Little Queen

13

Draven's POV
~~~

I want to warn her, give her some idea of what was about to happen but it seems the closer she gets to Gunner the less willing I am to speak up.

I can tell she knows something's wrong, hell you'd have to be blind to not be able to tell her guard is acting unusual.

Alessandro and I had  agreed that I wouldn't say anything about her impending move and that I wouldn't be in the room while she was told- Alessandro's only demands other than that I keep his daughter safe.

I want to be in the room right now, to help keep her calm, to try and explain my part.

I pace up and down the hall outside her bedroom waiting for her to come back. Time isn't passing fast enough and I can't stop myself from heading for Alessandro's office. When I finally get there I can only hear two voices and neither are my beautiful girl's.

"Don we can't just leave her here, not without at least one of us!"

"Watch your tone," Alessandro growls, "I understand your concern, I watched her go through the same thing you just did. But for this plan to work we need to convince Coonan that someone else already got to her and that's why we're leaving. If he thinks for even a second that she's alive all of this will have been for nothing, and that means that every. Single. Family member leaves. Including you, do you hear me?"

"With all due respect sir, you haven't seen her go through the same things we have. Maybe just now, but these past ten years? You're a good father to her but a busy man. Her attacks are happening more often and when she gets like this only Maxen and I are able to get her out of it, maybe Ranger. Her worst fear is being left and that is exactly what we're all doing!"

"What do you mean that is her worst fear?" Alessandro demands.

"Don she's not afraid of being hurt the only thing she wants is to be good enough for us to stay, whatever that means to her. When she gets it in her head that someone is mad at her she thinks it's because she's not good enough and panics. Whatever they did to her, it wasn't just physical and she's still not recovered."

I slam the door open unable to listen any longer, "what they hell do you mean what they did to her? Who is they?!"

Gunner and Alessandro both have a gun pointed at me but quickly lower their aim when they realize who it is.

"Speak!" I snarl.

Alessandro remains quiet though I don't think he would have many answers about his daughter's current well-being, no that is a question for her guard.

"You have three seconds to tell me before I start cutting extremities off."

Gunners face stays flat, "and I've told you before, threaten me all you want, hell shoot me, I won't betray Idalia by telling you her story. She doesn't want it spoken of and until she decides your worthy of knowing, it remains a secret."

As much as I hated this kid I had to admit even I was impressed by his dedication to Idalia.

"Your daughter is coming to live with me all because YOU couldn't protect her, so when I say I want answers, give me the fucking answers," I demand slamming my hand down on his desk.

Alessandro stares at me, eyes flickering over to Gunner.

"What she has gone through has nothing to do with Coonan, Gunner is right she doesn't want it brought up so we won't bring it up."

I shove away from the large desk and    storm out of the room determined to find Idalia and make sure she's okay.

I head back to her room nearly running to get there. When I shove her doors open though she's not inside. I check her piano room and both gardens next but she's not in any of the places I thought she might be. I finally wander into the kitchen, stopping short when I see her sitting on Rangers lap with her legs wrapped around his waist.

She clings to him like he's a teddy bear and has tears trickling down her face. When her eyes meet mine she swipes a hand over each eye, sniffling. Her face is red and her thick lashes are stuck together in wet spikes.

"You knew?" She whimpers.

I suck in a deep breath, "I knew little one."

I want to tell her that her father demanded I not say anything to her. I want to tell her that I was going to tell her before she was pulled away. It doesn't matter though because I knew that this would crush her and I still didn't tell her.

She sniffled deeply, rubbing her hand under her nose and tucking her face into Rangers neck.

I take a step foreword and my mouth opens but for the first time in all my life I don't know what I want to say.

"Little one I didn't want to hurt you," I say trying to make it better.

Before I can continue I hear mumbles coming from her. I get closer trying to hear what she's saying but it's too muffled by Ranger.

"Good Idalia, good job," he utters petting his hand over her hair.

Ranger stares at me over her shoulder but doesn't stop soothing her. I begin to say her name again but he's shaking his head at me warning me off.

I let my eyes linger on my beautiful crying girl for another minute before retreating. As much as I hated it I'm not someone she needs to be around right now.

And I really hated it.

~~~