Chapter 258


    Chapter 0258


    Nichs walked into the room behind me. “Mark? What the hell?”


    “Protocol, Sir.” Mark did not lower the gun away from me. “The answer, Piper. Please.”


    “Morning glory.” I said.


    Instantly, Mark lowered the gun. “I’m sorry.”


    I shook my head. “Whatever it takes to keep Elva safe. Where is she?”


    Mark motioned toward the closet. I rushed over and opened the door.


    Elva, the Nanny, and Charlotte were ying dress up.


    Elvaughed when she saw me. “Mommy!”


    I rushed forward and pulled her into a tight hug. She was wearing a pair of my high heels. Her foot


    slipped right out of the shoe when I lifted her.


    “y with us, Mommy!”


    “1 will. Just give me a moment, okay?” I lowered Elva back to the ground, and she returned to the Nanny


    to y.


    Charlotte met my eye across the closet. She gave me a nod. I understood: Elva was okay. They were


    able to keep her in the dark about what happened.


    But what exactly had happened?


    I excused myself from the closet and came to stand beside Nichs and Mark.


    I’m sorry. Sir. I don’t want to threaten Piper but the circumstances required it.”


    “I was standing right behind her, Mark.”


    You could have been fooled. You assigned me the task yourself. Protecting Elva is my first priority


    above anything else. Even Piper’s safety. Even your own, Sir.”


    Nichs rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I’m not angry, Mark. I know your orders, and I’m


    d you camed them out. But my wolf. Seeing Piper in danger like that nearly made me shift.


    My apologies, Sir.”


    Don’t apologize.” I said I would face ten thousand gun barrels if they were meant to keep Elva safe


    +15 BONUS


    Nichs startled like he hadn’t noticed me approach. He recovered quickly enough though.


    “How’s Elva?” he asked.


    “She’s okay. From what I can tell, she has no idea anything bad happened.”


    “At the first sound of a struggle, the Nanny and Charlotte relocated Elva into the closet,” Mark said.


    We’d decided on that n of action from the start. I’d hoped that we wouldn’t have to put it into practice.”


    “What exactly happened here, Mark?” I asked.


    “It’s my understanding from what I’ve been able to gather, that Jane came to the room,” Mark said. “The


    guards, as per protocol, asked her the identifying question. She didn’t know it. We heard yelling from


    inside. She was demanding to see Elva.”


    Suddenly chilled, I wrapped my arms around myself.


    “Then she had a knife. She stabbed one guard, went for the other. After securing Elva, I stepped into the


    hallway. Our numbers scared her off. We alerted the paramedics, then I came inside to secure from


    within.”


    Jane had been here. She’d been so close. She’d tried to see Elva.


    “Why would she want to see Elva? What could she have hoped to gain from such a thing?” I asked.


    “My assumption, Miss Piper,” Mark said, “is that she intended to kidnap her.”


    “Oh my Go d.” I was going to be sick.


    Nichs immediately came to my side. He wrapped his arms around me.


    “Nichs…”


    “Shhh.” He held me tightly.


    I buried my face into the crux of his neck and shoulder, and felt my body shake apart. I was going into


    shock, from seeing the knife wound, from nearly being stabbed, and then nearly shot, to know hearing


    that


    Jane had been so close to stealing away my daughter.


    My body couldn’t handle the stress. It was too much. It was all too much.


    I couldn’t let Elva see me like this. I had to get it out of my system.


    to fall apart.


    piece me back together was chs,


    +15 BONUS


    “Give us a moment, Mark,” Nichs said.


    Mark nodded, and went into the closet. His gun was holstered now, like he had never held it all. I wished


    he hadn’t of needed to hold it.


    “Jane will be back. She’ll just keeping. She won’t stop until she has what she wants.”


    “We’ll stop her.”


    I shook my head. “I know you and Julian stayed up all night, trying to think of a n. I know you couldn’t


    decide anything.”


    “Give us time,” Nichs said. “So we didn’t plot anythingst night. That doesn’t mean we’ll never have


    any ideas. I will find her and I will stop her, Piper. If I have to tear this entire pce apart, brick by brick.”


    It was then that I noticed I wasn’t the only one shaking.


    “Shees into my home and threatens the people I care about the most.” A growl lined beneath his


    words, deepening his voice, low and dangerous.


    I looked up at him. His eyes were shing, more green now than gold. Nich s’s wolf was struggling,


    wing its way to the surface.


    I ced my hand t against his face, hoping to soothe him. He leaned into my palm.


    “I can’t let her take you and Elva,” Nichs said. Or maybe it was his wolf talking now. I couldn’t be


    sure. “You are my family.”


    The wolf, then. Nichs would never call Elva and I that. With wolves, even friends were considered


    family. Pack. Of course, it would see Elva and me as part of that.


    1 shushed him gently. “We are both still here. No one has taken us.”


    He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the gold had taken over once more and Nichs had


    returned to himself.


    He inhaled a shaky breath. “I keep losing myself.”


    I start to lower my hand, but he grabs it and ces it right back where it was, on his cheek. N?velDrama.Org ? 2024.


    “I’m usually much more in control of my wolf,” he said,


    There likely hasn’t been danger like this before


    tre how many people threaten me,” Nichs said. “But when theye for you, or for Env


    goes out the window. I only know I have to protect you


    +15 BONUS


    You do protect us.”


    “Not well enough.”.


    “Nichs. It’s only because of you and those you’ve selected to surround us that we remain safe. If I


    was on my own, I…”


    I didn’t want to give voice to those thoughts. I well and truly knew the answer, however.


    If I had been on my own with Elva, and Terry and Jane had found us. We’d either be dead, or already


    part of their grand design.


    Regardless of whatever happened next, we’d only made it this far safely because of Nichs.


    “I need to see Elva,” Nichs said. “I need to make sure she’s safe.”


    I understood that sentiment. I wanted to see her too.


    Together, we walked to the closet and opened the door.


    “Nickss!” Elva cried and rushed toward us.


    Nichs scooped her up into his arms. “There’s my princess,” he said. He held her in a tight embrace for


    a moment, before opening up one arm to invite me.


    I moved closer. I draped one arm around Elva’s waist and the other, I wrapped around Nichs.


    For several long minutes, Nichs, Elva, and I held each other.


    Elva giggled after a while, not understanding the purpose of the hug. She didn’t know the danger she


    faced. She didn’t need the affirmation that each of us three were alive and present.


    But I understood. And Nichs did too.


    So we kept holding on.