Page 95 of Royal Caleva: Luis

“And thallium poisoning is bad?” he asked.

“Only if it doesn’t get treated right away,” Eve said with partial truth. It also depended on how much thallium Luis had absorbed. “Which isn’t the situation here.”

“You believe someone tried to kill him.” Anger hardened his voice.

Eve turned to look Raul in the eye. “All I know is that your father said he is never sick. Tonight, he vomited violently before he blacked out. That made me consider causes other than natural ones.”

“But he ate at the palace for every meal today,” Raul said. “It would be virtually impossible to get poison into his food.”

“Thallium can also be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. It’s a heavy metal,” Grace explained.

“Joder!” Raul swore. “Mikel will find whoever did this, and they will be locked up for the rest of their life.”

That wouldn’t help Luis survive, though. Eve hated the fact that the last words she had said to him before he’d collapsed had been harsh ones. Why hadn’t she admitted that she loved him and that was why she had to walk away?

Because if he knew, he would have persuaded her to stay. She still had enough of a sense of self-preservation to be sure of that.

Still, she wished she had been…nicer.

At least she had been there to call for help immediately. What if he had been alone? Could he have reached the panic button before he had passed out? A vision of Luis dying on the floor, alone, in a pool of vomit, made her heart twist in horror.

“We’re almost there,” Raul said. “We’ll go in a back entrance to get to the private floor of the wing where the royal family is treated.” He had donned a sweatshirt and now pulled the hood up over his head. “Grace, you should cover your hair too,” he said. “Eve, do you have a hat?”

She hadn’t thought about a disguise when she’d grabbed her sweater. When she shook her head, Raul said, “Dario, can you give Señora Howard a hat of some kind?”

Their guide opened the glove compartment and pulled out a black baseball cap, which he handed to Eve. She gathered up her hair into a ponytail and threaded it through the back of the cap before she pulled the bill low over her face.

The minivan came to a stop in front of a metal door with a single light over it. Dario escorted them through a series of utility hallways, all empty of people, into a foyer with a marble floor and a giant flower arrangement on a round wooden table. Two guards in dark suits stood by the outside door. Dario nodded to them before hitting the button for the elevator.

Brass doors slid open to reveal a large car, its walls embellished with beautiful glass tiles. This must be the private wing Raul had mentioned. The elevator whooshed upward multiple floors to the penthouse level and disgorged them into a plush reception area with a wooden desk graced by another flower arrangement and manned by a pleasant-looking young man dressed in teal-green scrubs.

“Buenas noches, Su Alteza Real,” the man said, rising to bow to Raul and smile at Grace and Eve. His name tag said he was Jacobo. “Señor Silva will be here in just a moment. Please make yourselves comfortable.” He gestured behind the desk.

Beyond their greeter, a large Calevan coat of arms was mounted on one wall above a cushy-looking sofa that anchored a whole seating arrangement of upholstered chairs and tables…with more flowers, of course. There was nothing clinical about the royal family’s waiting room.

“May I offer you a beverage?” Jacobo asked.

“We can help ourselves, gracias,” Raul said, coming into the seating area. He went to a wall of cabinets and opened one door to reveal a well-stocked refrigerator. “Who would like a bottle of water?”

Eve figured it would give her something to do with her hands, so she joined him to accept what turned out to be a glass bottle with a Calevan dragon on the label. As she twisted off the cap, Mikel came through a set of double doors on the other side of the room.

He gave a half bow to Raul and nodded to Eve and Grace. Eve got the distinct feeling that if the Crown Prince of Caleva had not been their companion, Mikel would have told them both to go home.

“Mikel, how is he?” Raul asked, his voice intense.

Mikel gave Eve a look she couldn’t decipher. “Señora Howard was correct in her suspicion of thallium poisoning. They have given him the antidote and are flushing his system now.”

“But how is he? What is the prognosis?” Raul asked again.

“The doctors are optimistic,” Mikel said, his tone soothing. “They will know more after the antidote has had more time to clean out the poison.”

“I want to see him,” Raul said.

Grace moved to stand beside the prince. “I want to as well.”

Eve was desperate to see Luis, but she was low man on this particular totem pole, so she remained silent.

“The doctors will bring you in as soon as possible,” Mikel said. “Right now, he is still unconscious, and they are working hard to eliminate the effects of the poison.”

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