Page 9 of Raul
Raul didn’t think Erica required his assistance, but he needed a distraction, and he was curious about what she had spotted that merited further exploration. His experience as a prince was that people felt obligated to stick around him when they were responsible for his well-being. He liked her independence, but he wanted to know what had caused her temporary disappearance.
“You can track her satellite phone, right?” Raul asked, remembering her puzzled expression as she had stared down the trail that branched off from theirs.
“Of course.”
“Then let’s go find her.” He stood and shrugged on his pack.
Chapter 3
Erica checked her watch. She should head back to where she had left the prince. If he hadn’t been in the company of two bodyguards, she wouldn’t have dared to go off on her own like this. Even then, she knew Raul might frown upon the unexplained absence of his expedition leader.
She just wanted to follow the trail of broken branches a little farther into the woods. As she hesitated, she heard men’s voices. She tensed and held her breath, but then Raul called her name, letting her know the voices belonged to him and his bodyguards.
“I’ll be right there,” she responded, turning back toward the small grassy meadow she had just left.
When she came out of the trees, Raul stood in a patch of sunlight that gleamed on the blond streaks of his hair and painted the aristocratic angles of his face in gold and shadow while some lingering tendrils of fog swirled behind him. With his trekking poles held together in one hand, he looked like a wizard drawing power from the volcanic heart of the mountain.
Her crazy thoughts fled when he gestured toward the sign he stood beside. “Are you checking on dragon nests?” he asked.
The sign warned hikers not to venture any farther because this was a nesting ground for the giant frilled Calevan dragons. Evidently, the soil in the meadow attracted females because it was easy for them to dig deep holes, and the moisture level was optimal for hatching.
“I made sure there were none around before I entered the area,” she said.
He waved a hand around the field. “Whatareyou here for?”
She didn’t know exactly. She had simply noticed that the side trail showed evidence of repeated and recent use. Since the trail came to a dead end at the meadow, it made no sense thatsomeone would tramp back and forth on it, especially because no one—except for the prince, of course—was supposed to be hiking in this area while the dragons were nesting.
“I saw signs of recent activity on the trail,” she said. “That seems strange.”
Dario and Pascal were always alert, but now they quivered with watchfulness, both of them moving closer to the prince.
Raul frowned. “Could it be a park ranger or maybe a researcher checking on the dragons?”
“Maybe.” But they wouldn’t come repeatedly to the same spot. That might scare the dragons away.
“I’ll have someone look into that possibility.” Raul searched her face. “But you don’t think that’s the answer.”
“I might, except that whoever it was also went into the forest there, just before the sign.” She pointed to where she had been exploring. “I’m not a tracker, but even I could spot the line of broken twigs and branches. I was following it when you called to me.”
Raul wrapped his hands in the loops of his trekking poles. “Let’s go find out where the trail leads.”
“Monseigneur, that’s not a good idea,” Pascal said. “We don’t know if someone is hiding here. It is easy to find places of concealment in the trees.”
“Either you go with Erica while I stay here with Dario or we all go together,” Raul said. “Which would you prefer?”
She was surprised that he offered his bodyguards a choice since Raul plainly wanted to go with her. Her opinion of the prince went up a notch.
Pascal exchanged a long look with Dario. “We’ll all go,” he said. “Mademoiselle, if you would take the lead.”
Erica nearly snorted aloud. Naturally, she would go first. That way, she could be the sacrificial lamb if they came upon amadman in the woods. Dario and Pascal would hurl their bodies in front of the prince and leave her to defend herself.
That was their job. And hers.
As she began to thread her way between the trees again, a prickle of unease crawled up her spine. Before Pascal had gotten all security-minded, she had felt nothing but curiosity.
She retraced her steps swiftly before slowing to follow the unfamiliar path of their quarry. It ended about ten yards beyond, and she stopped to survey a small clearing where someone had tried to conceal signs of a campsite. The fallen detritus of the forest’s floor had been disturbed and then rearranged in an attempt to make it look natural. Erica could see where a tent stake had left a hole and the faint square where the tent floor had pressed down the dead leaves and needles.
“Someone was camping here. Illegally,” Raul said from beside her.
