*****

“Took you damn well long enough,” Kael groused, leaning heavily on his good leg as Val approached their staging post just outside the palace perimeter.

The explosions had detonated precisely as planned, the charges Kael had spent the night of the ball planting in the estate’s foundations. He had anticipated this move; he knew the De Luca pride wouldn't heed a civil request to return his wife. But he hadn't anticipated the internal rot. That leeching son of a bitch, Ronan, had ...