Page 33

THIRTY-TWO

“That’s more than a little disturbing.”

A monster of a Siamese crocodile dragged the still form of a terrorist our way, releasing the body nearby. Then, because I intrigued all reptile kind, it came over to engage in aggressive cuddling, rubbing against my legs until I bent over to offer pettings. It seemed to appreciate me scratching it between its eyes.

The little female in my pocket observed with interest, making an odd blend of a chirp and a croak.

After receiving its share of scratches and affection, the crocodile slid into the water, leaving us with the rather mutilated terrorist.

I regarded Terry with wide eyes. “I think one of us needs an empathy evaluation, Terry. The local wildlife is not behaving normally.”

“That’s an understatement, Ian. I’m going to suggest that you are the current cause of our situation.” Then, as Terry had zero common sense, he came over and scratched Smalls under her tiny little chin. “I’m torn between being highly concerned about what’s going to be living in the palace and rather pleased with your new friend.”

“I’m both,” I confessed. “Daphne? Can you tell what killed him?”

The woman bent over, reached down, and grabbed the corpse by his hair, lifting his head out of the water.

The cause of death involved his head having been almost fully severed by something with sharp teeth.

“I’m going to guess the cause of death was a crocodile, and the crocodile got a hold on his throat and shook him with extreme violence. He bled out; all the major veins and arteries in the neck are severed,” she reported before letting the body fall and beginning the process of checking his pockets for anything of use, finding nothing. “Leave him. We can collect the body later, assuming the wildlife doesn’t enjoy him as a snack. And if they do, they deserve it for a job well done. Just watch where you step.”

The next corpse we came across had an entire writhing mass of black and yellow snakes similar to the one Eddie carried with him in the circular cage. His new pet showed no sign of wanting to join the party, and I could assume that if bitten sufficient times, people could die from the toxin. “That’s more than a little disturbing.”

“That’s another understatement, Ian.” Terry gave the snakes a wide berth, heading in the direction of where we believed the camp was. Because snakes and crocodiles weren’t bad enough, several bears fought over more corpses, we encountered a startling number of tigers and leopards, who came over for their fair share of attention, and enough venomous snakes our guide paled and warned us many could kill us with a single bite.

I found my parents, barely recognizable, mauled with the characteristic claw and bite marks of large cats. A mix of tigers and leopards waited nearby, and I could make a few guesses on the nature of the magic at play. My sister’s tigers and my leopards had set us both free. I would not need to worry about any guilt. If the large cats wanted to kill me, they would, and I took my time greeting each one, braving their bloodied fur, and offering them pettings and chin scratches in wordless thanks for solving a painful problem.

There would be blood on my hands, but not today.

One by one, the animals retreated into the jungle, leaving us alone with my sole manifested mote, which had taken on the form of a wolf or some large dog. With paw and fang, he worked on setting the hostages free. Shock would be a problem, as I had no doubt they’d witnessed the camp’s downfall.

While Terry had reviewed the dossier of the terrorists, I had been the one to do a review of every single soul believed to be in the jungle to the point I would never forget their names and faces. With a wave of my hand, I incinerated the bonds, taking care to prevent any of the hostages from being burned. As warned, the youngest was a child no older than seven, and I went to her, lifted her from the mat of reeds, and took care to settle her on my hip as I did with my daughters. “You’ll be all right,” I promised, hoping she spoke English.

To my relief, she nodded. “The animals whispered to us. They promised we would be safe.”

Maybe one day, we would sort out who had done what, but if the girl said the animals had spoken to them, I would believe it. “My name’s Ian, and we’re going to make sure you all make it home.”

Her eyes widened. “You are the Prince of New York.”

Somehow, I resisted the urge to cross my eyes and fling out curses over my reputation. “I am. Are you folks all right?”

One by one, the hostages confirmed they were as healthy as hostages held in a jungle could be.

As I had planned on taking ashes home, I unleashed the beast within once more, reducing the assholes who’d made such a mess of my life to nothing but ash. Before we left, I would collect what I could of their remains and place them in their rightful place in the palace, working to destroy whatever twisted legacy they had been attempting to build using me one final time.

