The Royal Elite: Mattias (11 page)

The very last door in the second hallway from the party had a plaque that read
Staff Only
across the front. Mattias barged in anyway, heedless of rules and regulations. Something soft and heavy on the other side impeded Mattias's progress, forcing him to put a shoulder to the wood and push harder. The door gave a few more inches.

Peering around the edge, Mattias saw a body on the floor, face down. He could see just enough to recognize Barrett's dark hair and familiar clothing. Pushing inside, he stepped over Barrett's leg and crouched next to the body. He used his fingers to feel for a pulse. Mattias found a heartbeat, thready and weak but viable.

Springing to a stand, he shouldered out the door, on the hunt for help.

“Mattias!”

Chayton's voice registered just as Mattias tensed for a fight. Easing his defensive posture, he faced his brethren. On silent feet, Chayton closed the distance.

“Barrett's down,” Mattias said once Chayton drew up at his side. But Chayton didn't stop. He put a hand against Mattias's shoulder and herded him further down the hall with clear urgency.

“We've got bigger problems. Our upstairs lookout was struck from behind and then got dragged into an empty suite. He's alive, but Alannah's not in her room. Someone knows we were watching her. She's probably in immediate danger, so I hope you know where she is.”

Mattias stopped at the end of the corridor, where two closed doors and a hallway led different directions. Hissing a curse, Mattias said, “I was just behind them. She left the party with some other man. So far, I haven't found them.”

“Did you get a good look at the man?”

“Like everyone else, he had a mask on. I didn't recognize anything else about him that made me think I've seen him here before.” No distinct tells, nothing to give the identity away. “But the fact that Barrett is out cold, along with the lookout, proves the rumors were right.”

“Exactly. She
is
in danger. I—wait. What's that noise?” Chayton paused and tilted his head.

In the distance, the faint sound of music and voices echoed into the hall from the party. It was another sound that Mattias latched onto, the same sound he suspected Chayton heard. A rumble not unlike an earthquake, except the ground wasn't shaking.

“The bay doors in the garage. Someone opened them manually.” Mattias broke into a run with Chayton on his heels. Considering the late hour and that most other guests were busy with parties, Mattias would have bet a year's pay that the garage door had to do with Alannah and her 'companion'. Ripping off the mask, he threw it to the side and pulled a firearm from a holster hidden beneath his tuxedo coat.

“Mattias. I'm going to cut through and hit the front. If you don't stop him, I may be able to before he gets completely off the property.” Chayton veered away at the last second, light footed, and disappeared down another hallway.

Mattias kept moving. He knew where the entrance to the garage was. Hitting the door, he went through low but fast, weapon out in front. Tail lights flashed on a red Jaguar driving toward the open bay at the end of the garage. Mattias wasted no time. He stopped, aimed for a back tire, and fired. The bullet hit metal instead of rubber when the Jaguar turned out of sight onto the drive.

Mattias rushed toward a parked Mustang, new and shiny, sitting close by. He knew the staff kept the keys on the floorboards for easy access. Dropping into the driver's seat, he angled the gun between the slim space beside the console, felt around the floor until he found the keys, and jammed the right one into the ignition. Peeling out of the space, he sped to the opening and swerved around the corner, hot in the Jaguar's tail. As he picked up speed, he caught a glimpse of tail lights through the foliage lining the drive.

The gate loomed a quarter mile ahead, already open.

Open, as if someone expected to leave the property tonight. Warning bells went off somewhere distant in Mattias's mind, but he ignored them in favor of getting Alannah back alive.

Out of the corner of his eye, through the darkness, Mattias saw a flash of motion in the yard. It had to be Chayton, heading for the gate. He wasn't going to make it in time to stop the Jaguar.

The vehicles tore down the drive and fishtailed onto the road in front of the manor. Mattias caught up to the Jaguar in the turn and nudged the car's bumper with his own. Metal whined. The Jaguar's back end swerved sharply to the right, one wheel sliding off asphalt to dirt. Surging forward with a spray of debris, the Jaguar put some distance between cars. Tint on the windows obscured the occupants from view.

