Cate’s arm was over her, and as the shouts turned to cruel taunts, Elise squeezed her eyes shut. She imagined they were SS officers if they had a dog, and she knew the brutal reputation they had, too.

The same as Wolfgang’s.

“I surrender.” They were two words that Elise had never thought she’d hear from Harry, not in a million years, and she shuddered, thinking of the first time he’d tried to do the same. She braced herself for a shot, or a scream of pain, but there was nothing other than a thud. She imagined he’d been kicked and had fallen heavily to the ground.

“I surrender,” he yelled again, his voice carrying to them through the slightly ajar barn door.

“Are you alone?”

Elise held her breath and Cate stiffened beside her.

“I am alone. I’ve been on the run for weeks, I survived the fight at Le Paradis.”

“You’re sure there’s no one else with you?” The flashlight the officer held passed nearby, covering the grass and moving over the window Elise had been looking out of only moments earlier.

“All my unit was killed, it’s only me. I’m the only one left.”

Perhaps they didn’t believe him, or there was a tell in the way he spoke, because the light cast nearby again. It flashed through the door, passing so close that it made the two horses in the barn restless. She wanted to leap to her feet and run straight out the door to get as far away from the Nazis as she could, and if the soldiers hadn’t had a dog with them, she would have. But the thought of trying to outrun a big German shepherd, or having the beast rip poor little Oscar to shreds if she dropped her bag, kept her flat to the ground.

“It wasn’t your pretty little girlfriend back in Le Paradis, was it? The fancy blonde?”

Elise’s blood ran cold then, and Cate was suddenly half on top of her, her fingers curled across Elise’s mouth, pinning her down and keeping her quiet.

“Shhh,” Cate murmured, barely audible, in her ear.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry said, followed by a loud grunt. She almost felt his pain, knew they’d likely punched or hit him with something in the stomach for simply looking at them.

“Commander Schmidt put a bullet through that pretty little head of hers for betraying him.” Both officers laughed. “Ruined her golden hair, otherwise we might have all had a turn with her.”