“Got some more of these in the car,” he said. “Give me a hand.”
Without a word, the two of us went outside to where the car was parked. Kid, in the middle of his patrol on the far side of the property, gave us a quick wave. “God, this property is enormous,” Ajax said.
“Worried the four of us won’t be able to secure it?” I asked with a grin.
“Come on—twoof us could handle this place. One of our guys is as good as a whole platoon of newbies. Just saying that we’re going to have to come up with some strategies for covering all of this ground.”
I turned my attention to the fence in front of the tree lines. “We’ll have to get that rigged up with some kind of electric wire. Give anyone who tries to get too close a good zap.”
We grabbed the four remaining boxes, each of us taking two. Moments later, we were back in the house dropping the boxes onto the kitchen island. Pyke was in the process of putting away the food from his box.
I opened mine and poked around. “We got milk, we got meat, we got eggs. So far, so good.”
“What’s the scent in the town?” Ajax asked.
“Small. Quiet. Picturesque, even. And I stood out like a damn sore thumb. Guess these Swiss folks aren’t used to handsome giants walking around town.”
“That means anyone who’s poking around looking for where the princess might be hiding would have a lead, should they ask the right townsperson.”
“Right,” Pyke said. “We’ve got the advantage of being hidden for the time being. But if this Jurgen guy’s got billions at his disposal, along with the will to find Victoria, he’ll be able to do it. Speaking of which, any sign of her?”
“Aside from when she came down here to bark at us what she wanted from the store?” I asked. “Nah, nary a peep.”
He put his hands on his hips and looked up as if he might be able to see Victoria through the floor.
“She’s got to come down sometime. Not sure how I feel about her holing up in her room all damn day.”
I checked my watch. It was a little before two, almost time for my shift to start.
“Let me try to talk to her,” I said. “See if she—”
“You’re back from the store?”
The three of us looked up to see Victoria standing at one of the entrances to the kitchen, her arms crossed. She was dressed in nothing but a tight-fitting T-shirt and some very short shorts, a pair of sneakers on her feet. Dressed like that, it was hard to tell she was a princess—she looked like any other college-aged woman.
It was nearly impossible not to stare at her legs. I was a professional, however, and made sure not to ogle. Finn seemed a reasonable man. All the same, I doubt he would’ve taken kindly to his daughter reporting back that her bodyguards were mentally undressing her.
“Let me see.”
She made her way over to one of the boxes and began rooting through it.
Pyke’s eyes flashed. “Hey! I got a system here, Princess.”
“Did you get my apples? She took one thing after another out of the box, setting them aside and not even acknowledging that Pyke said anything to her. She pulled out a container of ice cream, looking over the label. “This was supposed to beFrenchvanilla.”
Pyke, confused, cocked his head to the side to get a better look at the label. “That’s vanilla.”
“Frenchvanilla,” she repeated. “There’s a difference.”
She set the ice cream aside and went right back to rifling through the boxes. Finally, she pulled out a bag of apples.
“Pink lady,” she said, turning one of the apples over and checking the label. “Good. Just like I asked.” She pulled the apple out and took a bite, the crunch sounding through the kitchen.
“Glad to hear I was of service,” Pyke said as he shoved a few packs of ground beef into the freezer.
She took another bite out of the apple and chewed it, staring at us with sharp eyes.
She swallowed. “I’m going for a walk.”