Terry cleared his throat, went to the ash piles, looked me in the eyes, and scattered their remains with several swift kicks. “They lived in shame, they died in shame, and they will be condemned to rest in shame. There will be no disgraced monsters within the New York palace to haunt you or your sister. We’ll stay here however long you need, but it’s time you let them go. You are no longer theirs to sacrifice, and yes, that includes your comfort in some misguided desire to maintain a family tradition.”

I stared at the man, blinked, and lowered my gaze to his boots. “You could have used a shovel. You’re wearing them now.”

“They weren’t worth the effort. They’ll wash off during the hike back.”

Damn. When I stopped to think about it, I could understand Terry’s perspective. Every day, he worked to build a better life for me and my sister, and our parents had created mountains of trauma he needed to conquer. In many ways, Rachel had grown far faster than I. “You could have saved enough for me to kick, too,” I complained.

“You’ll get over it. We have more important work to do. They deserved exactly what they got, their lives lost testing nature and nature deciding they were unworthy of the air they breathed. Justice was served today, and that’s what truly matters. Sorry, Daphne.”

“Don’t be sorry. This is for the best. I would have drawn it out. Ian would have torn himself to pieces despite doing what was needed, and you would have had more remorse than any man needs because you wouldn’t have been able to stop me from drawing it out or Ian from being Ian.”

“Hey, what about me?” Eddie asked, and he scowled at Montana’s heir.

“You’re honestly the only one here who would have done the job because it needed to be done,” she admitted. “The rest of us just wanted to get our hits in. All you need is to know the job has been done.”

The Texan regarded the bodies scattered across the ground, many of them mutilated beyond recognition. “Huh. I guess you’re right. Does that make me heartless? I mean, they were people, weren’t they?”

“No, Eddie. Terrorists are never people. They’re monsters, and the only good monster is a dead monster. They were once people, but the instant they decided to reign using terror, they ceased being human. But now you know what justice looks like and why the RPS works as hard as it does. This time, we won with a little help from our scaled and furred friends. But often, we don’t. You’re seeing our ultimate victory, but we don’t always win. But these victories are why we fight. Sure, we’re going to have to make a lot of stops across Asia to get these people home, but they’re worth it. It’s important to know what you’re fighting for—and who you’re fighting for.”

Truer words had never been spoken, and rather than give my asshole parents yet another second of my life, I went to work getting their victims home to their families where they belonged.

* * *

Had I been a little wiser, I would have made myself somewhat presentable before returning Their Royal Majesties of Thailand’s youngest child to them. With some help from Terry and our guide, we’d managed to clean her clothes and tame her hair, although we couldn’t erase all the evidence of her captivity. Had I been thinking, I would have realized it didn’t matter.

The instant they realized who we were and why we had come, waking them in the dead of the night, they had gone from cranky monarchs to relieved parents. I doubted the little girl understood why they wept, and she did her best to comfort her mother and father.

“Anything you want,” Thailand’s queen burst out. “Name it. Anything you want, and it is yours.”

As I hadn’t gone on the mission for any reward, I crouched beside the woman, pulled Smalls out of my pocket, and held out the tiny crocodile. “Smalls would love if you would give her gentle pettings underneath her chin.”

The woman’s mouth opened, and she focused on the Siamese crocodile, and with an expression of wonder, she did as I’d asked, giving my new pet her owed attention. Smalls made her chirpy croaking sound and nuzzled the woman’s finger.

“You truly want nothing?”

“I truly want nothing,” I confirmed. “I will need my fiancée’s forgiveness, but I will wage that battle upon going home. Those monsters would have turned our world upside down in pursuit of their greed and ambition. Preventing that is reward enough. A little help getting the other victims home would help, though. We only have one plane, and there are thirty-one people needing to get back to their families.”

The initial numbers had been recent kidnappings, and the discovery of the extra victims, some of whom had been missing for over six months, would cause nightmares for a while. Some would need more therapy than others. Smiling at the woman, I got to my feet and returned Smalls to my pocket. The baby crocodile settled in for a nap as she liked to do between receiving small meals and earning some time in a rodent ball to run around as she saw fit.

She’d spent most of the flight from Cambodia to Thailand zipping around, bouncing into everyone and everything. The freed hostages had adored the crocodile’s antics, finding relief from the stress of their captivity.

