Command My Heart ~ Book 2 - The Royal Blood Collection

Chapter 17

As I predicted, the place was surrounded at the fall of the sun. So far, nothing has happened. Just Ceroni and his men standing at the front fence line.

Inside the house, it was chaos. Alaric wanted Emmeline to take the children to the panic room in the basement; she flat out refused because it would upset the children. Until it was necessary, life would remain normal.

Except that nothing in this place was normal. I've only been here for a few hours, and I can see that already. Emmeline was fiery, a stubborn creature that refused to back down. Alaric wasn't much better and having seen Nisha's stubbornness; I'd say that it was a solid family trait.

I was standing at the window in Otanawa's room. She was asleep in her crib, still too cute for this man. She was not my child, but it felt like she was. I wanted to be there for her; I wanted to raise her as my own. If I had my way, it would be with Nisha, but I doubt that would happen. I also doubted that I'd be allowed to raise Otanawa which was a crushing thought. At the very least, I hoped that they'd let me see her if I wasn't with Nisha.

For now, I would protect her with everything that I had. With every breath I took, it would be done to ensure that I was here to keep her safe. For me, it was peace of mind that I'd be here to protect her if something happened. I'm sure it was pointless because once Ceroni's men broke through the fence line, we'd all be dead.

Something darted across the grass from the house, running to the forest that bordered the rear and one side of the property. Squinting, I opened the window.

"Violet?" I yelled out.

For a moment, she looked at me but quickly turned back. Rushing out of the room, I found Nisha walking up the stairs.

"Violet's running for the forest."

"Damn it." She hissed. "Every damned night she does this."

Street rat. Run to the shadows and hide.

"I know how to,"

"You can't, that alarm will go off."

"Ceroni's men are out there. You can't divert the guards to search. It's fine; I'll go and get her."

Nisha smugly smiled as she crossed her arms over her body.

"Enjoy the pain."

"At least I'm doing something."

Finding my way to the rear door, I crossed the grass while searching the side fence lines for Ceroni's men. I couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean they wouldn't hide and wait for an unsuspecting fool to step out of the safety of the house.

"Violet?" I called out softly.

"Go away."

Her tone was morose, I searched through the darkened vegetation and saw her sitting among the leaves with her arms wrapped around her legs.

"Now is not a good time to be out here, can you come back to the house?"

She shook her head.

"What's wrong?"

"They're fighting again."

"Well, it's normal for people to fight."

"They do it all the time."

"Okay," I sighed. "Can you come back to the house, please? We can deal with this better if they understand why you're upset."

Hearing the clang of metal, I jumped and turned to the house. I couldn't see all of the fence, but I could see a portion of it and yes, I could see Ceroni's men. That meant that they could see me too.