The Makeover Mission (30 page)

Jane didn't care much for being "the poor girl," but she
was glad somebody was suggesting she be let in on the secret. If not a secret,
whatever it was the rest of the room seemed to know about. All right, maybe not
the king, who also looked genuinely baffled.

"It's simple enough." Lucius spoke as if even an idiot
could figure it out. "Let me ask, though, how long have you and Eustace
been acting together?"

Elena and the king's brother acting together for what? Jane wanted
to know, but Lucius had stepped forward again, all but shoving her out of the
way.

"That's idiotic." It was the king's voice echoing
through the room. "Tell him, Eustace. That is absolutely
preposterous."

"I'm afraid he is right, Viktor." Eustace turned toward
Lucius, his face no longer amiable and conciliatory, but hard and measured.
"We have been acting in unison since the beginning. It was I, after all,
who suggested the union between our dear Elena and the king."

"Of course." Lucius's voice sounded different, as if he
was encouraging a slow student.

"So the first assassination attempt was a ploy?"

"No, darling, it was real enough." Elena answered, and
Jane thought her shudder was real. "Though not planned, it did serve a
purpose."

"And the explosions at the pool and on the night of the
dinner here at the palace?" Lucius might have been asking for a bus
schedule for all the emotion behind his words.

"Crude, but effective don't you think?" The younger Tarkioff's
voice cut in. "Elena knew you would get suspicious if there were no more
attempts on her life."

"And if I was too suspicious I'd have looked closer into the
first attempt."

"There was always that possibility, Major."

Elena glanced at the Head of Security as if saying, "See, I
told you he was a bright boy," but Jane thought she was the only one who
caught the gloating glance.

The king, who, up until this time had remained mute, asserted
himself. "Explain, Eustace. Why have you gone behind my back to perpetuate
this threat upon my fiancée? It makes no sense."

"But it does." Eustace's voice held none of the
diffidence it normally did when addressing his older brother. "Because
Elena is not your fiancée."

"Of course she is—"

"Be quiet, you fool." Elena's voice cut through the room,
sharply honed and lethal. "The whole engagement has been a sham. I would
no more marry you than rut with a pig."

The woman's words reverberated around the room in the sudden
silence. Even Lucius seemed taken aback as he reached one hand out to pull Jane
closer to his side and slightly behind him. She wondered who was going to sling
the next mud.

As if ignoring his fiancée's, or pretend fiancée's words, the king
turned to his brother. "Eustace, I order you to explain yourself."

"Gladly, Your Highness." The man's words sounded
straightforward but not his tone. Not one bit. "I have been working with
the Rostov family for years."

"You've
what?"

For the first time, Jane felt sorry for the king. This was more
convoluted than some of the soap operas she sometimes caught before work.

The younger Tarkioff ignored his brother's outrage as he
continued. "There never was any intention of Elena marrying you."

So did that mean Jane was pretending to be a pretend fiancée, she
wondered, feeling a little of the hysteria she'd experienced weeks ago when
this whole mess had first started. It was a measure of how far she'd come that
she could very definitely recognize the symptoms.

Tarkioff stepped forward, his face the color of ripe tomatoes.
"This is outrageous. I don't believe you for a moment."

"Believe him." Lucius's words slashed through the room.
"I'm sure your brother is very serious about what he's saying."

"That's a wise move." Eustace Tarkioff smiled, but it
didn't reach his eyes. Funny she hadn't noticed before how cold they were. Cold
and determined.

"But why have Elena become engaged to me? Why plan for a
wedding if there was to be none? It makes no sense."

Jane thought the king was sounding a little hysterical himself
until Lucius's next words seeped into his awareness. "Why? Because by your
engagement to Miss Rostov you legitimized her right to co-rule Vendari."

"The right to what?"

"That's right, Elena, isn't it?" Lucius stepped closer
to the other woman, leaving Jane to feel abandoned and still in the dark.
"The people of Vendari have accepted you as their king's new wife, have
taken you into their hearts, have even rallied around your bravery despite the
threats to your life."

"That was a nice touch, wasn't it?" Elena's brows
arched, her gaze remaining firm on Lucius. "And you helped with it,
protecting your little pretender here with such solicitous care. It was
touching, very touching, but absolutely pointless."

"So while you were safe until whoever made the first attempt
on your life was found, Jane continued your charade to ingratiate the brave
Elena into the hearts and minds of the people of Vendari."

"Something like that." Elena did not sound quite as
assured as she had seconds ago. Jane wondered if it was Lucius's proximity, or
his tone that disturbed her.

"And Eustace kept up the pretense closer to home when it
wasn't your life that was in danger at all."

"Explain yourself." The king uttered the words Jane
wanted to, but couldn't get around the lump in her throat.

"Simple, Your Highness." Lucius paused, closer to where
the other three stood now than he was to Jane. She couldn't see his expression
but could guess at his harshness. He'd been used, royally used by the sound of
things, and she held no doubt it did not sit well. "We have been working
under the assumption that the ultimate threat all along was to Elena's life.
That if she died before your wedding, the country could become destabilized
enough to result in an attempt to overthrow Vendari by Rostov's people."

"Yes, but—"

"But the real threat has been to you, not your fiancée."

"But how?"

"If you were assassinated right before the wedding, or
perhaps on the day of it," Lucius glanced at Elena as if for confirmation,
which she gave with the slightest of nods before he continued, "then it
would be natural for the woman who has won the hearts of so many these past
weeks to step in and rule in your stead."

