The Makeover Mission (15 page)

Jane felt goose bumps along her arms. Surely the man was joking.
Or did he expect her to step into this charade with no one to help her, no one
to protect her? That was the only thing McConneghy was doing. His job and
nothing more.

"I'm sure you're mistaken, Your Highness. Major McConneghy
has been nothing but the soul of discretion."

"Indeed." The king's tone said one thing, his expression
another. "But I do not wish to spend my meal discussing the major. Tell me
how you've found Vendari?"

With a whisper of relief, Jane launched herself into a glowing
report, most of it sincere. Vendari was a beautiful country, with breathtaking
scenery and hardworking, charming people. But she also was unable to ignore the
grinding poverty, lack of sanitation facilities, the primitive conditions she
saw even as the limo drove through parts of the capital city. She held no
doubts there was much more she was not allowed to see.

But the king did not appear to be the type of man who wanted to
hear about those impressions.

"I'm glad you're finding your stay enjoyable," he said,
as the main meal was set before them. "I have worked hard to make my
country the power that it should be, but it has not been easy."

Vendari a powerful country? Jane choked on the bite of rice pilaf
she had just swallowed. It was a little like calling a kitten a lion in
disguise. Obviously the country possessed some type of strategic value or
McConneghy would not be going to such lengths to ensure its continued peaceful
existence. But a powerful country?

"I understand that Vendari is very important to my
country." At the risk of antagonizing her host she decided to probe.
"But I'm not sure exactly what it is Major McConneghy offers your country
in return."

"So the good major has chosen not to boast. I will explain
then. The major is a conduit between his country and mine."

"A conduit?" She'd thought he was a political advisor.
"A conduit for what?"

"Your country is a big country. So very big. But it is not
always the big countries that are the most important."

"Like Vendari?" It was a stab in the dark.

"My dear, the world is a very complex place." He was
obviously ignoring her question. "Your American way is sometimes so
simple. You see something you want, you go in and take it."

"That sounds like colonialism."

"It is one of the prerogatives of power."

It sounded as though he approved. But what did this have to do
with Vendari and the United States? Or with the major?

The king continued, swirling the wine in his glass. "There
are times when big countries find it more expedient to avail themselves of the
strategic importance of smaller countries."

"Like Vendari?" she repeated.

"Vendari is very strategic in this region. We are small, but
small does not always mean powerless. Though only a fool gives away the horse
and
the grain."

Okay, now he'd lost her completely. Fortunately he seemed in love
with his own voice and continued.

"Vendari has needs. Your country has needs. Your major is the
conduit between the two."

"So in order to get what the United States needs in this
area, the major helps you get what you need?"

"Exactly."

"And what does Vendari need?"

"Many things. We have a very long history. Unfortunately it
contains a lot of instability. Not all see the wisdom of a strong ruling house.
And when some are unhappy, it is all too easy for those with souls of vipers to
align themselves with like-minded individuals in a country."

"Like Pavlov Rostov?"

"So the major has briefed you on certain aspects of the
situation."

"Mission," she said automatically, then wanted to groan
aloud.

"There are those who wish to sit where I sit. I must ever be
vigilant of those who seek to usurp my power. The major's job is to keep me
pleased. If I am pleased, I might be able to help his country more when they
need our strategic location. It is really very simple you see."

"Yes, I see." She didn't, not really. But maybe that was
because she didn't really care about Tarkioff and his power base, not when her
thoughts dwelled on Lucius McConneghy. How could someone choose a life so much
in the shadows? How could he walk the fine line between his country's needs and
another's? It was a position fraught with land mines. One wrong step, and there
would be no winners, only casualties.

"I am surprised your Major McConneghy did not explain his
position more clearly."

He'd have to talk to her to do that, she thought peevishly, but
there was more to it than that and she knew it. McConneghy didn't trust her.
Ever since the explosion in the pool room he'd made it perfectly clear that
they both might be involved in the same strategic mission, but he was on one
side of the fence, and she on the other. And it hurt. More than it should.

"The major is a man of few words." Maybe she was getting
the hang of this say-nothing-when-you-talk, political way of communicating.

"One must always be wary around a man with his own
agenda."

"Wary sounds a bit extreme. I would think that one must trust
to a certain extent their—" What did he call Lucius? "their
advisor." She noted the king's frown and quickly added, "Though I
realize a man like yourself needs to be an astute judge of character and trust
would not come easily."

He preened under her words.

"And as such a judge you would know whom to trust and whom
not to," she added.

"True. Very true." The words slurred slightly. The king
was getting downright foxed.

"And I would also think you would not allow a man you were
wary about to become too close to you—or those you care for."

He eyed her silently before remarking, "Are you saying that
since I use the major to keep certain areas of my life under control, that thus
I should trust him?"

She wondered if the real Elena knew she was described as
"certain areas." "You don't trust him?"

"My dear Miss Richards." The king obviously forgot how
dangerous it was to speak her real name where anyone could overhear, or he was
too tipsy to care. "A man in my position trusts no one. No one at all. Is
that clear?"

"Yes. Perfectly clear."

"In fact," he leaned closer until the scent of his wine
breath wafted over her. "I have grave concerns about your major."

