Aleida scrambled out of the car, her chest heaving. She had to find her son.
“Aleida! Get back here.”
“No!” She ran down the road and wove through the crowd. “Theo! Theo!”
She peered into the open window of a black sedan. No Theo. “Have you seen a little blond boy, three years old, with an English couple?”
“No. No, I haven’t.” A middle-aged woman looked at Aleida with alarm.
A hand clamped onto her arm, and she cried out.
“Get in the car.” Bas jerked her around to face him.
“I will not.” She yanked her arm in vain. Why could she never break free of this man?
Something hardened in her, hardened so brittle it snapped, and she glared into Bas’s thundercloud eyes. “I will not go with you. I’m looking for my son, and I never want to see you again.”
His lips curved up. “Now, why would you want to leave me? I’m the only one who knows the couple’s address in London.”
Air and hope and strength leaked from her chest. She was trapped. The only way to find her son was to stay with the man who’d given him away.
“If you ever leave me...” Bas’s grip drilled into her arm, dug grooves between muscles. “Or if youevertalk that way to me again, you’ll never again see that monstrosity you call a son.”
A cry spilled out, all her grief for Theo mingling with the burning pain in her arm.
More cries rang out, as if the whole world wept with her.
Someone bumped Aleida.
All around, people scurried off the road.
She gasped. Three aircraft dove down.
“Get in the car.” Bas dragged her down the road. “Your hysterics have cost me too much time.”
He didn’t care about her, didn’t care about his child, only about himself.
At the car, Bas reached for the door handle.
A coiled spring burst inside her. She planted one foot andspun backward, toward Bas, slammed her shoulders into his arm, broke his grip.
She bolted for the trees.
“Get in the car!” Bas yelled. “One!”
When he reached three, he’d beat her senseless.
Aleida flung herself flat under the trees and covered her head.
The airplanes roared closer, screaming, spitting.
“Two!”
Aleida hunkered low among strangers crying and praying and pleading to live.
Shots clattered along the pavement, a giant chain saw ripping the road in two.
“Thr—” Bas’s voice spiraled up into a squeal, almost girlish.
