“Cody says it wasn’t him.” A deep voice carried through the stillness of the late afternoon as what looked like three, no four men—all in commando cosplay complete with automatic rifles—appeared over the top of a nearby crest of rocks.
“He always says it wasn’t him,” someone with a higher voice complained. “It’s the same shit, every fucking time. We’re out in the cold, again, for nothing.”
If Prince Tedric had stayed absolutely still, frozen in place, they might’ve stomped right on past, equally oblivious. But he didn’t. He dove his royal ass down to the ground, noisily scrambling his way to the absolute-non-cover of a nearby pine sapling.
The four-man patrol both saw him and heard him. And four barrels of four deadly instruments of war went up in near unison. It was immediately clear, despite the earlier lack of discipline, that at least some of these men were former military.
“Fuck,” Dave breathed and Rio nodded. Yup. As in cluster. And/or goat.
The four men spread out as they headed toward Tedric. “Freeze! Hands where we can see ’em!”
If this were a war zone, the solution would be easy and quick—Rio would take out the two on the left and Dave would take out the two on the right. But this wasn’t even close to a battlefield—they were in freaking Maine. And yeah, they might’ve been ordered to protect the prince, but they hadn’t been handed a James-Bondian license to kill.
Now, if the hostiles started shooting, that’d be a different story.
Except they, too, were in freaking Maine. No way would they fire at a stranger in the woods. Would they...?
Rio hoped the hell not, because with Ted’s current lack of cover, if these bozos started shooting, he’d be dead. Come on, come on, come on, Ted, don’t do anything stupid, like pull out that handgun you’re hiding in your pocket...
“I said hands!” the commando shouted, “In the air! Now!”
Reveal and distract was their only real option here—although it meant they might get their asses shot—or worse, lose Ted—in the melee, but Rio signaled Dave to spread out and go right while he went to the left.
But before they could burst out of the brush where they were hiding, the prince surprised them all. He launched himself up off the forest floor and ran like hell, back up and over the ridge, heading toward the ski lodge.
It all happened so fast.
Thomas was crouched down, a dozen feet away from where Tasha was hiding as men shouted for someone to freeze; to put their hands in the air.
At first, she thought they were screaming at Thomas and her heart nearly stopped, but he didn’t move, didn’t flinch, didn’t so much as blink. His hand was still up in that Don’t move warning as he continued to listen hard. And she realized, over the sound of her hammering heart, that the voices were some distance away from the hide.
But then she heard crashing noises—like someone was running through the brush. Twigs and branches snapped and broke, dried leaves rattled and crunched. Someone was breathing hard—panting, gasping—as they rushed closer.
Thomas’s face shifted, hardening in steely realization as he went into warrior mode. He glanced at her only briefly, silently mouthing the words, “Do not move.”
The crashing and gasping got louder and louder and...
And oh, God, she saw him then, through the branches of the hide. The man being chased was... Ted...?
Thomas slipped into firefight mode. Everything around him was sharply, crystal clear.
A man stumbled into view, less than forty feet from where Thomas was crouching near Tasha and the hide.
Car. The car that the complained-about Charlie had spotted must’ve belonged to this man, and it was probably parked down on the road, just ready and waiting for Thomas to hotwire and use to get Tasha to safety.
They just had to stay silent, stay still, let this man lead his pursuers away from them without being discovered.
Wait. Was that...?
Fuck.
Thomas turned to look at Tasha and his worst fears were instantly confirmed. He’d only seen photos of the prince as he’d prepped for this assignment, but Tasha’s wide eyes and expression of shock and horror confirmed his positive ID. She even nodded slightly, mouthing his name. “It’s Ted.”
The prince staggered and scrambled to get his footing in the dry leaves, as he tried to get away from the four-man patrol that was now in hot pursuit.
Thomas could hear them coming, closer and closer, making four times the noise as they crashed through the brush.