See?I rubbed my stomach.It’s not so bad to do this alone. I did it. I got her out.
Itwillbe okay.
I’d saved her. I couldn’t prevent her from dying too soon, but at least now, she’d be spared my uncle’s abuse and neglect. She’d be pain-free and comfortable at that hospice.
Thatwassaving her, or saving what she had left to live.
Now…
I pressed my hand over where my belly would swell.
Now it’s time to figure out how to save you.
I forced a swallow past the clog in my throat, that lump of emotions that had me drawing a shaky breath. Turning to gaze up at the window, I sighed and clung to the faint but stubborn hope that I wouldn’t be completely alone in protecting this baby.
Will you come, Andre?
Will you look for me and want to help me?
I lowered my head and tried not to let my fear get to me.
Will you… ever care for me enough to want to see me again?
I had no way to guess.
Deep in my soul, I yearned for the security he’d once given me, the support he hadn’t even known I needed so desperately to survive.
33
ANDRE
Ifurrowed my brow at Oleg. “What do you mean, there’s a fire?”
He shrugged, pausing in strapping in and securing his Kevlar vest next to me. “That’s what they said.”
“There’s a fire at Giovanni’s warehouse?” I asked it loudly, glancing at the other men who’d come with me.
“It sounds like they thought there was a fire,” one of them said, also sounding confused based on what the spies were saying.
I’d tasked a team of plainclothesmen to surround Giovanni’s crumbling mansion. Setting up any men near his residence, on his turf, was already trespassing. But I didn’t give a fuck. I was on the offense in order to defend Sofia.
My father had mixed feelings about my rash decision to go after Sofia like this. To be so blasé and cocky about going to war for her. Especially after her lies to be in my life at all.
Thanks to Claire, though, and Anya, my father changed his mind. He’d relented on stopping me from charging into the Giovanni home. But he’d ordered me to keep it within reason.
That was why I was using the spies to determine when Giovanni wouldn’t be there. That was the reason for this small crew of men and why we were going in the dark of the night, operating in stealth so those motherfuckers wouldn’t be able to determine who’d come to get Sofia out of his control.
It would be obvious. Of course, Giovanni would assume it was my doing. But he’d have a hard time proving it. And he’d have a harder time finding me or her after I took her to a safehouse.
“It sets him up to attack us,” Sergei said.
Roman nodded, also in on that meeting. “He’ll come blazing guns to get Sofia back, and that’s when the world’s shortest war will start and end.” He closed one eye and mimed shooting a gun, then blowing off the barrel of his fingertip.
My father scowled at that. “I’m not fond of him either, but goddammit, it’s not ideal timing.”
No time would ever be right for a tense clash like this, but between me and him, sharing our sentiments in that silent way we could as father and son and being able to read each other this well, he understood that this was the most important fight of my life. The war I would be braced and waiting for, no matter what.
One of the security specialists rushed into the room. “They took the cousin.”
