Kidnapped for Her Secret Son

by Andie Brock

  Jaco had been very pleased with his work. Clearly Leah was not such a fan. From a safe distance away, she was still looking at the sparkling water running beneath Jaco’s feet as if it might surge up and suck her under.

  ‘You’re not scared, surely?’ He couldn’t resist issuing the challenge, winding her up.

  ‘No, of course not.’

  Tossing back her head, Leah brushed past him, stepping purposefully across the glass floor to the other side. Jaco noticed she didn’t look down.

  ‘There—happy now?’

  Jaco raised his eyebrows. ‘Being here isn’t some sort of endurance test, you know.’ He moved towards her. ‘It would be better for all of us if you could just relax and accept the situation.’

  ‘Better for you, you mean.’

  ‘Why don’t you try and think of it as a little holiday?’

  ‘A holiday?’ Like a bull before a red rag, Leah looked ready to charge. ‘A holiday where I am forbidden to leave. Where I’ve had my phone stolen from me. Where I don’t even know where I am!’

  Jaco hesitated. He could tell by the fierce glint in Leah’s eye that she was far too stubborn, too feisty, to let this drop. He needed to come up with some sort of explanation for keeping her here if he was ever going to get a moment’s peace.

  He raked a hand through his hair. ‘I can appreciate this is a difficult situation for you.’

  ‘Can you, indeed?’ Her voice was laced with sarcasm.

  ‘In terms of where you are, this is one of my private islands. And the reason you are here is simply to keep you and Gabriel safe. That’s all you need to know.’

  ‘No, it’s not, Jaco.’ She pouted angrily. ‘I need to know a lot more than that. And I’m never going to shut up until you tell me.’

  Jaco let out an exasperated sigh. He knew exactly how he would like to shut her up—by taking her in his arms and covering those velvet lips with his own, making her forget all about her furious demands in the most pleasurable way possible. But he put the brakes on—fast. He was standing too close to her—he needed to find some space.

  ‘Look...’ He tamped down the smouldering fire. ‘If you want to come outside for a minute I will do what I can to explain.’

  She didn’t need telling twice. As Jaco slid back the glass doors she was right behind him, stepping out onto the wide decked terrace that ran the length of the villa, so close she was like his sunshine shadow.

  She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun, scanning the view. No doubt she was trying to sight land, or maybe a boat that might rescue her. Jaco noticed that she had also clocked his laptop, at the far end of the terrace under the awning. Well, she would have no joy there—even if she did manage to get her hands on it she would find it locked. Now, more than ever, Jaco was meticulous about security.

  ‘Take a seat.’ He gestured to one of the padded sun loungers lined up on the deck and waited for Leah to sit on the side of one of them before he did the same opposite her.

  ‘While I can’t tell you a great deal, what I can say is that I am in the middle of some very delicate negotiations.’ He chose his words carefully, intending to tell her as little as he could possibly get away with. ‘And these negotiations are reaching a critical stage.’

  ‘So?’ Leah frowned impatiently. ‘What has this got to do with me and Gabriel?’

  ‘The people I am dealing with are not honourable men.’ Jaco fought to conceal his hatred. ‘They would be keen to exploit any weakness they could find. If they were to discover I had a son, he could be a potential target.’

  ‘A target for what?’ Fear gripped her voice.

  Jaco shrugged, unwilling to divulge any more.

  ‘You mean he might be kidnapped?’ Leah jumped to her feet, her hand at her throat.

  Or worse.

  Jaco refused to process what might happen if the sting backfired and the Garalinos realised he had a baby son.

  ‘No harm will come to him here, on the island, I can assure you of that.’ He stood up to face her.

  ‘I don’t believe this!’ Colour flooded the column of Leah’s neck, spreading to her cheeks. ‘You are prepared to put our child in peril just because of some dodgy business deal?’

  ‘It’s rather more than that.’ Jaco clenched down on his jaw. ‘And may I remind you that up until a few days ago I had no idea I had a child.’

