Page 49 of The Prodigal Prince

“Think, Mac,” he muttered. “There’s nothing in here you can use. They took your phones. Your son and his mother, the woman you’re falling in love with, are both with you. You have to protect them at all costs. Maybe Silas or Tinsley will try to get a hold of one of us soon. They could sound the alarm.”

The noises on the other side of the door became more clear.

“You said there wasn’t any risk.”The first voice sounded like Lefty.“You said we’d be gone before anyone knew they were missing. Staying holed up inside the property doesn’t exactly seem like the best way to do that.”

“We will be gone before they’re found. Only one of them matters, anyway.”Mr. Villain’s voice contained barely controlled frustration.“My father…”

“Your father is dead.”

“You don’t know that.”That sentence came through loud enough to make Fiona stir.“My father is a great man. He’s been dealt poor hands his entire life, but he made something of himself anyway. If he is dead, he was murdered by the same people who did everything they could to keep him from becoming who he was meant to be.”

Poor dad. Mac knew what it was like to have people against you, preventing you from being your real self, from following your dreams.

That still didn’t excuse raising your son to think that abduction was a solid part of his life plan.

The voices moved away again as Mac turned what they said over in his head.

What did he mean - only one of them mattered? Which one?

Mac ran through what each of the possibilities could mean.

Fiona could mean that they really did have an issue with her work - or, more likely, were infatuated with her the way so many teenage boys were when she starred in one of those Friday night sitcoms whole families could watch. It could mean they’d seen her movies. It could mean lots of things, though something told Mac that wasn’t the answer.

He had a hard time even trying to think about why Gray would be the person that mattered. It could mean they wanted to hold him for ransom, but that didn’t make any sense. The three of them would be more logical. The more people they kidnapped and held, they more they could ask for.

Unless there could be some other reason, but no matter how hard Mac wracked his brain, he couldn’t come up with anything that made sense.

The things he came up with that didn’t make sense were implausible at best, though downright ridiculous would likely be a better way to describe them.

A prince and the pauper kind of thing.

Being used as a “collectible” for a rabid, psychologically unbalanced fan of Fiona’s - or his.

Someone who had a grudge against Esme - or their parents.

That left Mac.

Why would he be the important one?

Because his sister was queen? Because his mother had been? Because of his father’s new child?

Thoughts of his past swirled around.

Could it be because of someone he’d had a one-night-stand with years earlier? Could these men be the brothers of a woman who thought he led her on?

It had been years since he’d spent that kind of time with a woman, but he’d also carefully been out of the public eye. This would be the first time in a long time that he was accessible to someone like that.

After hours of contemplation, he found himself no closer to a conclusion.

He did find himself running out of adrenaline.

“What time is it?” Fiona’s sleepy voice cut through the fog.

“I don’t know. My watch is dead. So much for a smart watch being a better option.” And it didn’t have its own service anyway, so they couldn’t have used it to contact the outside world if it had been charged.

“How long do you think I’ve been asleep?” She struggled to stand until Mac held out a hand to help her to her feet.

“Several hours. It’s alternately crawled by and flown. Judging by my stomach, it’s got to be close to breakfast.”

---