Royal Heist. Rachelle McCalla

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      THREE

      Ruby felt awkward as she crawled on her hands and knees across the varnished wooden floorboards toward the second story window. Ahead of her, Galen crouched to the side of the expansive glass panes, hidden from outside view by the wide limestone window casing.

      “What is it? Do you see someone?” Ruby asked as she drew slowly nearer.

      “There’s a man at the corner smoking a cigarette. He’s leaning against the building across the street. It could be completely innocent, or he could be waiting for you.”

      She was almost to the window. “The man who attacked me last night had that lingering scent that smokers have.”

      “And Lydia has one of the lowest smoking rates on the planet. That doesn’t mean he’s our man, but it’s certainly an implicating factor.”

      Ruby reached the window. Instead of the cigarette odor they’d been discussing, she caught a whiff of Galen’s cologne, a faint but exotic scent that immediately reminded her of the time she’d danced with Galen, two summers before. Her heart began to beat faster as the treasured memory welled up. She tried to put it from her mind and focus on the situation.

      “Keep your head just above the windowsill,” Galen instructed her. “We’re on the second floor and he’s at ground level, so he shouldn’t be able to see you as long as you stay low.”

      Ruby slowly lifted her head just high enough to allow her to see out, while Galen crouched down beside her, until they were both peeking out in the same direction. The sun had nearly set, and though electric lights illuminated most of the cobbled streets, the place where the man had chosen to stand was cast almost entirely in shadows.

      The only thing Ruby could see clearly was the orange glow of a cigarette. “He’s certainly built like the man who came after me last night.” Ruby was able to make out enough of the large silhouette to determine that much. “I wish he’d step into the light so we could see his face.”

      “If he’s the same man, I doubt he’ll do that. But I’ll keep watching. You can finish what you were doing. I just wanted you to get a look before he disappeared.”

      “Thank you.” Ruby met Galen’s eyes, aware of how close their hands were, clinging to the windowsill, and how near his face was to hers. An indigo bruise branched out from his nose, deepening to a ruddy purple under his eye. Ruby sucked in a sharp breath. “Your face looks awful.”

      Galen grinned the lopsided grin she’d missed so much. After an awkward silence in which she tried to think of what to say to clarify what she’d meant, Galen responded, “Yours looks quite the opposite.”

      Mortified, Ruby dropped to the floor and crawled back toward where she’d been working. Had Galen meant his words to sound flirtatious? She didn’t want to know the answer.

      Over the course of her many summer visits to Lydia, she’d worked hard to maintain a purely professional relationship with the gorgeous guard. The first summer she’d had a boyfriend back in the US, so she’d made it a point never to act on the attraction she had felt toward Galen. And by the time she’d had a school year away to contemplate the feelings that wouldn’t go away, she’d realized that a relationship with Galen would never work.

      He was committed to life in Lydia. She had long ago promised her parents she’d help with their chain of jewelry stores once she finished her studies—and that required her to live in the United States. And she’d never been the type to have a casual fling with a man just because he was cute, even if he had sad-teddy-bear eyes. If she couldn’t foresee a future together, she didn’t see the point of wasting her time and emotional investment in a relationship.

      Galen was a great guy; definitely marriage material for some lucky Lydian girl. But Ruby belonged on the other side of the globe. Galen was a friend—a great friend, who’d only ever been a gentleman in the past, in spite of the adventures they’d shared that had given him plenty of opportunity СКАЧАТЬ