Page 59 of A Valiant Prince

“Not far,” he says. He makes a call on this phone to alert Hendrick, Cain, and Pete to the situation as they are following us in another car.

About ten minutes later, Jack pulls off onto a small lane and then another and, finally, we are driving down a drive no bigger than a trail. We pull up to a giant field with a very old house sitting in the middle. There’s a nearby barn and some other outbuildings. I can see what appears to be a helipad in the backfield.

“What is this place?” I ask as Anna starts to stir next to me.

“Let’s just say, I called in a favor with an old friend,” Jack says as he parks the car.

“Where are we?” Anna asks sleepily as she sits up and rubs her eyes.

“We are at a safe house,” Jack says. Anna sits up straighter.

“Why?” she asks.

“We had a possible perimeter breach back the estate. I made the executive decision to move us here for the night,” Jack says.

I see the color drain from Anna’s face.

“Do you think…” She trails off.

Jack turns toward her as he walks around the car. “Listen, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, OK? It could be nothing. And besides, it’s exactly what we planned for, right?” he says as he places a hand on her shoulder.

She takes a steadying breath. “Right,” she agrees as she squares her shoulders. My brave princess is ready for battle.

Jack walks up to the front door which opens. A man in scrubs shakes Jack’s hand.

“How the hell are you?” he asks.

“Fan-fucking-tastic. And you?” Jack replies.

The man laughs. “These are your assets?” he asks, looking back at all of us.

“Those three are security,” he says pointing to Hendrick, Cain, and Pete. “And this is Anna, Chris, Auggie, Mia, and Logan.”

“Hello, I’m Eli Bachman,” he says as he holds out a hand to each of us. “Sounds like you’ve had a change of plans for tonight. I have some rooms set up for upstairs. There are scrubs set out if you want to change. There are showers if you need them.”

“Thanks,” Anna says to him in unison with her brothers. Although they are all polite, I can tell everyone is tense.

“Sure, no problem. Don’t mind that the rooms are surgical suites. We tend to house injured people here,” he says. We stop in our tracks and turn to Eli and Jack.

“What type of safe house is this?” Chris asks them.

Jack looks to Eli who nods.

“It’s a facility used to care for injured assets and personnel,” he says not giving away anything else.

Anna and Chris nod and Auggie shrugs as they turn and trudge up the steps. There’s a woman at a desk in the hallway.

“Oh, hi, I’m Nancy. Let me show you the rooms we have available,” she says. Nancy is also wearing scrubs. She shows us to four different rooms each with four beds and an en suite bathroom. Anna and I take one room and settle ourselves in for the evening. There’s a knock on the door after we’ve changed into the scrubs laid out for us.

“Yes?” Anna calls out.

“May I come in?” Jack asks.

Anna opens the door for him and motions for him to enter. He does but he doesn’t sit down on any of the beds or chairs, he simply lingers by the door.

“Is everything OK for tonight?” he asks us.

Anna nods. “Yes, it’s fine. Thank you,” she responds as she cocks her head to one side.

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