  ‘So these are the sort of people you do business with? Thieves and crooks?’ Leah was in full flood now, fire flashing in her eyes. ‘Are your greed and ego really such that you are prepared to go to any lengths to feed them?’

  Jaco met her furious gaze full-on. He was not going to be spoken to like this. ‘You need to learn when to hold your tongue, Ms McDonald.’

  Reaching forward, he circled her upper arm in his grasp.

  ‘Or what?’

  Leah pointedly stared at his hand and Jaco immediately released her, taking several steps away, appalled by the way this woman could make him lose his self-control.

  Leah shook her head as if vindicated by his action. ‘What sort of man are you, Jaco Valentino?’ Her eyes glittered with murderous scorn. ‘Actually, don’t bother to answer that. I don’t even care. You can keep your horrible dark and devious secrets to yourself. Just don’t expect me to be impressed by all this.’

  She gestured dramatically at the beautiful setting around her. Despite himself Jaco found his eyes drawn to the hitch of her breasts beneath the cotton fabric.

  ‘Because no doubt it has only been acquired through the misery of others, through dodgy deals or blood money...or worse.’

  ‘I can assure you it has not.’

  ‘Well, whatever... Right now I have no idea who you are—what you are capable of.’

  ‘No.’ Closing the gap between them, Jaco leant forward, blocking her with the height of his body. ‘Maybe you don’t.’

  He caught the flash of fear in her eyes, mixed with a sort of stunned surprise. But if she was determined to perpetuate this bad boy image of him he would go along with it. Maybe it was the only thing stopping him from making an even bigger mistake. Taking her to his bed.

  A sharp silence fell between them, broken only by the mocking call of the cicadas in the ancient olive trees around them.

  ‘Let me past.’ Her voice faltered, her bravado slipping. ‘I need to check on Gabriel. Thanks to you, who knows what terrible danger he may be in.’

  Frustration coursed through Jaco, hot and fierce. His instinct was to reach for her, to pull her close, make her see that he was doing this precisely to keep their son from danger. But Leah’s shimmering hostility, the alarm on her face, brought him to his senses and he took a step away.

  ‘You are safe here, Leah. I guarantee it.’ If he could only make her believe one thing, he wanted it to be that.

  ‘Yeah, right.’ Leah swept past him, her head held high, her ponytail swinging behind her. ‘If it’s all the same to you, I’ll be the judge of that.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  LEAH FLED BACK to her room, rushing over to Gabriel’s crib, her heart thumping as she peered into it, as if something terrible might have already happened to him.

  But of course he was fine, sleeping peacefully, his mouth open in a soft O, the sweep of his long lashes dark against his soft skin.

  It was a source of constant surprise and fascination to Leah that she could have produced something so wonderful, so perfect as her son. But, gazing at him now, she was forced to acknowledge once again that she wasn’t the only one responsible for this little miracle, this warm bundle of life wrapped up in squidgy pink skin.

  Jaco’s DNA was very much in evidence in the dark curls, the almond shape of Gabriel’s eyes, even in the set of his little mouth that had a sort of no-nonsense purse to it. There was no doubt about it—he was going to grow up to be his father’s double.

  I
n looks, anyway. Leah lightly ran the back of her finger over his downy cheek. She would fight with her dying breath to stop Gabriel from turning into the kind of man his father was. A devious, cheating manipulator. Someone who was totally ruled by money, power and greed. Who was prepared to put his own child at risk for the sake of some shady deal. Prepared to kidnap him—and her, for that matter—just to swell the coffers of his rotten empire.

  And as for his sexual morality... There was yet another example of the depth of Jaco’s depravity. What sort of man could conduct a passionate affair with her, take her to his bed, make love to her, treat her as if she mattered to him, when all the time he had another woman on the go? How could he have kissed her that night, held her in his arms, and then less than half an hour later been on the computer, telling someone else—that poor Francesca woman—that he loved her?

