The Outlaw Prince's Captive - Holly Rayner Page 0,42

too, for aiding and abetting you.”

Viggo smirked just a little. “That’s true. And unlike me, you definitely are guilty.”

“Don’t get too bigheaded,” she said. “You’re definitely guilty of evading arrest. There are plenty of grounds to lock both of us up if they get their hands on us.”

“Is it weird that that makes me feel better?” Viggo asked.

“Yes,” Francesca said. “That is extremely weird. But it makes me feel better too.”

A black car turned onto the street. Francesca figured the car must be for them. There was so little traffic in front of Viggo’s house due to the storm, it was hard to imagine what else it could be doing there.

Sure enough, the car pulled to a stop in front of the house. A man got out of the driver’s side and opened the trunk without saying a word. Francesca marveled at his quiet professionalism.

How much does he know? she wondered. Does he know where we’re going and why?

If he did, he gave no sign. Francesca could only suppose that he was so loyal to Viggo that he wouldn’t betray him for anything.

Once their things were loaded into the trunk, Francesca and Viggo got into the back seat of the car. As it began to pull away, Francesca took her last look at the beautiful house in which she had spent the last two days.

She wondered if she would ever see such a lovely place again.

Chapter 15

Back in New York, things were entirely different. It was like entering another world.

Francesca gave Viggo a black ski cap from her luggage to wear over his distinctive hair. He had his own pair of sunglasses, which he used to shade his ice-blue eyes. They would have to work out a more effective disguise before long, she knew, but this was better than nothing.

They summoned a taxi outside the airstrip and rode into the Bronx. Viggo said nothing throughout the ride, but gazed out the window as if he was seeing remarkable sights. Francesca couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever even been to this part of New York before. His own apartment was in Manhattan, after all.

The taxi deposited them outside of Francesca’s red-brick apartment building. She paid the driver and stepped out, hauling her suitcase out of the trunk. It felt surreal to be back in these old familiar surroundings after everything she had been through.

“Is this it?” Viggo asked.

She heard the disappointment in his voice and wondered what he had been expecting.

“This is it,” she said, leading him up the stairs to the front door of the building. She punched in her building code and heard the clunk of the door unlocking, and she carefully opened the door and let them in.

The mail was piling up in the bin in the corner. Francesca would go through it later and see if any of it was for her. For now, she wanted to get upstairs quickly, before they could be seen.

Viggo was looking around the lobby. “Where’s the elevator?”

“No elevator,” she said. “We take the stairs.”

“You’re kidding.”

“None of the buildings in this part of the city have elevators. Not on this block, anyway.” She had looked at buildings with elevators when she’d been moving in, but there was always some other sacrifice she would have had to make to bring the apartment within her price range.

“How high up are we going?” Viggo asked.

“Not far,” Francesca said. “Fifth floor.”

“Fifth?”

She rolled her eyes. “I know you can handle walking up four flights of stairs. I’ve seen how fit you are. Lifting my suitcase up over your head like it’s nothing.”

“Sure,” he said. “I can do it. It just seems like a lot to ask of someone every time they want to get back to their home. You’d think your landlord would put in an elevator. If I owned the building, I would.”

“That’s not exactly cheap, you know,” she said, lifting her suitcase. “Come on. Let’s get up there.”

They went up the stairs, Francesca trying not to get too breathless as they did so. By the time they had arrived outside her apartment door, they were both out of breath. She slipped her key into the lock, turned it, and bumped the door open with her hip.

The apartment was a mess. She had forgotten how quickly she had packed and left, how unsure she had been of what she would need. Clothes covered every surface. Heat flooded her face, and she abandoned her suitcase in the middle of the floor and began to gather them up,