They pretty much lived at the hospital for the next few days. Ethan’s siblings pestered him nearly every fifteen minutes on the dot—it was as if they’d made up a fucking schedule as to who was going to call when—and his and Carolina’s arrival seemed to cheer Arianna up.
A secret wedding ceremony had been arranged at the palace, so their father could attend, and he, Carolina, Finn, and Arianna were watching it on a secured video feed from their hospital room. Though it was after midnight—and technically the day of the official royal wedding—no one was getting any sleep.
It was only when the ceremony was over that Arianna cried out in pain as her water broke.
The baby was coming.
Damn it.
Too many hours later, after more complications and a C-section, Arianna was recovering and Ethan was holding Eloisa Santoro de Bara…Elle, named after Finn’s mother.
She looked a lot like Finn and, though only a few hours old, she was beautiful. Not all babies were beautiful—even as a Naval doctor, he’d delivered plenty during his obstetrics rotation in his residency—and knew that it was true. Some babies grew into beauty, others grew out of it. All babies were, however, beautiful in their own way.
Elle, though, was born a beauty and was going to have everyone fawning over her forever.
As she wrapped her little hand around Ethan’s finger, he couldn’t help but wonder what his and Anda’s children might look like. Would they have her gorgeous wave of raven hair, her eyes? Would they have his Santoro nose or his lips or his dark eyes instead?
Could he and Anda even have children given their lives at this point? She wanted to take down a decades-old secret society that had ordered the murder of her parents, and he wanted to help her. Was it fair to bring a child into that threat?
Would Anda even want children? He realized that he did. Holding little Elle, he wanted a mini-Anda to hold in his arms. What if she didn’t want the same? They loved each other, but in reality they’d barely had any time together. What if they were only suited to clandestine nights but not a life during the day? It was something he still worried about.
As Elle yawned—something he found impossibly cute—and shifted in his arms, he decided to put thoughts of Anda and kids and a future aside.
For now, he’d focus on the happy things in his life: a new niece, Alex and Rebecca married, Anda in recovery, and he’d just been given leave for a few months as Arianna and Papa recovered.
Time on land with his family and hopefully Anda, too. He couldn’t wait.
9
Now
ANDA
Present Day…
Valentia, Valleria
Exact Location Unknown
Anda knew she’d been kidnapped, but everything was hazy. She remembered one of the assholes backhanding her at the theatre and beating her until she’d blacked out, but not much after that. She drifted in and out of consciousness for an uncertain amount of time, finally fully waking in an unknown room.
She was restrained against a radiator, the handcuff chain looping through the coils and securing her firmly to it. She was slumped against it on the floor and it was cool to the touch. Though it was not very cold in Valentia this time of year, it wasn’t uncommon to have an active radiator in older, draftier buildings, which it seemed like this building was. The walls bore cracked plaster and peeling paint, and were covered in a drab yellow that might have been white at some time during its life.
There was a single chair in the room which sat empty. The floor was scuffed and littered with dust and dirt, and there wasn’t anything she might be able to use once she got free. Her gun was long gone and with Ethan—was he safe?—so she’d have to use what was on her to save herself.
She did have a thin slip of wire that was sewn into her underwear, that she could use to break out of the cuffs. It would be difficult to get them off with the way her hands were bound, not to mention she really didn’t want to go commando with the assholes who’d kidnapped her, but she’d do it to get fucking free.
They’d come to check on her at some point. Assholes always came to check on the women they kidnapped. When she saw her opportunity, then she’d take it and get the wire, but she wouldn’t risk it before.
She tried to listen for the sounds outside the window to get a sense of her location. There was traffic, some people shouting and, when she continued to listen, she realized they must still be near the ballroom and theatre.
Hmmm…the ballroom was in a part of Valentia that was being redeveloped, and there were many old or reconstructed or deconstructed buildings that were under renovation and would likely become high-end living spaces. She wondered if this place was perhaps an apartment building that had been slated to be torn down or redone, but no work had started yet.
She brought up a map of Valentia in her head to try to pinpoint where she might be. She couldn’t tell if the river that snaked through the city was nearby, but it wasn’t that far from the ballroom. Which meant that, if she didn’t hear it, she must be in the opposite direction. It wasn’t much to go on, but if—no,when—she got free, it would give her an idea as to which way to go.
At that thought, she heard footsteps in the hall and braced. She almost considered faking sleep again but didn’t think it would work with this kind of asshole. If he put his hands on her again, she’d try to kick the shit out of him. Her ‘kicking ass by using her legs and feet’ game was pretty strong; she’d also been trained to take down attackers in a variety of situations, including being bound at the hands.
The door opened and Asshole walked through. He’d told her his name before he’d given her that final punch that had knocked her out, but it didn’t matter. Asshole is what she would call him now until the end of eternity.
