Page 15 of Royal Guard

I ducked around the corner and almost collided with the Princess, who’d crept up beside me while I’d been watching. “They’re coming!” I whispered. She paled. “Go! Get as far down the pipe as you can!” I glanced down the pipe and wanted to weep. After the corner, it ran straight. Just smooth concrete walls with no hiding places. The assassins would cut them down as soon as they turned the corner. There just wasn’t enough time.

Not unless someone held them back.

I looked at the Princess. My eyes met hers in the darkness and—

It took hold of me, stronger than anything I’ve ever felt.I need to protect this woman.I wasn’t going to let her die here, scared and alone in the dark. And it wasn’t just about how beautiful she was, how much I wanted to grab her waist and pull her to me and kiss those sweet lips. There was a whole other level to it: that feeling in my chest, like the wind filling a sail—

I suddenly realized where I’d felt it before: at the recruitment office. And at my passing out parade. And when we’d been called in after one of our embassies had been bombed and I’d seen the Stars and Stripes lying on the ground, shredded and burning.

I hadn’t recognized it before because it had been so long since I’d felt it. Loyalty. Duty. That feeling that there’s something much more important than you. Something worth giving your life for. I wasn’t justentranced by this woman. I was loyal to her.

Before I knew what I was doing, I’d reached out and grabbed her hand. I squeezed it: so delicate, so slender in my big, clumsy paw. I let go, but just as I moved back,shegrabbedmyhandand crouched there staring up into my eyes, her mouth open as if there was something she needed to say.

“Go, Your Highness” I said hoarsely. And then I ran around the corner towards the assassins.

The four of them were just approaching the entrance, still in the light, and they didn’t see me in the shadows for a second. I fired twice and got one of them in the chest: he went down but kept moving:dammit, body armor.These guys were well-equipped, too.

They started to fire into the pipe: they could barely see me in the darkness, but they didn’t have to, they could just spray and sooner or later, they’d hit me. I ducked behind the pile of concrete sacks, panting, then rose and fired a few more times. My jaw was set, grim determination powering me on. I didn’t have to hold out forever, I just had to slow them down until backup arrived.

A burst of fire hit the sacks of concrete and powder spurted into the air. The gray cloud enveloped me, filling my nose and mouth. I tried to breathe and sucked it straight down into my lungs.

And I felt the flashback coming straight for me with the speed and force of a runaway truck. I braced myself, tried to grapple with it, tried to slow the impact and hold it back—

I was back in the desert, the sand scouring my face and working its way under my eyelids. The sandstorm had turned everything into a featureless gray-brownvoid. I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t see.

In the back of my mind, I knew that I must be still in the pipe, probably standing there vulnerable. But that all seemed so distant. The desert, that was real.I have to find him!

Pain exploded in my leg. I cried out and fell to one knee, then went down on my ass, my big body making a hell of a thump as it hit. I heard my gun clatter across the concrete floor.

“No!”A woman’s voice, echoing off hard walls. The Princess.

I was back in the pipe, blinking through the concrete dust. I’d taken a bullet in the leg while the flashback had me frozen. Now I was sprawled on the floor of the pipe with no gun and the gunmen were coming in. I looked around. Dammit, the Princess had run back to the corner and was standing there watching me, panting with fear. Emerik had hold of her arm and was trying to drag her away but she was resisting with everything she had.

They were going to kill her.

I groped for my gun but I couldn’t find it. The gunmen advanced, guns raised. Another few feet and they’d see me through the dust. I gave a growl of fury and clambered to my feet, wincing in pain. I’d run at them. Even if all I did was soak up some bullets, if it kept her alive another few seconds—

A wail outside, rising and falling. A siren. And then another and another, and the pounding clatter of helicopter blades. Backup had arrived.

The assassins took one more step towards me...and then turned and vanished into the dust.

Seconds later, armed FBI agents filled the pipe. I put my hands on my head so that no one would shootme and let Director Gibson take over. I was too busy choking on the concrete dust to answer questions anyway. And inside, I was beating myself up for that flashback. They’d all nearly died because I was weak, because I was too much of a screw up. Then it got worse: I heard that the assassins had gotten away. My heart sank.

The FBI took us outside and I was finally able to breathe again. The Princess was sitting on the tailgate of an FBI truck, a blanket wrapped around her. They got me to sit down next to her and a medic dressed the wound on my leg. The bullet had only nicked the flesh: it hurt like a son of a bitch but I could still walk.

“The area’s secure,” Director Gibson told the Princess. He was holding a gauze pad against the gash on his cheek. “We’ll put together a fresh convoy to take you to the airport. But the important thing is, you’re safe now.”

Her glossy hair was dull with concrete dust, her legs bare under the blanket where she’d ripped her dress away. There were two big spots of blood on the front of the bodice where someone, maybe Gibson, had bled on her. She must have been terrified but she didn’t cry, didn’t complain, just nodded her thanks.

It killed me to do it. But if I wanted to protect her, she had to know.

“She isn’t safe,” I said in a low voice.

“What?” asked Gibson, frowning. “This whole area’s crawling with—”

“How did they know about the convoy?” I growled. “How did they know exactly where to find us on the highway, and which car she was in?”

Gibson’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly.