Working Stiff(133)
THE HAGUE
After the royal plane landed in The Hague, an airport shared with the city of Rotterdam, the security guys swung into high gear.
Rox struggled to keep up with Casimir and the battalion of commandos that jogged around them, alert to the crowd’s slightest movement as they moved through the airport and to the curb, where a fleet of black limousines was waiting for them.
One of the commandos held open the back door of the second limousine in the line and waved them over.
Casimir grabbed Rox’s hand and steadied her as she got into the car. She scooted across the seat, and he folded his long legs to get in behind her. The soldier slammed the door behind them and pounded three times on the roof.
Two more security guys were sitting in the front seat. The one on the passenger side glanced back at her and gave her a tight smile before he resumed scanning the sidewalk and traffic around the car.
The caravan of black limousines drove them into the countryside and into a forest.
A forest. A forest with a castle in it.
Things were weird.
Casimir didn’t speak the whole time. He watched the scant traffic and passing trees as if he were waiting for something. When she let her fingers crawl across the leather seat to his hand, he gripped her fingers, but he kept scanning the leafy canopy and other cars, as alert as the commandos in the front seat. The green scent of grass and leaves flowed through the car’s vents.
The limo ducked around the large, old-fashioned building to a rear entrance, jolting her backward in the seat.
She just assumed that the building was a hotel. It looked like a hotel, a gorgeous facade and columns and plaster and stuff.
Yep, it looked just like a really nice hotel, one of those that Rox stayed in when she was traveling for work and the law firm was picking up the tab, except that the front didn’t have a sign on it.
No Hilton. No Four Seasons. No Holiday Inn.
Yeah, it was a palace.
Rox needed to think these things through.
Casimir said to her, “This level of security is highly unusual. I think the firebomb has upset my sister.”
The driver said something in Dutch, a dry sarcastic tone lacing his voice.
Casimir chuckled one dry huff. “He said that Ana has been storming around and micromanaging every aspect of the security operation, as she insists on calling it.”
The driver said something else, and his low laugh sounded sinister.
Casimir rolled his eyes. “And the gentleman says that we will have a few hours to freshen up before the reception tonight. My parents are out of town, so it will just be my sister, the Crown Princess Anastasia, receiving us.”
“We don’t have clothes for a reception,” Rox protested. “I don’t have any clothes at all.” She pulled at her tee shirt. “I’m still wearing Brandy’s big workout tee shirt because that’s the only thing she had that would fit over my,” she glanced at the two strangers in the front seat, “chest.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure Ana will micromanage that, too.”
Ana had, indeed, micromanaged that, too.
They were led through the back door and through gilded hallways to an elevator that opened into a short hallway, kind of like a really nice Manhattan hotel with just three doors on the walls. Casimir walked straight to the one on the end, which didn’t have a number or anything on it, and twisted the knob to walk straight inside.
Rox didn’t ask him how he knew which one they would be staying in. She just followed him around like a lost puppy.
Casimir said, “The staff will bring the cats up in a few moments. I heard they had actually found some carriers, so they’ll be safer coming up to our apartment.”
“This is an apartment?” Rox had been wondering whether she was allowed to sit on the creamy raw silk-upholstered chairs and furniture, and she really hoped that her cats would behave themselves and not sharpen their claws on what must be tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of furniture. Or more. She had no idea how to put a value on anything. “I thought this was a hotel.”
“This is my apartment for when I’m in town. I keep some clothes here.”
All this, thousands of square feet—a living room, a formal dining room that seated ten, two bedrooms, and three bathrooms—just for Casimir to keep a few socks here for the couple of times that he visited. He couldn’t visit much. In the last three years, he hadn’t taken more than a few weeks of vacation, and most of the time, he had gone to places with beaches.
He said, “I told Ana what your sizes are. She might have already had clothes delivered for you.”
When Rox found the other walk-in closet in the bedroom, she found that Ana had indeed had clothes delivered for her and that Ana had exquisite taste. Three little sheath dresses in shades from black to pearly gray hung on one side of the closet, and a gorgeous pink cocktail dress was on the other.