Page 22 of Forbidden Vow

7

Raven

Raven bolted upright in bed, her feet moving before her voice. Her son’s scream, ear-piercing and terror-filled, had her mind spinning tragic scenarios—a fall, blood, broken bones.

“Lexi,” she screamed. Oh my God, what was happening? She never heard such a terrifying sound coming from her baby. Her heart was thumping so fast, she wasn’t sure she was getting enough oxygen to her brain. She just knew that she had to reach her child. Rescue him. Beside her, Darius had scrambled out of bed, his glorious body naked. Then he moved to run with her.

“Clothes,” was all she said en route.

Lexi’s room in the spacious penthouse held no abstract artistic furniture with twisted limbs and knobby eyes to frighten a drowsy child with a vivid imagination. There were no shadowy corners for monsters to hide. In fact, twelve panels of crystal glass faced his bed. The view was breath-she froze-what the hell?

Raven was not prepared for what greeted her. Outside her son’s bedroom window, a man—tall, lean, brown hair, and shrewd eyes—snapped pictures of her visibly upset child with one or two telescopic-lensed cameras. Instantly, she knew.

Tabloids.

While in the Kent’s employ, she’d learned stealth to avoid the eager journalists willing to grease her bank account for insider knowledge on the family.

“Mommy,” Lexi wailed with tears streaming down his face. “That man scared me.”

“Shh,” Raven scooped her son up in her arms, his little body trembling. Fury shot through her, her protective instinct on high alert. “Mommy’s got you.”

She knew the thought was wrong when it popped into her head. But her son had called for her. Not Maria. And not Darius. Her. The man was still there, but Raven turned her back. Soothing her child took precedence, but afterwards, she’d have this guy’s hairy nuts in a slingshot. Yeah, she was going to hurl those bad boys so far, he’d need a CSI, NCIS, and mushroom-haired kid fromStranger Thingsto find them.

Her man thundered into the room, followed by Maria. “What’s wrong, babe?”

He wore only his boxers.

“Lexi okay?” the nanny asked, her eyes scanning for danger. With mussed hair and his bare chest, Raven had to look away from Darius; Maria, on the other hand, looked her fill.

“Window,” she said in a rush, “there’s a man outside Lexi’s window with a camera.”

He took one look at the guy and growled. “I’m on it.” Pulling the drapes closed, he picked up the bedside phone.

Lexi lifted his head from Raven’s shoulder. “Better?” she asked.

Her son nodded his head. “I want Daddy.”

Of course he did. Darius, hearing his new name, balanced the phone at his ear in the cradle of his shoulder.

“Give him to me,” he mouthed.

And she did, happy to share the load.

“It’s okay, son.” Darius expertly shouldered Lexi against his chest, as if he had been his son’s fierce protector all his life. “Daddy’s got you.”

As for Raven, she was a goner. Father and son, she loved them both with all her heart.

Maria, realizing that the family was okay, turned to leave, but not before saying, “I’ll start packing our things.”

Fifteen seconds after Darius demanded the general manager, if not the owner, to get on the fucking phone, Raven handed her son off to Maria and grabbed her cell phone. She needed to notify the authorities.

“I don’t give a damn if you have to hire Spiderman to scale the building. I’ll give you ten minutes to get every fucking reporter, blogger, vlogger, Instagrammer, a fucking man with a sticky notepad and a pen, away from my family,” Darius bellowed.

Raven stepped up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and hugged him. He pivoted, putting a protective arm around her.

“You think I care that they rented rooms? Kick them the fuck out. Put the charges on my bill and the damages if one damn camera snaps near my family.”

He cut the call just as her phone chimed.