Royal Wedding Threat Read Online Free Page B

though she understood the effort he’d put into his gracious wordsand appreciated the gesture.
    But in an instant, cold fury snapped into her eyes again. “You wish I’d made it to my car before the bomb went off, don’t you?”
    Jason glared at her, wondering if he’d imagined the gratitude in her eyes. Why would she be so mean to him if she understood he was trying to assuage her concerns? He’d wondered before, while arguing with her, if she wasn’t actuallytrying to pick a fight with him, to egg him on instead of making peace.
    But why would she do that?
    Really, for all he’d done for her that morning, bandaging her cuts and dropping everything else on his morning schedule, she ought to have shown him a little appreciation. “I wish the bomb hadn’t gone off at all. I wish there’d been no bomb. But since there was, and since you were the recipient,intended or not, we’ve got to put you under guard.”
    “I don’t see why.”
    “Someone may be trying to kill you. That car that pulled away may have been the bomber, waiting to see if his efforts worked. If so, he knows you’re still alive. Given the risks he’s taken so far, there’s no reason to think he isn’t going to try again.”
    Ava blinked at him. “I don’t have time for this. I havework to do.”
    “So do I. The longer I argue with you, the further I fall behind. Let me make some phone calls and we’ll see what we can do to keep you safe until we sort this out.”
    Theresa Covington, the palace household manager, answered his phone call. He inquired about an available room among the palace-wall apartments and was relieved that Theresa was able to reserve an apartment forAva. “Thank you, Theresa. Have a lovely day.” He closed the call with the household manager and smiled at Ava.
    She scowled at him. “What?”
    “I’ll drive you to your apartment so you can pack a bag.”
    “I’m not staying among your guards.”
    “You’ll have your own apartment. There are guards also staying in the palace-wall apartments. Theresa told me you stayed in one when you firstarrived in Lydia, before you found your own place.” Jason stepped past her down the hall, poking his head into the switchboard room to tell Oliver where he was going.
    Ava followed him, still frowning. “I don’t appreciate this loss of my freedom. I have an important job to do.”
    In spite of her protests, she followed him to the royal garages.
    Jason chose a bulletproof vehicle. Onlythe new limousines, ordered since the insurgent ambush the previous summer, had armor plating, and he couldn’t justify driving the wedding planner in a limo. The bulletproof sedan should be more than adequate for a quick trip to Ava’s apartment.
    Fortunately Ava’s place wasn’t far from the palace complex, and the drive passed in silence. Jason would have fumed at the woman’s rudeness, exceptthat he’d seen that glimmer of fear in her eyes, that wounded little girl who’d peeked out when she thought no one was looking, and he began to wonder if she wasn’t picking fights with him on purpose. Perhaps her anger was a ruse to distract him from something deeper. But what?
    Jason parked in front of Ava’s building, just across the street from her door. “Wait for me to walk you in,” hetold her as he put the car in Park and turned off the engine.
    But to his chagrin, the woman ignored him, stepping out as he pulled the keys from the ignition and opened the driver’s side door. Ava quickly rounded the front of the vehicle and glanced up and down the empty street before darting across toward her door.
    Jason saw it all in a single glance—Ava’s unsteady, injured trot acrossthe two empty traffic lanes; the charcoal-gray Volkswagen Jetta that pulled out from the curb just over a block away the moment Ava turned her attention from looking both ways to walking; and the squeal of tires that betrayed the VW’s sudden acceleration.
    Jason leaped into action, shouting at Ava to hurry as he