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They should’ve discussed plans as they flew.
“If we bust in there, we could sign Sophie’s death sentence,” Chad said.
Malik’s eyes widened. He’d prayed so diligently for help to protect his dad, T, and Henry and he’d been granted it. Sadly, he wasn’t proficient at feeling warnings from the Spirit. He’d been distant for too long. He looked to his brothers.
“Something’s off,” T agreed.
“Listen,” Chad said.
Derek had his eyes closed. He was praying. Malik followed suit, closing his eyes, thanking Heavenly Father for His divine intervention at the castle, begging for it now.
All was quiet. Too quiet. Chad was right.
Someone sneezed. From the mountain slope directly in front of the house. It was very muffled, as if the person was pressing their face into something to avoid being heard, but it was definitely a sneeze.
Malik’s eyes flew open.
Chad tilted his head toward the mountainside and the sneeze, then whispered, “Take cover.”
They all crept behind the thick copse of trees in front of the house—listening, looking, holding guns tight, nerves tighter. Malik wasn’t some military guy. He liked to fight with his fists, not with a machine gun he was unfamiliar with, an enemy who was hidden, and the woman he loved in a dangerous situation he couldn’t view at the moment.
“We’re sitting ducks,” Chad murmured. “William’s men must be hidden in the foliage of the mountains, but why didn’t they fire on us?”
“They want us in the house,” Derek said quietly. “Kill us all in one fell swoop?”
“William likes bombs,” Malik said with a sinking feeling in his gut.
T’s eyes widened. He straightened, looking every inch the crown prince and leader. “We open fire on the mountainside,” he said. “Take out the enemy there. Find one of them alive and figure out why they want us in the house, if there is a bomb, and where Sophie and the rest are.” He looked to Chad for confirmation.
“Time’s a-wasting,” Chad said. He eased around the relative safety of the trees and opened fire with a heavy machine gun. Immediately shots were returned, giving them a better target. He ducked behind a decorative boulder and kept firing.
Ned cursed and followed his major. Jacob was a step behind.
Derek shrugged but stopped T with a hand on his chest. “You’re the crown prince, T. We need you alive.”
“Ellery would argue that we need you alive more.”
Derek grinned at that. His devil-may-care grin, Malik used to call it. “Watch my back then.”
“No. You watch mine.”
Malik half-smiled, appreciating their arguing to take his mind off the danger surrounding them, and edged around the trees.
Chad, Ned, and Jacob had moved away from the house and toward the forest, still shooting and getting shot at. They were wisely covering each other and moving toward the targets with whatever cover they could find—trees, decorative boulders, and bushes.
Malik, Derek, and T edged to their flank and opened fire on the forest in front of them. Their distraction gave Chad and his men the chance to move into the forest. T was a crack shot.
Chad hollered, “Hold!” and they stopped firing.
Cautiously moving toward the forest, Malik’s heart raced. Was Sophie all right? Could he go race into the house, let these men deal with William’s men out here, and make certain Sophie wasn’t being held against her will or hurt? Where were William and the rest of his men? They hadn’t arrived in a helicopter, at least not one that Malik had heard or seen.
He and Chad had taken care of the two who accompanied them to the castle; that left ten mercenaries and William. It had seemed like at least ten men shooting at them. Did that mean nobody was guarding Sophie and the other prisoners? He chafed to get to her but entered the thick foliage creeping up the mountainside with his brothers instead.
Chad hauled a man toward them. Malik couldn’t make out their faces backlit by the lights of the house and the thick trees around them. “He claims William is going to blow the place.”
Malik’s stomach turned over. “Sophie! Where is she?” He advanced on the man, not sure how to get the information out of him, but he’d figure something out.
“She’s inside,” a voice said from behind him.
