Page 43 of Royal Guard

“You send this Sebastian guy a message?” asked Garrett. The anger had gone from his voice. His gun swung down to point at the ground. “You tell him we were at the motel?”

“Yes,” said Caroline uncertainly. “He was worriedabout me.”

“And did you tell him we were in Texas?” I asked gently. “Did you tell him we were at Garrett’s dad’s ranch?”

I could see the realization start to form in her mind. “Yes...but…” She gave a choking, hiccoughing sob. “But…” She looked around at our faces. “But that doesn’t mean that….”

I bit my lip and nodded sadly.

“But we’rein love!”She stared wildly at me, willing it to be true. And then her face slowly crumpled and she went sickly pale. “Oh God. Oh my God.This is all my fault!”She took a stumbling step towards Garrett. “Your dad...oh my God, I’m so sorry!”

Garrett just shook his head and turned away. He thrust his gun back into his waistband and let out a long, bitter sigh.

I ran to Caroline and threw my arms around her. “It’s not your fault,” I told her. “You were used. You had no way of knowing he was one of them.” Inside, I was shaking with rage.Sebastian! That utter bastard!He’d exploited a naive young woman’s feelings and he didn’t care about her at all. She’d nearly died in that fire.

We all climbed back into the pickup. For a second, we just sat there in silence. I still felt the anger rolling off Garrett in waves but it was directed outward, now, at the assassins and Sebastian, not inward at our little group. For the first time, we knew we were all on the same side. And that meant we could finally go to New York and get me home.

“Send a message to Sebastian,” said Garrett. “Tell him we’re on our way to Chicago. By the time he realizes we’re not there, you’ll be on a plane.”

I nodded and started tapping in the text message. “I’m going home,” I thought in wonder. Then I realized I’d said it out loud.

Garrett slowly nodded. Then he looked at me and I drew in my breath when I saw the sadness in his eyes.

That’s when it hit me. I was going home and I’d never see him again.

32

GARRETT

At the firstgas station we passed, I pulled over and called Barney in New York. We hadn’t spoken in over a year and it took a while to convince him I wasn’t kidding about the Princess. But he agreed to help. He had a cargo flight going to Austria that he could sneak the Princess onto, and it could make a stop in Lakovia. Only problem was, it was leaving at ten the next morning. That gave us only twenty-four hours to get from Texas to New York.

So Idrove,for hour after hour.I couldn’t stop thinking about my dad. I called the hospital from each gas station we passed but each time, he was still in surgery. Finally, around noon, I managed to get one of the surgeons on the phone. Hunched over a payphone, trying to shut out the roar of passing trucks behind me, I closed my eyes and focused on his voice.

“We got the bullet,” he said. The poor guy sounded as exhausted as me. “But it really tore him up inside.Heart, one lung, nicked a kidney. Whoever shot him knew exactly where to aim for maximum damage. He’d be dead, if he wasn’t such a tough old coot. It’s going to be touch-and-go for the next few days.”

I thanked him and hung up. I had to resist the urge to smash the handset to pieces against the side of the payphone.Silvas Lukin.That son of a bitch. If I ever got my hands on him….

Footsteps behind me. I whirled around and the Princess was there, hands nervously twisting in front of her. “How is he?”

That glass-smooth voice was like a cool palm placed on my forehead. I drew in a shuddering breath. “Alive,” I said.

“I’m sorry. Not just for what happened with Caroline but...everything.” She looked down at her feet. “You must wish you’d taken a different flight.”

It felt like my chest contracted into a tiny black hole. I closed the distance between us with one big stride. “Hey!” I growled. “Hey!” I took her chin between thumb and forefinger and tipped it so she had to look at me. “No. Don’t say that.”

She nodded but her eyes were shining with tears. I had to show her I wasn’t mad at her. And then I remembered something, something I’d been meaning to ask her since that very first day.

“That Rans Tagaka stuff,” I said. “When you took out that guy on the highway. Can you teach me?”

She squinted through the tears:Really?Then she sniffed and looked away, blinking. Her chin was still in my hand and a few warm tears fell in my palm. “You were a marine,” she said. “You know much more about fighting than I do.”

“I don’t knowthat,”I said. “And my squad leaderalways said, when you stop learning, you start dying.”

She bit her lip and, instantly, that deeppulltowards her took over.God, don’tdothat! Not when your chin’s in my hand. Not when I could just lean down and kiss you—

Her breathing went tight and I realized I was staring at her lips. We both looked away.

“Alright,” she said, a little breathlessly. “Stand behind me.”

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