Chapter 42

“So, is the watch truly Ari’s?”

Dimitri heard the question like a pistol shot, only it wasn’t aimed at him. Not directly, anyway. It was a flare that Lauren was firing off as a diversion to turn their focus away from herself, and by God, it worked exactly as she’d intended it to.

The queen froze. The king grimaced with the kind of weariness of a man whose secrets are always discovered by the one he loves the most. Stefan bristled with irritation, and Cyril went red. Just another day in paradise.

Catherine recovered first, as Catherine always did. “You found Ari’s watch? Where?” It took only a glance at her husband to confirm the truth, and she poked him in the arm. “When, precisely, were you planning on telling me, Jasen? I mean, for God’s sake, what does a woman have to do around here to stay informed?”

“It would appear that’s becoming easier and easier.” Stefan’s gaze was once again on Nicki, boring holes in her temple as she ignored him, her eyes also trained on the king.

Cyril tried to break in. “Your Highness, there’s no need to discuss this now.”

“Don’t you ‘Your Highness’ me,” Catherine said, turning on Cyril hotly. In her eyes, Dimitri could see the hope that bolstered him and broke his heart at the same time, the one thing he’d guarded against but hated to see die these past long months. “I asked you if the watch—why am I asking you? Give it to me!” She held out her hand imperiously, as if Cyril had the piece on him.

The adviser lifted both hands. “The watch is currently being examined, Your Majesty.”

“It’s his.” Dimitri was surprised to hear his own voice cut across Cyril’s. As everyone pivoted to stare at him, he fought back his own flush at speaking out of turn. But this was Ari they were talking about. Ari, who’d been gone for far too long. “Or if it’s not his, it’s a close enough fake that it would raise questions all on its own.”

“You found it?” the queen demanded. “Of course you found it. Where? How?”

Dimitri glanced at Lauren, who was watching him with eyes too big for her face, as if she couldn’t absorb the image of him all at once. Anger surged anew, and he fought it with his own brand of offense. “Lauren did.”

That took Lauren off guard as the queen swiveled back to her.

“I didn’t intend to!” Lauren said hurriedly, and now it was her turn to lift her hands in unconscious protection against the queen’s intensity. “I noticed it as odd, is all. It was being worn by a man who didn’t seem to be the type to have such an expensive watch. When I brought Dimitri’s attention to it, he thought he recognized it.”

“Who is this man?” the queen pressed, and King Jasen gripped her shoulder when she would have wheeled again on Dimitri.

“Catherine, we don’t have those answers. Why do you think I haven’t told you yet? There is far too much that we don’t know.” He squeezed her arm to forestall her next question. “And yes, we are going to question the man who had the watch. As Ms. Grant said, it’s clear that he wouldn’t have been able to purchase the watch at anything near its real value, and yet he was wearing it openly and without any attempt to hide it, at a port where he knew Dimitri had put out calls for scavenged or discarded wreckage.”

There was no way he could miss the queen’s wince, but Jasen continued. “We have men in place to intercept his boat at the next port. We’ll learn what we can then.”

“But where is he from?” Catherine turned again to Dimitri. “His boat—is he O?rois? Surely not. Greek, then?”

“Turkish.” Dimitri fought a weary smile at her expression. He recognized that look as well. Ari had worn it far too many times to count. “But we must first find out how long ago he took ownership of the watch.”

“We have to go there—to Turkey. But...” She frowned, her hands coming up to her brows. “We sent so many envoys, requests for assistance. We scoured that coast!”

“We didn’t scour it, in fact.” Surprisingly, it was Cyril who spoke, almost as if the words were being dragged out of him. “We sent out search parties, of course. But the plane didn’t carry enough fuel to fly to a Turkish airstrip, and it was unlikely that Ari would drift so far off his trajectory as to crash-land on a hostile coast. He wasn’t an idiot.”

“Still, we have to go there,” Catherine said again. “We need to find out where he might have been. If he’s holed up somewhere, sick or injured or?—”

“Catherine.” Jasen’s words were quelling, but to his credit, he didn’t touch the queen or gather her into his arms. Queen Catherine was a woman of strength in her own right. Her emotional outburst might have seemed a sign of weakness in another person, but with her, it simply overlaid a steel core. “If he’s still alive, don’t you think he would have moved heaven and earth to find us?”

“What if he couldn’t?” she snapped back. “They could have him in some prison, Jasen, until they figure out what to do with him. Our relations are not all they should be. You know this. What better way to torment us?”

“Not torment.” Once again, it was Cyril’s voice of reason blanketing the room with its matter-of-fact practicality. “If we don’t know, how can we suffer? A year is too long for men with political agendas. Such people are not careful statisticians; they are devious and cunning strategists. If some faction of the Turkish government, recognized or otherwise, had Aristotle, we would have known about it already.”

