“I don’t think he’s dangerous,” she said, only to gasp in surprise as two large and burly men in dark suits rounded the side of the house. Each of them had an equally impressive-looking handgun. They shouted in Italian, then in French, for Joe to drop his weapon.

In a move too fast for her to see, Joe grabbed Rafael and held his gun to the base of his neck.

“Get behind me,” Joe told her. “Who the hell are you?” he asked the other two. “What do you want?”

Okay, this was quickly getting out of hand. Mia looked at Rafael. “Let me guess-the bodyguards?” Traveling with protection certainly helped his credibility on the whole “I’m a prince” thing.

“Yes. Umberto. Oliver. There is no need to attack anyone so early in the morning. This is only a misunderstanding.” Rafael, apparently unconcerned about the gun pressing into his neck, smiled at Joe. “Is it not?”

He sounded calm, which Mia respected.

The bodyguards, however, were not moved. They kept their weapons trained on Joe.

Just then the back door to the kitchen opened. Grandma Tessa walked out and planted her hands on her hips. “If you boys are finished playing, breakfast is ready.” Her eyes narrowed. “It’s getting cold.”

Mia glanced at the men and realized this could take a minute. Rather than deal with the diplomatic disarming, she stepped around Joe and hurried toward the house. Maybe running away wasn’t her preferred method of dealing with problems, but Rafael wasn’t a normal problem. Besides, she had to be somewhere.

“Mia?” Rafael called after her. “Perhaps you could ask your brother to release me.”

“You used to be a dangerous outlaw,” she told him as she passed Grandma Tessa on the stairs. “You figure it out.”

Once she was inside, she made her way to the second story. She’d grown up here-lived her life surrounded by these walls. At sixteen she’d gone to college but had still considered the hacienda home. At twenty-three she’d returned pregnant, emotionally devastated. Her family had taken her in and made her feel welcome.