Page 114 of The Prince of New York

One by one, the animals retreated into the jungle, leaving us alone with my sole manifested mote, which had taken on the form of a wolf or some large dog. With paw and fang, he worked on setting the hostages free. Shock would be a problem, as I had no doubt they’d witnessed the camp’s downfall.

While Terry had reviewed the dossier of the terrorists, I had been the one to do a review of every single soul believed to be in the jungle to the point I would never forget their names and faces. With a wave of my hand, I incinerated the bonds, taking care to prevent any of the hostages from being burned. As warned, the youngest was a child no older than seven, and I went to her, lifted her from the mat of reeds, and took care to settle her on my hip as I did with my daughters. “You’ll be all right,” I promised, hoping she spoke English.

To my relief, she nodded. “The animals whispered to us. They promised we would be safe.”

Maybe one day, we would sort out who had done what, but if the girl said the animals had spoken to them, I would believe it. “My name’s Ian, and we’re going to make sure you all make it home.”

Her eyes widened. “You are the Prince of New York.”

Somehow, I resisted the urge to cross my eyes and fling out curses over my reputation. “I am. Are you folks all right?”

One by one, the hostages confirmed they were as healthy as hostages held in a jungle could be.

As I had planned on taking ashes home, I unleashed the beast within once more, reducing the assholes who’d made such a mess of my life to nothing but ash. Before we left, I would collect what I could of their remains and place them in their rightful place in the palace, working to destroy whatever twisted legacy they had been attempting to build using me one final time.

Terry cleared his throat, went to the ash piles, looked me in the eyes, and scattered their remains with several swift kicks. “They lived in shame, they died in shame, and they will be condemned to rest in shame. There will be no disgraced monsters within the New York palace to haunt youoryour sister. We’ll stay here however long you need, but it’s time you let them go. You are no longer theirs to sacrifice, and yes, that includes your comfort in some misguided desire to maintain a family tradition.”

I stared at the man, blinked, and lowered my gaze to his boots. “You could have used a shovel. You’re wearing them now.”

“They weren’t worth the effort. They’ll wash off during the hike back.”

Damn. When I stopped to think about it, I could understand Terry’s perspective. Every day, he worked to build a better life for me and my sister, and our parents had created mountains of trauma he needed to conquer. In many ways, Rachel had grown far faster than I. “You could have saved enough for me to kick, too,” I complained.

“You’ll get over it. We have more important work to do. They deserved exactly what they got, their lives lost testing nature and nature deciding they were unworthy of the air they breathed. Justice was served today, and that’s what truly matters. Sorry, Daphne.”

“Don’t be sorry. This is for the best. I would have drawn it out. Ian would have torn himself to pieces despite doing what was needed, and you would have had more remorse than any man needs because you wouldn’t have been able to stop me from drawing it out or Ian from being Ian.”

“Hey, what about me?” Eddie asked, and he scowled at Montana’s heir.

“You’re honestly the only one here who would have done the job because it needed to be done,” she admitted. “The rest of us just wanted to get our hits in. All you need is to know the job has been done.”

The Texan regarded the bodies scattered across the ground, many of them mutilated beyond recognition. “Huh. I guess you’re right. Does that make me heartless? I mean, they were people, weren’t they?”

“No, Eddie. Terrorists are never people. They’re monsters, and the only good monster is a dead monster. They were once people, but the instant they decided to reign using terror, they ceased being human. But now you know what justice looks like and why the RPS works as hard as it does. This time, we won with a little help from our scaled and furred friends. But often, we don’t. You’re seeing our ultimate victory, but we don’t always win. But these victories are why we fight. Sure, we’re going to have to make a lot of stops across Asia to get these people home, but they’re worth it. It’s important to know what you’re fighting for—and who you’re fighting for.”

Truer words had never been spoken, and rather than give my asshole parents yet another second of my life, I went to work getting their victims home to their families where they belonged.

* * *

Had I been a little wiser,I would have made myself somewhat presentable before returning Their Royal Majesties of Thailand’s youngest child to them. With some help from Terry and our guide, we’d managed to clean her clothes and tame her hair, although we couldn’t erase all the evidence of her captivity. Had I been thinking, I would have realized it didn’t matter.

The instant they realized who we were and why we had come, waking them in the dead of the night, they had gone from cranky monarchs to relieved parents. I doubted the little girl understood why they wept, and she did her best to comfort her mother and father.

“Anything you want,” Thailand’s queen burst out. “Name it. Anything you want, and it is yours.”

As I hadn’t gone on the mission for any reward, I crouched beside the woman, pulled Smalls out of my pocket, and held out the tiny crocodile. “Smalls would love if you would give her gentle pettings underneath her chin.”

The woman’s mouth opened, and she focused on the Siamese crocodile, and with an expression of wonder, she did as I’d asked, giving my new pet her owed attention. Smalls made her chirpy croaking sound and nuzzled the woman’s finger.

“You truly want nothing?”

“I truly want nothing,” I confirmed. “I will need my fiancée’s forgiveness, but I will wage that battle upon going home. Those monsters would have turned our world upside down in pursuit of their greed and ambition. Preventing that is reward enough. A little help getting the other victims home would help, though. We only have one plane, and there are thirty-one people needing to get back to their families.”

The initial numbers had beenrecentkidnappings, and the discovery of the extra victims, some of whom had been missing for over six months, would cause nightmares for a while. Some would need more therapy than others. Smiling at the woman, I got to my feet and returned Smalls to my pocket. The baby crocodile settled in for a nap as she liked to do between receiving small meals and earning some time in a rodent ball to run around as she saw fit.

She’d spent most of the flight from Cambodia to Thailand zipping around, bouncing into everyone and everything. The freed hostages had adored the crocodile’s antics, finding relief from the stress of their captivity.

In time, everyone would recover.

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