The Lost Princes: Darius, Cassius and Monte

“I don’t think so.” She made a sideways move that put even more distance between them.

“Ayme, be reasonable.”

“Reasonable!” She laughed out loud. “Reasonable? You call searching me to see if I’m wearing a bug reasonable? I call it unacceptable. And I’m not going to accept it.”

“You’re going to have to accept it.”

“Don’t you think any bugs are more likely to be in my clothing or luggage?” she noted quickly.

He nodded his agreement. She was absolutely right. But there was another element to this situation. Now that he’d alerted her to his intentions, he had to follow through without giving her a chance to go behind his back to get rid of anything she might know about that she had on her. He’d started this train down the track and he had to follow it to the end if this was to be in any way effective.

“I’m planning to search your things. But first I need to search you.”

He gave her a stern look as he followed her sideways move.

“Hold still.”

Reaching out, she quickly dragged a chair between them and gazed defiantly over it.

“Why are you doing this, David? Who’s after you? Whom do you suspect?”

He moved the chair aside and stepped closer.

“We don’t have time to go into that.”

“No, wait,” she said, half rolling across the bed and landing on her feet without losing her sheet. Now she’d put the entire bed between them and she was feeling a bit smug about that.

Not that her success would hold up. She knew that. Still, she hoped it was getting through to him that she was not happy about all this and she was not about to give in.

“David, tell me what’s changed,” she challenged. “Something must have.” She frowned at him questioningly. “When you first found me here, you were annoyed, sure, but now it’s different. Now you’re on guard in an edgier way.” Her eyes narrowed. “It was that phone call, wasn’t it?”

He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes,” he admitted.

“Do you know who it was?”

He shook his head. “No, but it seemed like a wake-up call. It made me realize I was being too casual about you.”

“Too casual! I beg to differ.”

He stared at her and growled, “Ayme, enough. We need to get going. But first, we’ve got to check you out. Someone might have put a bug on you somewhere, somehow.”

“Without me noticing?”

“That’s what they do, Ayme. They’re experts at attaching devices to your clothes or your purse or even your body in ways you wouldn’t think of.”

“Who? Who do you think would do that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe this character who gave you my name.”

She shook her head, thinking that one over. It didn’t make any sense at all. “But he’s the one who gave me your address. He already knows where you live. Why would he…?”

“Ayme, I don’t know,” he said impatiently. “And when you don’t know things, it’s best to cover all the bases. Will you stand still and let me look you over? I promise I won’t…”

“No.” Her voice was a little shaky, but adamant. “It won’t do any good, anyway. I’ve seen those TV shows. They have gotten very inventive about hiding things on people. There’s no way you can check it all. There’s no way I would let you.”

He sighed, shaking his head as he looked at her.

“You think I don’t know that? I can only do so much, and probably only find something if it’s pretty obvious. But I have to try. Look, Ayme, I’m really sorry, but…”

Her face lit up as she thought of a solution. She looked at him speculatively, wondering if he would go for it. With a shrug, she decided she had nothing to lose.

“I’ll do it,” she said firmly, shaking back her hair.

He stared at her. “You’ll do it? You’ll do what?”

Her smile was bemused. “I’ll do it. Myself. Why not? Who knows my body better?” She gave him a grin that was almost mischievous. “You’re going to have to trust me.”

He stared. Trust her? But that wouldn’t work. Would it?

Why not? asked a voice inside his head. Look at that face. If you can’t trust this woman, you can’t trust anyone.

Which was actually what he’d pledged from the beginning—don’t trust anyone. Still, there were times when you just had to make concessions to reality.

“Okay,” he said at last. “Go for it. We’ll see how you do.”

“I’ll see how I do,” she corrected. “You’ll be going over my bags and clothes. With your back to me. Got it?”

“Ayme,” he began in exasperation, but she signaled that he should turn away. It was pretty apparent that following her orders was going to be the only way to move things along, and they really needed to get going. So, reluctantly, he did as she demanded.

He went through her things methodically. He’d had some training in this sort of search in some security classes he’d taken lately, so he didn’t feel as strange handling her panties and bras as he might have under other circumstances. He had to take it on faith that she was doing her part. She chattered away throughout the entire exercise—and he didn’t find a thing.

“I really understand, you know,” she was saying. “And I want to do a good job at this because I figure, if I’m going with you, the danger is as much to me and Cici as it is to you.”

“You got it,” he said. “That’s the whole point.”

“So I just want you to know, I’m really being meticulous.”

“Good.”

“Searching every place I can think of.”

That gave him pictures in his head he didn’t want to dwell on and he shook off a delicious little shiver.

“Are you finished?” he asked at last, waiting for the okay to turn around.

“Just about,” she said. “Listen, I saw this one show on TV where they had these little homing signal things sort of stapled into a man’s skin. What do you think? Is that really a possibility?”

“Sure.”