Wulf von Hannover
An hour later, the Gulfstream jet’s engines revved up, whining as the packed plane rotated to taxi to the runway. Dieter sat beside one of the white-haired American lawyers who probably wouldn’t understand Alemannic.
Dieter cranked his muscle-bound body around in his seat, regretting slacking off on his flexibility training yet again, to check that Wulfram was far in the back of the plane, still sitting beside Rae Stone.
Most people wouldn’t see the difference in him, but Dieter could. Every time that Wulfram looked at that woman, he caught his breath like his heart had started beating again. Every time another man looked at her, Wulfram’s breath stilled like he was pulling the trigger on his sniper rifle.
Dieter only wished that his own wife had that effect on him, but he loved her. They had a daughter who would be nearly as beautiful as her mother. His work left very little time for arguing, anyway.
He dialed Luca on his cell phone. “Have you secured Valencia and Pajari yet?”
“Negative,” Luca said. “Valencia is not answering his phone and we can’t get a signal from the tracking application, and Pajari never had one of our French SIM cards installed.”
“Elands. Use Grimaldi’s security for the hotel. Send everyone else into Paris to find them before we land in the States.”
“Before you land? Von Hannover is leaving without them secured? How in great, sulfurous Hell did you convince him to be sensible?”
“I told him that we had Valencia and Pajari at the hotel.”
“Jesus Fucking Christ.”
“He will fire me as soon as he discovers it, no matter what happens to Valencia and Pajari. If you don’t find them safe by the time we land, he will also kill me with his bare hands.”
Dieter was overstating only a little.
He torqued himself around to glance at Wulfram and Reagan again. They were speaking softly, foreheads together. Wulfram was smiling a small, real smile, not that cold slash he showed the world.
Dieter turned back and stretched his long legs to the bulkhead, saying to Luca, “But I’m not going to let him die on his wedding day.”