Page 83 of Royal Guard

I hunted around and found a pair of dirty gray overalls and some work boots. With a lot of rolling up of sleeves and cuffs, I just about got them to fit. There was a baseball cap, too, with the name of the shop on it, and I jammed that on my head, stuffing my hair up under it. There was a cell phone on charge and I pocketed that. In the garage attached to the shop, I found the van the repairman used when he made house calls, and after a lot of searching I found the keys in a drawer. I wrote Garrett a note, folded it into his hand and closed his fingers around it. Then I kissed him gently on the lips and left, before I chickened out.

Driving was harder than I remembered it. Garrett had taught me on an empty highway and that was nothing like the twisting, narrow streets of the city. I kept stalling and had more near misses than I could count. But at last, the palace came into view.

There were even more troops stationed around it than I remembered, and General Novak had added armored personnel carriers and tanks, too. He’d turned the beautiful palace into a fortress. And the royal colors were no longer flying from the turrets. The bastard had taken them down.

I pulled over just before I reached the security checkpoint and dialed my mother. No reply. My stomach twisted. Had they just taken her phone offher, or….

I tried Emerik. No answer. Maybe they’d locked him up, since he’d be loyal to me.

Jakov. No answer there either.Please!I needed someone inside!

I called Caroline. It rang and rang and then, just as I was about to give up hope, she answered. She had to whisper down the phone to me. “There are soldiers everywhere! Everyone’s looking for you! They’re calling you a traitor!”

I calmed her and asked about my parents. My father was still in a coma in the medical facility. My mother was with him: they’d taken her phone and she wasn’t allowed to leave his bedside.

I had to get them out. It was only a matter of time before General Novak quietly disposed of both of them. But how? I wasn’t a soldier, like Garrett!

But I had to try. I’d lost my country, and there was no way I could stop the war. I couldn’t let them take my parents from me, as well.

“Okay,” I told Caroline. “Here’s what I need you to do.”

62

GARRETT

I was floatingin fuzzy black. The scent of her, the feel of a warm body pressed against me. Someone calling my name, but I was too deep in the blackness to reach.

Then a kiss. The brush of silky hair against my bare chest. That coaxed me up out of the blackness. It took a long time to reach the surface but—

I opened my eyes and immediately screwed them shut again. The daylight was painful. My head was throbbing. I made the mistake of probing the back of my head and the sudden agony almost made me pass out again. The room spun and blurred and there were two of everything. I lay there panting, trying not to throw up, and waited for it to pass.

Where the hell was I? Where was Kristina? The last thing I remembered was the dam. What was this on my head: duct tape?

Something was in my hand: a piece of folded paper. I scowled at it until I could see straight andthen drew in my breath as I saw it was from Kristina. By the time I’d finished reading, I knew where she was.

And I’d had enough.

Those bastards had taken everything from her. Her throne, her beloved country... they’d even tried to take me, leaving her alone and unprotected.

Well, not anymore.

I dressed in my damp royal guard uniform and stalked outside. My head was still throbbing, but the rage was pumping through my veins, powering me forward.

Before I’d even reached the end of the street, there was a gasp from beside me. A guy on a motorcycle had slowed to a stop beside me, his eyes wide. From what Kristina had said in the note, my picture was everywhere, and with my size, I guess I stood out.

I didn’t have time to argue with him. I grabbed hold of the bike, leaned in close and snarled in his face. “Get off!”

White-faced, he jumped off. I swung my leg over the bike and roared away.

I reached the palace just in time to see the van from the repair store pull up to the checkpoint. I ducked into some bushes and sneaked closer. My heart nearly stopped when I saw Kristina talking to the soldier manning the checkpoint, explaining that she was there to repair some medical equipment.Are you nuts? Get out of there!

The soldier stared at her... but her disguise worked. Everyone except me had only ever seen her in fancy dresses. In dirty overalls, with a baseball cap covering her long hair, no one would believe she was The Queen. The soldier wouldn’t let her through, though.He said he had no repair visit down on his schedule: he’d have to call the palace to confirm.Shit!

At that moment, Caroline came sprinting out of the palace. She spoke to the soldier and I guess confirmed the story because he waved Kristina through. Relief sluiced through me...but now we were separated again. I needed to get into the palace to help her and I didn’t have a clever plan or a disguise.

But I was a Marine. And we don’t quit.

I went right around the palace to the gardens. They were still guarded but a lot less heavily than the palace itself. When a patrol had gone past, I climbed the wall and dropped down inside. Inside, the dawn mist was still creeping waist-deep over the lawns, and that helped to hide me.God bless Lakovia’s weird weather.I started searching for the flowers Kristina had told me about. The gardens were full of all kinds of plants.Whitecamellia. What the hell do camellia look like?!

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