He was chuckling now. “The look on his face would be priceless.”
“And then if he starts stalling and telling us that we’re crazy because we think the contract should be different, you lift one finger and all those commandos point their guns at him in one coordinated move, and then his water glass shatters because a sniper shot it from somewhere outside.”
Casimir laid a hand on his stomach because he was laughing so hard. “I would almost feel sorry for him.”
Rox gazed into the darkness, imagining something even worse. “And then after he signs the contracts, the windows would get blown out of the room, and we would go jump onto zip lines and be zipped up into a hovering black helicopter.”
Casimir was past laughing now, his voice rising as he bent sideways and giggled. “Oh, my Lord. Stop. Please, stop.”
Rox snaked her arms around his waist and hugged him, even though he was still giggling helplessly, almost lying on the bench. “And that’s just how we’ll do it.”
THE AMSBERG LAW FIRM
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held inside a Los Angeles skyscraper, in the office of the new law firm that occupied the entire floor. Spring California sunlight flooded through the walls of glass on two sides of the lobby.
Rox had wanted the ribbon-cutting ceremony to be held outside in the spring air, but Lachlan and the other security people first counseled against it, then argued against it, and then out-right declared that it was not going to happen. Even though there had been no incidents since Casimir and Rox had returned to California, and even though dozens of arrests had been made once Val and Josie had started naming other people involved in the criminal scheme to defraud their clients, Ana and Casimir both erred on the side of caution whenever there might be an opportunity for an attack.
Especially since Rox had discovered that she was pregnant.
This happened, luckily, only a few days after the Dutch Parliament passed an Act of Consent to allow Casimir to marry her and still stay within the line of succession to the throne. Indeed, once the government had presented the bill to the parliament, it had passed within hours, surprising even Ana with how little debate it had taken. They hadn’t even needed to hold a reception for the MPs to meet Rox.
It was as if keeping Casimir and his future, hypothetical children in the line of succession had been in everyone’s best interest.
After they had gotten the parliament’s approval and admitted that there might be an addition to the royal family rather sooner than expected, Ana had insisted on planning and holding the wedding within a month.
It was almost as if Ana had a vested interest in adding new members to the royal family and the line of succession as soon as possible, too.
Every time Crown Princess Ana saw Rox, she started the conversation by squealing and asking if she had felt anything yet, even though she must have known from her own four pregnancies that it was too early.
She kept slipping Rox baby clothes, too. Really nice ones.
And jewelry, insisting that Rox needed diamonds to wear at state events, even though Casimir had to be threatened and cajoled into accepting invitations. He was getting better about them, though. With Rox by his side, that real smile reached his dark green eyes more often than before.
So, on that lovely spring California day, at the opening of their law firm, Casimir and Rox both held the oversize scissors and cut the orange and blue ribbon inside the lobby to officially open The Amsberg Law Office.
Rox had wanted to call the firm Amsberg and Amsberg, but Casimir had bitten his lip and explained law firm ethics: Under the Rules of Professional Responsibility, only attorneys who had been admitted to the bar could form a partnership and be included in the name of the law firm. Paralegals and other lawyers could be employed by a law firm, but paralegals could not have a financial interest in the firm.
After Rox had finished her temper tantrum, Casimir had explained that they would make sure in their pre-nup that she owned a fifty-percent stake in the corporation that would own the law firm.
And after she finished her temper tantrum about having a pre-nup at all, Casimir assured her that the half-interest in the law firm would be one of the few items in there, and other than that, all their assets would be considered community property.
Including the cats.
If they ever got divorced, Casimir wanted sole custody of Pirate.
After that temper tantrum that only ended when Rox threatened to go biblical on him, they agreed on shared custody of the cats.
And any children, they added.
They amended the agreement to stipulate shared custody of their four cats.
After their wedding in the Netherlands and honeymoon in Fiji, as Casimir had insisted, they had found a new house to live in while the mansion was being rebuilt into a security-bristling stronghold. During that time, Casimir had kept visiting the animal shelter with Rox, who was no longer allowed to clean the litter boxes and banished to doing admin work or walking the small and quiet dogs for the duration.