Christin was alone now. She walked to Broch’s room and pushed it open after a few moments were gathered to get her courage where it needed to be. Christin was nervous, but she had no reason to be. Broch was nowhere to be found.
She went downstairs and looked around the large house, but then Christin saw that Ernest and the town car weren’t gone. That was what Broch took to work. If it was still there, then where was Broch? She went outside to talk to Ernest and see what was going on. Ernest was still waiting for him.
“What’s up, Ernest? Are you waiting for Broch?”
He agreed and there was desire in his eyes almost at once. She’d seen it before and ignored it just the same. It seemed like the best thing to do.
“Yeah, have you seen him?”
Christin told him that she hadn’t, and that he wasn’t in the house.
“Maybe you should give him a call?”
He said that he would, and Christin got the feeling that she wasn’t to be present for the conversation. It was just as well. Christin had her own agenda. She was going to try and get her son back today. They had recess at the school after lunch and it looked like William’s bodyguard used that time to have his own lunch. He would still be close, but his attention was on whatever brown bag special he brought with him. There was no other time that William was alone and even a little vulnerable. It wasn’t ideal, none of it was, but Christin knew that it was the only way that she was going to get her son back. She hoped that he would forgive her eventually for what she had to do. That’s what it was too, something she had to do.
***
Christin was full of anxiety as she waited outside of William’s school. She was late to see him arrive, so she wasn’t really sure if he was there today. Christin didn’t see him or the car that the bodyguard usually drove in. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, but it didn’t feel William close by. Usually, when she was close to him, she could feel it. She’d felt it every day that he had been there, and she’d seen him. It wasn’t going well that time and there was no feeling of him being close.
She started to get the funny feeling that Phillip knew about her drive-bys. She had tried to be careful, but maybe she had used the car too much. She should have done things differently, but Christin had wanted to see her son so badly. She hadn’t cared what happened to get there.
Now, she cared. She passed by the school, searching the parking lot for the bodyguard’s car but not seeing it anywhere. If he didn’t go to school, naturally she wanted to know why, as well as where William was. Had Phillip put him in hiding because he knew that she was free and was going to get their son back? Or was William just sniffling and been kept home from school because he was sick?
Christin wasn’t sure which way it was going to go. She wanted to believe that it was just a coincidence, but things didn’t usually turn out that way. Someone was following her when she started to take notice. Christin cursed under her breath. Why was it never a coincidence?
She drove faster, but the guy in the black SUV behind her was catching up quick. Christin knew that whoever it was, likely worked with Phillip and there was nothing that she could do. She couldn’t bring them back to where she was staying, so she got on the interstate and hoped that the souped-up car she was driving would lose him by sheer speed when they were able to open up.
Coincidence or bad luck, the highway was gridlocked and there was nothing that she could do, nowhere to go. She tried to get around the several cars that were in front of her, but it didn’t do her any good. Christin was left where she was, locked in her car, as guys with guns started to come toward her. Christin was sure that it was going to be the last thing she saw.
She heard gunfire and knew that it was a bullet that was coming for her. There was no other way that the scenario was going to end, not how she saw it anyway. Christin wanted to believe that it would work out. She hadn’t been hit just yet, but there was a stream of gunfire, and it didn’t sound like it was all aimed toward her. It sounded like there was return fire from the guys in the SUV. Christin didn’t know what was going on, but suddenly her door was opened, and she was pulled out of the car. It was riddled with bullets, and she was shaking like a leaf.
“Please, let me go.”
Christin realized that it was Ernest and she started to soften up. Maybe it was going to be okay.
“What are you doing here, Ernest?”
“I’m keeping an eye on you.”
She thanked him for that, even though Christin wasn’t sure that she wanted his help. Had Broch been having her followed?
Chapter 17
Broch
In the midst of everything that was going on, Broch had told Ernest earlier when he called that he needed to keep an eye on Christin. Broch didn’t think it would be necessary, but he wanted to know that she was okay. He needed her in a way that he had never felt before and that same feeling made him believe that it was his job to protect her. The need was startling, and it didn’t seem to be something that he could do much about.
He got a call from Ernest an hour or two later, and it was to let him know that someone had made a pass on Christin’s life. She was shot at several times. She was by the same school that she had been seen at several times. Broch knew that her son must go there and from how she described her husband, it could be that Phillip was making her disappear. He had apparently already done it, and then got her thrown in jail for it. That sort of character in a person made him think that he would have no problem doing the same thing to Christin.
The problem was that he was in the middle of an interrogation for one of the men caught at the scene of a fire that was unleashed earlier in the day. It was their best chance at finding out who was doing this to him and his people. As hard as it was for Broch to imagine, he was torn by where he wanted to go. He wanted to be with Christin, make sure she was okay, but he also needed to take care of his people. There was no way that Christin was going to understand if he was gone too long. There was so much that she didn’t know about him, even more that he would never be able to tell her, so she would never understand.
He let Ernest know that he would be back too, and he started to rush with the caught man. The guy wasn’t human, they found that out moments later. Broch wasn’t fighting a faction of humans. He’d thought that maybe it would be another wolf clan, but the man started to turn, and scales covered his skin, not thick fur.
The guy they got was different than what he had expected. He was going to turn into a dragon, but Broch knocked him out before that could happen. Broch wasn’t sure what to think. Dragons? Why the hell were dragons messing with them? His clan had never dealt with dragons before, and Broch was trying his best to focus. It didn’t make any sense, but at the moment, he was far more worried about Christin. He could worry about dragons later.
***
“What happened? Are you okay?”
