"So my heir apparent wishes to lie to me? Well we shall see how long his
lies hold out when I have the girl. I know that she is here, I can feel
her. I feel the connection she is trying to forge between them all. She
will fail, Ian is loyal to me, and he will not join her. But I must be
wary; I have been questioning his loyalty more and more. This must be done
quickly before he has a chance to betray me. I shall have to call in
outside help, I think." Kenneth said as he looked at his dogs.
"Marie, call Mr. Tremieran please and schedule an appointment for tomorrow as early as he can get here." Kenneth said into a speaker.
"Yes sir Mr. Irons." Came a small, feminine voice.
"His loyalty shall be taken back by force if need be. I will not tolerate disobedience." Kenneth growled as he slammed a fist down on the arm of his favorite chair. His dogs started and scurried away from their angry master.
**
Nikki and Gabe were talking when there came a rather loud knock at her door. Nikki disentangled herself from the arms of her angel and went to see who on earth could possibly be pounding on her door. It was a very panicked looking Ian.
"What on earth is wrong Ian?"
"Milady, you are in the gravest of danger, Mr. Irons has sensed that you are forging a connection between us. He has ordered me to bring you to him. He senses my growing disloyalty. We must make a move and soon milady, our time is running out. If we do not do something soon, he may bring in outside help to deal with this. I suggest that you lay very low and that we not communicate with you until we have a plan. He will follow us and find you. As you said, if you fall, the Blade and all connected to it will soon follow. We cannot let this happen."
"You are right Ian. * Sigh * I was hoping that this would not happen so soon. We need to form a plan, and we need to meet, but this has made things increasingly difficult. I have several cell phones that are incapable of being traced, take one and use it to contact me. Any tracer put on them is shorted out. Go get Sara, and inform her of the situation. I will take care of things on this front." Nikki said, her voice suddenly going cold. Ian nodded and left as instructed.
"What do you need me to do Nikki?" Gabe inquired.
"I need you to be safe."
"I'm not going to leave you here alone."
"There is no other way. I lost you once, I won't risk losing you again." "Why don't we go hide outside of the city and regroup before Irons can find us here?"
"I don't know Gabe."
"Come on, we can go to my parent's place. My mom is going to love you. We can hide out there. She's been begging me to come home for a while now, and if I bring a girl maybe she'll stop bugging me about, 'When are you going to get married? Your brother and your sisters are married. You need a girlfriend Gabriel, you can't spend all your time holed up in that shop of yours in solitude.' I swear if I have to hear that speech one more time I'm going to scream." Gabe said with a laugh. Nikki joined him in the laughter.
"I don't want to put you or your family in danger."
"Come on, he doesn't even know that I'm involved."
"True as that may be, I'm kind of easy to find."
"Why is that?"
"My eyes. All Irons has to do is have someone ask around and see if anyone has seen a girl with strange amber eyes lurking about and he's got us."
"Then get contacts. I think I have some non-prescription color contacts lying around somewhere. If your eyes aren't amber it'll make it harder for him to find you and it will keep us safer."
"I still don't know Gabe. I still think that it is too dangerous."
"Come on, please?" Gabe said giving her the puppy eyes.
"Oh. you.. I hate that. Stop it. Please stop it. quit giving me that look. Gabe. Gabe, come on stop it. GABE!" Nikki said her tone bordering on begging.
"Will you come with me then?"
"Will you stop giving me that look?"
"Only if you promise you'll come with me."
"Fine then. I will go. Go to your apartment and pack whatever you will need then come back here, I will call Ian and tell him we are leaving town for a while, but I will not tell him where just in case Irons tries to extract the information from him. Ian cannot tell Kenneth what he does not know. And bring me those contacts; we're going to need them. I cannot believe that I did not think of that sooner. Go now, time is of the essence." "Okay. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Oh and do not call your mother. We will use one of my phones. Your phone could be bugged due to your involvement with Sara. We cannot risk being found out. Your mother may be upset with you, but hopefully having me with you will curb her anger."
"Alright. I'll see you soon."
"See you soon Angel, be safe." Nikki said, and with that Gabe was gone. She readied her suitcase and started to pack all the things that she thought she might need. She also brought an unopened package of her special tea and her coffee as a gift to Gabe's parents. She made herself a note to order more when she got back. if she got back. Things were going to be increasingly more difficult over the next few weeks. At least until the situation with Kenneth was resolved. She almost contemplated going to confront Kenneth now, but she knew that it was not wise without the Witchblade, and she didn't want to leave Sara unprotected.
