Page 78 of Royal Guard

I didn’t want to believe it, but it made perfect sense. Lukin and his squad would assassinate my father and me and Novak would step into the power vacuum. With the royal family assassinated by Garmania, the public would be baying for blood. They’dwantwar. And once we were victorious, Novak would keep the war going until he’d destroyed Garmania: every building, every child. The plan was elegant and perfect. And it would have worked, if Garrett hadn’t been there to save me on the plane. He’d ordered Lukin to keep trying to kill me... and meanwhile, he’d convinced me to start the war.

I wanted to be sick. I’d completely bought the story he’d sold me about Garmania wanting to invade us. I’d been terrified we were going to lose. Now I was terrified we were going to win. Garmania was innocent: they’d been nothing but peaceful and now we were going to wipe them out: that would be the legacy of my reign.

I could hardly believe that the man I’d trusted so completely had betrayed me. What convinced me wasthat, in his mind, he was being loyal. Loyal to his country. To him, my father and I were the traitors for making peace. “We have to stop him,” I croaked.

“That’s going to be hard,” said Garrett. “He’s got troops all over the city... and in the palace.”

I put my face in my hands, fighting the urge to scream. “I’m an idiot. I let him put troops on the streets! He’s halfway to seizing power already!”

“We’re going to need help,” said Garrett.

He was right. We couldn’t just accuse the General, not when he was surrounded by gun-toting troops. He might just take the final step and order them to shoot me, clearing the final obstacle from his path. For the same reason, I couldn’t just stop the war, not until I’d removed him. “Aleksander,” I said at last. “He’ll be able to help.” I dialed him.

Aleksander listened silently as I told him what we’d found out. “Novak has troops everywhere,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Meet me at the dam. We can work out a plan there.”

I hung up, jumped off the bed and started scrambling into my clothes. Then I cursed as the clock tower struck two. We had less than eight hours to stop the General... and stop the war.

57

KRISTINA

We didn’t havetime to bother with armored SUVs and palace drivers, plus the less attention we drew, the better. So Garrett signed out one of the plain black Mercedes the guards used for palace business and we started up the twisting road to the dam. My phone rang: Caroline.

“Sorry to disturb you,” she said, “But I didn’t know who else to call and I thought you and Garrett might still be awake.”

I glanced at Garrett. Even now, Caroline still knew how to make me blush. “We were. What’s up?”

She sighed. “It’s nothing, just...this guy’s calling from New York and he’s demanding to speak to someone in authority. He won’t go away and he won’t wait till morning. I can’t reach Aleksander for some reason and Sebastian is….” She broke off, her voice beginning to shake.

“I’lltake it,” I said firmly. “You get some sleep.”

She thanked me and a second later, my ear wasassaulted by a gruff male voice with a New York twang. “Finally!About fucking time! This is Officer Tashiro, airport security. Am I speaking to someone high up?”

“You’re speaking to the queen,” I said politely.

His manner changed abruptly. I had to get through almost a minute of apologies before I found out what he wanted.

“It’s your security passes. I need ‘em back. I’ve been asking for days, but no one’s got back to me and it’s my fu—It’s my job on the line.”

“Security passes?”

“Two of your guys walked off with theirs after their inspection. God knows how they managed to get past my guys without handing them in, but they did, and it’s my ass if I don’t account for ‘em.”

I furrowed my brow. “Wheredid you say you worked?”

“JFK.”

New York. Where our flight had taken off from. “And when you say two ofourguys….”

“Two of your security guys. I issued five passes, so your security team could inspect the aircraft before it flew. But only three of them ever came back to me.”

I went cold. The two assassins on the plane: they hadn’t been smuggled on board at all. Five men from Lukin’s squad had been welcomed aboard, posing as our security, and two of them had simply stayed on board. “Who organized this inspection?” I asked, my voice shaking.

He paused while he checked his paperwork. “A. Popovic.”

Aleksander.

I heard myself thank the officer. I hung up and satstaring at the phone in a state of total shock. That made no sense, unless….

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