The Outlaw Prince's Captive - Holly Rayner Page 0,13

without a search warrant from the Konäs government. She definitely didn’t want to have to call Voles and explain to him that she had been arrested on her very first day.

All right. So going over the wall was out.

She looked up at the side of the house. It extended a long way, and Francesca realized that the property was much larger than she had initially believed.

She had thought, at first, that Lindström couldn’t possibly be too concerned with privacy. After all, he had those big glass windows at the front of his house. She had been able to look right in. If he had been in his dining room or his living room, she would have been able to see him.

But the house was so massive that she realized now that a person could live here and hardly ever set foot in those front rooms. They had looked darkened, abandoned, as if no one was home. But she could see now that at least one second-floor window toward the back of the house had its lights on.

He’s been back there the whole time, she thought, suddenly frustrated. Either he didn’t hear the door when I knocked or he assumed it was a paparazzo and chose to ignore it.

He probably had no idea that the U.S. authorities had tracked him down.

Her heart pounding with excitement, Francesca turned and jogged back to the rental car. She got in, fumbled for her phone, and called Laird.

“Francesca.” He sounded as if his sense of humor had been shot off in the war. “Where the hell are you? You said you were just going to take a look and then come right back.”

“I told you I wanted to watch the place for a while,” she protested.

“Yeah, a while. Not three hours. Have you seen the weather forecast?”

Let me guess—cold, cold, and more cold? She brushed it off.

“Matt,” she said. “He’s here. I’m almost positive he’s here.”

“How? What happened?”

“There’s a light on,” she said. “In the back of the house.”

“That’s what you’re going on?” he spluttered. “A light? That doesn’t prove Lindström even lives there, Frannie.”

“I told you—”

“I know. You have a feeling,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Okay. Say he does live there. He might have accidentally left the light on and gone out. Did you think of that?”

“If he did, that would leave us with the perfect opportunity to search the house,” Francesca shot back.

“Frannie,” he said firmly. “You can’t go into that house. You know you can’t. We don’t have a domestic warrant. You would be breaking and entering.”

“I’m not going to break anything,” she said.

He swore. “You know that isn’t the point.”

“What would you do, then?” she asked. “Would you really walk away?”

“Yes,” Laird said. “Absolutely. Unequivocally. Start the car and drive straight back to this hotel. You’ve found out enough for the first day. We’ll make our report to Voles, and then tomorrow, you and I will go back over there together.”

“And do what?” Francesca asked. “Knock on the door again? He isn’t answering the door, Matt. We have to come up with a different strategy.”

“So we talk to Voles,” Laird said. “Frannie, you know that’s the right move. Come back here, we’ll talk to Voles, and he’ll tell us what he wants us to do. How he wants us to handle this.”

Francesca shook her head, even though she knew Laird couldn’t see her. “I can’t do that,” she said. “I can’t call Voles every step of the way so he can talk me through how to make this arrest. I’m not just here to be his puppet. Are you?”

“I know you want to prove yourself,” Laird said. “I know you want to impress Voles. Hell, I want that too. But if we blow this, we’re not going to impress anybody, and Lindström might end up taking a walk. Is that what you want?”

“You know I don’t want that,” Francesca said.

“Then how about you come back and we’ll figure something out together. Without contacting Voles. How does that sound?” Laird asked her. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

She sighed. “He isn’t going to let us into the house,” she said. “I’m sure he’s in there. I’ve knocked, and he didn’t answer the door. He probably knows law enforcement might be coming after him—he’d be an idiot not to know—and since he’s part of the royal family, I’m sure he’s familiar with the laws about illegal searches.”

“Which is a pretty significant reason why you shouldn’t break those laws,” Laird pointed out.

“I’m