  A cheating, low-life scumbag kind of a man, that was what. And no matter how much Leah tried to tell herself that finding out had been a blessing in disguise, that at least she now knew the kind of man he really was, it still felt like a blade plunged into her heart. A heart that would never recover.

  Turning away, she looked for something to do. She might as well unpack her case. Moving to the wardrobe that ran along one entire wall, she hung up the couple of dresses she had brought with her, almost laughing at how ridiculous they looked in the enormous space. Sliding open the chest of drawers, she laid out their clothes—Gabriel’s little vests and sleepsuits in the top drawer, her tops and underwear below.

  Well, that hadn’t taken long.

  She put her hands on her hips and looked around. With Gabriel down for his morning nap, obviously totally unperturbed by the situation they found themselves in, it seemed she had time to spare and nothing to do with it. She had no phone to look at, and no computer or tablet to browse—her usual form of entertainment when she had a few snatched moments to herself.

  She stared out of the window at the bright sun beating down on the landscaped garden. Such heat was almost unheard of where she came from. The west coast of Scotland was very beautiful in its own way, but more prone to stormy skies and rainbows than blistering summer days. It seemed a shame to waste all this sunshine.

  Her thoughts turned to the swimming pool she had seen outside—inside too, come to that. Who would have a pool running underneath their villa? Jaco Valentino, that was who. Although she had to admit it was a pretty cool idea.

  She felt foolish now, for being frightened of walking across the glass floor. But it had taken her by surprise—and water was something of her nemesis. Since nearly drowning in a freezing Scottish loch at the age of five she had had a deep-rooted fear of water, and had never learned to swim. As a child she had screamed blue murder when her parents had tried to teach her, and as a teenager—when she might have found the courage to do something about it—her kidney problems had meant that she was either too sickly or medicated to be able to face it.

  Now, though, she had no such excuse. Not that she was planning on jumping in the deep end, literally, but there was a beautiful pool out there and a scorching day to go with it. Better still, she had noticed that at the back of the villa, far away from where Jaco was working, the pool was nice and shallow, with gentle steps leading down into turquoise water. It had looked so inviting, and the thought of getting in there to cool off, to unknot some of the tension that had been gripping her ever since Jaco had stormed back into her life, was too tempting to resist.

  She’d seen a bikini mixed in with the underwear she’d just put in the drawer and, decision made, quickly pulled it on. Picking up the baby monitor and throwing a towel over her shoulder, she was ready...

  Stepping into the blissfully cool water, Leah gingerly waded in up to her waist. The pool was actually deeper than she’d realised, but as long as she was still well within her depth she’d be fine. With the sun beating down strongly on her shoulders, she decided to cool them off under the water too. She hadn’t put any sunscreen on, and as she had the sort of complexion that would burn before you could say biscuit, she knew she had to be careful.

  She waded in deeper, so that the silky water ran over her shoulders. She bobbed up and down for a bit, then moved over to the side of the pool and, anchoring herself with one hand over her shoulder, let her legs float up in front of her and stared up into the blue, blue sky. This was heaven. Or at least it would be if her entire life wasn’t such a mess.

  Not for the first time, Leah wondered why it was that everything seemed to happen to her. Why she couldn’t just live a normal life, like a normal person: get married to a nice man, settle down, have a couple of kids, a decent job. Why was it that she always seemed to lurch from one disaster to the next?

  Her twin sister, Harper, was a prime example of doing it right. Brilliant at school, never any trouble, she had always been the clever one, the responsible one, taking care of everyone after their mother died and then, the most amazing thing of all, saving Leah’s life with her gift of a healthy kidney.

  Whereas Leah... Her illness and her mother’s death had affected her very differently, making her want to rage against the injustice of it all, and against her father too, for turning to drink when he should have been looking after them. Her schooling had been constantly interrupted by illness, so Leah had left with virtually no qualifications. Not that she cared. Who needed stupid qualifications, anyway, when there was a whole world out there to explore, and so many adventures to be had?

