Page 13 of Royal Guard

There was an explosion that I realized must be a tire bursting. I felt us swerve and then suddenly the car was rotating in a way it wasn’t supposed to. My legs tipped up, my head down and the road noise dropped away completely. My stomach lurched and my fingers clawed at the carpet. All four wheels must be off the ground: we were flipping.

The ceiling became the floor and then we landed hard on our roof. Garrett fell first and then gave a soft grunt as I fell onto his chest. The car skidded along on its roof, orange sparks flying. I was lying face up on top of Garrett. Above me, I could see the others still strapped into their seats.Oh God! They didn’t get down on the floor! What if they—A drop of something warm and wet hit my cheek.Blood! One of them’s bleeding!But it was too dim and everything wasrattling around too much to tell who.

The movement of the car slowed. Stopped. We came to rest, rocking slightly.

“Who’s hurt?” I said, my voice tight with panic. “Caroline? Emerik? Jakov? Mr. Buchanan?”

One by one, they called that they were okay. Everyone was panting and shaken and trying to figure out how to get out of their seats while still buckled in upside down. Beneath me, Garrett gently eased my head to one side so that he could look around.

Then I remembered there was one more person in the car. “Director Gibson?!”

Nothing.

Garrett tried. “Gibson?”

Silence. Then, “I’m—”—a pained intake of breath—”I’m okay. Bleeding but okay.”

I let out my breath. Everyone was alive. Then I started to think about what had just happened and a cold sweat broke out right across my body.It isn’t over. They tried to kill me again.

Garrett suddenly stiffened beneath me. “We have to move,” he snapped.

I looked around in panic. Was the car on fire?

Then I saw what he’d seen, in the car’s wing mirror. Four men, dressed in black and carrying assault rifles, were approaching the car.

9

GARRETT

I wrenchedon the door release and then shouldered the door open. Lifting the Princess off me was easy—she was just a little thing. I eased her up while I slid my body from under hers.

I emerged into a nightmare. The highway was blocked by crashing cars, both in front of us and behind. The other two FBI cars were wrecks, peppered with bullet holes. One was on fire. I didn’t have to check them to know no one inside survived. Thick black smoke was being whipped up by the wind and rolling across the highway. It kept blocking my view of the guys advancing on us. Each time it cleared, they were closer.

By now, Emerik and Jakov were out and were helping Director Gibson. I reached for the Princess, but she insisted on pushing Caroline out first. Then she emerged and the sight of her: so perfect, so beautiful amongst all the smoke and fire and twisted metal, made my chest close up. She just looked sopainfully vulnerable: I wanted to pull her to me and spirit her the hell away from all this.

And I wanted to kill the guys who were putting her at risk. I got everyone to hunker down behind the car. Then I ran around to the driver’s seat. The driver was dead, but I found a handgun in a holster under his jacket.

When I ran back to the others, Director Gibson was taking out his cell phone. He’d gone very pale and was bleeding heavily from a long gash down one side of his face. He nodded at the gun. “Have you even fired one of those things, since you left the marines?”

The answer wasno.But my hands seemed to have a life of their own, checking the magazine, chambering the first round, making sure the safety was off. The training was taking over.I can do this. I can do this.

Or at least, Icould.Before the desert. I looked at the Princess.Please. For her sake: don’t have a flashback.

“Call for backup,” I grunted to Gibson.

“Doing it,” he said. And started issuing orders over the phone. Emerik and Jakov had guns out, too: I was right, they’d only been forced to disarm for the flight. With four of us, we might just be able to hold them off until help arrived. With a foreign VIP and an FBI director under fire, half the agents in California must be racing towards us.

At that second, the first bullets ricocheted off the car. I instinctively grabbed hold of the Princess and shielded her body with mine. She gave a yelp of fear and pulled Caroline tight to her, making sure she was protected, too. The guards stood and returned fire, one at either end of the car. Those two might not get on, but together they were formidable.

Gibson ended his call. “Three minutes,” he told me breathlessly.

I stood and returned fire while the guards reloaded. More bullets picked away at the car. The gunmen were close enough now to make out faces and I spotted the pale guy with the slicked-back hair giving orders. I watched as they spread out, trying to encircle us. I was sure, now: these guys had military training.

We weren’t going to last three minutes.

“We have to get out of here,” I muttered. But I couldn’t see anywhere to run.

I heard Emerik curse. Jakov was running towards the assassins, firing, trying to push them back.Goddammit!The kid was brave but he was going to get himself killed.

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