“Except for Bryn. You’re convinced she’s an enemy.”
“I try not to be.” Lars softened his stance. “I simply have to watch out for you.”
Sven started to speak, but Lars held up his hand and tapped his ear. Someone was talking through the earpiece.
“Lock down the castle.” Lars’ whole demeanor changed in an instant. “It seems that right now, we have a bigger problem.”
Sven was already alerted at the new tone in Lars’ voice. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ve just received word that Eva was attacked. Her car was run off the road outside the south highway, apparently on her way back from the hotel.”
“Why would anyone do that?” Sven spat out. His blood went cold when the implications hit him. “Is she alive?”
“Barely. She’s en route via ambulance and Martin is waiting, but early word is it doesn’t look good.”
Sven’s hands curled into fists. He felt the walls of his chamber close in, and it scared him. He was normally the picture of calm in a crisis.
But this was different.
“Do we know who?”
Lars shook his head. “Not yet. Until we have a few answers, all we have is an injured girl.”
“The question is, were they after Eva or did they think she was Bryn?” Was Bryn in danger? “Is Bryn being targeted because of me?” He stared Lars. His voice burned with urgency. “Does this quell your suspicion?”
Lars remained silent, but Sven could read the conflict in his features that hadn’t been there before. “Has Bryn left the castle?”
“She has. I watched her leave before I came back here.”
“Find her,” Sven ordered. “Now. I don’t care what it takes to get her back here. She’s to be taken into protective custody before they get to her first.”
Lars nodded once, the hard glint in his eyes matching Sven’s. “Consider it done.” He turned back before he reached the door. “And for what it's worth, I will eat my words against Bryn. I can admit when I was wrong.”
Sven sank into his chair and stared at the empty doorway. The silence pressed in again, but this time it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was suffocating.
Chapter Nine
Bryn
Bryn sat on the edge of the bed. The tears that had threatened to spill the entire ride to the hotel burned her eyes, but now that she was finally ready to let them fall, no teardrops would form.
For not the first time, she wished that she had a normal sisterly relationship with her sister. Someone she could talk to. Randi could listen when she wanted to, but most of the time she was too wrapped up in her own life to really benefit anyone else. Her mother would have been nice, too, but the thought of calling her just made Bryn shake her head. Close friends had never been a thing because she had been too busy raising her sister while most teenagers were creating their own lives.
Nope. She was on her own in every sense of the word.
She stretched and walked to the window. The Silver Snow Mountains rose in the distance, steady and strong, but the turmoil in her heart tarnished their beauty. For the first time, Stagholt didn’t hold that mysterious wonder that she had always associated with it.
Because of him.
“He almost kissed me!” she muttered. “Two more seconds and he would have.”
She could still feel the heat on her lips. “How could I have been so stupid?”
Nothing had worked out the way it was supposed to. For a place that had beckoned to her for so many years, she was ready to tuck her tail between her legs and high tail it right back to Alabama. The problems and issues she had left behind were still there, but at least she was familiar with them.
It’s better to stick with the devil you know than the devil you don’t.
The one saying that her mother had always used on her that actually made sense. Just the fact that she could admit that made her even more depressed.
