I struggled to convince myself I was a guest. I still felt like I was kidnapped, forced here with him not listening to my insistence that I didn’t want to be moved around without any say in the matter.
He guided me toward an enormous bedroom suite with an attached bath. Still being stealthy and silent, he showed me to the big bed. “I can arrange for another room for her,” he began to say.
“No.” I whispered it, shaking my head as I slowly lowered my daughter to the massive mattress. I wasn’t leaving her side. “She’ll be scared.”
He nodded and backed up, watching me. “I will let you settle in. If you need—” He turned slightly as a woman entered the room. Heavily pregnant and looking my age, she breezed in like she owned the place.
“Sergei,” she greeted as she entered the room. As she passed him, she frowned. “Are you overdoing it again?” she asked with a familial concern.
“I’m fine.” Without any more fanfare, he gestured at me. “Natalie, this is Dr. Claire Donovon. Claire, this is Natalie and her daughter, Maisie.”
She faced me with a kind smile, making me suspect how often she’d greeted patients.
“Doctor?” I asked, skeptical why Sergei would have a doctor on call. Hell, if he could afford a palace like this place, he probably could hire anyone he wanted for any service.
She nodded, approaching as Sergei left the room without another word.
“Hey, wait.” I went toward the door, frowning. “What if he locks us in here?”
Claire smiled slightly. “Then I’d call my fiancé and tell him that his nephew is acting out of line.”
“Nephew?” I shook my head. So they were related? And this was just a favor from one relative to another?
“Not now,” she calmly and gently advised, already taking a stethoscope from where it hung around her neck. “What happened to her?”
“Nothing.” A hysterical burst of laughter threatened to bubble from my lips.Nothing?So much had happened tonight and I had yet to process any of it. “I mean, nothing happened to her. These men followed me as I walked home with her.”
“This late?” she asked, listening to Maisie’s lungs and heart.
“I just got off my shift and I had to pick her up from the babysitter’s. These masked men started following me and trying to grab me—or her…” I shook my head and hugged myself.“Both of us? I don’t know. They didn’t reach us, not until Sergei showed up and… and…” Emotions clogged my throat and I couldn’t get any more words out.
“And Sergei made sure the men didn’t get you,” she concluded, assuming she could finish it for me so matter-of-factly.
“Yes. One man yanked Maisie out of my arms and she tumbled to the ground a little, but Sergei dove in and caught her to block her and…” I forced another hard swallow. Thinking through all that happened was hard enough. Talking about it was worse.
“And he protected her,” she guessed for me again, turning from her to face me. “What happened here?” She pointed at my hands.
I explained how I’d been shoved down. Since Maisie was asleep and because I kept the bathroom door open in case she made a sound, I let Claire inspect the slight scrapes on my hands and knees in the bathroom after I cleaned them off.
All the while, she didn’t interrogate me. I couldn’t even find the energy to ask her where I was. Who Sergei was. Why I was here at all.
Instead, she guided me back to the room and pointed out where clean clothes could be found in the dressers, how to call for a maid if I needed anything to eat or drink. She even went so far as to give me Sergei’s number, which I didn’t have.
“I know how it feels,” she said at last, when the emotions and chaos of the day caught up to me. I was about to keel over, exhausted. “It’s confusing to meet these men and be under their care. You have questions.” She smiled softly. “That’s natural, but for now, rest. Rest tonight, and I am positive Sergei will answer all that he can in the morning.” Taking my hands and givingthem a slight squeeze, she sighed. “Youaresafe here. You can take my word for that.”
I watched her leave the room and close the door after herself.
I don’t know who any of you people are, though. I have no clue what’s going on here.
“So, how am I supposed to believe you? Or him?” I whispered aloud.
Without anything else to protect me and my daughter, I dragged a chair over and placed it in front of the door.
Only then did I give up and get into bed next to my daughter. Snuggling up close to her little body, I closed my eyes and prayed that when I woke in the morning, everything would be clearer again.
13
SERGEI
