“Knowledge is power, Princess, and I’m not in the habit of giving that commodity away.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“It’s your name.”
“My name is Lina.”
“But you are a princess.”
“And you are a cold-blooded Neanderthal, but I show you the respect of using your name regardless.”
“Fine, Lina. Are you ready to go?”
“I need to pack, but I would still like to know where we are going.”
His look told her she could go right on wanting answers. He wasn’t giving them away. Fine. If that’s the way he wanted to play it. She wasn’t ready to tip her hand by going all stubborn on him. She could guess their destination anyway. She figured they were headed for the airport in either Reno or Lake Tahoe. Tahoe was closer, but its airport was much smaller. Considering the type of rental car he had, there was a better chance the agency he’d rented from had a drop off at the Reno airport. Not that that sort of thing would be a major hurdle for a man with Sebastian’s resources, but business tycoon or not, he was a fan of efficiency.
Okay, so maybe she’d read an article…or ten…about him over the years.
The only thing she couldn’t be sure of was whether or not he’d take her directly to the airport or to a hotel. She started packing her things in a Gucci duffel bag her aunt had given her for her last birthday. She hadn’t brought much with her when she’d flown the coop and it only took a few minutes to pack her possessions. She shoved the used swimsuit in the outside pocket of the backpack that matched her duffel bag.
She’d laughed when she’d opened them and smiled now at the memory. Her aunt knew her pretty well and managed to give her gifts she would use, even if they were wildly more expensive than anything she would buy for herself. She had far more important things to do with her money.
She slung the backpack over her shoulder and grabbed the duffel bag. “I’m ready to go.”
“That’s it? No arguments…no demands to tell you where I’m taking you before we leave the room?” He sounded truly befuddled by her submissive façade.
Good. A confused enemy made an easier enemy to outwit. “Nope. No arguments.”
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything further. He took her duffel from her with such a natural movement, she let him have it. There was no reason to hold it back anyway. Everything important was in a money belt concealed under her clothes.
He tossed the duffel in his trunk and she noticed a black case in there as well. So, he wasn’t checked into a hotel nearby, not that she’d expected him to be.
They arrived in Reno late that evening. Hawk took Lina to the luxury villa, high in the hills on the outskirts of the city, that his agency had arranged for them. He hadn’t apprised King Fahd that his daughter was in custody yet. Hawk was a superstitious soul when it came to his baby, Hawk Investigations, since giving an incorrect report to a client a year ago, he did not report in until he was absolutely sure of his facts. It had been one of his operatives that had taken the pictures of the wrong twin, but that did not mitigate Hawk’s sense of responsibility about the false report.
He used the code his PA had texted him on the drive to disarm and open the door. He let Lina into the house and went back to the car for the cases. He doubted she would run in the dark up here in the hills. It was one of the reasons he’d requested this location for their accommodations.
Lina was in the kitchen getting a glass of water when he came back inside.
“I set the house alarm, so don’t open any doors or windows.”
She rolled her eyes. “You really think that’s necessary.”
“It pays to be cautious.”
“Well, no one would accuse you of being sloppy.”
“So….”
She turned to face him, taking a sip of her water. “Yes?”
“No arguments about how I shouldn’t be taking you back to your family. No appeals to my democratic beliefs about human rights and liberties?”
A brief flash of anger burned in her doe-brown eyes before it banked and she shrugged. “What would be the point? I learned all I needed to know about how much you respected my privacy and personal rights eight years ago. You showed me then that you would do or say anything to get the job done. I fully expect you to do the same this time around.”
While he understood her cynical view of him, it still stung. And it shouldn’t. Her opinion of him should not matter at all, but just like eight years ago—she was already becoming more than just an ignment. “I’m not the one letting people down here, Princess.”
She frowned. “Neither am I.”
“So, the security company that lost your father’s account because of your little flit and the guard that lost his job…how do you not see yourself letting them down?” Damn it, what was the matter with him? Maybe Lina wasn’t living up to what her family considered her responsibilities, but she wasn’t a criminal.
“First, the company having my father’s account is not my responsibility, it’s theirs. Second, I made sure the security guard was compensated for losing his job,” she said, ticking the items off on her fingers. “And if you check, you’ll discover he already has a new one with better benefits.”
“What do you mean he’s been compensated? Did you pay him off to look the other way?”
Her body stiffened with affront. “I did not. I wouldn’t compromise someone else’s integrity like that. I arranged for payment after the fact.”
“Like you supposedly arranged for another job offer?”
“Exactly.”
“You expect me to believe that after he lost you, he had no problem getting a better job?”
“It all depends on how you define better. I found out that Rodney didn’t really like being a bodyguard, but he didn’t think he had any other marketable skills since he got out of the military. I encouraged him to take classes at the local college when he wasn’t watching me. When it came time to part ways with him, he was educated enough to qualify for a job he really wanted. With the proper recommendation of course.”
“Which you gave him.”
“Yes.”
“Wow.”
Lina’s look said she thought he was being sarcastic, but he wasn’t. He was really impressed. She’d cared enough about her bodyguard not only to get to know him, but to have a backup plan for when she took a flit. “How long have you been planning to run?”
“Believe it, or not, it wasn’t a plan. The timing just worked out for Rodney to move on the same time I did. I was planning to encourage him to go for the other job anyway.”
“Still the social activist, huh?”
“You’ve read my file, so you know the answer to that.”
“Your file says that you work for an environmentalist group and spend your few off hours volunteering at a shelter for runaway teens.”
“Technically I no longer work for the organization.”
“You can do just as much good in your role as princess, maybe even more.” He wanted to believe that. Lina without her causes wouldn’t be his princess at all.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better about having my life hijacked?”
“No one is hijacking your life.”
“Really? So, my father would be fine with me walking out of here? You wouldn’t follow me?”
Unreasonable anger tinged with guilt surged through him, but he kept his voice even. “You know that’s not true.”
She simply looked at him as if to say that her point had been made.
“Your father is worried about your safety. Leaving behind your security was not a smart move, Lina.” Hell, the truth? Even if he just now realized it, was that half the reason he’d come after her himself was because he’d been worried about her.
She crossed her arms under her s, lifting them in purely innocent enticement. “My father’s only concern for me is my ability to further his political agenda. As for leaving behind my security detail, I believe we had this discussion once before. If no one knows who I am, then there can be no threat to my safety.”
“If you believe that, I’ve got several thousand police reports where women are victimized for you to read.”
“Oh, please. Every other woman lives in the same world as those police reports and ninety-nine-point-nine percent of them don’t have bodyguards.”
“You are not those women.”
“What makes me so different?” she demanded.
“You’re a princess. You were raised in a privileged environment.”
“And I’ve spent the last five years living a normal life. I’m no more at risk than any other woman out there.”
“That’s not true.” And her refusal to see that she couldn’t hide from who she was did not bode well for her future.