"A woman? It wouldn't happen. They'd never accept a woman as
ruler."

"Perhaps. But there was a contingency plan. Your
brother."

"Eustace?"

"If Elena needed a puppet husband, what better man than your
brother, your Head of Security? The people would rally behind the two of them.
It's very simple and straightforward."

And might have worked, too, Jane realized glancing from one face
to another in the room. It very easily might have worked.

It was Tarkioff who asked the question hovering on the edge of her
awareness.

"What happens now?"

As if invisible strings had been pulled, Jane felt the tension in
the room escalate. No one moved. No one spoke. But the fear became palpable.

She wanted to hide. To scream at Lucius to hide. To do something,
anything to break the tautness of vibrating nerves. Then she saw the gun. A
long-nosed, blunt, ugly weapon gripped in Elena Rostov's hand.

And it was pointed straight at her.

Chapter 13

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L
ike the day the gunshots had rung
out in the town square, Jane felt that stretching of time, the slowing of
everything in the room as if movement happened one frame at a time. Even the
voices became painfully drawn out. The gasp of breath she heard sucked in—hers,
she thought. The harsh bite of Lucius's tone, angry almost, but only one
syllable released. A very clear, unrelenting, "No."

"Too late, darling."

The gun wavered but never shifted. It was Lucius who moved,
sidestepped until he was right beside her.

The man was using himself as a shield to protect her, and all Jane
could do was remain rooted to the floor. As if her brain impulses were not
connecting to her muscles, she could hear herself screaming inside to push him
out of the way. To save himself. But nothing happened. She couldn't make
anything happen.

"A gallant but wasted gesture, Major." Elena's words
slid into the stretched silence.

"This was not what we planned," Eustace said.

"Plans have changed, darling. But only slightly."

"But why kill her?" It was the king, sounding more
perplexed than concerned, as if it didn't matter that her life hung in the
balance as long as he made sense of why she was about to be shot in cold blood.

"She is unimportant." Elena gave a shrug, as if they
were discussing exterminating a bug rather than a person. "You've known
that all along."

Jane wished they would stop talking around her as if she couldn't
hear their words. Such cold, callous words.

"If we change the plans now, there could be problems."
Eustace said, though no one turned to look his way. Not when the gun remained
steady.

"Listen to him, Elena." Now it was Lucius speaking. It
sounded so reassuring, so matter of fact, Jane wondered if he'd forgotten that
he, too, stood in the line of fire. How could he be so calm when she couldn't
even breathe? "Eustace knows what he's talking about."

Did Lucius know about the plan? Was he working in cahoots with
Elena and the king's brother? Why else was he talking this way?

"It's not too late to go back."

Elena glanced at Eustace, then dismissed Lucius's words.

"It is too late. It's time for a new plan and she's a
liability."

Hadn't that always been her role in life? Jane felt surprise at
the anger the realization brought. Anger that gave her enough clarity of
thought to move, not away from the gun but toward it. She doubted she could
outrun a bullet, but she'd discovered there was something she could do. She
could make sure Lucius wasn't hurt in the process.

His hand snagged her arm, grasping so tightly it hurt. His
expression told her he knew exactly what she was doing, and he wasn't going to
have any part of it.

But this time she wasn't going to let him have his way. Not this
time.

"Don't worry, Miss Richards." It was Elena's voice that
stopped the struggle of wills between her and Lucius. "We still have need
of the major. He will not be hurt."

She might have liked the other woman better if she knew she'd
spoken out of compassion, but from her expression it was clear that wasn't the
motivating factor. Not when her whole attention was riveted on Lucius like a
cat on a bowl of fresh cream.

Now the power struggle was between them, with Jane on the outside,
watching heated gazes clash.

"This is ridiculous." The king sounded petulant and
put-upon. "Eustace, you and I will discuss this matter. Now."

No one moved.

The king spoke again. "I tell you this has gone on long
enough. I demand a resolution."

He received one.

Jane, her gaze glued on the face of the woman before her, waiting
for that last second when the gun would jerk, was the first to see the change.

It was as if Elena Rostov's eyes glazed over, her features
tightened as her gun hand moved, ever so quickly, ever so silently. Seconds
only, but it felt like forever. The dark barrel of the weapon arced and
settled. This time pointing dead center on the king.

"Elena. Don't."

It was Eustace's voice that cried out. But too late. The gun
snapped. Once. Twice. Again. Ugly, rasping sounds exploding through the room.
Four times in all. Short, abrupt, lethal pops.

The king's face registered surprise. A questioning expression that
begged for understanding even as a wide circle of red spread across his chest.

Lucius's hand, still banded about Jane's upper arm, swung her
behind him, as if he could hide her from the figure of the king toppling
forward, one hand reaching toward his brother. A brother as frozen in place as
the rest of the group.

"Eustace?" It came on a gurgle of breath, swallowed by
the heavy thud of shoulders slamming against the carpet.

It was that quick. From a living, breathing man, befuddled by the
pace of events unfolding, to a crumpled mass, lying still and silent.

Jane felt separated from reality. From where she stood, behind
Lucius, all she could see was Viktor Tarkioff's outstretched hand, red-stained
and motionless against the patterned carpet.

She closed her eyes, afraid she was going to be sick, knowing if
she didn't pull herself together, she was going to run screaming out of the
room. Though she doubted Elena would let her get far.

"You didn't have to—" Eustace Tarkioff's voice sounded
as bewildered as his brother's.