Wrinkle In Space: Book 4 in the Shifting Series

Running

Klaudia Armagost was certain she was going to die. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she ran through the darkness, the echoing footsteps behind her promising that her killer was not far behind. The men that had been assigned to protect her was dead. She would have also been dead had she not woken suddenly and heard the scuffle in the adjoining room. She had only slowed to grab a pair of shoes, her phone, and fanny pack before throwing her window open and climbing down the fire escape.

They had fired at her but since she was not stationary and it was dark, they had missed. She only had a few minutes ahead of them... or so she had thought until a car had come screeching around the corner and she had been forced into the alley she was now weaving through. It had, thankfully, got small enough that they had to abandon the vehicle to chase her on foot. Yet they were gaining.

She was definitely not appropriate in her skin tight tank top and silk sleep shorts. She was clutching her phone in hand as she weaved through the narrow alleys, trying to get to a more populated area. The streets were almost empty in the middle of the night. She dodged right and gasped as she heard a bullet ricochet off the brick. In her mind she was screaming but she did not dare utter a word as she tried to lose the men in pursuit.

How did she get here?

Klaudia had gone on vacation in Greece. The crystal clear blue water and the architecture had beckoned her. It had taken almost two years to save up enough money to make the trip as she had wanted to but she had done it. She had not liked that she had to take the trip alone but she was not going to wait the entirety of her life to do the things she wanted to do. She was not sure she would ever fall in love. She was too much of a nerd. Too much of a weeb. She was also convinced that she was so unremarkable physically that she just blended in with everyone and was never noticed. She wasn't ugly. She wasn't pretty. She was average. Which meant she was unnoticed and would probably always be unnoticed. So she decided she would live her life as she wanted to live it.

Her trip to Greece had been amazing. She had loved swimming in those crystal clear waters, had visited multiple historical sites, and had seen Greece in style. Everything had been perfect... at least until she accidentally witnessed a Mob hit. She had gotten separated from her tour group at one of the locations and had inadvertently turned a corner just as two men were being executed. They had not noticed her and she had run, all the way back the way she had come and called the police.

They in turn detained her from returning home when she had planned. Apparently, one of the big guys in the Mob had been one of the men she had seen at the execution. He had apparently had a personal grudge against one of the two men so had made a special appearance. As such, they were not about to have her go back to Austria until after she had made her court appearance. They had put her in protective custody for the two months leading up to the trial.

So much for police protective custody.... she thought angrily to herself. She should have just kept her mouth shut and gone home. However, she had felt it was her obligation to the people that had been executed. Now here she was, dodging bullets and about to become a statistic herself. She was not ready to die. There was so many things she had wanted to still do in her life.

She turned a corner and she almost sobbed as she saw a busy street come into view. "Someone help me!" she screamed just before the ground beneath her feet disappeared and she felt herself falling through the air.

Yamato a.k.a. Tenzo stood on a ledge overlooking the heads of the Hokage. He was laughing hard as he watched the women racing up the side of the mountain. He had just returned from mission and had gotten wind that Kakashi, Might Guy, and Iruka's wives were in competition with one another like Kakashi and Might Guy always had been. He could not resist coming to watch that. He still felt as if he had gotten the raw end of the stick when it came to Iruka and Melissa. He had planned on taking Melissa out but by the time he got back from mission, the two of them were already married. Iruka had wasted no time in securing her before he got back.