this choice and now she would find a way to make it work.

In fact, she hadn’t even bothered to go into the station first this morning. Hadn’t had to. They’d run one of her taped pieces on the morning news. She’d simply called in and had Harry meet her at her apartment. Might as well beard J.T. in his den as early as possible.

“You okay?” Harry asked as he steered the station van down the tree-lined street toward the palace.

“Dandy,” she said, and tugged the hem of her camel-brown skirt over her knees.

“Well, you don’t look okay.”

“Gee thanks, Harry.” Jade smiled at her cameraman. They’d been together for two years and Harry was her best friend at the station. “You’re such a sweet-talker.”

The older man grumbled unintelligibly for a minute or two, then sucked in a deep breath and blew it out again. “I only meant that you look tired.”

So much for the miraculous properties of makeup. She flipped the visor down and peered at her own reflection in the small mirror. He was right. Jade sighed, flipped the visor back up and admitted, “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Another letter?” he asked, his voice tight with worry.

“No,” she said quickly, “no more letters.” She’d already decided not to tell him about the videotape. The police and her bosses at the station weren’t concerned about the letters she’d been receiving. But Harry, bless him, was. No point in telling him about the tape. Anyway, she had the video with her and planned to take it to the police station herself this afternoon.

Besides, it hadn’t been worry keeping her up half the night. It had been dreams of J.T. Memories. His face floating through her mind and the recollection of his touch on her body… Nope. No sleep for Jade.

“That’s good.” Harry steered the van around a stalled car, pushed his way into the stream of traffic again, then asked, “So why are we hitting the palace bright and early? This could have waited until later.”

“Maybe,” she conceded, and stifled a yawn. “But why wait? If I catch him early enough in the morning, maybe he’ll be off guard.”

“Him?” Harry snorted a laugh and came to a stop as a gaggle of schoolchildren raced across the street, their laughter bubbling in their wake. Sliding a glance at her, the older man said, “I don’t think that man’s ever had his guard down.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” she muttered, keeping her gaze fixed on the passing traffic. Anything to make her mind too busy to dredge up yet another image of J.T. “There’s a first time for everything.”

“Yeah,” he muttered, stepping on the gas again, “and that goes for getting hit by lightning, run down by a car….”

“That’s the spirit,” she said with a laugh.

Harry shook his head as he parked the van. Throwing the gearshift into Park, he cut the engine and slanted her another look. “Spirit’s not going to cut it in this one, Jade. If they don’t want you in the palace, you’re not going to be able to charm your way in.”

She stared through the windshield at the palace gates fifty feet away. Uniformed guards were positioned just outside, and through the iron scrollwork, she saw more guards marching across the compound. None of them looked friendly. But then, they weren’t supposed to, were they?

This was her country, though. As a citizen of Penwyck, she had every right to enter that compound. Heck, she could sign up for a tour and get farther inside than she had yesterday. As that thought occurred to her, Jade’s brain raced with possibilities. It was as though she were in a cartoon and a light-bulb had just clicked on over her head. She could pay for a tour, and then somewhere along the route through the public rooms, she could simply…get lost. If she wandered away from her tour group and just happened to stumble into the royal family’s private quarters, no one could really blame her, right? After all, they didn’t behead people anymore. What did she have to lose?

“Oh,” Harry said softly, “I don’t think I like that look in your eyes.”

“I’m going to get inside the palace today,” she assured the man beside her. “By hook or by crook.”

“And when they arrest us?” Harry asked, his normal gloomy tone even more morose than usual.

Jade turned to look at him. Reaching out, she patted his arm and said, “We’ll ask for adjoining cells.”

“Now that’s real comforting, thanks.”

“Relax, Harry,” Jade said, a slow smile curving her mouth. “When have I ever gotten us in over our heads before?”

“Let’s see…” Harry held up his right hand, ticking off items on his fingers one by one. “There was the time you wanted to do an exposé on the Royal Navy and we got stuck belowdecks of that carrier when she shipped out.”

She waved one hand dismissively. “They found us within hours.”

“Then there was the time you wanted to do an aerial report from a hot-air balloon and you accidentally pulled the string releasing the hot air and we—”

“Made it safely down to earth,” she pointed out quickly. Besides, it had been a great report. She’d had to do outrageous stunts over the last couple of years. Anything to get herself noticed, to stand out from the crowd of pretty faces looking for a shot at success.

He sent her a look from beneath raised eyebrows. “Then there was—”

“Okay,” she said, holding her hands up in mock surrender. There was definitely a downside to having the same cameraman over the years. Especially one with a memory like Harry’s. “You made your point. So, there’ve been a few unfortunate incidents.”

“Unfortunate?”