The guy who’d grabbed her a few days ago pressed the barrel of his gun against Sebastian’s temple.
“And after they shoot him, they’ll shoot you,” Evgeny promised.
“You intend to kill us anyway,” she said. “At least this way you’ll die, too.”
“I do not want you dead,” he said. “I just want you. I want my wife and my child. I want my
family
.”
“She isn’t here.” And she had never been so thankful to be separated from her baby.
“She’s with his brother,” Evgeny said. “For now. Soon she will be with me.”
This was why she had always feared him. There was nothing he didn’t know.
“You won’t get to Samantha,” Sebastian said, his blue gaze promising Jessica that her daughter was safe.
“After your friend Brenner talked to you, he called Prince Antoine. You think he’s still at the resort when he knows his brother is about to be killed?” Evgeny shook his head. “You know him better than that.”
He was right. Antoine would definitely come to his brother’s aid. After their parents’ brutal murders, they were all each other had.
And Samantha was all Jessica had.
“When he rushes away from the resort, he will leave Samantha with someone who will bring her right to her loving daddy,” Evgeny gloated.
“You’re just giving me another reason to shoot you,” Jessica warned him. She needed to pull the trigger, her finger twitched against it. But Evgeny wasn’t lying; his men would do as he’d told them. And she and Sebastian would die, too.
“I just want my family,” Evgeny said. “That’s all I want.”
“Then let Prince Cavanaugh go,” she urged him again. “If you let him leave here, unharmed, I’ll go with you.” Especially since someone was bringing Samantha to him.
Evgeny chuckled. “But if I hold on to him, I could get his brother to pay a handsome ransom for him.”
“But you don’t want money,” she reminded him. “Since taking over your father’s enterprises, you have more than enough of that anyways.”
Evgeny grinned. “Probably more money than your prince here, since he’s in America to beg for trade agreements—to beg for money from our government.”
“Yes, that’s why he’s here,” Jessica reminded him. “Just for business. Not for me. He’ll go back to his island nation and leave me alone.”
“I will never leave you alone,” Evgeny said, making the same promise he had at Sam’s funeral. Then, his vow had touched her heart; now, it chilled it because she knew he spoke the truth.
“You said you want me,” she continued, choking on the bile that rose in her throat at the horrible thought of being his wife again. “Let me be Prince Sebastian’s ransom. I’ll leave with you, and I will never run away from you again.”
Evgeny turned his head so that he could meet her gaze over his shoulder. Hope warmed his usually cold gray eyes. “Really?”
“I’ll be your wife,” she promised. “Samantha and I will be your family. Just don’t hurt Sebastian.” Any more than his men already had.
“Then put down the gun,” Evgeny said.
“Don’t do it,” Sebastian warned her, his blue gaze intense. The guy pressed the gun harder against his head, cocking his neck at a painful angle.
Ignoring the prince, she asked her husband, “Do I have your promise?”
“If you promise to never run away again,” Evgeny negotiated.
“I swear,” she vowed. “As long as he lives, I’ll live with you.”
Sebastian cursed. “Don’t…”
“Then we have a deal,” Evgeny said, nodding toward his men who pulled the barrel away from Sebastian’s head. “Drop the gun, Teresa.”
“Don’t do it,” Sebastian pleaded. “Just shoot him.”
Jessica shook her head, unable to pull the trigger. “This doesn’t concern you,” she told him. “This is between me and my husband.” Then, her hands shaking, she dropped the gun.
The barrel no longer pressing into his back, Evgeny whirled around toward her. Using his gun, he struck her across the face, knocking her to the ground.
Pain exploded in her head, momentarily blinding her. But she blinked back the tears burning in her eyes and focused on Sebastian. The men held him back as Evgeny, his hand tangled in her hair, dragged her to her feet.
“You, wife, don’t tell me what to do,” he said. “You will never leave me…because I will never let you.”
He turned back to his men and ordered, “Kill him.”
