At first, Angelina was afraid she would have to take the cameraman out by way of the side chapel, where people would see what she was doing, and perhaps cause a panic. The king wishes nothing to disrupt the ceremony or detract from the religious solemnity of the occasion flashed into her mind again.
The door to the sacristy appeared in her side vision, and Angelina gratefully steered her captive toward it. Perfect, she thought. The door had scarcely closed behind them when it opened again, and Angelina whirled around, dragging the cameraman backward with her to confront this new threat. She breathed a quick sigh of relief when she recognized Alec, until the idea occurred to her he might think she wasn’t capable of handling this on her own.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded fiercely, while at the same time making sure she didn’t raise her voice loud enough to be heard outside the sacristy. “This is not your responsibility! I do not need your assistance!”
Alec’s eyes narrowed, but the flash of admiration in them mollified her. He turned, locked the door, and faced Angelina again. “I know you don’t need me—you’ve got everything under control,” he said in the same low voice. “But Princess Mara recruited my help in saving her brother and his family—that makes it my responsibility.” He indicated her captive. “And shouldn’t this discussion wait for a more opportune moment? Like after this man is secured and interrogated?”
Angelina realized he was right. She needed to contact Captain Zale immediately to let him know her status, that this would-be assassin was no longer a threat to the royal family. But with both hands occupied, that was impossible. Not to mention she could use some help tying him up.
She glanced around for something, anything, they could use. She hated to use any of the priestly vestments for this very unpriestly requirement, but the sacristy was woefully lacking anything else that might substitute for the handcuffs a policeman would carry but a bodyguard didn’t. Alec made it easy for her, grabbing a pure white stole—the long, narrow strip of cloth priests and bishops wore draped around their necks— from a hanger, and approaching Angelina and her captive, careful not to interfere with the control she still maintained over the man.
“Hands behind you,” he told the cameraman in Zakharan.
The man hesitated, and Angelina pressed her weapon even tighter against his neck. “Do it!” she commanded.
It wasn’t easy. Since she still held the man in a chokehold, Alec had to maneuver between her body and the cameraman’s in order to bind the man’s hands behind his back. Despite the adrenaline still coursing through her body, or perhaps because of it, Angelina was acutely conscious of everywhere Alec accidentally touched her. When he was finally finished and the cameraman was securely trussed, she released the iron hold she’d had on the man’s neck and swiftly holstered her SIG SAUER P320. She gave the man a little push in Alec’s direction.
“Watch him, please. I must contact Captain Zale.” She moved a short distance away, tapping her earpiece and uttering Captain Zale’s name but still keeping her gaze glued on Alec and their prisoner.
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
“All secure here, sir. We are in the sacristy. But I was forced to leave the gun he was going to use—” She stopped abruptly as Alec shook his head and opened his coat, showing the would-be assassin’s Glock 18C tucked neatly into his belt. Her eyes met Alec’s, and this time it was her admiration for him glowing there. She smiled her appreciation of his quick thinking. “Cancel that, sir. Alec Jones, the US RSO is with me. He secured the weapon and has it with him.”
“Good job, Lieutenant.” Just three little words of praise, but the tone they were uttered in meant the world to her. She’d done her job. She’d saved the crown prince. And she’d managed to do it without disrupting the religious ceremony, just as the king had wished. A flush of pride rose to her cheeks, despite her best efforts to contain it.
“The other cameraman is already in custody, also without incident,” Captain Zale continued. “And the christening ceremony is nearly over. Stay there for the time being. I will send someone to retrieve your prisoner so you can accompany the queen back to the palace. With this attempt on the royal family, their security is paramount, and I want you guarding the queen. I must stay to interrogate the prisoners, so I am counting on you and the other man I assign to ensure the queen’s safety. You are not relieved of that duty until I say you are relieved. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
When they disconnected, Alec raised his eyebrows in a question, and Angelina quickly relayed the conversation to him. Not the few words of praise or her reaction to them, but that Captain Zale wanted her to accompany the queen back to the palace and was sending someone to relieve her here.