“I’ll contact you about the preemie pods and motorcycles, and about the grant applications.”
Isaak sighed and nodded. “Those are important. When you return to Monaco and settle in, let me know. I’ll start working on them when I get back to France.” He shrugged and gestured between Max and Dree, who was staring at her hands in her lap. “So, okay. I mean, it’s not like we even had a chance to talk. I wish you the best. I wish youboththe best.”
Isaak turned and walked up the stairs.
Batsa said, “I’ll make sure Father Booker and Alfonso get back to Kathmandu. Don’t worry about us. I’ll take care of them. Just, um, it sounds like there’s a mess you need to clean up.”
He shook Max’s hand and then bounded up the stairs after Isaak.
Two more soldiers who had been stationed outside were dispatched to clear out Max’s and Dree’s rooms, probably because Sault wasn’t letting Max out of his sight.
Ten minutes later, their backpacks were tossed in the backs of Sault’s Jeeps—how had he gotten Jeeps?—and they were on their way to the tiny Chandannath airport, where a helicopter was warming up to fly them back to Kathmandu.
Maxence muttered to Dree as they walked across the cracked tarmac, “You were persuasive. You should have been a Jesuit.”
Dree snorted. “Yeah, well, I lack a necessary member—”
He raised his eyebrows, repressing a grin.
“—ship requirement,” she finished.
Maxence laughed aloud as the helicopter blades knifed the air, blowing the leather of his jacket against his body.
As they were climbing into the metal side of the helicopter, one with much nicer seats than the military-surplus chopper that they’d flown down on, Quentin Sault gripped Max’s arm to get his attention.
He said, “Your Highness, sir, I want you to know that I’ll have airtight security around you every minute you’re there. The two of you will be safe. Jules and his mercenaries won’t get within a hundred meters of you.”
Shock coursed through Max. “Mercenaries? Jules hasmercenariesnow? That’s treason. It’s in the Constitution that the other nobles cannot raise armies.”
Quentin’s lips pursed tightly. “Prince Rainier has been indisposed, and Prince Pierre has been distracted by chasing Her Royal Highness Princess Flicka all over the world.No onehas beenin charge.”
Maxence looked at the commandos standing beside the helicopter.
In a palace coup, which of the military would obey the chain of command and Quentin’s orders, and which of them already had been threatened or bribed by Jules Grimaldi?
Maxence only wondered whether it would be a bloodless coup or the other kind.
If Jules had already paid for mercenaries, he’d make sure he got his money’s worth.
“Thank you, Sault.” Maxence boarded the helicopter.
As he buckled himself in, Dree asked, “What was that?”
He couldn’t hide it from her. “Sault thinks this might turn violent. I don’t want you in Monaco. I want you somewhere else, somewheresafe.I’ll buy you a plane ticket to Paris, and I’ll put you up at whatever hotel you want, for as long as you want. Forever, if that’s what it takes.”
She raised one blond eyebrow at him, and the morning sunlight made her hair glow like a halo. “If there’s going to be violence, you’re going to need an ER nurse to patch you up. I told you I’m going to Monaco with you.”
“I don’t want you in Monaco. It’s not safe right now.”
“Nowhereis safe for me, Max. If I go back to Phoenix, there are literal drug dealers who want impossible amounts of money or my hide. Probably, they want the moneyandmy hide. In Monaco, at least I’ll have trained men with guns between me and the murderers.”
“But—”
“No.”
There was no use arguing with that woman when she’d made up her mind. Dree Clark might look like a tiny golden hamster, but her heart was more like a tough little desert rodent that wouldn’t let go once it had sunk its sharp teeth into something.
He liked that about her. A challenge was always more fun than a dead lay.