Chapter Fifteen
Fighting not just for his life but hers, Sebastian swung his arm, knocking the gun from the hand of the man who’d had it pressed against his temple. A blast went off, sending the animals into a frenzy. They kicked the sides of their stalls, whinnied and neighed.
But the real animal was Evgeny. His hand still fisted in Jessica’s hair, he dragged her toward the open barn door. But she wrestled against his grasp, kicking out, kicking the long rifle toward Sebastian. He grabbed it up, but before he could focus and fire it, Evgeny squeezed off some shots, not caring if he hit Sebastian or his own men.
Sebastian rolled across the floor, taking cover behind some stacked bales of hay as bullets ricocheted around the barn.
“The next shot is going straight into her head,” Evgeny warned.
Jessica screamed out, more desperation than pain in her voice. “Don’t let him get Samantha. Please…”
“She’s safe,” he assured her.
He had made Antoine promise that no matter what the situation he would not leave the little girl alone. Antoine would never go back on his word.
Neither would Sebastian. He had vowed to protect Jessica; he would not fail. But when he edged from behind the hay, more shots rang out. Not from Evgeny’s gun but from the man Sebastian had not disarmed. He covered his boss while Evgeny dragged Jessica toward a car parked behind the Suburban. The tires of the rusted SUV had been slashed, leaving him no way to pursue them.
Especially if his security team had been compromised or killed. Antoine could not have been wrong about Brenner and the other men. Brenner had sounded strange when Sebastian had called him earlier; he’d been coerced into saying that all was clear.
How had Sebastian failed so badly in his surveillance that he hadn’t even noticed their approach to the ranch? Because he’d been making love with Jessica instead of protecting her.
He had already broken his promise to her.
He leaned out farther, but gunfire drove him back. The other man had retrieved his weapon. They were both shooting at him. But Sebastian had to keep his gaze on Jessica; he could not let her out of his sight.
The car engine revved as Evgeny threw it into reverse, backing up to the barn before slamming the transmission into Drive and heading toward the road. Just as she’d feared, her husband had come for her. And while Sebastian hunkered down behind bales of hay, the car was getting farther and farther away.
J
ESSICA HAD KNOWN
that Evgeny wouldn’t keep his promise. But she hadn’t known how else to buy herself and Sebastian some time. The prince had given her a chance to take back her life; she’d had to do the same for him. Despite his brother’s call to the ranch warning her that the perimeter guards had been compromised, she hadn’t obeyed his order to hide. She’d known that he wouldn’t be able to get help to his brother before Evgeny killed him.
Only she could save Sebastian. So she’d grabbed up his gun and headed out to the barn.
Evgeny laughed. “How does that man rule a country? He is weak and stupid. I can’t believe you trusted him to protect you.”
She trusted Sebastian. To protect Samantha. It was too late for her. She had to protect herself now, as she should have years ago. “Sebastian is honorable. He keeps his word, unlike you. You promised you’d let him go.”
“You think you are a worthy ransom for a prince?” He laughed. “There is a far bigger price on his head than your life.”
“Who?” she asked. “Who put the hit out on him and the other royals?”
He laughed. “Why do you want to know? You will never speak to him again. I am sure he is already dead.”
She gasped as pain clutched her heart. She couldn’t imagine a world without Sebastian in it, even if he was a world away on his island nation.
“That is what happens to anyone who tries to come between us,” Evgeny continued. “Your brother had to learn that, too.”
“Sam?”
“He knew I was going to propose to you. He didn’t think I was good enough for his sweet sister.” Bitterness twisted Evgeny’s face into a grotesque mask of evil. “He was going to try to keep you away from me, just like the prince tried.”
“You killed Sam?”
He sighed. “I hated to do it, but I wasn’t going to lose you. Then or now.”
“But he was your friend.”
“So?” he scoffed. “I turned on my father, too, for you. When you served me with those divorce papers, I had to get out of prison. I knew the only way out was to offer the Feds what they wanted most.”
“Your own father?”
“You’d begged me to do it for years,” he reminded her, “because of how he’d hurt me. You loved me, and you didn’t want me to become what my father was.”
