Page 49 of Forbidden Noble
Someone knocked as Olivia opened the door. She jumped, startled, but widened it to reveal a guard. The guard then bowed and showed them a tracker in his hand. “My lord.”
The tracker beeped with a blue dot on the screen. Olivia stood next to him and asked, “Astorre, what’s going on?”
The guard explained, “We put a tracker on Max Fionella.”
Astorre studied the map with a sick feeling. If the dot was Max, where was he going? “Yes?”
The guard pulled up the latitude and longitude screen as he asked, “Did your lady go to her parents’ estate?”
The coordinates matched her address as he asked the obvious, “Is that his dot near her home?”
“Yes,” the guard replied.
Olivia said, “I was just there. She was with her friend, Lady Normanni.”
“Olivia, call her husband then and inform Stephano what’s happening.” Astorre took the tracker from the guard. “I’ll need my truck.”
Montelino Bay was always prepared for war, and the trucks in the castle were actually more like war vehicles. The guard calmly, assuredly, said, “It’s pulled in front and we are mobilized to join you.”
“Thanks.” He motioned for the guard to come with him. “Keep it small. Four warriors to extract the women will be all we need.”
Warriors trained here were like US Navy seals. They were the best of the best. His sister patted his arm as he passed her.
His armored SUV with guns mounted was parked in the front with the lights on.
Two other SUVs with soldiers inside flanked the empty one and he ignored the rain as the blood of his ancestors took over his thinking.
No one was going near Clara. He wouldn't let anything happen to her.
If Max did anything before he arrived, he’d not live another second once Astorre found him.
The SUV all-purpose armored car meant the rain wasn't a hindrance. His beams were lighthouse strength in density--within fifteen minutes he and his team were parked in front of her house.
Rain pelleted against his skin as his heavily armored men flanked him as he headed to the door.
He hadn’t suited up in the car because he didn't want to scare Clara. Astorre sent his team to surround the building, two with him, and two to go behind the house and enter through the rear door.
The second-in-command’s nametag read Primal, clearly his moniker, and easy for Astorre to remember. Primal stayed beside him.
The outdoor lights were on and he pounded on the door. “Clara, open up.”
The interior lights turned on from the side to the front. They waited for Clara to open the door to not scare her as more rain and fog surrounded the area.
The doors unlocked and Clara took one look at him, Primal, and the other soldier and waved them inside. “Astorre, you’re here. The weather is terrible. Get in.”
The tracker beeped the house coordinates.
Primal, his commander, directed the plan to secure the area fast. Primal and another man came behind him, into the foyer, while the other two soldiers trekked the perimeter.
Outside might be pleasant compared to what could happen in here. His muscles were tight as Rossie Durmond, his friend Stephano’s bride, came toward them and said, “Good, now you get your happily-ever-after just like I said, Clara.”
Love was not why he was here.
Clara locked arms with her best friend. “Rossie’s visiting with me.”
He nodded at Primal and said, “Get them both out to the SUV. Clara, where’s Max?”
Clara let her friend go but put her hand on her hip and refused to leave with Primal. “Max? I have no idea.”
