Expensive - Amy Bellows Page 0,44
my days with a child in my arms and Andrew by my side. Maybe that’s its own ambition, given our circumstances, but it certainly sounds tranquil.
Just as I close my eyes, my phone rings. Earlier today, I set it to silent with the exception of one number: Manny.
I sit up and grab for it. “Hello?”
“They found me.”
“What? Who found you?”
“The ice dragons. I just got back home, and my front door is frozen shut.” In the background I hear the rev of an engine. That’s a good sign, isn’t it? If Manny’s driving, he must have gotten away.
Andrew stirs next to me, his eyes fluttering open.
“I’ve been so careful to reroute all my communications, Timber. They had no idea where I lived before. Ten years of staying under the radar, and now this. They must have followed you to my house, which means you’ve been followed this entire time.”
“I don’t understand. What would Andrew’s father or the Monroes want with you?”
Andrew’s wide awake now. He sits up and places his hand on my knee.
Manny laughs bitterly. “Where do you think they get all that money from, Timber? Look, I can’t tell you everything, or you’ll be in just as much danger as I am, but the money from the pits and the human trafficking rings always leads back to the Blue Bloods. Always.”
“But… an ice dragon saved us.”
I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life—the way she froze the guards, the staircase of ice she built step by step with her own breath, the vigilantes who threw blankets around us and guided us to the huge trucks that took us back to the city where the cops, who were too corrupt to find us on their own, had to deal with us.
“Yes, an ice dragon saved us. Not all of them are the same. But trust me, Timber. The Monroe fortune that your omega is trying to flee from? That’s blood money. You need to be careful. Don’t visit Andrew again until you figure out who’s tailing you.”
“But I’m with Andrew right now. We’ve been together for hours.”
Manny’s breath shakes as he exhales. “It’s s-s-suddenly so c-c-cold.” I hear a loud thunk, then silence. I hold my phone out in front of me. The call ended. I try to ring Manny again, but it goes straight to voicemail.
“Manny!” I hit the call button again and again and again, but it keeps going to voicemail.
I turn the flashlight back on and wade through all the pillows to the edge of the bed. “Manny’s in trouble. I have to go save him.” I run to the door, trying to find my shoes.
But a part of me knows I’m too late. Manny’s house is hours away. I’ll never get there in time. I don’t even know what direction he was driving.
What will they do to him? He’d saved hundreds of red wolf shifters over the last decade, and the people who had captured us before didn’t show us any mercy. Would they send him back to the pits? He’s already muzzled, and they know he’d survive.
The idea of going back there is more than I can bear. I’d rather die. There has to be something I can do to save him.
“I was followed,” I tell Andrew. “They know about us.”
What I don’t understand is why they haven’t done anything to me yet. They could have taken me out before I even got here.
Unless it wasn’t Andrew’s father who had me followed. If it was the Monroes, they wouldn’t need to kill me to get what they want. They’d just need to prove Andrew’s father is a bad guardian in order to get control over their blood money again.
With growing horror, I realize that they can never find out Andrew is pregnant. We’ve only been together for a few days. Even to me, carrying the child of an alpha after only knowing him for a weekend sounds pretty crazy.
“Who knows you’re pregnant, Andrew?” I ask.
“Um, no one except you. And a warlock.”
“A warlock?” When did he have time to tell a warlock?
Andrew nods. “I was calling him about… a different thing, and it was an accident. I swear. I didn’t mean for him to find out.”
“Is this a dragon shifter warlock?”
“Technically, yes. But I don’t think he’d betray me.”
Regardless of whether the warlock keeps Andrew’s secret, the Monroes are bound to find out about the pregnancy eventually. Once they find out, they can make a case for a change of guardianship.
Manny was