“He could be hiding.” Nicki was up on her toes, balancing her weight. “If he’s injured, can’t get out, he could be trying to hide his identity.” She tilted her head. “You know, I was toying around with that windsurfing competition coming up in Alacati, but I bailed for this trip. I could totally try to sign up anyway and poke around?—”

“Absolutely not.” Unsurprisingly, it was Stefan who snapped the response, but Nicki barreled on.

“Seriously, I’m really good at windsurfing. And I’d be the perfect cover. If there’s somewhere you want to check out on the down low, and it’s near anything at all remotely coastal, not only would it make sense for me to go it would make sense for you to send some of your strapping ONSF types to protect me. Being the fragile flower and all that I am.”

“Nicki—” This was Lauren, now, her face set in unexpected lines of worry. Dimitri caught the wrongness of that look, the tension, but Nicki scowled back at Lauren.

“I can do this,” she said resolutely, then brightened and shrugged. “If there’s anything to be done, that is. You find something on that boat that makes sense to explore, then I’m your girl. If not, then no harm, no foul.”

The men in the room exchanged a glance so obvious it was laughable. No matter what was found on the boat, Nicki wouldn’t hear of it.

Queen Catherine apparently didn’t get the memo. “Excellent. It’s an ideal subterfuge, and completely reasonable. Half the hemisphere knows we have the Americans under our roof, and Nicole’s expertise in adventure travel and extreme sports is well documented. With the proper escort, she would be quite safe.” Her gaze traveled meaningfully to Stefan, who looked ready to burst a blood vessel.

“Your Highness, it is not advisable in any situation to embroil a civilian in the affairs of the Crown, let alone an untrained civilian?—”

Nicki scoffed. “You’re just mad because I beat you in rock climbing.”

“Who doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.”

The comment was so rude coming from Stefan that it was almost breathtaking, but Nicki defused the situation immediately with her bright, bold laugh. “Seems to me having a loud, obnoxious American who doesn’t know her place would cause about as much distraction as you could hope for, letting you, and whoever you have tagging along, skulk about while everyone’s eyes are on me. I know the Turks aren’t big on Western women acting foolishly, so I won’t be an idiot, but a little bit of brash can go a long way, I’m telling you.”

The queen lifted a hand. “It’s an excellent idea if we discover anything of merit from the boat of this man who had Ari’s watch. A watch I now want to see.” She turned to Dimitri. “Take me to wherever Cyril has sent the thing, Dimitri. I refuse to wait another minute.”

She glanced back to Lauren as Dimitri stood at attention. “You focus on getting well, dear. Your parents will be informed of your miraculous return early tomorrow morning, and you’ll want to look your best.”

“Of course.” Lauren wasn’t looking at the queen anymore; she was looking at Dimitri. But he wouldn’t—couldn’t—meet her eyes. Not and maintain his control. Instead, he focused on the queen.

“Your Majesty?” he said, gesturing to the door.

The queen’s sharp eyes traveled between them. “Thank you,” she said primly, and exited the room. He fell into step beside her.

She wasn’t three steps down the corridor, however, when she turned on him. “Right after you show me where Ari’s watch is, get your head out of your ass and go to that girl. You people are so young and foolish, you make my bones hurt.”

He looked at her hard. “I’m eighty-two years old, your highness.”

“Exactly my point,” she snapped, looking fiercer than he’d seen her in a long time—maybe ever. “By now you should be old enough to know that love is a gift from the gods, and it should be treated with honor and care. You’ve given your life in service to the crown, Dimitri. You were a legend in Jasen’s father’s time. He never would speak of it, but I’ve seen the reports, seen the paintings. Then you left, returned and became a legend for Jasen. Then you disappeared again, returning only when the crown needed you to protect and guide a new set of princes. You’ve done that.”

“I haven’t.” Dimitri’s fists clenched. “Ari?—”

“Is out there, and we’ll find him,” she said, resting a light hand on his arm. “And when he returns, you will be here for him. I know you will. But the royal family isn’t the only reason worth living, Dimitri. Love is, too. Especially the kind of love that comes on the wings of Eros, to strike you unawares. Not even Zeus can deny a love like that.”

Dimitri scowled at her. “I committed myself to Zeus and to O?ros a long time ago. It was an honor and a privilege. I have no regrets about that.”

“Nor should you. But you were a boy then. It’s a different choice now.”

He stiffened. How was it possible she was saying the same things as Zeus’s agent on the island? What was going on here? “I wasn’t a boy. I knew exactly who I was, and I made my choices honorably.”

“You did, yes. But this is the first time in all your long life that you’ve fallen in love. We are all made new in that moment, if we choose to be.” She leaned forward and poked a long finger into his chest. “Choose it. Choose love. Don’t just protect that girl, grow old with her. That’s the biggest gift any soul could give another.”

Then she turned and sailed down the corridor.