Maxence sighed and shook his head, thoroughly disgusted. “Sault, you are so obsessed with worrying that one ‘undeserving’ person might get a crust of bread that you would deny all our citizens what they need to live.”
Sault sneered at him, “I thought you were going to be a priest.”
Maxence’s breathing stuttered in his chest. “But I—I’ll make sure thenextPrince of Monaco is like my uncle, not like Pierre would’ve been.”
Sault’s rage rose in his eyes, and he flailed against the men holding him down.
Max turned away from Sault and faced the crowd, spreading his arms. “Don’t kill him. He will stand trial for treason in Monaco, as he deserves.”
Behind him, Maxence heard the metallic click of a gun’s safety disengaging.
Chapter Seven
QUENTIN SAULT
Maxence
Maxence threw himself sideways, falling and wrapping his arms around his head. His shoulder met the steel deck with a jarring smash.
Rossi leaped to his feet and stumbled at Sault, windmilling his arms.
A blast crashed into Max’s eardrums.
A puff of air ruffled the hair on the back of his neck.
Then nothing.
No pain, no cold, no jagged chunks of him blown away.
Max twisted from where he lay on the deck, looking back at Quentin Sault.
Michael Rossi lay across Sault’s legs, limp.
Quentin stared at him, his colorless eyes wide with horror. He held a small gun in his hand, the barrel extending only a few inches past the knuckles of his fist.
Sault had been carrying a second weapon.
A collective gasp ran through the pirates standing on the ship’s deck that rolled under their feet.
Blood pooled under Rossi’s head, smearing on his white skin. One of his hands and a leg twitched as the last bit of life struggled to leave his body.
Sault raised his eyes, staring at Max, his head and body vibrating with shock at the sight of the dead body lying on his legs. “Why did he do that?”
“It was his job. Before this,” Maxence gestured at the ship, but he meant the kidnapping, the treason, and even Pierre sending Rossi to Paris, “his job was to keep me and the rest of the royal family safe. In the end, he couldn’t go along with your betrayal, Sault.”
“My—” Sault stared at the small gun in his hand. “Mybetrayal.”
“Your job was to serve Monaco, but you were supposed to serve with honor. The oath you took was to the country and the Constitution, not to Pierre, and not to further your own political agenda. You betrayed that oath and Monaco.”
“No.” Quentin’s chest puffed, and his nostrils fluttered as he breathed. His dull gray eyes flared wider as he stared at the ship as if he’d just noticed where he was. “What did I do?”
Maxence said, “You launched a coup, Quentin. You committed treason. Your military operation killed members of the Crown Council.” Including his cousin Nico, and Maxence’s chest clenched at the thought of him. “You kidnapped the current ruler of the country, and you did it to subvert the will of the electors. That’s the definition of a military coup d’état.”
Quentin’s head wavered with the motion of the sea under the ship. “I did what was right. You would have bankrupted Monaco. You would have taken away Prince Jules’s wealth and canceled my pension. I have a wife and kids. What would I do without that pension?”
Maxence stepped toward him. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re a radical socialist, and you would have ruined everything. I was saving Monaco from you.”
