Page 48 of The Hitman's Secret Love Child

Chapter 19

Robyn

“He’s gone! He’s gone, Constantine!” I swear I’d never been as scared as I was right now. My entire world felt like it was crumbling around me and I was finding it difficult to breathe. Austin was all I had; without him life wouldn’t be worth living.

“Just hold on a second. Relax.”

“Relax? He’s gone, Constantine! Gabriel’s taken him!” It was getting harder to breathe, so hard. I began gasping for air, clutching onto Constantine for support.

“Is she okay?” I heard a woman ask, but the voice sounded far away, like I was underwater and attempting to hear someone above the surface.

He replied but his reply was muffled.

My knees were feeling weak and they came away, causing me to fall to the ground. Someone’s hand was on my shoulder, gently nudging it. I looked up, a veil of tears clouding my vision to see Austin standing before me.

“Is Mommy okay?” He was addressing someone else, but his frightened eyes were focused on me.

“Austin?” I was elated as I wrapped my arms around him, showering his face with kisses. “I’m so happy. So happy to see you.”

“What’s wrong, Mommy?”

“Nothing.” I sniffed and swiped at my nose with the back of my hand, not exactly dignified, but I didn’t care. My world had been torn away and given back in the matter of a couple of minutes. “Where were you?”

“I had to pee. That girl took me.” He pointed to the woman who had been flirting with Constantine earlier. I no longer hated the woman.

“Oh.” My face reddened as I began to look around us and discovered that a small crowd had gathered, all looking on. Constantine was reassuring them everything was fine and so the crowd was slowly beginning to dissipate.

Constantine’s hand on my elbow helped me to my feet. “Everything is fine, Robyn. He’s fine.”

I couldn’t believe I’d reacted so badly. I prayed for the crowd to disappear quickly because my embarrassment was intense; I wanted the ground to open up and eat me whole. “I just…” I looked over at the play park and then down at Austin. “I couldn’t see him and I just thought…”

“It’s fine. Everything is going to be okay.” He pulled me against him and I buried my face into his chest, while keeping hold of Austin’s hand. I needed to know he was still okay. While what had just transpired was an overreaction, I knew the scare would stay with me for a very long time.

“This whole thing…”

With an arm draped over my shoulder, he guided me away from the play palace and toward the exit. “This whole thing will be over soon. I promise.”

I knew what he meant by being over. He was going to take Gabriel out and anyone else who stood in his way. You would think that after being with the man for a few years that I’d feel remorse about what was about to happen, but I didn’t. He’d sent a man to kill me. He physically, emotionally and mentally abused me. The man destroyed lives – lives of those close to him and those of strangers. He thought he was untouchable.

But he wasn’t. No one was…

~*~TT~*~

Constantine

“Did you have fun, buddy?” I asked, looking down at Austin as he gobbled down a slice of pizza.

He nodded. Once the slice was chewed and swallowed he replied, “Lots of fun. Can we go again sometime?”

“Of course we can.”

“Thank you. Want to know more about kangaroos?”

I laughed. “Maybe later.”

“Okay.” He smiled and dug into another slice. Boy, could he ever put the food away for a little guy.

I looked across the four-person table to see Robyn staring at me with a peculiar look on her face.

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