Page 80 of Raul

“Then I shouldn’t keep you,” he said, regret lacing his voice. That made her feel a little better about being kicked out ever so politely.

Using his cane, he levered himself to his feet, which meant she stood too. For a moment, she allowed herself to just admire him, his perfectly cut shirt and trousers showing off the broad shoulders and long legs she had pressed herself against. When her eyes traveled back up to his face, she almost gasped. His eyes were lit with a naked yearning that matched her own.

But neither of them could act on it.

“Buenas noches,”she said, plunking her bottle onto the table harder than she meant to.

Before he could speak, she bolted for the door.

“Erica!”

She pulled open the door and slid into the hallway.

Safe.

Chapter 18

Raul limped across the prison warden’s office to the large leather chair behind the desk, cursing his ankle for not healing faster. At least Odette would not see his weakness. Laying his cane on the carpet, he settled into the chair and nodded to the guards. “Bring her in.”

He had barely slept the night before. His brain had alternated feverishly between imagining his upcoming encounter with Odette and remembering all the pleasures of his time with Erica.

Erica, who had come when he asked for her help, even though he had no right to expect it.

Now, he braced himself to face the madwoman who had caused his family so much anguish.

A knock sounded on the door before it opened to reveal Odette Fontaine in shackles, her arms held by two burly prison guards. A jolt of shock rippled through him. The last time he had seen her, she was dressed in designer clothing, her red hair twisted into a glossy bun, her makeup perfect.

The woman who shuffled into the office wearing a baggy neon yellow jumpsuit was rail thin with dull reddish-brown hair yanked back in a sloppy ponytail. It wasn’t until she raised her head, her green eyes flaring with hatred, that he found something of the madwoman who’d pointed a gun at him.

“Where is Luis?” she asked, the smooth, French-accented voice still the same. Incredibly, it held a note of arrogance.

“He had other commitments,” Raul said.

The guards hustled her to the metal chair in front of the desk and fastened her shackles to a metal ring in the floor.

“You may leave us,” Raul said, nodding to the guards. They exited and closed the door, leaving him alone with his family’s worst nemesis.

“Doesn’t this seem excessive to you?” She raised her hands and let them fall with a rattle of chains.

“It’s standard operating procedure.” Mikel had briefed him on that.

Raul folded his hands on the desk and waited, careful to wipe all expression from his face despite the roil of tension in his chest. He would force Odette to speak first.

For a long moment, she examined him. “So, your father sent you to do his dirty work?”

“Dirty work?” He raised his eyebrows in a question.

“Aren’t you going to threaten to execute me if I don’t stop thatimbécileDupont from talking to the press?” She sat back in her chair, the chains clinking. “After all, I conspired to murder the king.”

That was the one piece of leverage his father held over her to keep her silent about Grace’s parentage.

“I had hoped to find a less extreme solution to this situation,” Raul said.

Odette’s execution would be entirely legal and would solve so many problems, but his father wanted to spare Grace that horror. He would invoke the sentence only as a last resort.

“So Luis is too cowardly to carry out the sentence.” Her mouth twisted into a triumphant smile.

“Believe me, it’s still a possibility,” Raul said, letting his anger show enough to wipe her smile away. “What do you want, Odette?”