Chapter 13 Confused Mother
Elara couldn't breathe, even the room was spinning sideways as she stared at the broken phone on the floor.
Adrian's crying were still echoing in her head even though the line was dead.
"What was that?" Kai asked, his anger replaced by sudden concern.
"My son," Elara whispered and her legs gave out, dropping her to her knees beside the shattered phone. "Someone just... there was a gun—"
She tried calling back but the screen wouldn't turn on, the impact with the floor had killed it completely, and panic clawed up her throat because Adrian was in danger and she was two states away and couldn't do anything.
"Your son?" Kai repeated.
Elara ignored him and grabbed her laptop from under the bed.
With her hands that were sharing so bad, it took her three tries to type in the password and pull up her backup contacts, finding Sarah's number and calling it from the computer.
It rang and rang... rang.. rang... and rang but nobody was answering.
She tried Marcus next and got the same result, just endless ringing that meant either their phones were off or they were....
No, she couldn't think that way, couldn't let herself imagine what that gunshot meant.
"I need to leave," Elara said, standing up fast and grabbing her jacket. "I need to go right now."
"You're not going anywhere until you explain what you were doing in my office," Kai said, blocking the doorway.
"My son is in danger, move," Elara said and her voice came out hard enough that Kai actually stepped back, looking surprised.
She pushed past him into the hallway and ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time while Kai shouted something behind her but she didn't stop, she just kept running until she burst out the mansion's back door.
Her car was parked in the staff lot and she fumbled with her keys, dropping them twice before managing to unlock the door and throw herself into the driver's seat.
The engine started and she was backing out when Kai appeared beside her window, banging on the glass.
"Stop, you can't just leave in the middle of the night," he said.
"Watch me," Elara said and hit the gas, the tires squealing as she pulled out of the lot and onto the main road leading away from the estate.
Her mind was racing through worst case scenarios faster than she could process them—Mandivus had found Adrian, or someone else had, Sarah might be dead and Marcus was already missing and Adrian was alone with dangerous people who would use him to get to her.
The drive to Sarah's place would take six hours if she didn't stop and she wasn't planning to stop.
She just drive straight through and hope she got there in time to—to what? Save Adrian? Find bodies? But she didn't know.
Her hands were shaking on the wheel and tears kept blurring her vision but she forced them back because crying wouldn't help and wouldn't make the car go faster.
She was two hours into the drive when headlights appeared in her rearview mirror, following too close and matching her speed perfectly even when she accelerated.
"No no no," she muttered and pressed the gas harder but the vehicle behind her kept pace, and when it pulled up beside her on the empty highway she saw Kai behind the wheel of his truck looking at her through both windows.
He motioned for her to pull over but she shook her head and focused on the road ahead.
Kai's truck moved in front of her and started slowing down, forcing her to either brake or rear-end him, and Elara slammed her fists against the steering wheel before pulling onto the shoulder.
Kai parked behind her and walked to her window, tapping on the glass until she rolled it down.
"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.
"Making sure you don't get yourself killed driving like a maniac," Kai said. "You ran three red lights back in Crescent Falls and you're going twenty over the speed limit."
"My son—"
"Is wherever he is and you getting arrested for reckless driving or dying in a crash won't help him," Kai interrupted. "Where are you going?"
"None of your business," Elara said.
"You made it my business when you went through my private files," Kai said. "Now tell me what's happening or I'm calling the police and reporting a theft."
Elara wanted to scream at him that he had no right to anything after what he'd done to her, but Sera wouldn't know about any of that and losing her disguise now would ruin everything even though everything was already ruined if Adrian was hurt.
"Someone broke into my friend's house where my son was staying," she said finally. "I heard gunshots over the phone and now nobody's answering and I need to get there."
Something shifted in Kai's expression. "How old is your son?"
"Two," Elara said. "Why does that matter?"
"And you left him with a friend while you work here?"
"Yes, now let me go," Elara said and reached for the gear shift but Kai grabbed her door handle.
"You're in no condition to drive six more hours," he said. "Let me take you."
"What? No—"
"My truck is faster and I'm not emotionally compromised," Kai said. "We'll get there quicker if I drive."
Elara looked at him and saw something in his face that seemed almost genuine, almost like he actually cared about a stranger's missing child, and she hated that her wolf was responding to his offer with hope.
"Fine," she said because arguing was wasting time. "But we leave right now."
She grabbed her bag from the passenger seat and climbed into Kai's truck, and he pulled back onto the highway driving fast but controlled while Elara kept trying to call Sarah's number over and over with no answer.
"Tell me where we're going," Kai said.
Elara gave him the address and watched the GPS calculate four and a half hours with current traffic, and every minute felt like an eternity while scenarios played through her head.
"Your son's father," Kai said after an hour of silence. "Where is he?"
"Dead," Elara lied because explaining the truth was impossible.
"I'm sorry," Kai said and sounded like he meant it.
They drove through the night and Elara dozed off somewhere around hour three from pure exhaustion, waking when the truck stopped and finding them parked outside Sarah's small house with police cars in the driveway and crime scene tape across the front door.