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With eyes wide, she scanned the badge and his picture. Then she drew back and fumbled for a piece of paper. Nice and polite never did work for him, but forceful and threatening always did the job.
“You don’t need to write it down. Just tell me the number.”
It took her two tries to babble out, “Fifty-one twenty-five. Take the elevators past the pool and across from the spa.”
He slung his backpack over one shoulder and jogged across the pool deck. Damp grass squished between his toes as he made his way to the darkened spa and the bank of elevators.
Maybe Tori didn’t answer her phone because she was afraid it might be Alexi. But if she wanted access to his compound, she’d have to talk to her ex sometime. She could be in the shower.
Rio punched the elevator button with his fist until the doors whisked open. On his way into the car, he bumped shoulders with an intoxicated man stumbling from the elevator. The man grabbed his date’s arm and scowled at Rio.
“Watch whereya goin’.”
Rio skewered the drunk with a lethal gaze, and he tripped against the woman. She tugged his arm. “Let’s go, Adam.”
The doors closed on the couple, and Rio’s muscles tensed as he rode up the five floors to Tori’s suite. The elevator deposited him on an open floor facing the beach and the ocean. He crossed the tiles toward an alcove that looked like it contained two rooms.
As he drew near to fifty-one twenty-five, a low voice rumbled from the door, which was ajar. A woman’s voice responded, high-pitched, frantic.
Adrenaline pumped through Rio’s body and he charged the door, kicking it open. The door hit a body, and a large man broke away from Tori, his hands dropping from her throat. Rio bared his teeth and drew back his fist.
“Stop.” Tori grabbed his forearm.
Rio glanced down into her green eyes and she had the temerity to scowl at him. Hadn’t he just saved her life? Twice now? Or was it three times? He dropped his fist.
“It’s okay. I know this man.” Tori stepped behind Rio. “And he was just leaving.”
Tori’s attacker grunted as he eyed Rio’s still-clenched hand. “Who’s this guy?”
“I don’t know. A guest at the hotel, I suppose. Are you staying on this floor?”
Rio bent a kink out of his neck and flexed his fingers. He almost blew his cover in front of one of Alexi’s men. He scanned the burly man from his greasy hair to his dirty running shoes. Definitely one of Alexi’s goons.
“Yeah, I just came up to get my wife a sweater when I heard the commotion in here. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m okay.” Tori straightened her spine. “Just a little disagreement.”
The man’s face split into a grin, displaying rows of bad teeth. “A disagreement.”
Rio shrugged and backed away to the door across the alcove, delving into the pocket of his shorts, pretending to search for his key card.
“You’ll pass along my message?”
“Sure, but don’t get your hopes up.” The man turned and ambled toward the elevator while Tori shut her hotel room door.
Rio watched from the corner of his eye until Alexi’s man disappeared into the elevator, and then he spun around and banged on Tori’s door.
Her muffled voice came from behind the door. “Who is it?”
“It’s me.”
She flung open the door, her brows drawn over her nose. “You almost stepped in it, cowboy. If Alexi’s thug reported back to my ex that I was in town with a bodyguard in tow, I’d never get near that compound. Not to mention your own gig would blow up in your face.”
“You’re welcome, princess.” He brushed past her in to the spacious suite and dropped his backpack on the coffee table. “The next time you’re getting manhandled by a giant with greasy hair and an acne-scarred face, I’ll keep on walking.”
Tori’s shoulders slumped as she closed the door and locked it. “Thanks. I’m glad you came to the rescue even though you could’ve screwed up my plans. That guy scared the crap out of me.”
“What did he want and how’d your ex know you were in Maui?”
“One of his guys saw me in Lahaina and tracked me back to this hotel. Not that I was trying to hide from Alexi, and I explained that to my uninvited guest.”
Rio sucked in a breath. “Has Alexi been tailing you?”
“No. Believe me, the hike left early enough this morning that I would’ve noticed if someone were following me.”
“So did you get a chance to tell Alexi’s guy that you’re in Maui to see your son?”
