Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,117

her sandals slapping on the cement sidewalk. If anyone was watching her from one of those guard towers and reporting to the kidnapper, they shouldn’t think it odd if she ran inside to grab shoes and a walking stick—or a gun—before running out to the beach. But she couldn’t linger long, or that person would report that she hadn’t run out the gate as predicted. “Ask the guys to meet us in the Grand Receiving Room.”

“To take the secret passage to the air darters under the castle?” Maddie, as Oku’s personal bodyguard of twenty years, also knew about the tunnels and the underground hangar.

“Yes. I have one stop I want to make along the way. Just in case.”

As she ran to one of the back doors, Oku fought the urge to glare angrily at the guard towers, annoyed that she couldn’t trust everyone up there and more annoyed that an innocent animal was being brought into someone’s idiotic scheme. What was the point of even targeting her? She didn’t want to rule anything or be named as her father’s heir.

“Do you have a stunner I can borrow, Maddie?” Oku asked as they slipped inside.

She thought Maddie might object to giving her a weapon, or point out that it was her duty to shoot people, but Maddie wordlessly handed her the stunner on her belt, keeping her deadlier pistol for herself.

“Thanks.”

Oku kept the weapon close to her side, her finger on the trigger, but she stuck it partway into her pocket so it wouldn’t be that noticeable. She ran past staff and distant relatives staying in the castle, not stopping to respond to anyone’s questioning looks. The press of time weighed on her, and she second-guessed her decision to detour, but if Finn did have something to do with this, and she could get him to admit it, they might save time.

On the third level of the castle, Finn’s bodyguard, Wolfram, lounged against the wall beside the door to his suite.

“He said not to let you in,” Wolfram said.

“He was expecting me?” That spoke volumes. Oku hardly ever went to her brothers’ quarters.

“Said you might come tonight.”

“Maddie.” Oku had been leading, but she stepped aside. “Convince Wolfram that I should be let in, please.”

As Maddie surged forward, the guard sprang from his lazy pose into a fighting stance to face her. With his attention on Maddie, Oku whipped out the stunner and fired. The blue nimbus caught him full in the chest. He pitched backward as Maddie reached him. She lifted her arms, as if to keep him from crashing down hard and hitting his head, but she stopped herself and let him fall. Maybe they’d had cross words in the past, or maybe Maddie had twigged the same thing that Oku had, that Finn—and at least one of Finn’s bodyguards—knew something about the kidnapping.

“That’ll be hard to do when he’s passed out,” she said.

“Will it? Huh.” Oku tried the doorknob, but it was locked. She looked down at her stunner but couldn’t imagine it would do anything against a mechanical lock.

“Allow me.” Maddie dragged the bodyguard out of the way, so she had room to maneuver. Then she turned and threw her whole body into a powerful kick.

The door wasn’t that flimsy, but her heel struck like a battering ram. The lock snapped, and Maddie charged in. She surprised Oku by diving to the side and rolling across the hard marble entryway.

A weapon cracked, and a bullet slammed into the wall opposite the now-open door. Oku gaped and jumped farther to the side, glad she hadn’t been standing in the open.

“What’re you—” That was all Finn got out before the smack of a punch landing sounded.

A clatter followed. His gun hitting the floor? Several thumps followed, and Finn managed to get one angry indignant shout out before his voice broke into a pained yelp.

“Let me know when I should come in,” Oku called, feeling silly hiding in the hall. But eyeing the bullet hole in the opposite wall convinced her this was the place for a non-combatant.

Would Finn have shot her if she’d slipped past Wolfram on her own and come into his room? Or did he always keep an old-fashioned firearm close at hand?

“Never,” Maddie said, her voice low, as if she was on the floor, “if you don’t want to see a horrific mess.”

“Uh, like my brother’s blood everywhere?”

“Like his dirty underwear everywhere.”

An angry muffled sound followed her words.

Suspecting the fight was over, Oku peeked around the doorjamb.