Page 85 of Raul
“Your fault?”
“She said if I’d gotten married first, Pater would have focused on making that a big deal and wouldn’t have cared so much about Gabriel’s wedding.” His smile widened a bit. “She might not be wrong.”
“She’s Quinn, so she’ll suck it up and make everyone proud,” Erica said.
Raul’s smile vanished. “Gabriel is a lucky man. She does this out of her profound love for him.”
“They’re a great couple.” When she saw them together, the bond between them was obvious. So mismatched on the surface, yet so right for each other where it counted. If only Raul were a duke instead of the prince.
Raul acknowledged her comment with a nod before he said, “I wanted to speak with you about two matters. You have a right to know what is happening.”
Her throat tightened. His meeting with Odette must have gone badly.
“First, Mikel has a lead on the dragon eggs and possibly the dragon,” Raul said.
So he was going to make her wait to find out about Odette. She clenched her fists on her thighs but tried to look interested. “Bertucci contacted someone?”
He nodded. “He contacted a man named Fabio Yarza, who is already known to the police as a smuggler. After Mikel’s people put surveillance on Yarza, they discovered that he has been in touch with Nasir al-Buya, an amir of a small oil-rich principality in the Middle East called Symari. Al-Buya is famous—or infamous—for his menagerie of exotic animals.”
“Mierda!Let me guess. Al-Buya is invited to the wedding.” Her attention was caught now.
“He wangled an invitation through one of his more prominent and less sleazy cousins.” Raul’s lips curled in distaste. “And he is arriving on his superyacht tomorrow.”
“But Mikel’s people haven’t found the dragon or the eggs yet?” The thought of the captured dragon still trying desperately to protect her eggs made Erica’s heart twist.
“Since they tagged him, Yarza hasn’t gone anywhere that a dragon could be held.” Raul ran his fingers through his perfect hair, rumpling it slightly. Erica’s nerves did a little dance of desire. “Mikel is confident that they will be able to retrieve our stolen wildlife when it’s transferred to the yacht.”
“Thank God! That poor creature! She must be so bewildered and stressed.”
“If she is still alive.” Raul’s tone was grim.
“I’m going to believe she is until you learn otherwise.” Holding on to hope was a useful trick. She screwed up her courage. “Did you meet with Odette?”
A slight shudder passed through him. “This morning.”
She wanted to reach out to him, to comfort him for what must have been a failure. A failure that was her fault.
“Your suggestion about how to handle Odette was brilliant.” He twisted his dragon claw ring. “In return for my promise to meet with her, she has agreed to stop harassing my family. Beginning with Dupont’s silence about the details of the kidnapping.”
The relief was so powerful that she nearly gasped out loud.
“That’s great news,” she said with maybe a little too much enthusiasm. She toned it down. “I’m glad I could help in some small way.”
“Your help was not small.” His voice was a low rumble. “I am very grateful to you for your insight.”
“But you don’t seem pleased about your success.”
He tapped his ring against the stainless-steel frame of the sofa a couple of times, then clenched his hand into a fist.
“That place.” He finally met her gaze. His eyes were shadowed. “The prison reeks of evil and violence. And Odette is…pure hatred. I made a deal with the devil, and I don’t know if she is capable of keeping her side of the bargain. Her desire to destroy us may overpower her craving for attention.”
God, she wanted to put her arms around him and comfort him with a kiss. She curled her fingers into her thighs as she considered his fear.
She shook her head. “Odette doesn’t want to destroy you. She needs you to hate, or she has no purpose in life, nothing to fill the endless days of her imprisonment. She’ll keep the deal because your visits will give her something to plan for.”
“What would she plan?”
“How to inflict the maximum verbal pain, I imagine.” And he would have to endure it year after year. She couldn’t stop herself. She leaned forward to press her hand over his where it lay on the sofa cushion. “If you need someone to talk to afterward, I’m always willing to listen and never speak of it to anyone else.”
