Page 8 of Legal Attraction

Coral whispered. “Most of the local royals.”

“Is my Coral there?” A swiveling head and squinting eyes on a pink short made Rand smile.

“Hi mom. I’m here.”

“Oh thank heavens.”

Coral muttered. “I did call her. She makes it sound like this is the first time she’s heard word.”

“Can’t blame her though, really. It’s been an unusual morning. At least for me.” He searched her face. They seemed to have a lot of protocol in place for this kind of situation. Maybe it wasn’t so unusual for them.

“You’re right, of course. But I came here to be normal. I hoped to avoid the whole royal hype. They didn’t know I was in town.”

“And you’re really not normal now.”

“No, and they are taking offense that I was here and didn’t tell them.”

He nodded. He didn’t pretend to understand all her reasons or the efforts she took to avoid going home. But he respected there might be good ones.

“Looking back, it would have been good to have some security detail.”

He could only nod. He agreed with her, but it wasn’t his business.

Nico ran the meeting. Everyone shared the details of what happened. After Coral explained precisely his role, the room went quiet for a moment and then Coral’s mother called out. “Thank you, you dear man. Any time you are near the islands, you stop in. You have a place to stay and anything you need.” She fanned her face. “I can’t believe this has happened. Do we know who did it? Are they caught? Are we safe?” She seemed to be talking to someone in the room with her as well as to their group.

Lucan cleared his throat. “And now we will hear what Rand saw before we start to figure out our security response.”

Rand nodded and told the facts as he saw them. And then mentioned what he found odd. “I can’t place them. They aren’t like the terrorists I saw while in the military. They seemed more…wealthy? Well-dressed? I can’t put my finger on it.” What he really thought was that he felt like they were in a room full of lawyers with guns. But that’s a weird thing to think. He was obviously in the office way too much. But he shrugged. “Who wears suits while trying to hold up a building?”

“But I did see this.” He held up the card he picked up from the rubble. “I’m not sure what this is.” He passed it to Lucan who grunted and then passed it around the table.

His two attorneys then entered the room.

Lucan waved. “Oh good. You’re gonna want to see this.”

Anders leaned over the next person to be looking at the card and raised both eyebrows. “Was this at the Palisades?”

“Rand found it in the rubble.”

“What do we know about this?” He picked up the card again as it came back to him. “Amber Light?”

To Rand’s surprise, Astra was the one to respond.

“That is only one of the names we are discovering that this group uses. They have accounts in many nations and companies with many names. But they are all one group.”

“What do they want?”

Anders grunted. “Power. Money. To make my life miserable.”

Rand found that curious. Both Astra and Anders’ participation in this group seemed interesting. For one thing, they were much tighter with the firm’s new royal clients than Rand realized. Which was a good thing. Client longevity was something they were always working on. But just what kind of people were these attorneys? And why would these terrorists make Anders’ life miserable? Specifically.

Rand just nodded in response. And the group continued talking. They detailed problems they’ve been having in their area with this group. They talked about strategies for security in their various countries. Rand zoned out after a bit.

Then he felt something nudge his foot. He shifted. But someone’s foot pressed up against his.

Coral eyed him from across the table and slowly raised an eyebrow.

She was a breathtaking woman in all regards, including under pressure. But what could she want with him? She was a royal.

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