That was why she had opened the door to him that night—the night he’d put her in the hospital and gotten her pregnant with Jessica. Because she’d believed that he might have finally become the man she’d thought he could be. She had believed he’d turned in his father because he’d wanted to be a better man. For her.
Just like Samantha, she used to believe in fairy tales. But that night had proved to her once and for all that they never came true.
“Your father deserved to be behind bars,” she said, “because he is an evil man.” But his son was even more of a monster than he was.
Uncaring of the gun he pointed at her, the gun that already had her face swelling, she grabbed for the steering wheel. She didn’t care about herself; she only cared that Evgeny finally be stopped.
“S
TOP
!”
THE PRINCE SHOUTED
from behind the bale of hay into which Dmitri had emptied his clip.
Had he been hit? The driver had—his shoulder bled as he slumped against one of the barn walls, and was either losing consciousness or dying. The boss had hit him when he’d fired into the barn on his way out, leaving them behind with no transportation.
“You will not escape,” Prince Sebastian said, as if he’d read Dmitri’s mind. “My brother will have sent other men out here. They will be here soon. That’s why your boss took off before making sure I was dead. So put down your weapon.”
The prince was right. There was no way out. If Dmitri was apprehended, he would be sent to prison for the rest of his life, however long that lasted. Did Wyoming have the death penalty? He had killed the men who’d guarded the perimeter of the ranch; they hadn’t turned as Evgeny had claimed. They’d been loyal to the prince. And look what their loyalty had earned them.
Death.
The same as Dmitri’s loyalty to his boss would earn him. But if he was going to die, he would at least die with honor—carrying out the last of his orders.
To kill the prince.
He slid in a new clip. Then, his gun gripped tightly in his hand, he charged the hay bales, firing shot after shot at the prince. Dmitri would die today. But he would not die alone…
S
EBASTIAN SPARED ONLY
a glance to the man dying at his feet before heading toward the ladder that led up to the loft. Another gun cocked, but when he swung back to fire at the other shooter, the man had already lost the weapon as it slipped from his grasp. And the life slipped from his eyes.
Sliding the strap on the gun over his shoulder, Sebastian climbed into the loft and jumped over more bales of hay to reach the small window in the peak of the roof. He pushed the little shutter door open and slid his gun out, bracing the barrel on the jamb.
Pushing all his fear, anger and regret from his mind, he focused on the scope, staring through it to track the car. It swerved across the driveway as two people struggled for control of the steering wheel. Evgeny might have beaten her again, but he had not destroyed her spirit.
She was still the strong, brave woman with whom Sebastian had fallen so deeply in love. He should have told her—should have given her the words he’d never spoken to anyone else. He might not have the chance to declare his feelings if the car didn’t stop careening back and forth.
She was not making his shot easy.
You are just like your father. More liability than responsibility. Just like him, you will fail when it matters most…
His grandfather’s hateful words echoed in his mind as they had ever since the bitter old man had uttered them. Sebastian had tried to shake off the taunts as easily as Antoine had, but he could not forget that Omar had been right about their father.
But he had to be wrong about Sebastian. Because this moment was when it mattered most that he not fail. For through the scope, he could see clearly inside the car. While Jessica fought for the steering wheel, Evgeny only held it with one hand while he lifted his gun with the other and pointed it to her beautiful face.
Sebastian fought down his panic over losing her. He fought down his doubts. He stopped breathing, even stopped his heart from beating, as he centered the crosshairs of the scope on the back of a blond head. He prayed the car stopped swerving for a moment. Just a moment was all he needed. Careful not to breathe or move anything but his finger on the trigger, Sebastian took the shot.
But the car veered. Violently. It swerved off the driveway and landed, spinning tires up, into the steep ditch between the gravel drive and the pasture.
He refocused the scope to see inside the car through the back window. Blood spattered the broken windshield—on both the driver and passenger sides. And two heads were pinned between the roof and the dashboard.
Instead of saving the woman he loved, had he killed her?
Chapter Sixteen
Sirens wailed in the distance as the help they’d needed finally approached. Too late.
