AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This way.” Turning, he led her from Jonas’s suite as she ignored Isabelle’s whisper of her name.
Once the door closed behind them, he moved up the hall, glancing back only once to see if she followed.
While she was breaking apart inside and didn’t know why.
While her own screams echoed inside her head and she didn’t know where those screams came from, or why.
While she ached for him as she had never ached for anything in her life.
Liza followed.
“Are you returning?”
The harsh tone pierced at Audi Johnson’s heart.
He sat in the back of the SUV as it raced for the airport so torn inside that his soul felt ragged and raw.
He held the phone with one hand, his wife’s hand with the other and stared out the window at the city lights while the driver battled traffic, pedestrians and time.
“I’m heading for the airport now,” he answered.
“Claire is being guarded,” he was told. “Liza is under the protection of the Breeds.”
Audi’s eyes closed briefly before he opened them once again.
“Have the Six come together yet?” he asked.
“Only two have received the vision to return,” he was told. “That time is nearing, but it isn’t here yet.”
He had to fight back his tears and fight back the knowledge that when it happened, he would lose more than he had ever imagined possible.
He had never believed he would be unable to save his child from this. That once again, he would lose her. God knew he had fought, he had manipulated and used every string he could pull to save her from this day, always believing it was possible. Always believing he could keep her from ever hurting again.
Beside him, his wife fought back a sob that escaped despite the battle.
“We’ll be there as soon as possible,” he told the other man.
“We’ll be awaiting you.”
The call disconnected.
The feel of Jane’s shoulders trembling had him releasing her hand to wrap his arms around her, pulling her close to his chest.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered tearfully, her fingers clenching the light jacket he wore as her tears dampened the cloth. “Please, Audi, don’t let me lose her again. Please.”
He had to fight back his own tears, his sense of failure.
“We have no choice.” The sound of his own voice, rough with the tears trapped inside him, scraped against his senses. “We agreed, Jane. For their lives, we agreed. And she’s our daughter. She needs us.”
Ah, God, it hurt.
His guts were shredding, his chest felt as though jagged nails were tearing across it with demonic satisfaction.
“She’s my baby,” Jane sobbed painfully, her pain another jagged tear into her heart. “This wasn’t supposed to happen, Audi. She wasn’t supposed to be taken from us again.”
“No one will take her. I’ll keep her safe,” he swore, yet he knew what he was facing. It was an empty promise at best, and Jane knew it.
“Why do they want her?” Her fists clenched against his chest as she trembled with her anger. “Why, Audi? Why would they come for her? Liza is nothing to them. There’s no way she can be of use to them. There’s no way anyone could know—” The last was barely a breath of sound.
