Page 26 of Royal Guard

Again, Emerik didn’t argue. “We’ll go and patrol,” he said. Then he grabbed Jakov and pulled the younger man with him.Thathadn’t changed, then, just how he interacted with Garrett. Caroline followed them out and closed the door.

Garrett sat down on the corner of my bed. For the first time, I remembered what I was wearing: a traditional, lacy nightgown that was very pretty, but not at all substantial, and the comforter had fallen down to my hips when I sat up. I felt his eyes track down my body before he managed to tear them away and they left a smoldering trail in their wake.

“We have a problem,” he said. “The FBI didn’t know we were coming here.No oneknew we were coming here. I paid in cash and we all threw our phones away so they’re not tracking us that way.” He looked at the body on the floor. “But these guys still managed to find us.”

I swallowed. “How?”

Those hard lips pressed together. “One of us is working with the assassins. You trust Caroline?”

I gaped. “Caroline’s mybest friend!”

“Then one of your guards is a traitor.”

17

GARRETT

She’d beenbrave all the way through this: on the plane, on the highway, even having been strangled half to death. Now, for the first time, she looked truly shaken. The idea that someone so close to her could betray her, hit her right where she lived.

“You’re wrong,” she croaked. I could hear the pain from her bruised throat every time she spoke and it lit a white-hot anger in my chest. I was going to find the man who’d done this and tear him apart. “There’s got to be another explanation.”

“There isn’t,” I said.

Tears shone in her eyes. She trusted those two guards completely.

I tried to pick my words carefully, wishing I was better at this stuff. I’ve always been about doing, not talking. And it didn’t help that I was mad at myself for failing to protect her. “Your Highness, Jakov—”

She shook her head. “I know what you’re going tosay and—”

“We can’t just ignore—”

“No!”

“You said one of the assassins sounded like he was from Garmania!” I hated snapping at her but she needed to hear it. “Jakov’s folks are from there.”

“Jakov’s completely loyal. And we don’t know for sure that the assassins are anything to do with Garmania. We’ve heard one man’s accent, that’s it.”

I stood up and started pacing. I was completely out of my depth.I’m a soldier, not a damn detective!“Then it’s Emerik,” I said at last.

“That’s even crazier! He’s been protecting me since I was a kid!”

I shook my head in frustration. We had to figure it out. As long as we had a traitor with us, my plan to get her home via New York was useless: the assassins would set a trap there, or put a bomb on the plane. “One thing I do know,” I told her. “We gotta leave. We got a dead body and folks heard those gunshots. Cops are probably on their way. If they arrest me, that leaves you alone with the guards. Can you travel?”

She nodded—even that small movement made her wince in pain—and climbed out of bed so that she could get dressed. I swallowed. She was wearing some sort of nightgown, half Victorian, half Victoria’s Secret. It had a high neck and long sleeves and the hem reached down to her ankles. But it was gauzy and, when all the frills stretched out and the light hit it the right way, you could catch glimpses of...everything.

Then I saw the vivid red finger marks on her neck and I ground my teeth so hard in anger that they ached. My fault. I’d been right outside the goddamndoor and I hadn’t come in because I was second-guessing myself. My feelings for her had almost gotten her killed.Never again.

She grabbed some clothes and ran to the bathroom to get changed. I put my head out of the door and told the others we were leaving, then ducked back inside to wait. I wasn’t leaving the Princess’s side, not tonight.

“Ready,” she said. She’d thrown on a loose green sweater and the dark jeans. Then she stopped dead. “Wait...if you’re right, if one of the guards is the one working with the assassins...then the FBI are in the clear!Theycan protect me. They can put me on a flight home!”

I thought about it, then sighed. “No. Maybe one of the guards told the assassins about the convoy, but they couldn’t have sneaked them on board the plane, or fed them satellite data to help find us in the pipes.” I ran my hand over my face, the exhaustion catching up with me. “We’ve gottwoproblems. Somebody high up, in the FBI or connected to them. And another person, right here in our group.”

“Someone really wants me dead,” said the Princess in a small voice.

She suddenly looked so vulnerable. My hands itched with the need to grab her and fold her into my arms. “I’m not gonna let that happen,” I told her.Shit!Was that sirens, in the distance? “Let’s go.”

But halfway to the door, my foot nudged a piece of the broken vase. I stopped, frowning.