Sebastian panted for breath, his lungs burning as he ran down the driveway. Finally he neared the site of the crash and scrambled down the steep slope of the ditch. Weeds and briars caught at his clothes as if trying to hold him back from what he feared he would see.
Horrific images from his childhood flitted through his mind. All that blood, just like the blood that ran over the shattered glass of the broken windshield now. Evgeny was dead. He only had to glance at the Russian to know the man had died as violently as he’d lived. He would never be able to hurt Jessica again.
But how hurt was she? Had Evgeny taken his shot, too, before Sebastian had terminated him? Pain and panic clutched at his heart as he considered that nightmare—the one of finding the woman he loved dead.
His lungs burning now with fear, Sebastian pushed through the weeds to the passenger’s side of the crumpled, upside-down car. His hands shaking, he grabbed the door handle and pulled. The metal refused to yield. Jessica was still held captive alongside the man who’d terrorized her. Giving up on the door, Sebastian pulled the shattered glass from the passenger window and wedged himself through the narrow opening to reach for her.
Her blood trickled over his fingers as he pushed her hair back and felt for a pulse in her neck. It pounded fast and hard beneath his fingers.
His heart swelled with hope. She was alive. For now. “Jessica?”
She moaned and shifted against the seat that was now on top of her. Sebastian gripped her shoulder and the back of her head. “Don’t move, sweetheart. You could be seriously injured.”
Even if Evgeny hadn’t shot her, the crash could have broken her neck. Because she hadn’t been wearing a seat belt, she’d rolled with the car and was now pinned between the dashboard and the seat. He lifted his head to look for the emergency vehicles. Lights flashed as they pulled off the main road and headed down the drive to the ranch.
“Help will be here soon,” he promised. “Sit tight.”
It would take the jaws of life to extract her battered body from the vehicle.
Ignoring his order and his concern, she moved again and turned slightly toward the driver’s side. A gasp of shock slipped through her lips. “He’s dead…”
“I know.”
“You shouldn’t have killed him,” she murmured.
Regret clutched his heart. Had Evgeny been right? Had she still cared about him even after everything he’d done to her? Had they had some connection that Sebastian would never understand? That he would never have with her…
“I shouldn’t have,” he agreed, “because you got hurt.” But if he hadn’t killed him and Evgeny had pulled the trigger…
The tires of the sheriff’s white Dodge SUV squealed as it braked on the drive. “Help is here. You’ll be all right. Everything will be all right.”
“No,” Jessica murmured. “Not now that he’s dead…”
“If he’d lived, you would have never been safe,” he reminded her.
Perhaps Antoine had been right—that Sebastian had intended to kill him all along even though he hadn’t consciously admitted it to himself. But deep down he’d known that the only way to stop a man like Evgeny was with a bullet.
“But if he’d lived, he could have told you who was behind the explosion,” she said. “He knew who is after you and the other royals. Someone is determined that all of you be killed.”
He’d nearly forgotten about the danger he and the others were in because he’d been so focused on Jessica since meeting her. Even though Evgeny was dead, she wasn’t safe if she stayed anywhere near Sebastian.
I
SOLATED BEHIND THE
white curtain separating her cubicle from the rest of the ones in the emergency room, Jessica had never felt so alone. Not even when Sam had died—murdered by his best friend. By the man she’d been fool enough to marry.
And now she’d done it again; she’d fallen for the wrong man. Just as she’d suspected Sebastian had only been concerned for her safety. It was that overdeveloped sense of responsibility that made him ideal for ruling a nation. He’d acted out of protectiveness, not love, when he’d risked his life for hers.
And now that she was no longer in danger, he was gone. She’d ridden alone in the ambulance from the ranch to the hospital. She hadn’t asked him to ride along, though. She’d asked him to bring Samantha to her instead.
“Where’s my mommy?” a soft voice fearfully whispered.
“I’m here,” Jessica replied, pulling back the curtain.
Her little girl was clasped tight in the arms of a prince, whose blue-eyed gaze studied her. But Antoine did not look at her as Sebastian did. He could not see inside her. Instead his gaze skimmed across her face.
