Page 78 of Raul
“I told my father that I would handle Odette. She has forced my father to visit her in CárcelMax before, and it hurts him each time. He suffers the devastating guilt of bringing a psychopath into our lives.”
She knew someone else who was good at guilt. It must run in the family.
Raul kept his eyes on her. “I would not ask this of you, but I don’t want to involve any of my family members. This is my problem to solve.”
“What about Mikel? Surely he would have some ideas,” she said, feeling out of her depth.
“Mikel works for my father.” Raul shifted in his chair.
Understanding dawned. Raul had taken on this task. He had to prove he could do it on his own.
“I have been going in circles in my head, trying to come up with a solution…or at least an approach,” Raul continued. “You have a way of helping me to break out of my rut.”
So now that he needed something from her, he would trust her with his family secrets. But her anger was easily washed away by the overpowering knowledge that he felt her perspective was valuable.
“I’ll do my best,” she said.
“First, I have to tell you about Odette’s other attacks on my family.”
“There’s more?” It shocked her that the royal family had managed to conceal so much.
“Much more.” He knocked back the rest of his beer. “You know about the kidnapping, but after Gabriel was ransomed, Odette tried to kill him in New York City by hiring an assassin.”
“Oh my God! I knew something bad had happened there. The pilots on the Dragon Jet refused to talk about the trip.”
“Shortly after that, Odette attended a private family party at the Duke of Bruma’s estate and tried to shoot me. Quinn and Gabriel managed to disarm her, but Gabriel was creased by a bullet in the struggle.”
“Qué horror!”Raul had almost died. Her stomach twisted into a knot of fear and fury. The woman was totally insane.
“That was when she finally went to jail.” He clinked the ring again. “But she reached out her tentacles from CárcelMax to reveal Grace’s existence to us. That backfired because my father was thrilled. However, the secret of Grace’s birth gives Odette leverage, even though so far she has agreed not to make their relationship public. That was Grace’s accomplishment.” His eyes grew haunted. “Not long ago, she manipulated a deranged man into attempting to poison my father.”
“Madre de Dios!Did your father get very sick?” It was hard to absorb the bombardment of crimes Odette had committed.
“Luckily, Eve was with him when he collapsed. Because she had seen thallium poisoning in animals, she told Pater’s doctors to check for that and saved him from any permanent damage.” Raul looked away, his knuckles white as he gripped the bottle. “I will be forever grateful to her.”
His father had almost died. No wonder he was fighting powerful emotions.
“And he fell in love with Eve,” Erica said. Some Calevans had not been pleased when their king had married an American, but most were glad to see Luis happy. After all, the crown prince’s mother had been a Calevan noblewoman, so the royal bloodline was unsullied.
“I’m grateful for that as well,” Raul said. “But back to the current problem. Not only does Odette find new ways to torment my father, but she always times them to occur right before an important event, like Gabriel’s wedding.”
“Why don’t you put her in solitary confinement and forbid her visitors?” Erica asked. “Considering all the awful things she’s done, you would be justified.”
“Unfortunately, we are a civilized country that believes in the humane treatment of prisoners,” Raul said, his voice hard.
“How does she even communicate with Dupont? Isn’t he in prison in France?” Erica asked, leaning forward.
“She is allowed visits from her lawyer,” Raul said. “Every prisoner has the right to that. Although Mikel has the lawyer under surveillance, Odette evidently has worked out some sort of code that is buried in seemingly innocuous messages.” He sighed. “There is nothing illegal about Dupont revealing details of the kidnapping, so we can’t stop him. Only Odette can.”
He leaned forward, his focus locked on her. “I keep asking myself how I can convince her to shut him up. So far, I have no answers.”
She had no experience with crazed revenge-seeking psychopaths. “I’m not sure why you think I would have any insights to offer.”
Raul stretched out his hand in a gesture of supplication. “You see things so clearly. I need your perspective.”
Understanding hit her. She already knew the biggest secret of all about Odette and Grace, and he had told her about his part in the kidnapping. Telling her the rest, as shocking as it was, didn’t add much to her potential for leaking information.
“Okay, then.” She squared her shoulders and set aside her hurt. Even if she had gotten the job of adviser by default, it was still immensely satisfying that he needed her. “Let’s talk about leverage. What can you use to threaten her?”
