Okay, only one more chapter after this guys, so enjoy. Hopefully you'll enjoy the end. I may do another if anybody thinks they'd read it. We'll see. But for now, let's get Clarisse out of the trouble Joe's gotten her into...
Chapter 8
Lionel stepped outside, onto the cobblestone terrace, surveying the grounds.
Everything seemed in order. He, Colby and Landry were left to guard Queen Clarisse... shouldn't be too difficult—
"Lionel!"
He turned as Landry came toward him.
"Joe just contacted me. The plan's changed. There's been some trouble at the parade."
Immediately the young man tensed.
"He wants you and Colby to go to the beginning of the route and search the cars and buggies before the joint he line. He and Queen Mia are already in the parade."
"Doe he know what the threat is?" Lionel asked.
"No," Landry hesitated. "But he told me to put you in charge."
The young man beamed.
"Don't get cocky, Lionel." Landry warned. "I won't be able to help you – I can't leave Queen Clarisse."
Lionel nodded. "I understand. We'll leave now."
The parade route is five minutes from here – make it in three." Landry advised.
Nodding, Lionel turned to find Colby behind him. Together the two men headed for the garage and their car.
Landry hurried down the stairs to the basement and the security control room. He studied the screens, noting the empty grounds and deserted hallways. With satisfaction, he switched off the system and removed his earpiece. He dropped it onto the desk and headed for the stairs and his charge.
When they arrived at the parade sight, Lionel chicked his transmitter to Joe's frequency and contacted the temporary security head. After all, he was the one they should be reporting to, wasn't he?
"Joseph."
"It's Lionel. We are at the beginning of the parade route—"
"What?" Joe's sharp tone had Mia and Nick turning to look at him. "What the hell are you doing here? You're supposed to be protecting Queen Clarisse!"
Mia and Nicholas exchanged alarmed glances.
"Sir, Landry said you contacted him that there was a threat here. We're to search the coaches... per your orders." He finished, uncertainty in his voice.
"Very well. Proceed."
"Joe?" Mia laid a hand on his arm.
Joseph was frowning. "Lionel must have misunderstood Landry. He must have gotten some new information concerning the threat here."
"Why don't you contact Landry?" Nicholas suggested. "Then we'd know what to look for."
But Joseph was already clicking the transmitter. He tried to contact Landry again without success.
"He's not answering."
"Maybe it's not working?" Mia ventured, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"No, it's off." He changed channels and got Lionel. "Lionel, tell me exactly what Landry told you."
"That you had contacted him and were afraid there was a threat here and we were to check each coach and car."
"You're sure he said that I had contacted him?" Fear grew in his belly as the young man spoke.
"Yes, sir."
"All right, listen to me, Lionel." Joe's voice was deadly grim. "You and Colby get back to the palace as quickly as you can. No matter what you find when you get there, your only job is to protect Queen Clarisse. Do you understand, Lionel?"
"Yes sir." Joe could hear the excitement in the boy's voice.
"All right, go!"
"What's wrong?" Mia demanded.
"I'm not sure, but something isn't right." He turned to Nicholas. "Stay here and protect Mia. There are guards around you, you'll be safe. I don't think the threat is here."
He scanned the area and spied two guards on motorcycles. Quickly he appropriated the Vesper and roared off across the grass.
"Joe!" Nick shouted, but he was gone. He turned to his wife. "Stay here!" and headed for the second bike.
"I don't think so!" The queen muttered and ran after him, throwing herself behind him on the seat.
Landry smiled as he climbed the stairs and made his way to Clarisse's suite. Oh yes, this was where she would start to pay and when he was finished with her, then he'd make her husband suffer.
Joseph pushed the motorcycle as fast as it would go. How blind he'd been! How many times had he left Clarisse in Landry's care? He'd put Shades on Mia and when Joe himself couldn't be with her, he'd assigned Landry!
'Please let her be safe.' He prayed as the bike ate up the miles to the palace. 'Please God don't let him hurt her. She doesn't deserve it, let him take me out, not her.'
He roared up the drive, toward his love
Clarisse opened her door to the knock to find Landry standing in the hall.
"Yes?" Her pulse quickened slightly. "Is everything all right?"
He gave her a reassuring smile. "As far as I know, yes."
Clarisse breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'd like to check your rooms, Your Highness."
"That's really not necessary." She assured him. "No one has been in here since I came in."
Landry did his best to look uncomfortable. "Joseph asked that I search your suite, ma'am."
Clarisse refrained from rolling her eyes at her husband's over protective nature.
