Page 18 of Dragon Stepbrother's Secret Baby

Riley gulped and Connor’s eyes bugged out of their sockets when a heavy steel door slammed behind us. It cut off all daylight and flashing red warning lights started rotating all around us.

Riley and Connor turned in all directions trying to see what was going on. “We’re locked in!” Connor yelled. “We’re trapped!”

“That door has fake rock attached to the outside. It conceals this elevator so no one knows it’s here.”

As soon as I said that, a loud clang startled them and the floor under my car jolted. Riley screamed, grabbed Connor, and hugged him tight against her. “What’s happening?!”

“Don’t worry!” I yelled over the noise. “This is an internal car elevator. It will take us up to the complex.”

Sure enough, the floor started to rise taking my car with it. The flashing red lights buzzed downward and the elevator lifted the car up four floors to the inner parking garage.

Riley and Connor gaped at all the other cars parked in their assigned spaces. Sleek Jaguars, sports cars, and a few limos filled the garage.

I switched on the motor and angled the Bentley into my spot before I shut down the car again, but Riley and Connor barely noticed. A long rectangular window without glass opened in the side of the garage. They could see the park spread out beyond.

Connor pounced on the door handle, sprang out of the car, and sprinted over to the window. “Look, Mommy! Look! It’s amazing!”

She followed him and they both leaned out to look at everything. Connor kept pointing at everything—golden eagles, hikers farther down the road, and a few animals he spotted moving on the canyon floors.

“This is awesome!” he gushed. “Can we go hiking, Kingston? How do you find your way around? Where is everyone? Where are the other kids? Do they get to play out there? Do they visit the kids that come to hike? How do you get food? Do you have electricity? Do you have cell phones?”

“Take it easy, sweetie,” Riley told him. “One question at a time. Let Kingston answer before you ask the next question.”

I laughed at them. Having them here made me stupidly happy. “Come inside. You’ll understand everything once you get in there. Come on.” I waved them both forward. “You can come back here and look as often as you want.”

I started to walk away. Riley followed me, but Connor didn’t want to leave. Riley had to pry him away from the window.

I led the way to a different elevator across the garage—a person-sized elevator this time. Neither Riley nor Connor acted too concerned about that.

The elevator carried us up another ten floors and dinged when it opened in the main hall of our stronghold.

We stepped outside and both of their jaws dropped again. The ceiling towered fifty feet above the solid stone floor. Carved granite walls surrounded us with indoor trees, living walls, and art pieces separating the hall into different spaces.

Some had been set up with couches, armchairs, and coffee tables to serve as living rooms. Our strategic headquarters covered one whole side of the hall with banks of computer equipment, large screens displaying different groups of our forces, and locations of interest for our enemies.

The glass surface of the large table covered maps of the countryside underneath. Whiteboard marker drawings and symbols dotted the glass to show where people, battalions, and assets were located both around our stronghold and around the Danes’ stronghold in Montana.

Four men in business suits stood in one of the living areas. Two talked rapidly on their phones while the others bent over a tablet discussing something on it.

Two middle-aged women in power suits and another five men gathered around a conference table in another one of the workspaces. One woman stood in front of a large screen giving a presentation on a graph displayed there.

“What……is……..this?” Riley whispered.

“This is Clan Heller’s stronghold. This is where we conduct all our Clan business and manage all our defenses and campaigns against our enemies.” I waved to the table. “We’ve been trying to mount a campaign to stop the Danes from attacking our assets and locations all over the country. We would have sent out our forces to protect you if we knew you were in danger.”

“So……the guy you said killed your father……”

“Cason Dane. He’s the son of their Clan leader—the same as I am.”

“How do you know he was the one who killed your dad?” she asked. “How can you be sure it’s the same guy that’s been coming after us?”

I took a split second to decide how to answer her, but at that moment, the woman who was giving the presentation happened to glance in my direction and saw the three of us standing there.

The rest of the people at the conference table turned to see what she was looking at and then the other four men stopped what they were doing, too.

A dangerous silence fell over the hall. None of these people rushed over to welcome Riley and Connor with open arms. I knew they wouldn’t.

9

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