In time, everyone would recover.

“We can handle helping to transport them to their families—or bring them here until they can go home.” At a snap of her fingers, several palace servants came forward, and she gave them instructions in Thai. “There. They will open suites in the palace and the doctors will come and tend to their health. You will all find rest here, you and your animals.”

Thailand’s queen blinked and regarded the cage Eddie held. “Is that a mangrove? Boy, your father has enough trouble with that old snake of his. We send our reptile experts yearly to assure him that his serpent son is doing well. He is, for the record.”

Eddie bowed his head. “I’m so sorry. Dad even tries to hide how often he goes to visit Mr. Wiggles. And when Mr. Wiggles gets to visit his bullsnake ladies at the zoo, Dad insists on accompanying him to make sure nothing happens to his baby.” Eddie grimaced and cast a sheepish look my way. “I have one of the sons of Mr. Wiggles in my suite at the palace. I might have smuggled him into California. I got into a lot of shit with everyone over Junior.”

I stared at Eddie, marveling over the man’s ability to cause trouble and mayhem wherever he went. “Seriously?”

“I didn’t want to leave him at home! It’s bad enough I could only bring Black Sand with me, and he’s at the main RPS stable, so I don’t get to see him daily unless I’m willing to drive an hour each way.”

“You drive an hour each way, don’t you?”

“I really do, and I spend my days off with him. But I raised Junior from the minute he hatched. I had him in my pocket during the entire event at the airstrip. I was certain someone was going to catch me.”

“You are just like your old man, and I’m going to give your old man shit over this,” I warned. Shaking my head, I got out my phone, sent Ethan’s mother a text requesting that she have Junior and Black Sand sent over to New York so their sad little owner might see them sooner than later, and notified her that our mission had been accomplished. “You have to come with me to New York to deal with the import issues for Miss Meany, so I’m having California send your pets over to meet us. If you have any other loose animals in your suite, do let me know.”

“I just have Junior and Black Sand, and Thomas is watching Junior for me.” Eddie sighed. “We’re both screwed on the paperwork, aren’t we?”

“We really are, but it’s fine. It’s not like we got any more leopards or tigers. That might have broken us. Anyway, the Cambodians will simplify much of it, we just have to declare our new companions everywhere we go. Just remember that Miss Meany is going to be aptly named. Good luck.”

“At least Miss Meany isn’t going to grow to be massive. I thought my soul was going to flee my body when that big one decided you were its plaything.”

“I am just glad that one liked me.” I shuddered at the thought of being the crocodile’s victim. “And worse, Smalls is cute enough I’m willing to fight Terry for the right to keep her.”

“Siamese crocodiles are one of the gentlest crocodile species, which is a factor in why she’s riding in your pocket right now. Don’t forget to put her in her bowl for a while. She can’t regulate her temperature, and you don’t want her to dehydrate.”

The bowl, which one of the on duty RPS agents hauled around for me to keep the whining at a minimum, served as Smalls’s general habitat and would until we returned to the Royal States. At first, she would live in an aquarium in my suite, and once she grew to over a foot long, she would be given a proper room, where she would live her best crocodile life hunting prey, basking on warm rocks, and otherwise enjoying her version of paradise.

As the last thing I wanted was for Smalls to become ill, I retrieved her bowl, placed her in it, and made certain she was settled.

The Cambodian RPS agent accompanying us took her, raised a brow in challenge, and waited for me to accept I wouldn’t be carrying her around at all times.

Terry cleared his throat. “Please don’t mind His Royal Highness. He takes caring for his menagerie quite seriously.” Then, because my sister’s head of detail had it out for me, he went on to introduce the Thai monarchs to every single one of my animals, including Isla, who dozed on Daphne’s shoulder. “Fortunately for all of us, he couldn’t bring any of the ferrets.”

Had we, we would have lost what remained of our sanity within minutes. “Maybe we should go to Europe to find me a Jutland mare, Terry. It’ll extend my lifespan. Once Rachel and Madelyn find out what we’ve been up to, we’re both dead.”

“I had my wife’s permission. In fact, she encouraged me. Alas, you’re going to be the only casualty, Your Royal Highness. But think about it this way: Madelyn can’t make you suffer for your crimes if she kills you.”