Cats In the Cradle

35. Daniel

I told Emma that I'd be home a little earlier than usual today. I didn't even want to go to work at all today, but I hadn't been given the whole day off, so I figured a very short day would suffice. Especially since I wasn't even being paid.

Emma didn't know, but I was only going to work for maybe an hour or two today. There, her brother Lars would be guarding me. He sometimes filled in for Maxwell. After I got a few things finished up, we'd be going to Emma's parents' house to finish up the surprise party plans.

Max was kind of fucked up in the head, being born in a society that praised abuse and misogyny, but he was pretty nice to me now. His wife was 19, and she was pregnant with their "first set" of twins. They had other children, but this pregnancy was rough on her, and he worried about her a lot. She was due to give birth any day now, and he'd asked Lars to come in for him several times now.

Emma always spoke highly of Lars, and at first I didn't understand why. At all. He was very cold towards me, so then I was cold towards him. He watched me too closely at work and scrutinized everything I did. He seemed extremely bothered by the fact that I wouldn't just brand Emma, which was...so fucking weird to me.

I tried a few times to find an excuse to go out to my car that was still parked in the parking lot, but he was constantly hovering nearby. I think he could tell how badly I was itching to just make sure it was still working, though, because he randomly told me one day, "It would be pointless. The gas was siphoned and the wires were cut."

Awesome.

But when I mentioned last week that my one-month anniversary with Emma was coming up, and I wanted to do something nice for her, he softened considerably. I definitely wouldn't say we were friends, but he was helpful with thinking of ideas to surprise her, at least.

I told him that I felt horrible that she was stuck at home all day, and he tensed, like he fully understood why, but he didn't comment.

He did suggest that we have a gathering with all of their family, though. It sounded...horrifying, if I was being honest. Our house was a decent size, but her family was huge. I knew she missed them, though.

I was possibly going a bit overboard with keeping her safe, and she was losing her mind. Her parents and a few of her siblings stopped by some nights after I came home from work, but we'd never hosted a party. I didn't even think I'd met her entire family yet.

So that was the plan. Lars would walk with me to Emma's parents house, some of her sisters would come over to help Kara prepare food, some of her other sisters or sisters-in-law would bring food to our house. And Kara was going to teach me how to bake a hummingbird cake, which was apparently Emma's favorite.

We hadn't had a wedding cake, and I couldn't even remember our wedding, so I thought this would be nice.

I'd been working for maybe 15 minutes when Maxwell suddenly burst into the office, looking terrified.

"Daniel, Orion took Emma! They're heading for his mansion. You need to come now." He panted. He seemed genuinely concerned, which surprised me.

And made me that much more worried for Emma.

Lars immediately jumped up and ran out the door, and I caught up with him quickly. The office was about a mile from the main community, and Orion's mansion was further back than most of the other houses. It would take us at least 15 minutes to get to them, if we sprinted as hard as we could and didn't run into any obstacles.

How the fuck did he see her?? Why would he randomly decide to take her from the house after all this time?

"I—can't—hurt—him." Lars panted as he ran with me.

I rolled my eyes and pushed myself to pick up the pace. I knew what Lars was implying. He was working for Orion as his trusted guard, so he couldn't attack him. He couldn't choose his own fucking sister over that psychopath.

No wonder Emma thought I was so nice.

Clearly nobody else had ever protected her before me.

Maxwell was jogging behind us, probably exhausted from his sprint to get to us. I wanted to ask him for more information, but I didn't want to stop.

But maybe I needed to know what I was walking into. On what grounds had he taken her from our home? Was this legal because she hadn't been tattooed yet?

We were finally nearing the community entrance, and the gates opened for us.

Almost there, Emma. And I'm going to fucking kill him this time.

Maxwell caught up as we waited for the gates to open, so I tried to quickly catch my breath.

"Max—how—did—he—get—her??"

He was panting harder than me and Lars, bent forward and clutching his side.

"At—market," was all he was able to say before the gates opened enough for me to run rough.

At the market.

So she left the house.

Interesting. No really, very interesting choice on her part.

Very interesting that she didn't fucking listen when I told her to stay her dumb ass home and keep the fucking doors locked.

Despite me warning her that I was going to lose my ever-loving fucking mind if she disobeyed me.

Despite me warning her that she truly did not want to witness the temper that I tried so hard to keep under control.

And then Orion took her.

Wonderful.

And so now... I was going to kill him.

And then I was going to kill her.