"I hope this works." Nikki sighed to herself, and suddenly, she wasn't so sure.
"Marie, call Mr. Tremieran please and schedule an appointment for tomorrow as early as he can get here." Kenneth said into a speaker.
"Yes sir Mr. Irons." Came a small, feminine voice.
"His loyalty shall be taken back by force if need be. I will not tolerate disobedience." Kenneth growled as he slammed a fist down on the arm of his favorite chair. His dogs started and scurried away from their angry master.
**
Nikki and Gabe were talking when there came a rather loud knock at her door. Nikki disentangled herself from the arms of her angel and went to see who on earth could possibly be pounding on her door. It was a very panicked looking Ian.
"What on earth is wrong Ian?"
"Milady, you are in the gravest of danger, Mr. Irons has sensed that you are forging a connection between us. He has ordered me to bring you to him. He senses my growing disloyalty. We must make a move and soon milady, our time is running out. If we do not do something soon, he may bring in outside help to deal with this. I suggest that you lay very low and that we not communicate with you until we have a plan. He will follow us and find you. As you said, if you fall, the Blade and all connected to it will soon follow. We cannot let this happen."
"You are right Ian. * Sigh * I was hoping that this would not happen so soon. We need to form a plan, and we need to meet, but this has made things increasingly difficult. I have several cell phones that are incapable of being traced, take one and use it to contact me. Any tracer put on them is shorted out. Go get Sara, and inform her of the situation. I will take care of things on this front." Nikki said, her voice suddenly going cold. Ian nodded and left as instructed.
"What do you need me to do Nikki?" Gabe inquired.
"I need you to be safe."
"I'm not going to leave you here alone."
"There is no other way. I lost you once, I won't risk losing you again." "Why don't we go hide outside of the city and regroup before Irons can find us here?"
"I don't know Gabe."
"Come on, we can go to my parent's place. My mom is going to love you. We can hide out there. She's been begging me to come home for a while now, and if I bring a girl maybe she'll stop bugging me about, 'When are you going to get married? Your brother and your sisters are married. You need a girlfriend Gabriel, you can't spend all your time holed up in that shop of yours in solitude.' I swear if I have to hear that speech one more time I'm going to scream." Gabe said with a laugh. Nikki joined him in the laughter.
"I don't want to put you or your family in danger."
"Come on, he doesn't even know that I'm involved."
"True as that may be, I'm kind of easy to find."
"Why is that?"
"My eyes. All Irons has to do is have someone ask around and see if anyone has seen a girl with strange amber eyes lurking about and he's got us."
"Then get contacts. I think I have some non-prescription color contacts lying around somewhere. If your eyes aren't amber it'll make it harder for him to find you and it will keep us safer."
"I still don't know Gabe. I still think that it is too dangerous."
"Come on, please?" Gabe said giving her the puppy eyes.
"Oh. you.. I hate that. Stop it. Please stop it. quit giving me that look. Gabe. Gabe, come on stop it. GABE!" Nikki said her tone bordering on begging.
"Will you come with me then?"
"Will you stop giving me that look?"
"Only if you promise you'll come with me."
"Fine then. I will go. Go to your apartment and pack whatever you will need then come back here, I will call Ian and tell him we are leaving town for a while, but I will not tell him where just in case Irons tries to extract the information from him. Ian cannot tell Kenneth what he does not know. And bring me those contacts; we're going to need them. I cannot believe that I did not think of that sooner. Go now, time is of the essence." "Okay. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Oh and do not call your mother. We will use one of my phones. Your phone could be bugged due to your involvement with Sara. We cannot risk being found out. Your mother may be upset with you, but hopefully having me with you will curb her anger."
"Alright. I'll see you soon."
"See you soon Angel, be safe." Nikki said, and with that Gabe was gone. She readied her suitcase and started to pack all the things that she thought she might need. She also brought an unopened package of her special tea and her coffee as a gift to Gabe's parents. She made herself a note to order more when she got back. if she got back. Things were going to be increasingly more difficult over the next few weeks. At least until the situation with Kenneth was resolved. She almost contemplated going to confront Kenneth now, but she knew that it was not wise without the Witchblade, and she didn't want to leave Sara unprotected.
"I hope this works." Nikki sighed to herself, and suddenly, she wasn't so sure.