Royal Captive by Dana Marton Page B

the doors on every one of them.
    The men immediately dispersed and did as he’d ordered. He couldn’t help but notice how much slower and clumsier they moved than Lauryn.
    He had to wait at least half an hour before one of the men shouted down. “I got it.” Then he led the group on the ground to the right location.
    The container in front of his had been moved some how. As if to allow someone entry.
    He was going to wait for his brothers with the opening of the container, but he was unable to hold back now. He threw open the doors and strode in, adrenaline pumping through him. He would get everything back.
    The treasure was all safe. He willed it so.
    But he could see within two steps that the contents had been disturbed. The tops of several crates had been tossed to the floor. He jumped up on the first, his skin burning where his clothes rubbed against his abdomen. He barely noticed the pain from his lingering jellyfish welts.
    Empty. The realization echoed through his brain.
    He smacked his fist into the wood. “Search every crate,” he ordered the Valtrian guards, while motioning Port Authority back. He worked alongside his men.
    “Empty,” one called out.
    “Nothing here,” said another.
    “Bare-root roses packaged in sawdust,” came the first response that was different.
    Valtria’s signature purple roses, a common export item, the official contents of the container that the ship’s captain had declared toward customs as cover, Istvan guessed.
    “Keep searching,” he said, although he knew by then that all the effort would come to naught.
    He turned away in disgust. He should have come earlier. He should have come right away last night. But he’d been tired, and he knew Lauryn had been tired. He’d wanted to see her safe and settled.
    Then a familiar shape caught his eyes, Lauryn sauntering across the shipyard, dressed in all black, self-possessed and full of confidence. Catwoman had nothing on her. He came off the ship to meet her, ordering his men to search the entire ship and get the crew ready for interrogation.
    He caught some of the Port Authority officers on shore looking her over and didn’t approve one bit, frowned at the gawkers. Normally that was enough of a warning for anyone to heed a prince’s displeasure, but currently had no effect whatsoever. Next to her, nobody even noticed him.
    “Everything’s gone,” he told her matter-of-factly, determined not to show that part of him was glad she’d come back even as he wondered why she did, or if she had anything to do with the treasure’s disappearance.
    He didn’t know when she’d left the estate. He didn’t know when the crates had been emptied. Her involvement was more than possible. But if she’d come to Valtria for the crown jewels and now she had them, she’d be on her way, wouldn’t she?
    There was no figuring the woman out.
    “I got here an hour ago. Everything was already gone by then.”
    He didn’t even bother asking how she’d gotten on a ship under full guard.
    “They probably handed off the stolen goods before the ship pulled into port,” she told him.
    And he had to admit that the ship having had a rendezvous off shore seemed the most likely explanation at the moment. They might have had the transfer set up for Cyprus, but changed that when their prisoners escaped, suspicious that someone might be onto them. Then, because the ship’s manifest included Porto Paphos, they had to pull into port anyway.
    Lauryn sneaking on the ship at dawn was one thing. But surely the guards would have noticed if someone tried to remove a dozen crates’ worth of treasures. It wasn’t as if that war chest could have been smuggled off the ship in someone’s back pocket.
    But even if Lauryn wasn’t part of the group who’d made off with everything, she had left the estate during the night and she had come here. She had sneaked onto the ship and had checked the container. All that didn’t exactly help when it came to trusting