She lifted a hand to the painful bruise. Maybe she shouldn’t have had Samantha brought to her.
“I’m okay,” she assured her baby, who stared at her with eyes that same steely gray as her father’s.
Jessica’s last image of Evgeny was of those eyes, open but blind in death. She shuddered.
“You’re okay?” Samantha asked.
“Yes.” She held out her arms. “I just need a hug, sweetheart.” She just needed her child; that was all she’d ever needed. She did not need Sebastian Cavanaugh, so she shoved aside her hurt feelings that he had not brought her daughter to her.
And she smiled up at his brother. “Thank you, Prince Antoine…so much.”
“Sebastian made me promise to not let her out of my sight,” Antoine explained, “that yours were the only arms into which I would release her.”
And even though he’d feared for his brother’s life, he had kept his promise. She could not imagine how emotionally torn he must have been, and his stern face gave away nothing of his struggle. But because she knew Sebastian so well, she felt as if she knew Antoine, too. Wishing she could say more, she just reiterated, “Thank you…”
Samantha leaned forward and gently pressed her lips to Jessica’s swollen cheek. “There, Mommy, does that feel better?”
She blinked back tears of pain at even that slight pressure against her wound. “Yes, sweetheart, I’m all better.”
“What happened?” The little girl’s bottom lip quivered as her eyes flooded with tears. “Did the bad men that hurt Helen come after you?”
“No,” she lied. “I was in an accident.” She tightened her arms around her baby. “So were the bad men. They’re all gone now. They can’t hurt Helen, or me, or you, or anyone else. We’re safe, baby.”
She released a shuddery breath of relief. All those years of living in fear that he would find her were finally over.
“We’re safe,” she repeated.
S
EBASTIAN TURNED AWAY
, unable to intrude on the emotional reunion of mother and daughter—unable to intrude with the reality that she wasn’t safe. Not yet.
But Antoine had noticed him, and he had no such qualms as he joined Sebastian in the waiting room. “If you don’t tell her, I will.”
Sebastian turned toward his twin, fixing him under the stare he used like a weapon.
Antoine just shook his head. “You can’t let her believe she’s safe when we both know that she’s not. She was right about her ex being behind these threats on her life. But there will be more threats.”
“She didn’t witness anything that can lead us to who was behind the explosion,” Sebastian reminded him. “Hell, we still don’t have a clue where Amir is.”
“At least we learned that he definitely survived the explosion.”
“But we don’t know if he’s still alive.” Sebastian groaned. “If he was, wouldn’t he have contacted us by now?”
Antoine shrugged. “Perhaps he does not know who he can trust.”
“He can trust us. We’re targets just as much as he is.” And that was why he had to let Jessica go, because it was not safe for her to be around him. Back at the ranch, the sheriff and Jane Cameron had informed him that the bullet from the armrest in his Hummer was of a different caliber than the guns Evgeny and his men had carried. There had been someone else out in the Badlands that day trying to kill him.
“That bomb was intended for all us,” Sebastian reminded his twin. “How could Amir think that one of us might be behind it?”
Antoine shrugged. “We don’t know what he is thinking. Hell, I am your twin and I don’t know what
you’re
thinking.”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you just going to let that woman and child go?” he asked, his voice gruff with disgust.
“I will give her the reward,” Sebastian said. “She will have enough money to start a new life.”
“Will she and the child have a life if you let them out of your sight?”
“They stand a better chance at being safe away from me than with me,” Sebastian explained. And for that reason and that reason alone, he had to let her go. “They won’t get caught in the cross fire when someone tries to kill us. There are definitely orders out there to kill us. Her ex knew who had put out those orders.”
“He did not tell her before he died?”
“No.” And for that reason, for his sake only, she had regretted the man’s death. Sebastian understood that now…because as she’d been extricated from the crash, she’d shared that Evgeny had confessed to killing her brother.
Sebastian did not regret killing him.
“But the person who put out the order, he will not know that,” Antoine said.