"Yes, of course, I realize you're only doing your job."
Landry followed her inside, closing the door behind him. But instead of checking for intruders, he stood gazing at her.
Clarisse smiled tentatively. "Is something wrong?"
"No. Not anymore."
Joseph plowed the Vesper up the stone steps, leaping from the saddle and tearing into the house as the bike skidded across the terrace.
"Clarisse!" He shouted, running up the curved stairs, two at a time. Her suite was too far away for her to hear him and he was certain that's where Landry, if it was indeed the security guard, would hold her prisoner. He only prayed that was all the man had done.
Landry's eyes swept the room, taking in the evidence of Joe's presence in Clarisse's rooms... in her life. A pair of black shoes near the closet, a man's white shirt hung carefully over the back of the desk chair. It made his blood hot and angry.
As Clarisse watched, Landry's face changed into someone she didn't know, his eyes taking on a dangerous gleam.
"Landry—"
"Shut up."
Clarisse's' eyes widened, anger snapping through her.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You should," Landry nodded. "Marrying that commoner. It was one thing to sneak around in the shadows, but marrying him." He caught her gaze and held it. "I was there. I was always there. I loved you with a pure love, Clarisse! He's just a political, ladder-climbing whore. He used you, Clarisse!"
'Oh dear God, Joseph where are you?' she thought, frantically, then realized with real fear that he was at the park with Mia, taking part in the parade.
"You will not address me in that manner." She finally said aloud. "And you may not call me by name."
"I'll call you whatever I want to."
He took a step toward her and Clarisse moved back.
"You're mine now."
She could see the madness in his eyes and it froze her blood.
"I fooled your brilliant security man." Landry sneered. "I fooled all of them. But he's the one I wanted. I wanted to humiliate him and break him and then kill him."
"Why?" Clarisse demanded. "Joseph has done nothing to you. He trained you!"
Landry almost spat.
"I should have Shades' position! And I should have you!"
"Why in the world would you think I would want you?" Clarisse cried. "I don't love you – I don't particularly know you!"
"Oh but you know him." Landry nodded to Joe's robe, carelessly thrown across the foot of the bed. "You let him touch you and—"
"He is my husband!" Clarisse all but shouted. "I love him. I have loved him. You have no right to –"
"I have every right!" Landry told her.
"Joseph!" Clarisse screamed. "Help me!"
"Don't you call for him!" Landry shouted at her, moving closer. "He's not even here! None of them are here! I made sure of that. Your maids are at the parade, per Joseph's orders and that idiot Lionel and his partner are there too."
"No...." She whispered, shaking her head. "You sent them all away..."
"Oh, yes." He leered.
Clarisse took a step backwards as Landry launched himself at her, knocking her onto her back on the bed, his body covering her.
Panic seized Clarisse and she opened her mouth to scream, but his mouth covered hers in a bruising kiss. His arms slid under her and she struggled, terrified, as he deepened the kiss.
Her still-tender side screamed as his weight bore down on her.
Finally he released her, putting a hand over her mouth.
"Quiet! No one can hear you – most of them are still at the parade."
Slowly he moved off her, taking his hand from her mouth. Clarisse gasped for breath, gulping in fresh air, heart thumping in her chest.
"We both know that no one is coming to save you. You're mine now and I'm going to have you. And then I'm going to kill you."
Logically Clarisse knew that everyone was at the city center, but emotionally she was having a hard time believing that Joseph was far away. He rarely left her side, especially these days.
"They're all out searching for the mysterious sniper. They think he's going to strike down the queen at the parade." Landry chuckled and pulled a gun from it's holster. "Now if you don't scream, I won't kill you right away."
Clarisse nodded and he yanked her against his chest, pinning her arm behind her. Clarisse cried out as pain shot down her side.
"Please..."
"Shut up!" He growled, "You see, I know it's only a matter of time before the parade is over and he comes to check on you." Landry said conversationally. "And when he does, I'll kill him."
"No," Clarisse pleaded. "Please."
"Don't beg! It's unbecoming to a queen."
"I am no longer queen." She reminded him. "You're living in a fantasy."
"Not anymore." He told her grimly, jerking her back against him.
Joseph skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs that led to their suite. He hadn't passed anyone on the way up and that did not bode well. Slowly he started down the hallway, gun drawn. And then he heard her scream.
"You know, you're so very lovely." Landry said, his voice a caress. "Much too lovely for a commoner."
Clarisse tried to bank down on the panic that threatened to overwhelm her.
"He's more of a man than you'll ever be." She said vehemently. "You've proved that today."
