Securing his baby's future meant uncovering a royal past shrouded in mystery--Just days after he was falsely reported dead, Will Chastain watched in horror as his infant son, Leo, was kidnapped by an impostor. Moments too late, the real legal guardian, Julia Sheridan, appeared to claim the boy. Now a long-buried secret had Will trekking to a remote riot-torn town, a persistent Julia by his side.
There, Leo could be in line for the throne...or in the crosshairs of an enemy's rifle. With an unknown rival gunning for them, Will vowed to protect Julia--and fought hard to keep his hands to himself. But all the king's men couldn't stop them from discovering a shattering royal truth within.
There, Leo could be in line for the throne...or in the crosshairs of an enemy's rifle. With an unknown rival gunning for them, Will vowed to protect Julia--and fought hard to keep his hands to himself. But all the king's men couldn't stop them from discovering a shattering royal truth within.
Read Excerpt :
April 11, San Francisco, California
With an anxious glance at the clock on her dashboard, Julia Sheridan pulled into the San Francisco airport short-term parking garage. She was more than an hour late, her margin for safety eaten up by a flat tire and the bumbling Good Samaritan who had stopped to “help” her.
As if she couldn’t change her own tire.
The first empty parking spot she found was four flights up and toward the back. She was out of the car in a flash, hair, jeans and leather flight jacket damp from her adventure beside the freeway. Straightening the white wool scarf around her neck and slinging her huge shoulder bag over her arm, she hurried toward the elevator, heart pounding in anticipation.
Once aboard the elevator, she slid to the side and took her cell phone from her coat pocket, punching in the lawyer’s number. As before, she was directed to leave a message but this time she didn’t bother.
She should have given herself more time for potential problems. As an air transport pilot, who knew better than she the inevitable last-minute crisis that threw the best-laid plans awry? But she’d been rushing around this Saturday morning like nobody’s business, buying baby furniture and diapers, a car seat and special shampoo. Even the stuffed blue elephant she’d left on the passenger seat of the car still sported tags dangling from one floppy ear.
The elevator made the ground floor in seconds. As she made her way through the crowd waiting to get on the elevator, she spied several families with small children and her heart lurched. One woman with deep-set eyes and long, dark hair clutched a blanketed baby to her chest while a tall man in a raincoat put a protective arm around her shoulders.
Julia was riddled with self-doubt. Without a husband, could she make a family for Leo? Would she be enough?
The twinge in her heart was replaced by a vow: she would be all the family little Leo ever needed.
She’d spoken to the lawyer two or three times in the week since Nicole’s death, each time struggling to understand the lawyer’s thick French-Canadian accent. He’d emigrated from Quebec to Seattle years earlier, he’d explained, but the accent was part of him and he couldn’t seem to shake it. He’d told her she would recognize him by his dark mustache and bald head.
She also assumed he’d be one of very few men holding a ten-month-old baby.
As she hurried toward the gate where he’d told her he’d wait, she found herself crossing her fingers that he was a patient man, that he wouldn’t have given up and caught a flight back home or that Leo wouldn’t be howling…
File Download : Alice Sharpe - Royal Heir
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