Page 14 of Royal Guard

Even as I thought it, the gunmen returned fire and he had to hunker down behind a crashed minivan. Now he was trapped, out in the open. And the gunmen would be on him any second.Idiot!

I growled and charged out into the open, firing wildly. I grabbed Jakov by the collar and hauled him along the ground and back to safety. “Stay together!”I snapped. He nodded, chastened.

There was a scream from Caroline. I looked round and froze.

I’d thought there were only four gunmen, but I’d missed the fifth. While I’d been rescuing Jakov, he’d silently circled around and sneaked in from the side. Now he’d grabbed the Princess, one arm around her waist and the other holding a gun to her head.

I stopped firing. I felt as if someone had his hands around my throat and was choking me. I knew I couldn’t point my gun at him before he killed her.He’d got the drop on all of us.

I saw his finger tighten on the trigger. My heart leapt up into my mouth: I’ve never felt fear like it.“Don’t,”I said desperately, as if that would stop him.

And then the Princess did something incredibly quick with her hand, like a cobra striking. She jabbed him under the arm and he let out a cry of pain and dropped his gun. Immediately, the Princess pulled away from him and ducked.

Emerik, Jakov, Gibson and I all raised our guns and fired. The guy staggered back and crumpled to the ground.

We all hunkered against the car again as the gunmen started shooting. They’d crept even closer while we’d been distracted. But all I could do was stare in disbelief at the Princess. I’d thought she was vulnerable, defenseless. What wasthat?!

She stared back at me, defiant. And just a tiny bit proud. I shook my head: I’d get her to explain later. Right now, we had to get out of there before we were overrun. I looked around again but this time, I thought to look down. The highway rose to form an overpass just ahead. Below us was a grassy embankment that sloped down to a construction site. “There!”I yelled, pointing.

But then I looked at the Princess and a chill went through me. No way could she run in that huge dress.

She caught my look and looked down at herself. “Wait,” she said quickly.

I stood again and fired at the gunmen. They were dangerously close, now. Behind me, I could hear the sound of fabric being frantically ripped. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emerik glance down and his eyes widen. Then he quickly focused on the gunmen,his face red.What the hell?

“Okay.” The Princess’s voice. I ducked back behind the car and—

The skirt was gone, thousands of dollars of silk and netting reduced to a long snake of cloth that now lay in the dirt. Below the waist, the Princess was now just in—

I had a glimpse of long, shapely thighs and elegantly curving hips. White panties—

I tore my gaze away. A second later, one white high-heeled pump was tossed onto the asphalt. Then another. “Ready,” she said.

I nodded, still keeping my eyes averted. “Emerik first, then you, then Caroline, Gibson, Jakov. I’ll go last.Go!”

Emerik wasn’t the fastest and he was panting a little by the time he reached the barrier, but he vaulted it and slid down the embankment. The Princess was next, bare legs flashing as she sprinted to safety. By the time it was my turn, the assassins were almost on top of me. I ran for the barrier and had to dive headfirst as a hail of bullets chewed up the asphalt. Then I was bouncing and rolling down the grassy slope, to come to rest at the Princess’s feet.

I lay there for a second, panting. I couldn’t help but look: those amazing, long legs were a foot from my face. Gorgeously shaped, athletic but feminine.Goddamn, I wanted to run my hands all over them. And then at the top, those simple white panties, pure and innocent—

Emerik grabbed hold of my hand and jerked me to my feet, his eyes burning with rage. I felt my neck go hot.What is he, her dad?The old guy seemed to be one part bodyguard, one part butler and one partmoral guardian.

I pushed it out of my mind and looked around. The construction site seemed to be deserted. Five huge concrete pipes, each one easily six feet wide, were poking out of the side of the embankment, leading off into darkness.In there!The gunmen wouldn’t know which pipe we’d gone into. And long before they had time to search them all, backup would be there.

I picked a pipe at random and got everyone inside. We passed a pile of sacks of concrete, left inside the mouth of the pipe to keep it out of the rain. I got everybody past the pipe’s first turn, so they were out of sight, and hunkered down in the shadows at the corner to keep watch.

Footsteps approached and then the gunmen appeared outside, checking behind dumpsters and underneath the parked construction equipment. They glanced at the pipes but, like I’d hoped, they weren’t sure if we’d gone in there. And if we had, they didn’t know which pipe.We’re going to be okay.

Then I saw one of them walk right up to the pipes. It was the guy from the plane, the one with eerily pale skin. He pulled out a cell phone and started talking.

And then he did something that sent ice water right down my spine: he glanced up at the sky.

“Oh,shit,”I mumbled. I knew that look. I’d done the exact same thing myself, hundreds of times, in war zones.

It’s the look you do when you call for aerial surveillance. You lose track of the bad guys so you call back to base and wait for someone watching via satellite to rewind the footage and tell you where they went. You can’t see the satellite, of course. But you still glance up, while you wait. I do it. All soldiers doit.

But iftheseguys were doing it, it could only mean one thing.

The guy listened, nodded and put his phone away. Then he called to his buddies and started moving forward. Right towards our pipe.

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