Page 41 of Royal Guard

Kristina was on her feet, coughing a little from the smoke but okay. She ran between us, checking us over, and for a second I just let myself lie back and rest. Emerik, Jakov and I exchanged glances. We’d done it. We got everyone out safe.

Then, in the distance, I heard a shotgun boom three times. Everyone looked round.

And then there was silence. We’d all gotten so used to the whistle of the mortar rounds passing overhead that it was eerie when they suddenly stopped. My dad had done it. Three shots from his shotgun: the two men working the mortar and the sniper. I let out a long sigh of relief. It was over.

Then another shot echoed through the night. Not a shotgun. A handgun.

Dad hadn’t been carrying a handgun.

“Dad?” I could hear the fear in my voice. “Dad?”

Kristina reached for me but I was off and running across the fields. My legs would barely support me between the aching muscles and the wound but I had to get there, had to know.

I reached the trees and started searching. “Dad!”

I found the mortar team first. Two men, like I’d thought. Then another man, a rifle next to him. All dead.

“I got ‘em,” said a weak voice.

Dad was sitting with his back against a tree. I stumbled over to him and fell to my knees beside him. That’s when I saw the glistening wet patch on his shirt. I could smell burned fabric. Someone had shot him point-blank in the guts and left him there to die.

“Never saw the fourth guy,” wheezed Dad. “Not ‘till it was too late. He’s fast. Pale, creepy-looking son of a bitch.”

Silvas Lukin. My hands tightened into fists. I could feel tears slipping down my cheeks. There was so much I had to tell him. That I was sorry I was away for so long. That I loved him. “Dad!”

“You do whatever you have to,” Dad said. “But you keep that bastard away from her.”

And his eyes closed.

30

KRISTINA

We all workedas a team to get Garrett’s dad loaded into the pickup. Then we tore out of the ranch and off towards the nearest hospital. Emerik and I were frantically trying to stop the bleeding, pressing wads of torn-up shirt against the wound, but they kept soaking through.

When we screeched up outside the emergency room, Garrett took his dad’s shoulders and the guards took a leg each. We carried him in like that, with Caroline and me running alongside and pressing on the wound. Doctors surrounded us and helped us lower him onto a gurney, then raced him into a trauma bay.

“Outside!” snapped a doctor. “Let us work!”

Garrett, Caroline and the guards moved reluctantly away. I went to step away too, but suddenly a hand gripped my wrist. I looked down. Garrett’s dad had opened his eyes. He’d been drifting in and out ofconsciousness since we got him in the pickup but just for a few seconds, he seemed lucid.

“He’s a big lunk,” he croaked, staring up at me. “But he’s got a good heart. He just needs something to fight for.”

I nodded, tears rolling down my cheeks.

The doctors put a mask over his face and his eyes closed.

I walked into the hallway just in time to see Garrett slam his fist against the wall. His whole body had gone hard, every muscle taut with helpless fury. A nurse arrived to dress the wound on his leg and managed to coax him into a chair, but he barely seemed to know she was there. He just sat in silence as she worked, the anger and guilt rolling off him like a physical force, pushing all of us away.

“It’s not your fault,” I whispered when the nurse had gone. I put a hand on his back but he twisted away. He blamed himself for his father’s injuries, but if it was anyone’s fault, it was mine.I should have died on that plane,I thought bitterly.How many people were going to die, or be injured, protecting me?

And then I saw the police officers talking to the nurse at the reception desk.

I looked at Garrett. I knew what I needed to do but...God, I couldn’t. I looked at the guards. They shook their heads. Neither of them dared approach Garrett, not when he was going through this. It had to be me.

I swallowed and walked around in front of him. He was staring at the floor and didn’t even acknowledge me.

“Garrett?” I said hesitantly. “Garrett, I can’t believe I have to ask you to do this but...the police are here.There are three dead bodies at the ranch. They’re going to take us into custody, all of us. We know there’s still a leak, high up. Sitting in a cell somewhere, we’ll be vulnerable.”