The Alpha King Call Boy
Chapter 253

Fiona

Nina said she'd heard the scream, too.

I knew it was Iris. I knew this fire had been her doing, but still I could not quite understand.. why? How? What exactly had just happened? And where was she now?

Six soldiers were here in the forest suite with us, watching over me and Lexi with attention that verged on extreme and helping to intercede with the firefighters and all the other emergency responders that now filled and surrounded the palace.

I asked one of the soldiers to go and see if he could find Iris. He took a second man with him and went to check her bedroom. (I told him where it was.)

They didn't return for almost fifteen minutes, and when they did, they looked perplexed

They reported that Iris's bedroom was empty, and had been left unlocked. They also discovered that a car had been waiting to take her to the train station -apparently she'd booked a last-minute trip, but never showed up for her ride. An irritated driver had been waiting for her in the parking lot when the fire started.

Alex still hadn't called.

My heart flew up into my throat when my phone rang once, but it was only Brandon.

I spoke with our employee for a few minutes. I told him what had happened here, though apparently he already knew a little about it.

When he asked if I'd heard from Alexander yet, I couldn't answer. I changed the subject.

I asked if Brandon had spoken with Iris, and yes - he confirmed he'd booked some travel for her this afternoon. He thought I knew about it, though.

I was just hanging up that call when one of our guards answered a loud, authoritative knock on the door. A heavily decorated man appeared in the door frame; his hat and the insignias on his white collared shirt made me understand that this was the Fire Marshal. I save Lexi to Nina and went to the door. The Fire Marshal entered when T invited hun in, but he remained hovering right beside the door after it was closed. He appeared deeply uncomfortable,

"I'm confident the blaze has been extinguished completely," the gray-haired man reported in a low, gravelly voice. "My crew has just begun surveying damage, now that some of the smoke has cleared. Now... I must share some troubling news with you, Miss Fiona..." Nina and I shared a look.

"Go on," I urged the Fire Marshal.

"Well, the cause of the fire was clear. There was an accelerant found on the far wall in that small side room that adjoins your bedroom -"

"The nursery," Nina and I blurted out in unison.

The man paused to gaze back and forth between me and Nina. " Yes," he confirmed, landing his eyes back on mine. "We tested a sample of that substance. It's kerosene."

I'm sure my face was a portrait of bewilderment. "What?" was all I could manage to say.

The Fire Marshal cast his eyes to the ground. "Were you aware," he began in a somber tone, "that there was a tunnel behind that wall, and a concealed door that led into that room?"

"Yes. I thought my husband had locked it closed, though."

The Marshal exhaled heavily. "The fire burned through much of that interior wall. When the survey crew went in just now, they found some thing rather surprising in there. Now, we didn't believe anyone was inside the area when first responders arrived on scene, so we didn't send rescue into the blaze, knowing that you three had gotten out safely."

"Someone was inside?" As much as I already felt that I knew Iris was behind this, it still sent a shiver down my spine to hear it. confirmed that she was there in our walls...

Yes. We found a body in the space behind that concealed door way, which was where the fire originated. We believe the individual was already deceased when we made the discovery, but we had - and still have no way to get to them. You see, it appears that passageway was rigged with a kind of trap. There appears to be a pair of metal grates behind the concealed door. The deceased individual is trapped between them in the tunnel, I'm afraid. We're bringing in equipment now that should be able to break the grate open; then we can retrieve the body and get it to the morgue for identification." I looked down at my child. My poor baby looked up me with big, sad, red-rimmed and tear-glazed eyes. She had run out of breath for crying and was beyond exhausted. I planted a kiss on the top of her sweet little head and sent her a psychic message of reassurance.

You're okay, I promised her. We're safe.

I wanted to ask the Marshal: how did she die? Was she burned? Did she asphyxiate from the smoke? I wanted to tell him I was pretty sure I knew who the arsonist was. But I didn't want to keep having this conversation with my child in the room."What about the bedroom?" Nina asked, gratefully steering away from the horrifically morbid topic of the dead body found behind the wall of my baby's nursery. "Did it catch fire? How much was damaged?" "Well, the structural damage is mostly contained to the small room.

The nursery. Personal items in the bedroom closets will still be there, though I'll warn you, everything has been engulfed in smoke.

We can't have you, or anyone other than the crew, in of near the room tonight. We'll keep the perimeter through the night, and focus on trying to retrieve the... remains that we have found. Hopefully the rest of the smoke will clear out by morning. We'll touch base then about getting you access to your belongings."

When the Fire Marshal was done with his report, he left us to return back to the scene of the fire. Then, finally I got Alex's men to exit the bedroom and pledge to leave us alone for the night so we could rest. They took up guard in the hallway outside. I had set up the forest room to be very comfortable for guests, and boy was I grateful for that now. Nina took the first turn showering in the big spa bathroom. By the time she returned to the bedroom, clad in a thick green bathrobe and releasing rose-scented steam in her wake, Alexis had fallen asleep.

I thought I was just going to rinse off when it was my turn to clean up. But I wound up sitting down in that luxurious shower and bawling my eyes out.

Yes, it was everything. All of it. Grandfather. The fire. Iris. Alex.

That's where the intense emotion came from the compilation of everything.

But there was only one single thought on my mind, and that was Alexander.

It was very wrong that he had not called yet. Very wrong and very bad.

Once I got a grip on myself, I dried off and returned to the bedroom.

Nina was cradling sleeping Lexi in her arms and watching something on the TV on mute.

"I think it's time, Nina."

She dropped the remote onto the bed and nodded.

I didn't even need to explain what I meant. She picked up her phone.

I took the baby, who was out like a light, and held her in my arms.

The trauma of tonight had completely wiped her out.

Nina put her phone on speaker and repositioned herself in the bed, coming to rest in a cross-legged position.

The line rang. and rang. Somehow I knew that my mate, wherever he was in the world right now, was still alive. I had a feeling deep in my soul that Alexander was still out there. His heart was still beating.

But it was very clear that something had gone terribly wrong with the mission.

I'm not a particularly religious person, but 1 closed my eyes and prayed to any god that would listen. Please, please, bring my husband back to me in one piece. Please, Please...

I was close to falling down onto my knees, willing to beg and plead.

But finally the line picked up and Kayden's voice rang out over the phone. "Nina. I'm so sorry I couldn't call sooner....>>