American Prince

But I do know him. I can see the tightness around his eyes, the way he keeps rubbing at his forehead with his thumb. There is panic written quietly into every line of his body.

“We have to assume they’ll make for water,” Ash says, dropping his hand from his face and addressing the room. “We’ve already got the airports and airfields on alert, and they know how closely we can watch the airspace. But if they can make it to open water, their chances of success open up immediately. Mobilize the Coast Guard and we’ll need seaside police agencies to boost patrols of marinas and docks. Bors, how much of a lead do you think they have?”

“Less than three hours. More than one.”

“Then we don’t have much time. Once they get to water, there’s no telling which way they’ll go. Or how long they’ll stay. Embry, Merlin, Kay—could I have a word with you privately?”

Kay ends her phone call, and the rest of us follow Ash into the en-suite sitting room. “I don’t think Melwas is going to ask for ransom,” Ash says as soon as we’re there with him. “I think he wants to make it impossible to prove that he has Greer. A ransom demand would be unequivocal confirmation of his role in her kidnapping, but if he says nothing? Then to the rest of the world, there will always be the doubt that we are faking her disappearance as an excuse for military action.”

“The world will believe us,” I say fiercely. “They know what kind of man Melwas is. They’d even help us!”

“I don’t want help, and I don’t want war,” Ash replies with firmness. “Not if war can be avoided. It’s what he wants, Embry. He wants us to fight again, but this new treaty ties his hands. He can’t exercise military power unless he’s attacked, so he’s trying to goad us into attacking. I won’t give in.”

“What are you saying?” I demand. “That we just ask him nicely to give her back?”

“No,” Ash says. “Because the other reason he took her is because he…wants…her.”

His words curl with distaste, and I know he, like me, is remembering the diplomatic dinner in Geneva where Melwas danced with Greer. The look in Melwas’s eyes that night had been unmistakable. Aggressive.

“Then what do we do?” I ask.

“I go and find her.”

Kay, Merlin, and I stare at Ash, stunned.

Ash clarifies. “I’m supposed to be on my honeymoon for the next week, which means I’ll already be absent from the public eye. There’s no reason I can’t use that time to find my wife.”

“Are you suggesting,” Kay asks, “that you—the President of the United States—go personally to find your wife?”

Ash meets her incredulous gaze with a determined look. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

Kay throws up her hands and turns away, wheeling back suddenly to say, “Absolutely not.”

Merlin clears his throat. “There are innumerable reasons why that’s out of the question,” he tells Ash. “Your safety and sovereignty cannot be compromised if you want to keep this country away from war. We need you here, protecting this country.”

“Then who is going to protect Greer?” Ash asks, and there’s no missing the controlled anger threaded through his words. “This is my call, Merlin. My wife.”

My wife. For some reason, those two words sting me a little. A lot. It stings that we are standing in a room full of people who don’t know what happened here last night, the promises sealed with sighs and sweat. It stings that Ash will always, always get to care about Greer publicly and I won’t. It stings that I can’t care about Ash publicly. That I can’t drop to my knees in front of him right now and beg him to let me help, let me go after her.

“Send me,” I say urgently. Everyone swivels their heads to look at me, but I keep my eyes on Ash. I will him to see my thoughts, my mind. “You can’t go, Ash. It’s impossible. If you get caught—if Melwas catches you—the consequences would be too much.”

Ash steps forward and slides his hand around the back of my neck, pulling our foreheads together. Like he doesn’t care what anyone else in the room thinks. “Do you think that you are any less important to me?” he asks roughly. “Do you think I can risk you, as well as her? Do you think that if you were caught I wouldn’t come after you too?”

“I…I don’t know,” I whisper. “But it has to be me.”

“No. I won’t risk you, and as far as I’m concerned, both you and Greer belong to me. Your safety is my responsibility, as is your pleasure and your pain.” He says this last part so quietly that no one else can hear him. “I’m not worthy of the promises I made in this room, not worthy of what I take from the two of you, if I can’t protect you.”

“It’s because you’re worthy that we can’t let you go,” I reply. “But me…no one will miss me. My capture doesn’t have to mean war—and don’t interrupt me; you know it’s true. A President being taken is different than a Vice President being taken, it just is. And if I do get captured, then you’ll let me go because it’s the right thing to do.”

“I never leave my soldiers behind,” Ash says, a low growl behind his words.

“You’re responsible for more than soldiers now,” I remind him. “It’s the price you paid for this office. It has to be me, and who could you trust more than me to find her and bring her back? Does anyone in this room, anyone in the police or CIA or Presidential Protection Division or the military, love that woman more than me? Would anyone else in here risk more than me to bring her back?”