Rachelle McCalla - Royal Heist

“Highly unlikely. He’d have to have a transmitter tuned to the same frequency as our receiving equipment, with the same type of modulation and enough power to override the signal at the receiver. I can’t imagine someone coordinating all that while slipping on a mask and running after the two of you on foot.”

Ruby wasn’t clear on all the technical specifics Simon had quoted, but she agreed with the guard’s conclusion. Which left her with one looming question. “Why are these guys after me? What do I have that is worth so much effort?”

“They came after you two nights in a row, even after I fought one of them last night.” Galen looked apologetic for reminding her of the incident as he explained why they had to revisit it. “That tells me that whatever they want, it’s urgent. Under any other circumstances, you’d think they’d lay low for a few days in hopes that we’d lower our guard.”

“We’re not going to lower our guard.” Princess Anastasia crossed her arms with determination. “I’ll talk to the captain of the guard myself if I have to. This issue will have priority status.”

“But your sister’s wedding is next Saturday,” Kirk reminded his fiancée. “I’m certain that’s going to remain our top priority.”

“That’s all the more reason we’ve got to get to the bottom of this.” The petite princess was known for her tenacity. “The guards will need to focus on Isabelle’s wedding. These guys need to be stopped before then.” She turned her attention to Ruby. “Can you think of any possible reason these guys keep coming after you?”

Ruby squinted her eyes shut, thinking carefully, then shook her head. “Nothing.”

“They tried to take your purse last night,” Galen reminded her.

“But there’s nothing in it worth stealing.”

“Can we see?” Stasi requested.

With a shrug, Ruby turned her purse upside down over the table, unceremoniously dumping it out in full view of everyone. Stasi helped her rifle through the sparse contents. “Your keys.” She picked through them. “Do you suppose they wanted your keys to break in to the studio?”

“But why go through Ruby for the keys?” Galen asked. “Why not break directly into the studio?”

“We’ve installed a sophisticated security system,” Kirk noted, “but if they’re clever enough to jam our radio signals, you’d think they could circumvent those defenses.”

Ruby listened to their conversation with half an ear, her attention already focused on three pages of notebook paper she’d carefully folded and tucked away in her purse before leaving the studio that evening.

Her jewelry design notes from that day’s work. She’d been faithfully toting copious notes back to her apartment every evening, accumulating a file of all the details so that Tate Jewelry could make accurate reproductions. The exclusive rights were a precious gift from her friend Stasi. If the replica jewelry sold as well, and Ruby hoped it might, it amounted to Ruby’s best hope for saving her parents’ business and earning back their trust. The design notes were invaluable to her.

Might they also be valuable to someone else?

Ruby cleared her throat. “What about this?”

“Your design notes?” Stasi’s eyes widened as the meaning of Ruby’s suggestion sank in. “Do you think my designs are that valuable?”

“Darling.” Kirk placed a hand on his fiancée’s shoulder. “You always underestimate the value of your work. Your jewelry is highly sought after, and it’s sure to become vastly more so with all the media coverage of the upcoming royal weddings.”

Stasi blushed at Kirk’s assessment.

Galen didn’t look convinced. “How would these guys know you had the designs in your purse?”

Ruby and Stasi looked at one another thoughtfully.

“We talk about jewelry all the time,” the princess admitted.

“We’ve talked about the designs in public,” Ruby added.

“At lunch the other day—”

“And when we were shopping—”

“Walking home from the studio—”

Linus interrupted them. “I don’t think you should discuss the designs in public anymore. But that said, those are just a few pages in your purse. Wouldn’t they need the rest of your notes for that information to be useful?”

Ruby nodded.

Galen murmured in a low voice, “I’m not one hundred percent convinced this is what those guys were after.”

“Neither am I,” Linus agreed.

“But what else could there be?” Ruby had been pondering the question all day, ever since the attack the evening before, but still hadn’t come up with an answer.

Nor did anyone else at the table posit an explanation.

After a thoughtful silence, the princess concluded, “The most important thing right now is keeping you safe. I hate to restrict your freedom, but from here on out I don’t want you leaving the palace grounds alone.”

Ruby nodded solemnly. Other than traveling to and from Stasi’s studio, she rarely went anywhere without her friend. And Stasi always had a guard—usually her fiancée, Kirk—at her side. The new imposition wouldn’t change much.

“I’m going to look into alternate earpiece communication kits,” Simon offered.

“And I want physical stats on this guy,” Linus cut in. “If he got close enough to the palace to deduce our radio frequency, he’s probably been lurking around. We shouldn’t have to wait for him to come after Ruby again—if we know what he looks like, we can nab him the next time he sticks his head up.”

To her frustration, Ruby didn’t have anything helpful to offer in the way of a physical description. While Galen estimated the man’s height and weight, Ruby pinched her eyes shut and visualized the menacing face she’d seen under the elastic mask the night before. She couldn’t imagine why she’d thought the man seemed familiar. Where would she have seen him before? Lurking around, as Linus had suggested? Had he been watching her, sticking to the shadows as he had that evening at the studio, his cigarette glowing like a lone orange eye?

The thought made her shudder.

“Are you okay?” Galen asked.

Ruby opened her eyes to see Galen’s teddy-bear brows bent upward with concern. He reached for her hand where it rested at the edge of the table, still gripping her notes on Stasi’s designs.

She recoiled at the thought that he might hold her hand. She could still feel the embrace of his strong arms around her as they’d hidden from her attacker. Her heart lurched, torn between reaching for him, and the fear of letting herself share any more connection with a man she wouldn’t see after her job in Lydia ended.

Galen pulled his hand back, no doubt recalling her request from the year before. Or perhaps he’d never meant to take her hand at all. “You’ve had a rough couple days.”

Ruby shook her head. “I’m okay. I was trying to figure out why the man who attacked me seemed so—” she struggled to speak through the complicated feelings that clogged her thoughts “—familiar.” It wasn’t quite the right word, but it was the closest thing she could think of.

“Familiar?” The princess repeated the word with alarm. “Do you think you know this guy?”

“I don’t know.” Ruby wished she could take the word back, even if she didn’t know what else to replace it with. “I couldn’t really see his face. Maybe I imagined it.”

“Familiar how?” Galen quizzed her. “What does he remind you of?”

Though she hated revisiting the fear-filled memory, Ruby closed her eyes again and tried to link the man’s image with whatever it was that she felt she recognized. “I don’t know,” she concluded again, frustrated with the whole business. “I don’t know why these guys are after me, or what’s so important to them. I’m not sure if I recognize something about that masked man or if I’m just imagining things.”