Chapter 17 That was a close call
Elara woke to Adrian's small hand patting her face.
"Mama I'm hungry," Adrian said, his voice sounding weak from crying.
"Okay baby, let's get you some food," Elara said and picked him up, carrying him down to the staff kitchen where Margaret was already preparing breakfast for the household employees.
"Good morning," Margaret said, looking at Adrian with sympathy.
"Alpha said the boy would need meals, so I've got oatmeal and fruit if he'll eat it."
"Thank you," Elara said and sat Adrian at the small staff table, putting a bowl in front of him.
He picked at the food slowly, his eyes still red and swollen, and every few minutes he'd look around like he expected Sarah or Marcus to walk through the door.
"Where's the bad men?" Adrian whispered.
"They are away," Elara lied. "They can't get you here."
"Do you promise?"
"I promise baby," Elara said even though she couldn't guarantee anything.
The other housekeepers filtered in for breakfast and stared at Adrian with curiosity, whispering to each other about why the new girl suddenly had a child living in the staff quarters.
"Is that your son?" one of them asked.
"Yes, his name is Adrian," Elara said.
"He's so cute, how old?"
"Two," Elara said and hoped they wouldn't ask more questions.
Margaret clapped her hands. "Alright everyone, gossip later, work now, we've got the Alpha's father visiting today and everything needs to be perfect."
The staff scattered to their assignments and Elara was left with Adrian and no idea what to do with him while she worked.
"I've arranged for one of the groundskeeper's wives to watch him during your shifts," Margaret said, reading Elara's mind. "Her name's Betty, she's got grandchildren his age and knows how to handle traumatized kids."
"Thank you," Elara said, meaning it.
Betty turned out to be a round woman in her sixties with kind eyes and a gentle voice, and Adrian went to her without too much fussing which Elara took as a good sign.
"You go work honey, he'll be fine with me," Betty said. "We'll play in the garden and maybe bake some cookies if he's up for it."
Elara kissed Adrian's forehead and forced herself to walk away even though every instinct screamed to keep him close.
Her assignment for the day was the second floor guest rooms which needed deep cleaning before Kai's father arrived.
She spent three hours scrubbing bathrooms and changing sheets while her mind spun through everything she needed to do.
She needed to get her phone repaired to recover any evidence from that night.
She needed to figure out how to access Kai's locked safe, she needed to contact Detective Morrison about the investigation, and also find a way to protect Adrian from Mandivus without revealing her real identity.
It was too much and not enough time and she felt like she was drowning.
"Sera?" a voice called and she turned to find Kai standing in the hallway. "My office, now."
Her stomach dropped, but she followed him anyway.
Immediate they go to the office, he closed the door and gestured for her to sit.
"I did some research on Mandivus Swathi," Kai said, pulling up information on his computer.
"He's wanted by three different pack territories for trafficking and illegal fight operations, but nobody can get enough evidence to move against him because anyone who talks ends up dead."
"I know what he is," Elara said.
"Do you know he's been investigating every pack within two hundred miles looking for an omega with a two-year-old son?" Kai continued. "My sources say he's offering fifty thousand dollars for information."
Elara's blood went cold. "Is he that desperate?"
"He's that determined," Kai corrected. "Which means you and Adrian are in more danger than I thought, I'm assigning you personal security."
"I don't need..."
"It wasn't a request," Kai interrupted. "One of my guards will be with you whenever you leave the estate, and Adrian gets his own security detail."
"You can't do that, people will ask questions," Elara said.
"Let them ask," Kai said. "I'm the Alpha heir, I can assign security to whoever I want."
"Why are you doing this?" Elara demanded. "You barely know me."
Kai was quiet for a moment. "Because I've made mistakes in my life that I can't fix, and maybe helping you is a way to balance the scales."
There was something in his voice that made Elara's wolf respond with hope she couldn't afford, and she forced it down.
"Fine," she said. "But I need something from you."
"What?"
"Access to information about borderlands Alphas, specifically any evidence against Mandivus that could be used to neutralize him," Elara said.
Kai studied her. "You're planning to go after him."
"I'm planning to protect my son," Elara murmured. "If that means destroying Mandivus then yes."
"I'll see what I can find," Kai said. "But you need to be careful, men like him don't go down easy."
"Neither do I," Elara said and stood up. "Is that all?"
"One more thing," Kai said and pulled a new phone from his desk drawer. "Your old one was destroyed, this is a replacement, just take it for emergencies."
Elara took it and felt her throat tighten because this small kindness from the man who'd destroyed her life was almost worse than his cruelty.
"Thank you," she managed.
She left his office and went to check on Adrian, finding him in the garden with Betty making mud pies and actually smiling for the first time since the shooting.
"Mama look!" he said, holding up a handful of mud. "I made a castle!"
"That's beautiful baby," Elara said and sat beside him, not caring that mud was getting on her uniform.
Betty excused herself to give them privacy and Elara pulled Adrian into her lap, holding him tight while he chattered about the flowers and how Betty said they could plant vegetables.
Her new phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number: "We know where you are. The boy belongs to Alpha Swathi. Running won't save you this time."
Elara deleted it immediately but her hands were shaking, and when she looked up she saw one of Kai's guards standing at the garden entrance watching them.
And right now she was regretting why she put her old Sim in the new phone.
Security wouldn't be enough if Mandivus decided to move against them directly, she needed leverage and she needed it fast.
That night after Adrian fell asleep, Elara snuck back to Kai's office and tried the door, finding it locked for the first time since she'd started working there.
She pulled out the lock picking tools she'd bought in case of necessity.
The office was dark and she used her phone flashlight to navigate to his desk, looking for anything she could use.
Then she saw files on the second cupboard, it was an evidence of the property fraud against Maya.
She was photographing documents when footsteps sounded in the hallway outside and she barely had time to duck under the desk before the door opened and lights turned on.
Kai walked in talking on his phone. "I don't care what it costs, find everything you can on Mandivus Swathi's operations and send it to me by morning."
He sat at the desk and Elara held her breath, pressing her back against the wood, praying he wouldn't look down.
"Yes I'm serious about the security detail," Kai continued. "The woman and child are under my protection and I want everyone to know it."
A pause while the person on the other end spoke.
"Because it's the right thing to do, and because maybe if I save one innocent person it'll make up for the one I destroyed."
Kai said and ended the call, sitting in silence for a moment before standing and walking to the window.
Elara waited until he left the office before crawling out from under the desk, her whole body shaking, and she made it back to her room without being seen but couldn't sleep for hours afterward, replaying his words over and over.
Maybe if I save one innocent person it'll make up for the one I destroyed.