Rachelle McCalla - Royal Heist

“I hope not.” The captain closed the file and rapped the pages against the desk like the blade of a guillotine slamming down. “Now, Princess Anastasia wants a royal guard escort for her assistant every evening on her way home from work. She’s specifically requested you for the job. I’m not thrilled with her selection given your record, but since we don’t have a decent picture of her attacker, and since you’re the only guard who’s actually seen the man, you’re the obvious choice.”

Still feeling exhilarated by the news that he hadn’t yet been terminated, Galen smiled giddily at the thought of spending more time with Ruby. “Yes, thank you.”

If anything, his boss appeared concerned by Galen’s response. He leaned across his desk, and his eyes, already glaring, narrowed to dark slits. “Are you certain you can handle that?”

Galen sobered immediately. “Yes.”

“Quite certain?” Selini didn’t look convinced.

“Quite certain,” Galen assured his superior officer.

It wasn’t until he’d been dismissed and made it halfway down the hall that he realized maybe he wasn’t after all. Could he handle walking Ruby home for the next two weeks, with Jason Selini scrutinizing his every move, ready to dismiss him for the slightest infraction?

He wasn’t sure which was more worrisome—the man who’d attacked Ruby, or the thought of trying to maintain protocol while in her very distracting presence. He’d felt their old connection from the moment he’d looked into her eyes the previous evening. If it hadn’t been for her cold request the summer before, Galen might have acted on those feelings.

As he’d promised Captain Selini, could he handle walking Ruby home? From a professional standpoint, it shouldn’t be difficult. He was a trained royal guard. He knew what he was doing. But what about the woman who could make him lose his head with a single look? Suddenly he wasn’t so certain at all.

* * *

The evening after the attack, Ruby was alone at the studio after everyone else had left for. She looked up from the table where she sat sorting gemstones into precise piles by color and size and she startled.

A broad-shouldered figure loomed in the doorway across the room. Shoving the magnifying goggles high onto her forehead, she blinked at the figure.

“Galen!” She gasped in relief when she recognized him. “I didn’t realize anyone else was here.”

“Kirk and the princess let me in as they left. I thought they’d told you I’d be stopping by to escort you home,” Galen explained. Kirk Covington, Princess Stasi’s fiancé, had been a sentinel with the royal guard for years before saving Stasi’s life and being assigned as her primary guard.

“Stasi mentioned that she’d requested a guard, but she didn’t say who it would be.” Ruby peeled off the goggles and placed them on the table.

“I’m the only one who saw the man who attacked you.” Galen shrugged, his words an excuse for his presence.

Ruby still felt the urge to argue against it. “I caught a glimpse of him, too.” She stretched her arms above her head, releasing the kink that had built up in her neck over the course of the many hours she’d spent hunched over her work. “But that doesn’t mean I’d recognize him unless he came at me with panty hose over his face again.”

“I hope that doesn’t happen, but if he shows up again, at least you won’t be alone this time.” Galen glanced around the studio. “Are you ready to head home?”

“Not just yet, if you don’t mind. If I don’t seal these stones into separate containers, someone could bump the table and my entire evening’s work could be lost.” She picked up the first container. “It won’t take me more than ten minutes.”

“Take your time. I’m going to walk the perimeter.”

“Great idea. Kirk does the same thing several times a day.” Ruby returned her attention to the task before her, making precise notations on each container to identify the contents.

Absorbed by her task, Ruby had almost managed to stop thinking about Galen’s presence when he called out to her from across the room, “Ruby? I need you to come over here, but stay down, out of sight from the windows.”

THREE

Ruby felt awkward as she crawled on her hands and knees across the varnished wooden floorboards toward the second story window. Ahead of her, Galen crouched to the side of the expansive glass panes, hidden from outside view by the wide limestone window casing.

“What is it? Do you see someone?” Ruby asked as she drew slowly nearer.

“There’s a man at the corner smoking a cigarette. He’s leaning against the building across the street. It could be completely innocent, or he could be waiting for you.”

She was almost to the window. “The man who attacked me last night had that lingering scent that smokers have.”

“And Lydia has one of the lowest smoking rates on the planet. That doesn’t mean he’s our man, but it’s certainly an implicating factor.”

Ruby reached the window. Instead of the cigarette odor they’d been discussing, she caught a whiff of Galen’s cologne, a faint but exotic scent that immediately reminded her of the time she’d danced with Galen, two summers before. Her heart began to beat faster as the treasured memory welled up. She tried to put it from her mind and focus on the situation.

“Keep your head just above the windowsill,” Galen instructed her. “We’re on the second floor and he’s at ground level, so he shouldn’t be able to see you as long as you stay low.”

Ruby slowly lifted her head just high enough to allow her to see out, while Galen crouched down beside her, until they were both peeking out in the same direction. The sun had nearly set, and though electric lights illuminated most of the cobbled streets, the place where the man had chosen to stand was cast almost entirely in shadows.

The only thing Ruby could see clearly was the orange glow of a cigarette. “He’s certainly built like the man who came after me last night.” Ruby was able to make out enough of the large silhouette to determine that much. “I wish he’d step into the light so we could see his face.”

“If he’s the same man, I doubt he’ll do that. But I’ll keep watching. You can finish what you were doing. I just wanted you to get a look before he disappeared.”

“Thank you.” Ruby met Galen’s eyes, aware of how close their hands were, clinging to the windowsill, and how near his face was to hers. An indigo bruise branched out from his nose, deepening to a ruddy purple under his eye. Ruby sucked in a sharp breath. “Your face looks awful.”

Galen grinned the lopsided grin she’d missed so much. After an awkward silence in which she tried to think of what to say to clarify what she’d meant, Galen responded, “Yours looks quite the opposite.”

Mortified, Ruby dropped to the floor and crawled back toward where she’d been working. Had Galen meant his words to sound flirtatious? She didn’t want to know the answer.

Over the course of her many summer visits to Lydia, she’d worked hard to maintain a purely professional relationship with the gorgeous guard. The first summer she’d had a boyfriend back in the US, so she’d made it a point never to act on the attraction she had felt toward Galen. And by the time she’d had a school year away to contemplate the feelings that wouldn’t go away, she’d realized that a relationship with Galen would never work.

He was committed to life in Lydia. She had long ago promised her parents she’d help with their chain of jewelry stores once she finished her studies—and that required her to live in the United States. And she’d never been the type to have a casual fling with a man just because he was cute, even if he had sad-teddy-bear eyes. If she couldn’t foresee a future together, she didn’t see the point of wasting her time and emotional investment in a relationship.