Mattias wasn't letting the driver get away with the heiress. Under any circumstances. Punching the gas, he caught up to the other car and bumped it from behind hard enough to force the Jaguar around in a half circle. Hitting the brakes, he spun the wheel so that the Mustang faced the driver's door of the Jaguar. Reaching down, he yanked his weapon from its temporary sheath.

Just as he grabbed the door handle, intending to get out and rush the other car, a hail of gunfire forced him down across the seat. Bullets punched holes in the windshield and the grill of the Mustang. Another few cracks split the night, coming from somewhere other than either car. Chayton and Ahsan would
not
be shooting at him, and the angle was wrong to be coming from the Jaguar.

Who in the hell was shooting at him?

Pinned down, he could do nothing but wait until the gunfire stopped.

With a sudden whoosh, someone opened his driver's side door. Mattias twisted the gun around, ready to fire.

Chayton loomed in the doorway, black ponytail swinging over his shoulder. He used the side of his hand to block the muzzle of Mattias's gun, slanting it away from his face. He said, “I got the driver. He's got accomplices out here somewhere, too. Can't see them in the dark.”

Mattias, recognizing Chayton's silhouette against the night, climbed out of the Mustang, staying low. “So that's who was shooting at me. Did you kill the driver?”

Chayton, crouched with his gun at the ready, using the Mustang as a shield, gave Mattias room to disembark. He checked the sides of the road with quick glances. “No, I maimed him.”

Mattias, also using the cars as cover, broke into a run for the Jaguar. Heart in his throat that Alannah might have inadvertently been hit in the cross fire, he yanked open the passenger door. Shaking, terrified, Alannah brought her hands down from her face and peered aside at Mattias. Her eyes were huge behind the mask. Tape covered her lips, preventing her from screaming or speaking.

Across the car, the driver slumped against the wheel, alive but bleeding badly from a shoulder.

“Are you all right?” Aware there were still shooters hiding nearby, Mattias remained crouched between the door and the car. He tucked his weapon away for the moment.

Alannah ripped half the tape from her mouth with a whimper, wrists still bound. “I'm not hit. Why did he try to take me away? How did you know where to find me?”

Mattias tugged at the tape on her delicate wrists, sparing only one fast glance toward the roadside. Although he knew Chayton was covering him, Mattias half expected to see bulky shadows lurking there, guns aimed at his head.

“I'll explain later.” Mattias threw the spent tape to the floorboards. “Can you walk?”

Peeling the mask off her face, Alannah dropped it onto the console and leaned toward Mattias. Away from the driver. As if she couldn't stand to sit there one second longer. “Yes.”

From the direction of the open gates, Mattias saw a gunmetal gray SUV pull onto the road and swerve toward the Mustang. He saw Chayton intercept, recognized Ahsan when the man got out of the vehicle. Catching Alannah's hands in his, Mattias said, “All right. Here's what we're going to do. You're going to stay with me while we go around the front of the car toward that one over there. The SUV. See it?”

Alannah spared a quick glance. “I see it.”

“We have to stay low. Duck your head and move as quick as you can.” Mattias pulled his weapon free, took Alannah by the hand, and after a gesture toward Chayton and Ahsan, led Alannah around the nose of the Jaguar. The most dangerous part was going into the open space between vehicles, where they were all but sitting ducks waiting to be picked off by sniper fire.

With Chayton and Ahsan both on the lookout, Mattias crossed the open space as fast as he could, which wasn't as fast as he wanted considering Alannah was in a slinky dress and high heels, but they made it without being shot at.

“I think it's in her best interest, for now, if you get her out of here,” Ahsan said as soon as Mattias and Alannah were in hearing range. “We'll take Morano aside and fill him in. As much as we can, anyway.”

“I agree. Question the driver before the police arrive and see what information he'll give you. When Leander gets back--” Mattias ducked as three shots split the night.
Crack, crack, crack.
Alannah whimpered and huddled closer to Mattias.

With a sudden flurry, Ahsan pushed Mattias and Alannah inside the SUV while Chayton opened fire on the hillside.

Scrambling over the seat and console, squawking in protest, Alannah managed to get to the passenger's side in one piece. Mattias fared better, since he didn't have as far to go.