“When no one comes after him, he’ll realize she is no threat,” Sebastian argued. “I will have to hide her for only a little while.” Far away from himself.
“You don’t know that,” Antoine said. “This person will also know she is the witness. He will not know what she did or did not see. Or if she really doesn’t know Amir’s whereabouts. She could be abducted and tortured to reveal what she knows.”
Sebastian gasped in pain and not from his injuries. He imagined instead what she might be subjected to—worse even than what Evgeny had done to her. He flinched. “That will not happen. I will make it known that she is no threat.”
“She’s not the threat,” Antoine agreed. “You are.”
Sebastian sucked in a breath.
“It’s obvious how much you care about her. That makes her your weakness. She and Samantha could be kidnapped and held in exchange for your life.” Like she had exchanged her life for his, except Evgeny had broken the agreement she’d made with him.
“Or they could be used as leverage to get you to withdraw from the trade agreement between COIN and the United States,” Antoine continued. “That’s probably why the hit is out on us—to stop the agreement from going through. You don’t want Jessica and Samantha to be used against you.”
That was why, at thirty-seven and despite the need for heirs, Sebastian had never married. He had not wanted to put a wife and children in the same danger their father had put them in because of his past. He suspected that Antoine had not married for that same reason.
“That’s why I have to let them go—to protect them,” he admitted, his throat thick with emotion. “I couldn’t bear for them to get hurt because of me.”
“You don’t think you’re hurting her right now?” Antoine asked. “I saw her face—”
“Evgeny struck her with the gun.”
“I’m not talking about the swelling. I’m talking about that look of utter devastation on her face when she realized that it was me bringing Samantha to her and not you.”
“I need to stay away from her,” he said, trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince his twin. “All of us royals are targets. I can’t put her and Samantha at risk, too.”
“So get them out of here.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you I’m going to do,” Sebastian reminded him, his temper fraying. “I’m going to get her to take that damn reward and get the hell out of here.”
“You’ll be able to let her go?”
Pain clutched his heart at the thought of watching her walk away from him. It would be nearly as hard as when Evgeny had dragged her away. “I would do anything for her and Samantha,” he said. “Even let her go.”
“They’d be safer with you than away from you.”
He shook his head.
“You’re not our father, no matter what our grandfather told you. You proved that today when you saved Jessica’s life.”
“It was close,” he admitted, his voice cracking. “You saw her face.” That blow haunted him, like the accident pinning her inside the blood-spattered car. “You were right that my plan was too dangerous. She could have died. I can’t take that risk again.”
“Then take her home.”
“What?”
“Take her and Samantha back to Barajas with you. It would be easier to keep her safe there, surrounded by people we know we can trust.”
“Can we?” Sebastian asked. “You don’t think the king of Sarek is behind the explosion and attacks?” Sarek was close to Barajas, too close given its propensity for warfare, but it had declined to be part of COIN due to King Kalil Ramat’s hatred of America.
“Rumor has it that he has used Russian hit men,” Antoine recalled, “to suppress any challenges to his throne. You really think he could be behind everything?”
“I don’t know. It could be anyone.” If only Evgeny would have given him the name… “Like Dad, you and I made more than our share of enemies during our years of military service.”
Antoine clenched his jaw and jerked his head in an abrupt nod. “True. But it’s also true that you’d be able to keep Samantha and Jessica safest on Barajas, even with Sarek so close. You managed to protect them both here. It’ll be far easier at home.”
Their parents wouldn’t have died had they all been living in the security of the palace. But because the king had not approved their marriage, they’d been living in Europe, in exile from both their lands. Perhaps that was why Grandfather had been so determined to blame their father, because it had been easier for him than acknowledging his own blame.
Sebastian nodded. “You’re right.”
“Of course I’m right,” Antoine replied. “We’ve both been away too long anyway. It’s time for one of us to go home.”
“But I shouldn’t leave you here—alone.”
“I’m not alone. Stefan and Efraim are here, too. And I believe we can trust Sheriff Wolf. Working together, we’ll find Amir soon. I know it.”
“But you had my back.” Always. “I should have yours.”