Silver’s eyes met mine. “She told me to get the baby to you, no matter what. She made me memorize your number. I didn’t want to leave her, but I knew there was no way I could get her and Willa out of there. I’m so sorry,” he whispered. Tears coasted down his face and he quickly wiped them away.
“How do you know she’s dead?” Caleb asked.
“I saw them kill her,” Silver murmured. “I managed to reach the woods beyond the fence. None of the guards had seen me make a run for it, so they didn’t chase me. I hid in the woods. She was surrounded by guards on the patio and then Ivan came outside and demanded to know who’d helped her and where the baby was. She wouldn’t tell him. I… I saw him shoot her.”
The baby seemed to sense Silver’s distress because her little face scrunched up and she started to cry. The young man immediately set out to soothe the baby by rocking her back and forth in his arms.
“How long ago was all this?” I asked. I felt numb inside.
Maggie really is dead.
“Six days ago,” Silver said.
The baby was still fussing, so he looked at me and said, “Can you hold her a second while I get her bottle ready?”
I was frozen in place and couldn’t force myself to reach for her. Thankfully, Caleb stepped in and took her from Silver. I couldn’t even bear to look at the baby, so I began moving around the small apartment. Caleb followed Silver to the kitchen and spoke softly to the baby as Silver got the bottle ready.
I was dimly aware of the two young men talking, but I tunedthem out. My limbs felt heavy and my head hurt. It felt like my body was shutting down.
Maggie’s dead.
I lost all sense of everything until Caleb asked, “Jace, do you want to hold her?” I hadn’t even noticed him appear at my side. I shook my head, even as shame curled through me. The last thing I wanted to do was hold her. It was wrong, but I couldn’t stop thinking that maybe Maggie would have been alive if the baby had never existed.
“Here,” Silver said as he came out of the bedroom. There was a bag slung over his shoulder and he had a small stuffed panda in his hand. “This one’s her favorite.”
Understanding dawned.
We were taking the baby with us.
Because that was what Maggie had wanted.
Maggie is dead.
God, why the fuck couldn’t I think clearly?
Before I could say anything, there was the faint screech of tires outside. Silver froze in place for a split second as his gaze swung to the window. Then he was pushing past us. I followed him and saw several black SUVs sitting in the middle of the street. I felt my gut clench as more than a half-dozen men got out of the vehicles. They were dressed in dark clothes and immediately began looking around. They weren’t holding weapons, but I saw the outline of more than one gun underneath their suit jackets.
“You have to go,” Silver said as he shoved the diaper bag and toy into my hands.
“Who are they?” I said, though I was pretty sure I already knew.
“Ivan’s men.”
I automatically reached for my gun at my back, but as soon as Silver saw it, he frantically shook his head. “No! You have to go! You have to get Willa out of here!”
I’d dropped the diaper bag, so Silver snatched it up and then handed it to Caleb. He kissed the now sleeping baby’s forehead and carefully tucked the toy into the folds of her blanket.
“Stay here until they’re gone,” Silver said.
My brain finally seemed to kick in and I caught up to him just as he reached the door. “Wait, no,” I said. “Stay here, I’ll go.”
“No!” I heard Caleb call, then he was at my side.
“No,” Silver said. “There’s too many of them. I don’t care how good you are with that thing” – he motioned to the gun – “you won’t be able to stop them. And if they find Willa, your sister will have died for nothing.”
“You can’t go out there!” I bit out. “They’ll kill you!”
“No, they won’t,” he declared. “Ivan will never let that happen.”
