Rachelle McCalla - Royal Wedding Threat

HER ROYAL BODYGUARD

In a tiny Mediterranean kingdom, Ava Wright has her dream job: planning royal weddings. When a killer targets Ava a week before the princess’s ceremony, the captain of the royal guard vows to protect her and keep the royal family safe. Ava knows that Jason Selini—a man of stubborn integrity—doesn’t think she belongs on palace grounds. But when they uncover why Ava is under attack, Jason shows himself to have the heart of a prince. Suddenly Ava hopes she’ll survive long enough to plan her own wedding.

Protecting the Crown: The royal family fights for love and country

“Somebody put a bomb in your car,” Jason said.

“But—that would have killed me.” Ava couldn’t get the image of her charred car from her mind.

The captain met her eyes for just a moment. Instead of hardened anger in his flintlike gray eyes, she saw a hint of sympathy, maybe even apology.

The change shook her as much as the realization that she’d narrowly escaped a horrific end. “They wanted me dead? But why?”

Jason offered her his hand and pulled her up to a seated position. He looked her full in the face, a bit of sadness shimmering in his steel-gray eyes. “Do you have any enemies?”

Ava stared at him for long seconds. Finally she answered, “You?”

“I’m the worst enemy you have?” he asked.

She nodded, no longer trusting her voice.

“Then I don’t know why anyone would put a bomb in your car.” He sucked in a sharp breath and met her eyes again. “But I intend to find out.”

RACHELLE McCALLA

is a mild-mannered housewife, and the toughest she ever has to get is when she’s trying to keep her four kids quiet in church. Though she often gets in over her head, as her characters do, and has to find a way out, her adventures have more to do with sorting out the car pool and providing food for the potluck. She’s never been arrested, gotten in a fistfight or been shot at. And she’d like to keep it that way! For recipes, fun background notes on the places and characters in this book and more information on forthcoming titles, visit www.rachellemccalla.com.

Royal Wedding Threat

Rachelle McCalla

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

—Ecclesiastes 4:12

To Ray, always

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

DEAR READER

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

EXCERPT

ONE

“Ms. Wright? Ms. Wright, wait!”

Ava Wright did not wait, but trotted toward the pedestrian gate at the rear of the palace complex as quickly as she dared in her three-inch heels. She made eye contact with the guard inside the gatehouse and gave him her best commanding glare, signaling that she wanted the exit unlocked immediately.

The green light signaled that the gate’s electronic lock had been momentarily deactivated, allowing her to open the gate and pass through. Ava felt a small shiver of satisfaction as she made her escape. Good. Jason Selini might be the head of the Lydian Royal Guard, but she could still get her way, even if it meant giving orders to his men.

But the captain of the royal guard was right behind her. “We need to discuss this further, Ms. Wright. Our conversation isn’t over!” Captain Selini was one of the few people Ava had met who could match her commanding tone note for note, glare for glare.

No way was she butting heads with him any more today. The man was impossibly stubborn and could be completely unreasonable once he’d made up his mind on an issue—and he’d already made it clear that morning that his mind was quite made up about her plans for Princess Anastasia’s wedding.

Captain Selini had refused her location request. How could she possibly proceed with her wedding-planning duties if the location wasn’t approved? Given the princess’s eagerness to marry, Ava was already working on a short timeline. The captain’s refusal was a setback she couldn’t afford. She wanted to scream in frustration.

Instead Ava pulled her keys from her purse and pointed the key fob at her car parked in the distance on the opposite side of the cobbled street. Clicking the button on the key fob, she watched with satisfaction as her headlights blinked, signaling that she’d successfully unlocked the car doors.

Good. Nothing more stood between her and her escape route.

“Ms. Wright, please come back.”

It was the “please” that made her pause, almost against her will, halfway across the empty street, still a couple hundred feet from her car. She wavered there, undecided, for a few long seconds.

“Please,” he repeated, sounding almost pleading.

The pleading note in his voice prompted her to turn back, if only to see the expression on his face. Captain Jason Selini begging? She wouldn’t miss it, not after all the trouble he’d given her over the course of the recent royal weddings.

But when she turned to face him, she found he’d stopped in his tracks still dozens of feet from her and his face had gone nearly white.

“Get down!” he shouted, his words buried by an enormous boom behind her.

Ava ducked slightly, unsure what was happening. Time seemed to slow for a moment, and yet everything happened so quickly. She felt a sudden heat envelop her, blowing past her with a furious gust of hot wind. At the same time, she felt something sting her near her ankles.

The captain of the guard threw one arm up to shield his face as he ducked and ran toward her, still shouting something, though the blast of heat that had come from behind her swept forward and took his words away. That, or she couldn’t hear anything. Her ears began to ring, a distant, tinny sound that further disoriented her.

Jason was at her side in an instant, one hand firmly propping her up by her elbow. “Let’s get you out of here. Are you all right? Can you walk?”

Ava wanted to tell him not to be absurd, that of course she could walk, but as she took half a step forward in an attempt to prove it, the pain at her ankles bit into her furiously.

She looked down at her legs.

Far below her knee-length skirt, blood trickled down her ankles from half a dozen shards of glass that had embedded themselves in her skin.

Ava could only stare at her legs, wondering what had happened. Black smoke billowed toward her and she coughed, turning halfway around to see her car engulfed in flames. “What happened?”

“Car bomb. We’ve got to get you off the street.” The captain’s words echoed numbly against her throbbing eardrums.

“My car?” Ava blinked several times, but the smoke and heat stung her eyes, making it difficult to see, and she felt too stunned to think clearly.

“I’ll have to carry you,” the captain muttered as he bent to inspect the injuries on her legs.