Chapter 27
Scarlett
Marquardt invaded the room, and I was starting to get scared as the room was invaded all the time.
"She escaped." He said sighing.
"What?" My father asked shouting.
"Bertha escaped…"
A shiver ran down my spine, but it was a good one.
"So the plan worked?" I asked, eyes widening as I turned to Christopher.
"Is the tracker working?" Christopher asked Marquardt. Who nodded before saying.
"Yes, when I left she was moving and everything was working," Marquardt said crossing his arms. "And she didn't even suspect anything. Scarlett was very convenient putting the tracker on."
"Because it was all true, I really wanted to punch her in the face," I said, sighing, but the plan had been mine, even though Christopher freaked out at the idea and took a while to accept it.
We needed more clues, and we knew that Bertha was involved, the idea was for me to try to talk to her and get nervous, which wasn't difficult, and put the tracker on without her noticing, and with so much body contact that I insisted having it, it was easy.
For the guards to participate in the plan and make her escape simpler, it was Marquardt's idea, few people knew but in the end, everything was going well.
"We need to see if she goes to that same place that Ronald found," Christopher added, even though the plan was going as planned, it was still hazardous, we were still walking on eggshells and needed to be as careful as possible.
"The one in charge of her transfer to the Council was Rufus, their deputy head of guard," Marquardt said throwing a report on the table.
"Exactly who Brennon suspected," Christopher said pulling out the paper to check the name. "Now we prepare to follow her. It is today that we put an end to this story." Christopher's last sentence was spot on, it was today, and today we would put an end to this.
I felt it, in my bones.
We went to the guard again to analyze where Bertha was going, but to our surprise, she came back.
Bertha ran away on the road at the end of the border with the South, but she returned, to the beginning, at a point in our Pack where there was logging, but trees were planted again and it would be harvesting wood again within 10 years, it was a bit remote and not much visited.
It seemed like the perfect place, but what no one expected was that it wasn't the place where my father had found the financial diversion that was in Joshua's Pack, it was simply an opposite location and within our Pack.
That made my blood run cold, was it all just a trap? They always gave the impression of being so safe and…
"We're going to send two teams, one to where Ronald found, one to where Bertha is. Ronald and Robert follow team 1, Marquardt and I go with 2." Christopher said ordering and making me frown.
"Don't even say that I'm staying here. I'm going along." I said, getting up from the chair.
"Scarlett, please don't. You know you need to stay here. You two are the most important thing to me, I can't let you go directly into danger." Christopher lowered his voice but his speech was firm as always, I understood it as a plea for all that, but I couldn't, I couldn't stay there, just waiting.
"I can't sit still, Christopher, this is just about me too, and about him." I rubbed my belly, it was also about Anthony, it was about all of us.
"But just because it's about you, you need to stay here, where it's safe," Christopher said holding my chin with his thumb and forefinger. He stared at me deeply for a few seconds, but then he sighed.
"You already know, right?" I asked and he shook his head laughing.
"That you won't stay here, and will follow us if I don't let you tag along?" He asked looking back at me.
"Exactly," I responded by tilting my head.
Christopher turned to my father, who also shook his head.
"Don't look at me, Alpha, she got that stubbornness from her mother." My father responded by sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, and in the end, he laughed.
"Do you know how to use a gun? Or a dagger at least?" Christopher turned to me, running a hand through his hair.
"Seriously, I'm a Byron, and you know my father." At that moment I walked around my father and pulled the gun from the hidden holster he always carried. "We've been going to self-defense classes since we were 6 and shooting since we were 12," I said as I disassembled his gun on Marquardt's desk. "And that included, in addition to shooting, learning to assemble and disassemble." After putting the gun back together I saw Christopher smiling.
"Okay, at least that. Marquardt provides two weapons, a dagger and a holster for Scarlett, and organizes the troops, we leave in 30 minutes. Thomas goes with her." Christopher added orders as always, and he already knew that if I was going to have a guard glued to me, it would at least be my brother-in-law.
We organized ourselves to leave and Christopher would go in the car with me, before we boarded to leave, Marquardt brought the bulletproof vests, and the holster with two guns for me and another holster with a dagger. While everyone was going to the cars, Christopher and I were alone in Marquardt's room. Christopher walked towards me, put the vest on him and then on me, and slowly he knelt in front of me.
The fucking Alpha knelt in front of me.
He wrapped the holster around my waist in complete silence, and I almost stopped breathing, I felt my breath catch in my throat, and as if at any moment I would burst the bubble we were in. But it was he who started talking.
"You know my whole being and every instinct tells me not to let you go." He said, finishing fastening it on my waist, and slowly lifting my leg to place the second holster on my leg with the dagger, his touch gave me chills.
"It's like I feel like I need to go, I can't explain it to you 100%, but I need to come along," I said trying to explain to him what I was feeling, but it was difficult, I didn't even understand it right.
Christopher took a deep breath before standing up and kissing me on the forehead.
"It's okay, I know you have a greater contact with Her." He said pointing up. "Just ask us to be okay, okay?" He told me and placed his hand on my belly. "It's just that you two are the most important people in the world to me, and I… I'm just afraid of losing everything." He swallowed hard, and I knew what it was, he had this fear of losing everything again, of simply having his world collapse in front of him, once again.
I didn't say anything, there was nothing to say, I just stood on my toes and kissed him on the lips.
"I love you," I said confessing while our lips were still pressed against each other.
"I love you." He had time to say before the doors to the room opened.
"We're ready, whenever you want we'll leave," Marquardt said, just showing his head through the half-open door.
"Let's go, sweetheart?" Christopher asked me, extending one of his hands to me.
"Let's go," I responded and took his hand.
Christopher and I went out the door and went to the barracks courtyard, there were two convoys of cars, one with my father and my brother, and the other with me, Christopher, Thomas, and Marquardt, I couldn't count how many cars filled with guards were waiting there, besides of the Council guards who would also meet us in each of the places, firstly because the place my father would go was in Joshua's Pack, and as they were interconnected investigations it was necessary, obviously Marquardt asked for guards who were not linked to Rufus, and our numbers were much higher than they would send, but that added an extra layer of apprehension. We saw my father's train leave first, and I then got out too.
I thought the trip to the Council was apprehensive, but absolutely nothing compared to this, to what I was feeling, at the same time I knew I needed to do it, I felt it wouldn't be easy. Christopher squeezed his hand in mine, and he was rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand the whole way, but when we were almost there Christopher got a call, he pulled out his cell phone and I saw it was my dad's number.
"Alpha, we arrived at the place, it's a huge warehouse, it would be perfect for his plans, but it's empty… There's no sign that anyone has ever been here." I heard my father's voice over the phone, and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "The Council guards have arrived too, but there's simply nothing."
"That's strange, but come to our location then," Christopher ordered and they disconnected the call, but I heard him sigh and say through his teeth. "There's something wrong."