Tristan glanced to Melanie and sighed at the stubborn glint in Mel’s eyes. Arabella knew she’d won and took Annabel from Tristan’s arms.
Once she settled back into the chair with her niece, she hummed a tune. Soon, her dragon joined inside her mind. While Ara should be worried about everything happening to the clan, she felt more content than she had in a long time. After all, she’d put a clan leader in his place, won a mini-battle with her brother, and was cuddling her niece again.
She refused to admit Finlay Stewart was the reason most of it had happened at all. Neither she nor her dragon were ready to face that fact.
Instead, Arabella continued humming to her niece. Putting Finn in his place had boosted her confidence. Maybe once everything was settled in the clan again, she could try pushing her boundaries even further. Until she completely overcame what the dragon hunters had done to her and her mother, she would never be anything more than ‘poor Arabella’ in the eyes of the clan.
She wanted to finally be allowed to be herself.
~~~
As Evie polished off the last of her English breakfast, she paused with her forkful of egg halfway to her mouth and reread the summary of the current investigation file on her computer:
Based on the number of witnesses sharing the same testimony, it is highly probable the Carlisle hunters have several escape tunnels. None of the Carlisle city plans, going back to the 16th century, show anything bigger than sewer pipes. Yet the hunters appear from behind vegetation and abandoned sheds in the area on a regular basis. More interviews and research will be conducted in three months to determine if any tunnels exist.
Bloody hell, if the hunters had constructed escape tunnels, that was something Bram and his clan needed to know.
Laying down her fork, she skipped ahead to the second Carlisle investigation conducted three months later and read the summary:
As predicted, a series of underground tunnels were detected. Using the witness testimony from three months previous, the use of radar technology confirmed two known exit points. The DDA believes the Carlisle hunters are unaware of our discovery, but the department will sit back and wait for confirmation of this supposition. This knowledge may be used for future operations.
Further down, she found the coordinates of the two tunnel exit points.
Evie scanned the rest of her files for anything else on the Carlisle tunnels, but didn’t find another reference. It was almost as if the DDA had abandoned any further research, which was odd. The DDA hated the dragon hunters nearly as much as misbehaving dragon-shifters, except the DDA’s reasons had more to do with inconvenience than a sense of moral duty.
Then she remembered the promotion of Jonathan Christie to Assistant Director of the DDA. His promotion had been right after the second report on the tunnels had been filed. New leadership always brought change, but her intuition sense it was something more than a mere administrative oversight. There was a slim possibility Christie had ordered them to stop looking, although she had no reason why.
Unless Christie had some kind of deal with the dragon hunters. The thought that the DDA knew about Bourne’s plans to kidnap dragon-shifter children made her sick to her stomach. It was definitely something she needed to check out once she had the chance.
She clenched one of her fists. Despite the lack of enthusiasm concerning dragon-shifters for most of the higher-ups in the department, she refused to believe they would allow innocent children to be kidnapped and imprisoned.
Focus on the present and what you can do now. Right. Pushing aside her disappointment at the DDA, she focused on the positive. Finally, she had something Bram might be able to use.
She swung around in her chair. Charlie and Nikki were lounging on the couch, finishing up their own meals. They noticed her movement, however, and stopped eating. Nikki asked, “What? Did you find something?”
Standing up, Evie tried to keep her voice calm. “I might know the location of two secret entrances for the Carlisle hunters’ den. I need to contact Bram or Kai before they fly off to rescue Murray. Otherwise, they could end up finding an empty set of rooms and not know why.”
Charlie gently laid her plate on a free spot on the couch. “How reliable is your information?”
Evie straightened her shoulders. “Using a collection of reports taken from the locals, the DDA confirmed the locations with radar, so I’d say fairly reliable. The only concern is the information is a year old.”
Charlie raised an eyebrow. “How do we know the hunters are unaware of the DDA’s discovery and switched escape methods? A year is a long time. Any number of changes could’ve been made.”
While not being questioned would make things easier, Evie respected Charlie’s drive for certainty. “Well, to be honest, we don’t know if they’ve changed escape plans. But even if the hunters know about the DDA’s discovery of those two exit points, there are bound to be other tunnels. If they are still using them, having a dragon or two circling in the sky to look out for other exit points would be a good idea. I need to tell Bram.”
Charlie gave her a once-over. “You’ll do well
at Stonefire.” Before Evie could do more than blink, Charlie said to Nikki, “Patch her through to the secure number.”
Nikki moved to the landline phone near the kitchen. Returning to her laptop, Evie scrolled to the coordinates and walked over to Nikki. Just as the dragonwoman held out the phone for her to take it, a boom reverberated through the air.
Nikki tossed aside the phone and pushed her behind the kitchen island counter. The dragonwoman whispered, “Stay here,” and moved out of Evie’s line of sight.
A loud crash sounded inside the cave dwelling. As dust swirled in the air above her, she decided the intruders must’ve blown in the door.
As the sounds of shuffled feet and flesh pounding flesh filled the air, Evie tried to think of what she could do to help. She’d spent the last seven years with the DDA, but the role never required training beyond basic self-defense. Even then, most of it was aimed toward dragon-shifters. She had no idea if the people inside the dwelling were human or not.
She had no training, no weapon, and was trapped inside a cave. Things weren’t looking good.