  But most of her adventures had just landed her in trouble—usually because they involved deceitful men. She’d lost count of the number of scrapes poor Harper had had to get her out of—her last mishap being a classic example. Although that one had had a very happy ending for Harper, so Leah now decided to view it as a triumph.

  Working in a nightclub in Manhattan, she had struck a deal with the handsome owner—one Vieri Romano—to act as his fake fiancé for a generous payment. Which would have worked out okay if she hadn’t been stupid enough to give the money to some guy who’d promised to triple it at the casino, only to lose the lot.

  So it had ended with Harper stepping in, yet again, to sort out her mess. Except this time the mess had taken an unexpected turn, with Harper and Vieri falling madly in love and living happily ever after. For once, she had inadvertently done something right.

  But from now on she was done with making mistakes. Getting involved with Jaco Valentino had clearly been another classic error, but she had been blessed with the gift of a son, and having Gabriel meant she could never regret what had happened between them. She just regretted that Jaco wasn’t the man she had thought he was. She grieved for the man she thought she had known.

  Letting go of the side of the pool, Leah twisted round on her tummy and spread her arms out before her. How hard could this swimming malarkey be, anyway? It was high time she learnt. Apart from anything else, as a single mum it was her duty to learn for Gabriel’s sake. Supposing she ever needed to rescue him?

  The thought was too awful to contemplate. But it did spur her on to try. Launching herself forward, she kicked her legs and tried to keep herself afloat with flapping arms. But it just wasn’t happening. As she started to sink she reached for the bottom of the pool with her toes. It wasn’t there—she was out of her depth. Her head went under, then came back up, and she gasped and spluttered in panic before going under again.

  This was it. She was drowning.

  * * *

  Jaco knew exactly where Leah was. He’d made it his business to know. From the other side of the villa he had watched through the twin walls of windows as she carefully waded into the pool, taking her time, as if she wasn’t too sure she liked it.

  Jaco liked it—he liked it far too much—and his body immediately responded to the sight of her clad in nothing but a skimpy bikini.

  Her figure had changed, he realised. She had a more curvy shape now—her hips more rounded, her breasts fuller, str
aining against the triangles of bright blue fabric. Jaco swallowed. He had always found Leah an incredible turn-on, but now...

  He dragged his gaze away. Lusting after Ms McDonald was not going to do him any good. They were in enough of a mess as it was. And yet his body refused to obey him, the kick of sexual need still making its presence very much felt.

  He turned back, relieved to see that her siren’s body was now covered up by the water. He would leave her to it, go back and do some work—try and put this wretched woman out of his head for a couple of hours.

  But he had no sooner opened his laptop again when he heard what sounded like a faint shriek. Leaping to his feet, he dashed to the window to see Leah’s head disappearing under the water. Dio! What the hell was she doing?

  Tearing off his jeans and vest, he plunged into the pool, diving underneath the villa and emerging on the other side, colliding with Leah’s thrashing body as he resurfaced. Grabbing hold of her, he swam them both backwards into the shallow water. The whole thing had probably taken less than a minute.

  Leah struggled to her feet, spluttering madly, water streaming from her face. She coughed violently, then took a gasping breath deep into her lungs. Only then did she turn to face her rescuer. Staring at her with a mixture of concern and astonishment, Jaco stood before her in a pair of black boxers that the water had shrink-wrapped against his magnificent form. She hurriedly looked away.

  ‘So.’ Jaco caught her chin and lifted it gently, so she had no choice but to meet his eyes. ‘Would you like to tell me what that was all about?’

  ‘It wasn’t about anything.’ Leah pushed the hair that was plastered to her face out of her eyes. ‘I was just teaching myself to swim.’

  ‘You can’t swim?’ Jaco stared at her incredulously.