Page 27 of Royal Guard

“What?” the Princess asked.

I held up my hand:let me think.I felt like there was something important about it. That’s why I’d stopped Emerik from tidying it away. But what?

“What is it?” she asked. “Don’t we need to hurry?”

I nodded. I was getting frustrated with myself.Dammit, why aren’t I better at this?In our unit, I was the big, dumb guy. Doing the thinking was Baker’s job. But tonight, all my size and strength hadn’t been enough to protect her. I needed to be more than just a grunt. So Ithought.Until, suddenly….

“When he picked up the vase, he’d already taken the gloves off,” I said with great satisfaction. “He left fingerprints, and they’ll still be on these pieces. We can find out who the bastard is!”

The Princess drew in her breath and smiled, delighted, and I felt my chest swell with pride. It was the first tiny piece of good luck we’d had. But now we had to get the hell out of there before the cops arrived. I opened the door, hustled her out—

And my eyes fell on the towel I’d thrown over the body. Blood was soaking through the white fabric in two places, splotches of red merging together into one big stain—

Suddenly, it wasn’t a towel anymore. It was a bandage around Martinez’s torso. He was lying on a wooden table, howling, begging for relief from the pain, and Felton, our medic, was holding him down. “I can’t give you anything else!” he snapped, and I could hear the raw emotion in his voice. “We’re out! There’s nothing left!”

The gunfire from the militia was getting closer, no more than fifty feet away, now. I needed to go back out there and help Baker but I was still slumped against the wall, coughing and choking. The dust was blocking my nose and coating the inside of my mouth. It was down in my lungs—

A hand gripped my arm. One of them was inside the house! I spun around and grabbed the arm,muscles already tensing to break it—

But the arm felt wrong under my fingers. Soft. Slender.

Her.

And suddenly I was back in the motel room. I had the Princess’s arm gripped in both hands, so tight it must be hurting. I released it as if burned, the nausea rising in my throat.Jesus, I was about to break her arm!

She was looking up at me with huge eyes, terrified. But there was sympathy in her expression, too. It made my chest tighten but it sent a hot wave of shame and anger washing through me.

The sirens were much closer. How long had I frozen for? Seconds? Minutes? I’d put us all at risk again.

“Come on,” I growled. “We gotta go.”

18

GARRETT

We toreout of the motel parking lot just as the whole place lit up red and blue. I drove a few miles, then pulled over at a gas station and called Director Gibson. I didn’t trust the FBI with our safety but I could at least let them help figure out who the assassins were. I filled him in and told him about the prints on the broken vase.

We sped on through the night, our pickup the lone car moving on the deserted highway. The guards and Caroline were dozing in the back, the Princess up front with me. The guilt built and built in my chest until I finally broke the silence. “I’m sorry, Your Highness,” I muttered.

“For what?” That beautiful voice, glass-smooth and gentle. It seemed to glow in the darkness, lighting up the dark places.

“Grabbing you like that.”

She didn’t answer, but I could feel her looking at me. I stared hard at the road. I knew what wascoming. I felt myself tense, felt all that anger and shame rise up and lock me down.

“It looked like maybe you were remembering something,” she said carefully.

My forearms flexed. The steering wheel creaked. But there was something about that voice. It coated my mind like cool running water, calming me. Everything was still locking down, but more slowly.

“What was it?” she prompted.

I owed her an explanation, but I couldn’t let those memories out. I couldn’t handle reliving it all, or seeing Baker’s face again. And I didn’t want her to see what a mess I was. Bad enough that she must be terrified of me, now.

“Nothing I want to talk about,” I muttered.

She bit her lip and nodded, then turned to stare out of the window.Aw, hell.My stomach twisted. She’d only been trying to help.

I sucked in a breath and hardened myself. Getting close to her had just put her in more danger. From now on, I had to keep my distance. And if I wanted to keep her alive, I had to figure out which one of her guards was the traitor. I looked in the rear view mirror.

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