The guy turned as he marched, giving Max a view of his pug nose and overhanging brow. His white bulldog silhouette was familiar, but he’d shaved the sides of his head and left only a scruff of brown hair on the top since the last time Maxence had seen him near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Quentin Sault was reading on a tablet in Max’s ante-office, sitting in a chair against the wall.
“With me,” Maxence snapped as he walked by.
Sault followed him.
Max slammed the door. “Why is Michael Rossi in the palace?”
Sault clasped his hands behind his back and stood at attention, his pale eyes fixed on the bookcase but unfocused. “He is assigned to palace security.”
“He was following me in Paris.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You said he wasn’t one of yours.”
“He is now.”
“Are you sure he wasn’t one of yoursthen,doing my brother’s dirty work?”
“I did not mention Prince Pierre, sir.”
Interesting.“Did he have orders to eliminate me?”
Sault’s eyes tracked downward, and his voice was lower. “I don’t know. It may have just been surveillance.”
Mayhave been. “I want him out of the palace.”
“And where should I assign him, sir?”
“That’s your job. I just want him out.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re dismissed.”
Quentin Sault pivoted and marched toward the door.
“Sault.”
He turned back. “Yes, sir?”
Maxence stared at him, trying to pin him to the wall with his eyes. “How did my uncle, Prince Jules, knowexactlywhat time I would arrive at the heliport yesterday?”
Sault drew himself up a little straighter. “Did he?”
“His car drove up, and he walked onto the tarmacjustas our helicopter touched down. The helicopter flight from Nice is only seven minutes. Considering Monaco’s hellacious traffic, Jules had to have left his apartment in the Odeon Towerbeforemy plane from Nepal touched down in Nice. He knew I was coming.”
Not one stiff, gray hair on Sault’s head even twitched. “I’ll look into it.”
“That will be all.”
Dammit, what was the use of owning an army if Maxence couldn’t trust them?
He rubbed one side of his face.
All the more reason to find someone electable and get them crowned, so he could get himself and Dree the hell out of Monaco.
