“What do you miss most, darlin’? My sparkling personality or my cock-”
“Hanging up!” I warn.
“Stop, stop,” he’s laughing, the conceited ass. “Don’t hang up. I’m sorry that I had a bit of fun with ye’. But Iampleased that you’re worried for me. I take every precaution I can, and my brothers are here, all in, just like me. I have a strong reason to live.”
“What reason?”
This time, his smile is gentle. “You, love. I want to come home to ye’ as much as you want me to, aye?”
Suddenly, I want to tell him about the baby, I want to see his expression. “Cameron, I…”
“Aye?”
“Nothing,” I smile, “just happy to hear your brothers are there with you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
In which things go straight to hell.
Morana…
When I see Natalia waiting outside my bedroom door the next morning, I’m sincerely relieved to see that she looks much better. She may not like me, but what (Mala? Miss Kevin?) did to her yesterday was not kind.
“Good morning!” I force a smile, “Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, thank you, Mrs. MacTavish,” she says between thin lips. There’s something else in her eyes, some avaricious kind of glint that makes me uncomfortable.
She follows me closely down the stairs and I’m wondering if she wants to push me the rest of the way. There’s a disturbing energy radiating off her today, more than her usual bland contempt.
That’s when she presses a gun to my spine.
My first thought is,not there, there’s a baby not by the baby…
Miss Kevin enters the hall, brow furrowed. “Is everything quite all right, Madame MacTavish?”
“Actually, Miss Kevin, we were hoping you could help us with a bit of a situation.” Sven, Natalia’s husband, is crowding the hall, along with three other men I’ve never seen before. “We’d like you to come with us, or we will shoot Morana Ivanova to pieces, right in front of you. That would be a dereliction of your duty, eh?”
Her eyes narrow in fury, but Miss Kevin nods.
“No, wait-” I look at Natalia, and my fury feels like a living thing, like it should burn her, just by touching me. “That’s why it was so easy to disarm those men on the steps, they thought you were helpingthem.Look, I- I begged for your life then. It wasn’t needed, but I did. Please leave Miss Kevin here. Please give me that-”
“I am happy to join you,” Miss Kevin cuts me off.
“I promise I’ll come with you quietly,” I plow on, “just leave her here.”
“Security cameras or not,” Natalia whispers in my ear, making me shudder, “I will pistol-whip you if you don’t shut up.”
How can this be happening?
I feel the same way I did that morning at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior when Cameron came bursting into that room. My pieces of reality have shattered again and reformed themselves into a terrifying, unrecognizable new pattern.
Both Miss Kevin and I were handcuffed behind our backs, which cuts down on most of the moves Mala and Cameron had had time to teach me.
Cameron. This could destroy everything he’s worked for, these past five years. All the people he’s lost, his wounds, his scars. I can’t let them ransom me. But Miss Kevin? How can I get her out of this?
We’re at a private airfield, I recognize it. This is where we landed when Cameron kidnapped me. My Russian dourness appreciates the irony of being taken back from the same location.
Taking my chances, I beg Ivan. “Please leave Miss Kevin here. She’s not involved in this, you don’t-”
