Page 79 of Fiercely Protective

“Mrs. Delaney, I brought your water. Is there anything else you need?”

“No, thanks.” I watched as the waitress smiled flirtatiously at one of my bodyguards then turned back to where the man was still watching me, but it was what he was holding in his hand that caught my attention…a pistol.

I grabbed the arm of the man the waitress was flirting with. “There is a man over by the door. He has been staring at me and I think I saw that he had a pistol in his hand.”

Both guards immediately became alert.

I raised my hand to point toward the man. “He is over by the…door.” But he was no longer there. I scanned the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of him again. “He was just there!”

Something wasn’t right. The air around me seemed to thicken and I felt a powerful urge to run, to hide. What if the man was there to kill Rogue? He needed to be warned. That’s what I had to do. I needed to find Rogue! I was about to stand and tell the men beside me to take me to wherever Rogue was, but I never got the chance before chaos ensued.

Chapter Eighteen

Bri

I frantically scanned the room looking for Rogue, hoping he would materialize at my side. It struck me as funny that the man I had been so afraid of was now the only person in the world that made me feel safe. The club had erupted in chaos. The blaring sound of the fire alarms going off everywhere and flashing lights illuminating the exits had caused the crowd of revelers to get nervous. The sounds of people murmuring buzzed in my ears as I watched some of them slowly move with uncertainty toward the exits. My eyes scanned the room, searching for the man who had been staring at me earlier. A part of me knew he was to blame for the disruption, and he had to be among the crowd somewhere.

“It’s time to go, Mrs. Delaney.”

The hulking bodyguard to my left grabbed my arm and pulled me from the booth. My legs felt weak, and I reached out to take hold of his arm as the crowd bumped into us. When the sprinklers went off overhead, the crowd of people who had been scared but orderly began to panic. We were pushed and shoved. The two men at my side did their best to shield me, but when people began running, I became separated from them and was swallowed up by the flow of the crowd. Fear propelled me forward.

My eyes continued to search the area. I flinched when a hand touched my arm, expecting it to be the menacing man from earlier, but it was a younger girl trying to steady herself as wepushed through the exit door with the others. Once outside, my fear escalated. Fire trucks and ambulances were on the scene; they were directing the crowd to move away from the building. I placed my hands over my ears as the sirens blared. Images, noises, and people all whirled around me. Every face began to look like him. My hysteria began to consume me. I had to get out of there. I had to escape. With every step I took, I could almost feel the monster closing in on me.

When an arm reached out and grabbed me from behind, I screamed only to have a hand close down hard over my mouth.

“Shh, come with me. We need to get out of here.”

Even through my state of shock, I recognized the voice and sank against him in relief. “Father Michael…”

He was barely recognizable, dressed in black and wearing a black jacket with the hood pulled over his head.

“Come on, we can’t talk here.”

He wrapped a hand around my waist as he quickly pushed our way through the crowd. Once we were free of the chaos, his pace slowed.

“Where are we going?”

“There is a safehouse we have used on occasion not far from here. You and I will wait for Rogue there.”

I still didn’t understand what was happening. “Why were you at the club tonight?”

“This morning Rogue shared with me his concern that you needed extra protection. He asked if I would be willing to watch over you. I was coming to the club tonight to let him know Iwould do that. But before I went inside, the alarms went off and people were running around like damn idiots everywhere. When I saw you, I knew something strange had happened and my instincts said that the best thing to do was to get you away from there. I will call Rogue to let him know that you are safe and with me as soon as I am able.”

My hand reached over and grabbed his arm pulling him to a stop. “I saw the man that did this! I don’t know who it was. I didn’t recognize him, but he was staring at me while I was seated at Rogue’s booth. When I tried to tell the bodyguards about him, he was gone, then the alarms went off and everyone began to scramble out of there. I know he had something to do with it. I wanted to find Rogue and warn him. I was afraid that he had been sent there to kill him. But I got separated from the men Rogue had guarding me and I couldn’t find him.”

I looked up to see the intense dark frown on his face.

“I don’t know who is behind it, but I do know that Rogue was right, you do need extra protection.”

“I know Rogue has enemies and things are in motion that I don’t understand, but do you think it could have been Tony, the man who has been trying to find me since I left Colorado? I honestly don’t think he will ever stop until he kills me.”

Father Michael came to an abrupt stop and turned me to face him. “Tony Galante has never come against a force like Rogue before. You have not seen that side of him, but trust me, he will never allow that bastard to get to you, Bri. He will make sure that Galante gets everything he deserves and more. Now, let’s hurry and get off the street and out of sight. I will feel better once Rogue knows where we are and sends reinforcements.”

Rogue

While I didn’t like the idea of leaving Bri behind inside the club while I conducted business, I did not want her to hear any of the information Blaze had discovered. There were things that I was involved in, things that I wanted to shield her from. I wasn’t only protecting her from outside threats, in a way I was protecting her from myself, from the darkness in which I resided.

“Sevan? Did you find him today?”

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