She nodded, running fingers through her tangled curls. “I tried to assure him I didn’t want any trouble but told him I needed to speak to Alexi.”
“But you are looking for trouble.”
Tori crossed her arms and leaned a shoulder against the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to apologize.” Rio bent forward and opened the door to the mini bar. No beer, just little bottles of wine that he could finish off in a few gulps.
“Really?” She pushed off the door and joined him at the minibar. She reached over his shoulder, her hair a whisper against the back of his neck. She snagged two bottles of chardonnay from the fridge and waved one in his face. “Want one?”
“Sure, but don’t look so cheerful. I’m still not agreeing to your plan.”
She tossed back her hair and twisted open her bottle with a crack. A red mark marred her creamy skin, and Rio traced his finger along her jaw.
“Did he do that?”
Tori shivered. “He got kind of carried away when he slapped his hand over my mouth to stop my scream.”
Scumbag. Rio’s fingers wrapped around the sweating bottle so tightly, it almost slipped from his grasp. He cupped Tori’s face with his other hand.
“Are you all right? Do you want some ice?” He held up the wine. “A cold bottle?”
“A drink will do me.” She put her lips to the bottle and took a swig, but her hand shook and she swayed on her feet.
Rio set his wine bottle on top of the minibar, placed Tori’s next to it and rested his hands on her shoulders. The cotton of her T-shirt, stiff with salt water and sand, stuck to the rough pads of his fingertips. “You need a warm shower and probably something to eat, right?”
“Those were my plans before tall, dark and ugly bust ed in here.” She pulled her trembling bottom lip between her teeth, squaring her shoulders beneath his touch.
Rio almost pulled her into his arms to comfort, to protect, but her glittering green eyes warned him to back off. This woman would fight the devil himself to stay on her feet and keep trudging onward. Working on her own obviously came naturally to her. She’d probably already exhausted every legal channel to get her son back from Prince Alexi.
Now she’d decided to look into a few illegal channels.
If she wouldn’t accept a shoulder to cry on, Rio could at least offer her something more practical. He spun her around and gave her a shove toward the cavernous bathroom. “Go take a shower and I’ll order from room service. Anything you won’t eat?”
“Crow.”
Rolling his eyes, Rio grabbed her wine bottle and one of the glasses on the credenza. He dumped the contents of the bottle into the glass and handed it to her. “Nobody’s going to force you to eat crow.”
The door snapped behind her and Rio picked up the phone and punched in the extension for room service. He ordered a couple of cheeseburgers and fries. No crow.
While Tori cranked on the shower, Rio wandered around the spacious sitting room. Tori must’ve gotten a lot of money in the divorce, but he figured she’d trade it all to get her son back.
He’d seen this type of predicament before—American woman marries a foreigner, lives in his country, has his children. And then when the marriage goes south, the wife can’t leave the country with her children.
The fact that Tori married royalty and royalty-gone-bad made her situation much worse. What had she been thinking when she said I do to Mad Prince Alexi?
Rio pulled back the drapes and slid open the door to the balcony. The soft, warm breeze whispered against his skin, carrying with it a whiff of some sweet flower and a salty tang from the ocean that he could taste on his tongue. He sipped his wine and soaked up the scenery.
“Nice view, huh?”
Rio shifted his gaze from the dark ocean where lights from a few dinner cruises and other pleasure craft bobbed and blinked to the glass sliding door and Tori’s reflection. She clutched a white robe around her body and had wrapped up her hair in a towel that made her look like the Chiquita banana lady.
He turned and propped his shoulder blade against the doorjamb. “Feel better?”
“I do. You should try it.”
Rio shrugged off the door. “I wasn’t the one manhandled by Alexi’s thug. I ordered some cheeseburgers. Is that okay?”
“Sounds great.” She patted the knot in the sash across her stomach.
“Can I ask you a few questions about Alexi?”
Tori bent over at the waist, rubbed her head with the towel and then flipped her head up, her wet hair already spiraling into curls. “What do I get out of it?”
