It was a threat, pure and simple. He’d intended to use the carrot, but he had no qualms now about using the stick.
Andreas frowned, because the entitled old fool hadn’t done his due diligence. But it was Faron who looked crestfallen.
‘But, Monsieur Caras, the prince assured me you had relinquished your interest in the land and a marriage with his daughter…’
The mention of the marriage in conjunction with the land deal again had Theo’s alarm bells getting louder, but he had no desire to be here now, when Freya wasn’t going to make an appearance tonight.
‘Think again, Faron. Prince Andreas…’ he added, giving Freya’s father a perfunctory nod before stalking away from both men.
Staff rushed backwards and forwards in the palace’s brightly lit service corridors as Theo made his way to the East Wing exit to collect his bike. Once he arrived at the garden car park andasked for Stéphane an older man appeared, and headed off to fetch his bike and jacket… But as he stood under the portico, hunched against the cold, his fury with the whole damn situation fired through his bloodstream.
The land deal could wait. But he intended to come back tomorrow now, and demand to see the princess. He didn’t care how sick she was, he wanted to know why she had chosen Faron over him.
He was still fuming when he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. It took him several seconds to clear his furious thoughts long enough to register what he was seeing…
Was someone climbing up the ornate façade of the building?
He tugged his hand out of his pocket to hail one of the other parking attendants and tell them to alert security… But he couldn’t take his eyes off the figure.
Something had him lowering his hand and shoving it back into his pocket.
Whoever the person was, they were slight, no more than a boy. They weren’t climbing up the building, they were climbing down, the backpack they wore a sign they’d already completed their night’s work.
From the all-black attire blending into the darkness, he realised it had to be a cat burglar.
A wave of nostalgia and admiration made his ribs feel tight as he watched the thief clamber down the rope, then drop nimbly onto his feet.
How many times had he climbed into the best hotels in Athens as a boy, to steal trinkets from tourists? He’d easily justified those ‘missions’. He and his brother had needed to eat, and those tourists had been so rich, they would never have missed a few baubles. Of course, when Xander had discovered Theo’s night-time activities, he’d gone ballistic and forced him tostop taking such dangerous risks. But Theo could still recall the thrill of those late-night forays.
The fear of being caught had been almost as exhilarating as the feeling of achievement when he’d pocketed the cash from the gangland fence. Even knowing he’d been paid only a fraction of what those jewels were worth hadn’t deterred him, because he’d loved owning such beauty, if only for a few precious hours before he was forced to sell them.
He observed the thief’s progress, darting across the gardens disguised by the shadows.
To hell with it, why should he turn the kid in? The boy had somehow managed to get past the palace security and Theo owed no loyalty to the royal family—especially not the princess who had thrown him over for a fat Frenchman twice his age.
But then the slender thief ran past the fountain—the ornate centrepiece shrouded in snow—and a strip of light illuminated his face.
Shocked recognition blasted into Theo’s brain—as the eddying heat in his groin blazed into an inferno.
The valet chose that moment to arrive with his bike. Theo tugged on his jacket, his mind racing again—the fond journey down memory lane obliterated.
‘Just follow the road out towards the port entrance, Monsieur Caras,’ the man said, pocketing the generous tip Theo handed him.
‘Is there a back entrance to the palace grounds on the far side?’ he asked, surreptitiously tracking the darting figure over the parking valet’s shoulder as it disappeared into the trees that edged the gardens.
The man seemed puzzled but gave him directions.
Kick-starting the bike, he drove along the road that wound away from the palace, through the trees and hugged the highback wall of the estate, determined to track down the sneak thief… And find out what the hell Freya was playing at now.
The swift spike of adrenaline was a throwback to that feral kid, risking everything to steal precious gems that didn’t belong to him, just so he could own them for a few hours and eat for another month. But it was the hot spike of lust racing through his system that made his heartbeat accelerate into his throat. And was even more intoxicating than a Class-A drug…
CHAPTER SIX
‘Merde!’Freyasworeas her boots skidded across the icy wall and her hands lost purchase on the rope again. She landed on the ground, caught between temper and tears.
Her frantic heartbeat rammed her throat.
She had a ticket for the last ferry at eleven-thirty. If she missed it, there wouldn’t be another until tomorrow morning. Shehadto be on that ferry—it was the only way out of the principality that wouldn’t alert her father. But scaling the back wall was taking an eternity. She had needed several attempts to get the grappling hook she’d left in the underbrush to hit the top of the wall and catch. And now, with the temperature dropping to freezing, the snowfall was turning the wall she had to climb into an ice rink. She’d been building muscle in her arms for months—by doing push-ups in her bedroom every morning and evening. Rappelling down from her balcony had been surprisingly easy, but what if she wasn’t strong enough to make this climb?
