Ransom For A Prince. Lisa Childs

them with a great opportunity.”

      “But perhaps they are not after me.”

      “Even before there was a hit put out on the witness, that bomb had been set in the limo to take out all of us,” Antoine bitterly reminded him. “If there were hit men in that van, they would have gone after you.”

      Sebastian expelled a breath of relief. “Of course. You’re right.” He chuckled. “So I did scare the hell out of some reporters.”

      “As you said, they’ve been hounding us since we arrived—they had it coming.”

      “They had it coming for interfering in my following the witness. I think I lost her,” he admitted. “The sheriff said her vehicle was registered to the Double J, but the only ranch I’ve found between the resort and the Rattlesnake Badlands is the Double T.” When he’d reached the badlands, he’d turned around and headed back to the driveway to that ranch. As he drove past it, he glanced at the wooden sign that hung on rusted chains from a sawed-off log. The T looked odd. Perhaps it had once been a J. But if it hadn’t, he could ask if anyone knew where he could find the Double J.

      And the witness…

      The dirt drive wound between fenced pastures and past a couple of weathered red barns to a two-story farmhouse. He wouldn’t need to ask where to find the Double J; he’d found it. He parked behind the rusted SUV. “I’m here,” he told his brother.

      “You found the witness.”

      “She’s here.”

      “Wait for me before you approach her again,” Antoine urged. “You shouldn’t be out—anywhere—alone.”

      “I’ll be fine. Her vehicle is the only one here.” Unless there was one parked inside one of those big barns. To be careful, and because he couldn’t shake the experience with the van, he carried the gun he’d pulled from beneath the seat. He’d tucked it in the waistband of his pants and covered it with his suit jacket. Ever since they’d learned of the threat to their lives, he’d carried a weapon or had one stashed within reach.

      When he’d finished out his service in the military, Sebastian had sworn to never take up a weapon again. But then he hadn’t considered that he’d ever have to go back to war. While it wasn’t official yet, that explosion had been a declaration of war—or at least the first battle. Had Amir survived it?

      “Not seeing another vehicle doesn’t mean much,” Antoine spoke as he often did, as if he was privy to Sebastian’s thoughts. That damn twin connection of theirs.

      Sebastian glanced back down the long driveway, making sure no one had followed him, but he couldn’t see to the road. Someone could have followed him that far and headed back to the ranch on foot now.

      “She’s by herself,” he said. Unless she had a husband. But then why had the man let her go into town alone when she was already aware that she was in danger? Why hadn’t he been there to protect her?

      Sebastian pushed open the driver’s door and stepped onto the drive. “I’ll let you know what I find out,” he assured his brother.

      “Be careful,” Antoine advised.

      “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry, you won’t have to rule Barajas alone.”

      A vulgar curse shot out of the speaker.

      Sebastian chuckled at his brother’s name-calling as he slammed the door shut. His brother had a tendency to be overprotective of him but with good reason. They had been all that each other had for a long time now. And they, as well as the other royals, were in mortal danger right now.

      Along with the witness.

      He crossed the porch to the front door, and a curtain twitched at a window. Not wanting to scare her any more, he brushed his knuckles softly against the weathered wood. A shadow moved behind that curtain.

      “It is all right,” he assured her. “I came alone. You are not in any danger.”

      Just to make certain no one had walked up from the road, he glanced around him toward the barns and pastures. While he stared away, the door creaked open behind him; she must have finally decided to trust him.

      He turned back, and this time he had no doubt that he was staring into the barrel of a gun. Actually the double barrel of a shotgun.

      Despite the fear Sebastian had been convinced he’d seen in her eyes, she wasn’t in any danger.

      But he sure as hell was. It appeared as though Sheriff Wolf had been right. With her wide vulnerable eyes and sexy little body, the mysterious red-haired woman had lured him right into her trap.

      Perhaps she’d been telling him the truth, too, when she’d denied seeing anything the night of the explosion. Apparently she wasn’t the witness with a hit out on her. She was a hired assassin about to carry out the hit on him.