“If I can bring in Alexi and turn him over to the CIA, you’ll get your son back.”
“Ha!” She tossed the wet towel into the bathroom and shoved her hands into the pockets of the hotel-issued robe. “Once the snare tightens around Alexi, he’ll give orders for Max to be sent back to Glazkova. And there’s nothing the CIA or anyone else can do about that. Max has to be with me when Alexi goes down.”
“I might be able to arrange that.” Rio crossed his arms and dug his fingers into his biceps. Why’d he go and promise that? Ever since his mother had died, he’d vowed never to play protector again.
Tori whipped her hands out of the pockets and clapped them together. “Now we’re on the same page. What do you want to know?”
Running her fingers through her curls, she dropped onto the sofa and kicked her feet up on the coffee table.
Rio perched on the arm of the sofa and hunched forward with his hands on his knees. How exactly was he supposed to get a kid out of Alexi Zherkov’s compound with its guards and motion sensors? He didn’t figure Alexi would allow his son to go anywhere with his nanny without protection.
“Look, Tori…”
They both jumped at the sharp rap on the hotel door. “Room service.”
Holding up his hand to Tori, Rio crept toward the door. He squinted through the peephole and assessed the waiter with the cart. He swung open the door, keeping possession of the handle in case he had to smash it against the waiter’s face.
The waiter wheeled the cart into the room and hoisted a silver tray. “On the coffee table or credenza?”
“Right here.” Tori patted the gleaming surface of the coffee table in front of her.
The waiter unloaded several items from the cart. “Enjoy.”
Rio dug some bills from his pocket and handed them to the waiter on his way out. When he turned back to the room, Tori had already lifted the covers from two plates.
She closed her eyes and sniffed. “This smells great. Last thing I had to eat, if you can call it that, was the shaved ice. Don’t get me wrong. It was exceptional, but hardly a meal.”
“About getting to your son…”
She picked up a french fry and waved it in the air. “We don’t need to discuss the details now. I know you can get him out.”
Tori had a helluva lot more confidence in him than he did. He let out a breath and joined her on the sofa. She had one thing right. The food smelled good and his body demanded sustenance.
They ate in silence for several minutes until Tori dropped her half-eaten burger onto the plate. “Whoa. Ate too fast.”
Rio touched his nose. “You have some ketchup on the tip of your nose.”
She snorted and dabbed her nose with her napkin. “That’s another reason why they kicked me out of Glazkova.”
“How’d you wind up marrying him?”
Holding the napkin over her mouth, she slumped against the cushions of the sofa. “I was young and stupid. While I was in college, both of my parents died in a plane crash. I wanted to quit school and go home, but my brother forced me to stick with it. Once I graduated, I didn’t want to go home anymore. Instead, I decided to travel.”
“Glazkova?”
“Not at first. I spent time in different countries and kept hearing about Glazkova—the parties, the beaches, the lifestyle. I decided to check it out for myself.”
“And was it all you dreamed it would be?” Rio cocked his head to study her face. He had a hard time imagining this single-minded woman relaxing.
“Oh, yeah.” She twisted the napkin in her lap. “For the tourists anyway, there seemed to be no rules, no laws. It was one big party, presided over by the partier-in-chief, Prince Alexi.”
“Were his parents already dead?” He’d heard once the old prince had died, the younger generation had let loose. Alexi’s father had also been involved in criminal enterprises, but not drugs and not arms dealing.
She nodded. “They died a few years before I arrived, so party central was in full-swing.”
“And you met Alexi at one of his parties?”
“Not just any party, his big birthday bash.”
“What was it? Love at first sight? He swept you off your feet beneath a full Glazkova moon?” Rio’s jaw tightened. For some reason that scenario left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Tori gave a short laugh and dragged a fry through a puddle of ketchup on her plate. “Not exactly.”
“A slow courtship? He wined and dined you. Introduced you to the beauty of his country, the magnitude of his wealth and power?”
She compressed her lips and smashed the fry on her plate. “Not. Exactly.”
