Chapter 238: What Draws Her Attention?

Chapter 238: What Draws Her Attention?
Jasper's POV:

As far as I knew, both those things could be in play here, by either taking her or trying to have me removed from power. Either which, they were going to have an unending battle on their hands. I knew for certain that my aunt, even though she was considered the Angel of this fair city after the reign of my father, who went by the Phantom. However, it made me wonder who was in charge of the events we were currently wrapped up in. Knowing all of that, there's one thing I couldn't understand. What did she have to do with all of this? Why her?!

I understood the other bosses wanted to cause trouble in their parts of the city by raising taxes and strong-arming local businesses and such, but seriously. Were they trying to stage a possible power change and take over everything for themselves? As much as I could contemplate that, I wanted to know why. Why was she involved here, or at all for that matter? Each time we went out, something happened. What was it that she knew that made her the key to all of this, if that were even the case?

Suddenly, Stefan set the long case down beside him as he helped to rest Miles there in front of me, who was now crouching on his knees. Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Only then did I hear it buzzing, indicating that either a call or a message had just been received. He looked at his phone when he looked up at me before he spoke in a low but serious tone.

"Boss, wir fahren los, sobald unser Ersatzfahrzeug eintrifft," (We are leaving as soon as our backup vehicle arrives), Stefan says as he moves a bit closer to me so he can keep a better eye on things when he puts his phone back in his pocket and picks up his case. I knew he wanted to pull out his specialty weapon, but would use his sidearm first, as it wasn't just me in that spot. There was Kelly Anne, too, and I knew he would do anything to protect her at all costs.

Occasionally, you could still hear bullets ricocheting off the metal of the cars in the area. This time, when I looked at her again, I noticed something was a bit different. Previously, she was looking at her reaction, trying to maintain her sense of control in the reflection of the car she had been leaning on. With my hands now placed there on the sides of her arms, I wanted her to know that I wasn't going to leave her. I lightly shook her arms so I could get her to look at me. She seemed like she was in a bit of a daze, and I couldn't blame her.

I used that opportunity to get a better view of which direction the enemy was approaching from, if they thought now was the time to do so, as we still had yet to move. The last thing I wanted was for her to witness one of my men taking out anyone else who thought to get too close. With Miles supporting himself, Stefan had already removed his sidearm and had his gun in hand and was waiting for our escape to arrive. I knew she had enough to be concerned about and didn't need to see one of my men take out another one of them. She would not get hurt, I would see to that.

Right then, I had so much running through my mind. However, this was not the first time I was under gunfire, and I knew how to handle it. No matter what happens at the end of the day, I needed to make sure that she was kept safe on all accounts. I didn't know exactly who was putting up such a fight, or so it seemed, in order to end her life, but I was damn determined to put a stop to it.

I turned around to look at Stefan when I asked, "Haben Sie eine ungefähre Ankunftszeit? (Do you have an estimated time of arrival for them?)

"Innerhalb weniger Minuten," (Within minutes), Stefan responded that time.

I knew this was a lot for her to tolerate. However, I didn't anticipate what she did next. Despite the fact that you could still hear gunfire being scattered across the intersection, she did something I didn't expect. You could still hear men shouting, as I knew they were trying to get closer to us, but for some reason, she didn't seem to pay any attention to any of that going on. It was then that I noticed something else entirely had caught her attention. Something that didn't seem to easily sway her from anything else, even with the sound of gunfire in our direction.

As the voices grew closer, I noticed they weren't exactly speaking German, so I couldn't understand them. My men, on the other hand, could understand a variety of other languages, which was helpful, but now was not the time for a translation, as I only spoke German and English. My main focus was on Kelly Anne and why she was no longer looking directly at me. The only thing going for us right now was that Oliver, Dimitri, and Devon had managed to clear the intersection before they came to an abrupt stop.

We had trained over the years to be able to encounter a variety of threats. However, today, they didn't hesitate, immediately getting out of their vehicle and returning fire so we could get out and into a better position rather than sitting there in my crippled SUV. From the moment we were hit to now, it's been about 5 minutes or so, it seemed. Everything seemed to happen rather quickly. Now, all we had to do was wait for my other men to get here, as I had several safe havens where I stored other vehicles around the city.

Those locations were kept off-grid for such an occasion as this. There was no doubt in the back of my mind that as soon as our vehicle was struck, it sent a notice to my men. I knew that no matter what, she would be tracked as she had the small tracker fab in her pocket as well. All I could think about was knowing how much longer it would be before another one of my vehicles would get here, and how soon that would be. Whichever location was closest would be the first to arrive at our location.

Suddenly, without any warning, Kelly Anne pulled out of my grasp as she stood to her feet. Did she not hear the gunshots ringing out? "Was macht sie?" Stefan called out as he stood up right along with me, as he placed his shoulder in the center of my back. Then she spoke. However, I wasn't expecting her to say what she did say.

"Oh my God!" I heard her say under her breath. I wasn't sure what she meant, but she was looking over my shoulder, directly behind me.