In the Midst of Shadows
an excerpt

These are just some snapshots:

Draven Scott glanced at his watch as he stood in the ascending elevator taking him to his office on the twenty seventh floor of the Indigo Industries building in the center of downtown. It read seven fifteen and that meant that Julia should be there by now and making coffee if she knew what was good for her.
. . .
As he had suspected, Julia was no where in sight and his anger smoldered deep within. She would be safer at this point to never show her face in Indigo Industries again, if she knew what was good for her. Less than five minutes later, though, he knew that she had no idea what was good for her as she came breathlessly through the elevator doors and stumbled over to her small desk in the antechamber outside of Draven’s open office doors.

“I am so sorry, Mr. Draven, sir, my dress got caught in my front door and ripped so I had to change. It won’t happen again, I swear!”

“That is alright,” he responded cheerily. “I have already notified Tammy that you will be down to her office as soon as you’ve packed your stuff to settle your last paycheck and sign the nondisclosure confidentiality agreement. Security will meet you there and escort you off the premises.”

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Tristan and Draven met on the opposite side of the island, neither of them having seen any sign of Anderyn. “This is not good,” Tristan thought when he saw Draven running toward him. “Did you see her?” he called aloud, already knowing the answer. It would be dark very soon and neither of them wanted to spend the night on a deserted island until they knew what had happened to Anderyn.

“No. Some stupid bird kept sounding like her, but I didn’t see anything else that looks like she was even here. I just – I just keep thinking that she’s playing a trick on me or something.”

Tristan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s why we felt –”

A sudden flash streaked across the darkening sky as the last of the sun’s rays began to fade.

“What was that?” Draven asked and Tristan took off running again in the same direction that he had already been going.

“It came from the other side of the island,” he called back to his son, who saw no choice but to follow.

“Tell me again why we care what happens to her?” Draven snarled as a painful stitch began in his side and he realized that his nice suit was already completely covered in a fine layer of the sugary sand.

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The bell to the suite sounded and Anderyn went to admit Tristan pushing a hotel dinner cart. Hungry as she was, Anderyn resented the little intrusion – she had wanted to keep watching Draven while Kris was away.

“He’s fascinating, isn’t he?” Tristan asked pointedly and she feigned confusion.

“Who?”

Tristan pushed past her and began to set up food in the living room behind her. “Where’s Kris?”

“Um, I think he’s sleeping; I’ll go check on him.”

She went over and knocked on the other bedroom door, knowing full well that it was empty. After a minute, she went back to the living room and Tristan looked up expectantly.

“He’s really out – didn’t respond at all. I think we should just let him sleep.”

Tristan shook his head, looking her in the eye. “You never were a very good liar.”

She blanched, and sank into the nearest chair in front of the coffee table where he continued setting up the food. Eager to change the subject, she said, “Wow, that looks good. W-what’s the occasion?”

He passed her a plate. “I think we should have a little chat while Kris is out doing whatever he is that he is doing. You would have thought that he would have been more careful to cover his tracks.”

Anderyn didn’t know how that was possible – a person who just instantly disappeared didn’t leave any tracks.

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Tristan . . . calmly walked out to his garage, climbed into his prized black Porsche GT2 and drove off. He was ten miles away and already on the phone to his builder when the explosion of his compound became visible above the trees. A small part of his mind was homing in on a certain black Hummer2 limousine – Daddy was coming for his little girl and he was pissed.