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Trace froze. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“If that’s the way you want to play it, fine,” Walker said. “But I’ll tell you exactly what Callahan told me two and a half years ago when I was falling for Keira. ‘Just don’t let it get in the way of the job. You can’t fight what you feel. But you can lock it away. I know.’ And the hell of it was, he was right.” He laughed softly. “The hell of it is, Callahan’s always right, damn him.”
When Trace didn’t respond, Walker said, “Okay, forget I ever brought it up and focus on what you just told me.”
Trace replayed everything in his mind and was just about to shake his head, indicating he wasn’t seeing what Walker was seeing, when the light popped on. “If the Jones brothers are involved, why weren’t all three security systems disarmed?” he asked softly. “Why was the passive system left on? That doesn’t make sense. It’s as if someone wanted the alarm tripped. As if someone wanted me to respond to the intrusion.”
“Exactly. If either of them gave the access codes to the intruders, why not give all of them? If the passive alarm hadn’t gone off, those men would have succeeded in kidnapping the princess and getting clean away. You wouldn’t have known a thing until it was too late.”
“Also, why weren’t the princess’s hands bound tightly?” Trace added. “It didn’t even take me a minute to untie her. And why wasn’t her mouth taped? Real kidnappers wouldn’t give a damn about hurting her, and they would have wanted to make sure she didn’t cry out, call for help.”
“Right again.”
A thought occurred to Trace and he voiced it. “You don’t think the State Department... No, that doesn’t make sense. Does it?”
“Some kind of convoluted plot to make the king of Zakhar think someone’s trying to kidnap his sister? What would that accomplish?” Walker chuckled wryly. “Except make him not trust us to protect her?”
“Not that exactly,” Trace said slowly. “But what if the State Department wanted him worried about his sister’s safety? And at the same time, wanted to make him grateful to us for saving her? That tracks, doesn’t it? You said when you asked me to take this assignment that Zakhar is critically important to the US’s strategic plan for NATO and Europe. And if the king is grateful to us...” He deliberately left the sentence unfinished. “I know those men spoke a few words in Zakharan,” he added, “but that could have been a ploy to make the princess think they were Zakharian nationals—something she’d be sure to mention to her brother—so he wouldn’t suspect a setup.”
Walker cursed fluently, then said, “I hate to say it, but there’s sort of a crazy logic to the idea. It makes as much sense as anything else makes sense, I guess.” He tossed the pen he was playing with back onto the desk. “Damn it. That means Keira’s brothers could still be involved.”
“Yeah.” The two men exchanged serious looks. “But if so,” Trace said, “at least they were acting under orders from our government, and not selling out the princess.”
“You really think...”
After a minute Trace shook his head, quashing the possibility he’d just raised. “No, not really. Some smart idiot in the State Department might have cooked up the plan, but if so, why not bring me into the loop? Too dangerous not to, don’t you think? I could have killed one or more of those men. Easily. They couldn’t possibly predict what I’d do, how I’d react in that situation. If bullets started flying, the princess could have been killed or gravely injured. And that would have serious negative consequences for our government. Besides, I don’t think Alec and Liam would have gone for it, even if they were ordered to. They’re too smart. They would have seen the same holes in the logic that I just did, and they would nix it immediately.”
“That brings us right back to the question of why. Why was the passive alarm system left on?”
Trace let his breath out in a whoosh. “No idea. But at least I can cross Keira’s brothers off my suspect list. That’s a load off my mind.”
Walker hesitated, then said, “I think I’ll run a little background check on them anyway. It won’t hurt, and Keira doesn’t have to know. And I’ll bet you anything they’re telling the DSS the same thing—to run a background check on you, just in case.”
Trace laughed under his breath. “Yeah. No bet.” Then his expression turned serious. “The next question is, what has the State Department told the king? They had to tell him something—he and the princess are really close. They talk fairly often on the phone, and I’m sure she wouldn’t keep something like this from him.”
