“But what, Paige?” Brenden asked.
She was silent for what felt like hours to Brenden. “I lost it,” she whispered. “I lost our baby, Brenden.”
Brenden swallowed the bile that built up in his mouth. “What do you want me to do, Paige?” he asked not sure how to respond to what she just told him.
“Don’t you care?!” she yelled. “Don’t you care that our baby died?”
Fuck,Brenden mentally cursed. “Talk to me, Paige. Tell me what you want me to do.”
“I want you to be all mine, Brenden. It’s all I ever wanted. I want us to have a family together. A little boy that looks just like you and a girl that looks like me. It’s all I can think about. All four of us as a family.”
Fucking hell, was she always this crazy and I missed it?
“Those two brats aren’t worthy of your love, Brenden.”
He looked at Jaxson hoping his friend would tell him they could pinpoint her location but they needed more time. He was trying to hold it together talking to her but it was very hard. “I will give or do anything you want if you do me a favor?” he asked.
“What?”
“Let me talk to him?” There was heavy silence on the other side of the phone.
“Promise me,” she said after a few seconds of long silence.
“I promise, Paige. Just let me talk to him.”
“Fine,” she snapped.
There were sounds of rustling, and Brenden looked up at Jaxson who gave him the signal they had what they wanted.
“Hello?” Brenden closed his eyes holding back the tears at hearing his son’s voice.
“Hey, buddy,” Brenden said using the nickname he gave to his son. “Are you okay?”
“Papa! I’m okay. But I want you and Daddy,” Nicholas said calling his name. “Are you and Daddy coming to ge—”
“All right, kid, that’s enough.” Brenden had heard Paige’s voice before she spoke on the phone again. “There, you talked to him, now you made a promise I want you to keep.”
“What do you want from me, Paige?”
“I want you to make love to me while that man watches. I want to see the hurt in his eyes when he realizes that you don’t love him and that you love me. And last but certainly not least, I want to have your child!”
** ** ** ** **
Stephen was going out of his mind. It felt like hours since Brenden had left to speak with Mrs. Waters. He’d bitten his fingernails down to the point they started to bleed. His uncle had checked on him a few times assuring him not to worry, that they would find Nicholas. But it was hard to keep still when all he wanted to do was run out of the building and search everywhere for his son. Brenden’s parents and sisters, along with Julian, arrived not long after Brenden had left. They were all trying to stop him from pacing a hole into the floor. And as much as he loved and appreciated them being there with him, he wanted them all to go away. Stephen felt as if they were crowding his space and he needed room to breathe.
He never thought he’d ever be in that situation. He’d always been on the other side of a kidnapping case. He understood why families always yelled at him and threw slurs at him. Stephen had always remained calm. And being in that situation he couldn’t stay calm, he felt like screaming and punching the next person who told him not to worry, everything would be all right. But he didn’t feel as if things would be okay.
His child was missing, and until he had Nicholas in his arms again, nothing would be fine. He knew what happened to children who were kidnapped after a certain amount of time, and he didn’t want to think about it. He racked his brain trying to think about who he’d pissed off that wanted to take out the misspent anger on him and was using his son to get back at him.
Nothing made sense. Why would someone try to hurt him through his son? There were so many questions swirling around in his head. Why Nicholas? Who could it be? Did he have a stalker? Could it be connected to a case he worked back in Chicago? Stephen was racking his brain. Nothing was connecting the dots for him to figure out this puzzle. Every time the phone rang in at one of the desks, Stephen hoped it was someone with information on Nicholas’ whereabouts or even the kidnapper calling to ask for ransom money. Stephen wasn’t wealthy, but he would move heaven and earth for his son.
“Stephen, you need to eat something.” He looked up, and Brook was standing there with a wrapped sandwich in her hand and a bottle of water.
“I can’t,” he told her. He didn’t have an appetite; the baby hadn’t moved since he got the phone call from Mrs. Waters, but he was chalking it up to stress of everything going on.
“Okay.” She set the food down on the desk and walked over to him and pulled him into her arms. He wrapped his arms around her more for moral strength.
“He must be so scared,” Stephen whispered.