“What the hell? Get her out of here.” Ahsan closed the door with a bang.

Mattias, relieved to see the SUV still running, put the vehicle in gear and stomped the gas. He trusted Chayton and Ahsan to get out of the way. Spinning the wheel in his hands, he steered around the other cars and sped away from the scene.

“Are you all right, Alannah?” Mattias asked for the second time in ten minutes.

“Yes. Yes, I think so,” she said with a shaky voice. Situating herself in the seat, she glanced back several times as if to see whether the other men survived the attack. “What's going on? Mattias, why are we being shot at?”

“Apparently, someone put a hit out on you. It's a long story better told when we're somewhere safe.” He needed to concentrate on the road. Where to go. And why someone
else
besides the driver had been shooting at them in the aftermath of the accident.

Rubbing her wrists, skin red from the duct tape, Alannah was about to pepper Mattias with more questions when he frowned into the rear view mirror. His face was a study of concentration, mouth pressed tight, a muscle flexing in his jaw. It was a look that instantly sent a shiver up her spine.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Put your seat belt on.” He picked up speed.

“Why?” She grabbed the seat belt as he accelerated into a turn and clicked the clasp into place. Just then, she heard the roar of another engine and cast a look back through the seats. Headlights flashed across the rear window, closing in fast. “Who is that?”

Mattias didn't answer. Hands gripping the wheel, he followed the long road leading away from the manor. The SUV took the curves at a dangerous speed until Mattias stomped the brakes and swung them into a hard turn.

Alannah braced her hands on the dash and the door, yelping when she thought the vehicle might tip over. But it was sturdier than that and whipped onto the new street only losing a little speed in the process.

“Mattias, what's going on?” She raised her voice, as if that might get her a faster answer.

“We're being followed. Keep your head down.”

“I know we're being followed. But by who?
Why?
My father always insisted this
would never happen, despite the bodyguards and everything else.” Alannah,
indignant that she might not know all there was to know about the safety of her family, glanced between the following car and the Prince's profile. Recovering from the shock of being kidnapped and shot at, her anger at the entire ordeal boiled over. Maybe, she thought to herself, anger was a byproduct, a reaction meant to help with self-preservation.

“Someone out for blood, that's who. I don't have the name of the driver of that car though, if that's what you're asking, or who the shooters are. I do know that Mumford Cleary was acting strangely at the manor. Does that name ring any bells with you?” He took a hard left, jaw clenched tight.

The vehicle behind fell back twenty yards, the back end fishtailing around the same corner.

Alannah could barely see the outline in the darkness and looked at Mattias again, absorbing the details. “Mumford Cleary? That bastard? He's got enough dirt in his own backyard--”

“So the name does mean something to you.”

“I know he and my father got into an argument a few months back. Dad wouldn't ever tell me what it was about, only that Cleary was holding a grudge and being difficult. If you'll just get me to a phone, I'll call my fa--”

“He can't help you right now.
I
can help you. In this moment, you're going to have to trust that I can get you somewhere safe.” The tuxedo jacket pulled taut across the muscles of his shoulders and back when he turned the wheel left or right.

“And how do I know that you're not one of them? That you're actually taking me somewhere dangerous?” Alannah knew it was a churlish question the second she asked it. And the hard look Mattias leveled at her proved he thought so, too.

“Because you'd already be dead if that were the case,” he said.

“Which brings me to another question. Why are you here? You're a
Prince
for crying out loud. Where are
your
bodyguards? Shouldn't you be sipping champagne at that party and flirting with girls?” Under stress, Alannah wasn't known for patience or kindness. Her waspish tongue got her into more trouble than was necessary. Yet she couldn't tamp down the pulsing fear that rampaged through her system, obliterating the filter between her brain and her mouth.

He laughed. The dark kind of laugh that a person makes when they're on the verge of being pushed too far. Alannah could only guess what Mattias was like when he'd been brought to the brink. The classy, quiet Prince seemed capable of becoming someone else entirely judging by that laugh alone. Once again, she had the sense that she'd misjudged him. The way he handled himself, the car,
her,
suggested he had practice in this kind of thing. Odd, considering his status.