This surprised her. "What kind of concerns?"

"You know you are very much alone in my country."

The shift of conversation had her blinking. That and the look in
the king's eye. Not that he shouldn't be looking at her, after all she was the
spitting image of his wife-to-be, but still, it was unnerving.

"We were talking about the major."

"Ah, yes." He glanced at his empty wineglass and
shrugged. "You, too, should be worried about the major."

"Why?"

"You are a pawn. One in a very vulnerable position."

"I know that someone has attempted to take your fiancée's
life before and tried again the other day."

He waved his hand as if to dismiss such a casual concern.
"There is more than that."

It was her turn to lean forward, aware of how empty the room was,
of how, except for the king's rather labored breathing, it was cloaked in
silence.

"What is it you feel I should know?" She hoped she was
ready for the answer.

"You walk two very different tightropes."

"Two?"

"Ah, yes." He waved his hand as if encompassing more in
the empty room. "The major says he wants to protect you, no?"

"He has mentioned it." There was something here, beneath
the words spoken, a tension creeping into the room, into her very bones.

"Did he also mention that you are being used to lure in those
who attempted to harm my Elena?"

The words took several seconds to register and when they did Jane
felt cold, icy cold. "You mean I'm being used as bait to attract the
individuals who have already tried once to kill Elena."

"Of course, my dear Miss Richards."

"I had not thought about that." It made sense of course.
Perfect sense. Too bad that didn't help the large lump in her throat.

"You see, Miss Richards. A very vulnerable position. It is
why the major watches you so closely."

Of course he did, she realized. She was his cheese. A very
compliant, gullible, willing hunk of cheese and she had believed him when he
told her he would protect her.

"You mentioned two tightropes. What is the other one?"

"Ah, think Miss Richards." His hand layered over hers.
"Do you not realize that if the major thinks he controls your destiny—you
also control his."

"I don't understand."

"To the world at large you and I are to be married, are we
not?"

Jane tried to sort out the nuances beneath the words she was
hearing. "Yes, I guess you might say so."

"And yet the major, he is with you every day."

"Yes, he's with me."

Protecting her, or at least that's what she thought he had been
doing. Now she knew better.

The king leaned back. "So it is obvious."

As mud. "I'm sorry, but I'm still confused. I don't
understand what the major escorting me, or your fiancée, has to do with my
controlling his destiny."

"It is still two weeks until my marriage, and here you are, a
beautiful woman, alone and vulnerable in my country."

"Yes?"

"And it would be only natural that you might seek the
protection of the man whom you think could help you should you need help."

"The major?"

The king leaned forward. "It would be an incorrect
assumption, Miss Richards. For I am the most powerful man in Vendari."

Well, the man certainly didn't lack for ego.

"The major operates from a rather traditional perspective. He
tends to think as a warrior, one from the old school."

"Meaning?"

"It would be in your best interests to choose the man who
could truly help you should you need it."

"And that means you?"

"A man in my position can dispense favors to those who please
him. For those who displease him—" He waved his hand again, a diamond ring
winking in the candlelight. "I reward those who deserve rewards. For the
rest, they are as nothing."

The room grew cooler. "Meaning?"

"If you do not do your duty, then the major has failed in
his. He will not have kept me happy and relations between our countries
cordial. He thus would become a liability." The earlier uneasiness in
Jane's stomach congealed into a lump of cold, hard fear. "Vendari can
become a very dangerous place for those who displease me."

As if it wasn't already, she wanted to point out, but instead
decided to make sure she understood, perfectly, what the king was implying.
"Are you saying that by continuing in this … mission, that I will be
protecting the major's role in Vendari?"

"Yes."

"But if I don't, what then? He will be fired? Asked to leave
Vendari?"

The king picked his teeth with his pinky before replying. "Or
he could meet with an accident. All too common, I'm afraid."

"And my country would not protest the life of one of their
conduits?"

"They would protest. I would send my regrets. We would start
our political dance again. It is life."

"And why should I worry about the life of a man who is using
me?" She knew the question sounded legitimate, especially to a man like
Tarkioff, who appeared to have no scruples whatsoever.

"A very good point." He lifted her hand to his lips,
keeping his gaze on hers as if watching for a reaction. She refused to give him
one, no matter how hard it was to sit there, calmly and coolly, while a snake
touched her. "But I have seen women taken in by him before."

"By Major McConneghy?"

"Yes. His charm is a tool he uses and uses well."

First McConneghy had lied to her, telling her he'd protect her
when all along he'd been using her as bait. And now, now to discover that those
looks, those heated, soul-scorching looks he'd given her were only more lies.
He'd played her like a master. How easily she'd responded to him, believed he
cared, even when he'd warned her not to trust him most of all.

"So you are warning me not to be deceived by the major? To
follow his directions, but not to trust him."

"You are very perceptive."

If only he knew. But the night's revelations were already too
heavy to bear without admitting how naive, how truly gullible she'd been. And
here she'd thought she was changing, growing as a woman, learning to assert
herself, and it had all been a lie. She was still the small-town librarian with
the experience of a gnat in the relationship department after all.