"Don't say that!" Landry jerked the arm he held pinned behind her back and Clarisse cried out in pain. "Don't you dare say that to me!"
"Clarisse!"
The door slammed back on its hinges and Joe slid to a stop, gun drawn.
The sight before him was nearly overpowering.
Landry stood in the middle of the bedroom, Clarisse in front of him, a gun to her head.
"So, the knight in tarnished armor has arrived." Landry sneered. "Well you're too late."
"Let her go." Joe's voice was deadly ice as he took a step forward.
Landry pulled Clarisse tighter against him and she cried out, pain swamping her from her injured side. Slowly, sensually, he played the barrel of the gun along her cheek. Clarisse closed her eyes and fought the urge to scream.
"If you hurt her..." Joseph's voice was low and deadly.
"Hurt her?" Landry laughed. "I'm going to kill her. And you."
"You can't hope to escape." Joe argued, eyes searching his wife for any sign that she'd been injured, or worse.
"I don't need to. Oh, I'd hoped to pull it off at the beginning. I'd hoped to beat her and rape her and then leave her dead for you to find."
Clarisse saw the color drain from her husband's face and her heart ached for him, her own plight momentarily forgotten. She made an involuntary move to go to him and was jerked roughly back against Landry.
"But now I'll kill her and let you watch. And then I'll kill you." He smiled at Joe's obvious pain. "Maybe I should cuff you to a chair and make you watch me take her. Then kill her." He suggested. "Watch me make love to her, fast and hard like a real man."
"You will not touch her." Joseph ground out, eyes dark with fury.
"Oh no? I'm touching her now." Landry moved the gun down the side of her throat like a lover's touch.
Out of the corner of his eye, Joe saw Nicholas and Mia standing in the hall, listening to the exchange. His mind raced, trying to think of a way they could take Landry by surprise. Then his gaze fell to the door behind Landry... the door to Olivia's connected sitting room.
"So the setup at the parade was only a diversion." Joe said, raising his voice slightly.
Landry looked puzzled at the change of topic, but then smiled.
"That's right." His tone was smug.
Clarisse shuddered as he released her pinned arm and cupped the side of her throat, caressing her skin. Joe pushed down on his anger... he had to stay focused.
"All the while I thought you were watching my back, I should have been watching the back door."
Nicholas glanced down the hall, trying to figure out what Joe wanted them to do. Mia, realizing her grandfather's intent, silently led the way to Olivia's vacant sitting room.
"Actually," Landry was saying. "The idea of making you watch appeals to me."
"Landry—"Joe began.
"Shut up!" He shouted, making Clarisse jump.
"Let me give her some pleasure before she dies." Landry continued, eyes gleaming with anticipation. "You've had your filthy hands all over her. It's time she felt a real man inside her."
"Joseph." Clarisse's voice broke on an agonized whisper, tears finally slipping down her cheeks.
"Landry I'll kill you!"
"No." The man corrected. "I'll kill you both."
"I don't think so."
"Drop Clarisse!" Joe shouted as Nicholas spun Landry around and grabbed the former queen from his grip.
The gun went off as Joe tackled Landry, bringing him to the floor where they grappled for control.
The gun fired again and Joe felt white hot pain shoot down his leg.
Nicholas joined the fray while Mia held a trembling Clarisse.
Nicholas yanked Landry off Joe and the former royal head of security landed a blow to the face that knocked Landry out cold.
Exhausted, Joseph lay panting for a moment, then rolled to his feet to go to Clarisse... and promptly sat back down when his leg buckled under him.
The noise brought Lionel and Colby on the run, Shades and several other guards right behind them. Landry was dragged from the room and Nicholas went with them, explaining what had happened.
"Joseph! You're bleeding." Clarisse was at her husband's side on the floor.
"I'm all right my dear." Joe told her, pulling her to him. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, yes." She burrowed into his arms and they held on tight.
"Neither of them is all right if you ask me." Mia told her husband as he returned.
"But they will be." He looked down at the older couple. "Now."
"Mia, phone for the doctor." Clarisse said from where she sat, trying to examine Joseph's wound.
"Already done." Nick pulled Clarisse gently up and into an armchair.
"Stay." He commanded softly.
Reluctantly she nodded, watching anxiously as her grandson helped Joseph to his feet and onto the bed.
"No, I'll bleed all over the duvet." Joe tried to stop him.
"Oh for heaven sake, Joseph!" Clarisse snapped, nerves finally giving out. "Lie down!"
He grinned at her from across the room. "Yes Your Majesty."