It was Saturday, so she wasn’t worried about going to work. However, she wondered what Justin had planned on them doing today. Besides going to the hospital at some point during the day to visit Carlos, she hadn’t really planned on going anywhere or doing anything.
She rolled to bury her face into Justin’s pillow. Her smile couldn’t be any bigger. Finally, she was with the man who had her heart for almost two years. She felt like pinching herself to prove that this was really happening. She’d never been this happy in her life. The heart racing, the short breaths, and the awakening of every nerve ending in her body when he walked in a room were finally being fed. The heart had known who he was long before her brain caught on. All the barriers she’d built around her heart were gone. He had smashed through every one of them, and she was in a death-defying freefall in love with him.
Nakia couldn’t wait for his divorce to become a reality so that they could start their lives with each other. She now wanted everything with him. She wanted the right to call him hers, the right to live with him, to love him freely, and most of all to have his babies. God, she couldn’t wait to give him the babies he wanted so much.
She lazily rolled again, this time taking his pillow with her. With a palm over her flat stomach, she wondered if they’d made a baby last night. They hadn’t used any contraception, and she wondered if he assumed that because she’d been married before that she was on something. She didn’t have to look far to understand her own motives. She wanted to be pregnant with his baby. Just the thought of it had her grinning with pure joy.
Remembering his possession from the night before had her pressing her palm more firmly on her stomach to quell the bees that immediately took flight. She had woken with her back to his front, left leg pulled back over his hip, and he was buried deep in her from behind. He’d pulled her head back, latched onto her lips with his, one palm over her aching breast and the other over her stomach, holding her in place as he loved her slowly. His thick length stretched and filled her, making her keen incoherently in mindless lust. He drove in and out of her slowly, and every time she was at the precipice of an orgasm, he would pull her off that ledger and start the sensual assault over again. Refusing to release her lips from their erotic kiss, he fucked in and out of her again and again until she could take no more, and she climaxed endlessly, almost biting his tongue off in an attempt to survive the tidal wave of crushing passion.
The blissful memory of it, the sheer kaleidoscope of images and the soreness deep inside where he’d resided only hours ago had her crossing her legs to stem the desire unfurling in her pelvis and the instant sleekness of her inner thighs. God, she wanted him again in the worst way. Laughing at her own horniness, she slowly climbed off the bed with unexpected aching limbs and reluctantly got into the shower.
Nakia was pulling a pair of jeans over her hips when a massive explosion rocked the house. “What the hell is going on?” With the sound of gunfire and another explosion in the background, she quickly finished getting dressed and ran from the room in search of Justin.
Running downstairs, she noted that the house was in a total uproar. The house staff were screaming and running for the exits, trying to avoid the gunfire coming from outside. It looked as though a bomb had gone off with parts of walls, the stairway, and the roof missing. Nakia didn’t see any sign of Colt, Justin, or Imani. She took a glance out at the front lawn and was shocked to see five of Colt’s security guards behind columns to shield themselves from the thirty or so advancing men, all dressed in black. The security guards were outnumbered, and Nakia was glad that she’d grabbed her gun after getting dressed, thinking of evening the odds from her concealed spot from inside the house.
However, her action was halted by the sight of Alexander, Imani and Colt’s two-year-old son, running across the hall toward her, screaming at the top of his lungs. Nakia wrapped an arm around his middle, catching him in mid-flight.
“Mama!” he wailed.
Nakia got the usual jolt of longing when Alex called her mama. He was at a cute age when he seemed to get confused with names. When he’d called her that last night and run to her, Justin had whispered in her ear, “Soon.” Imani had thought it funny, but Nakia had instantly fallen in love with him. Alex had Colt’s and Justin’s emerald green eyes and dirty-blond curly hair and Imani’s light caramel skin. He was a beautiful baby, and Nakia’s womb had throbbed with wanting. “Where’s your mama, Alex?”
“Mama!” he wailed, his gaze glistening like wet jewels.
His tears alarmed Nakia, especially when she saw a woman, who was wearing a maid’s uniform, running toward them. Alex tightened his arms around her neck, now shrieking, “Mama!”
Nakia tenderly patted his back and whispered soothing words to calm him,
“Good morning, ma’am. I’ll take care of the baby for you,” the maid offered.
The woman’s unwavering, almost desperate focus on Alex made her pause. “I got him,” Nakia murmured.
“Mrs. Ragnarson, I need to take the baby,” the maid insisted.
Nakia was immediately suspicious. It was clear that the woman was mistaking her for Imani. And with Alex calling her mama and pressing his face into her neck, the woman was confused. While Nakia had to consider that she was wearing Imani’s clothes, the similarities between her and Imani weren’t really that many. Yes, they had long hair, were almost the same height and had similar skin tones, although her skin tone was a bit darker. However, the two women couldn’t look more different. She was tall at five-nine with serious curves, while Imani was several inches shorter and sleek like a runner. Imani’s eyes were light brown, hazel, while hers were gray. Her long hair was usually worn in a sleek straight curtain, while Imani’s tresses were a mass of thick shiny curls. No, they looked nothing alike.
Nakia wasn’t sure who the woman was either, but it seemed odd that there was gunfire on the outside, everyone running for cover, and the other woman hadn’t tried to warn her of the danger or appear panicked by it. “What’s happening out there? Is that gunshots I hear?” Nakia asked. She watched the maid carefully and tightened her hold on her gun, anticipating a weapon at any moment.
“I don’t know, Mrs. Ragnarson. I need to take care of the baby.” The maid reached for Alex again, but Nakia settled him more securely to her hip.
“I’ll keep him, thanks. Why don’t you go see what’s happening out there?”
The maid shook her head and wrung her hands.
This woman was wasting her damn time. Nakia pushed past her impatiently and ran toward the room that she knew was Colt’s office. It was empty. She would have given anything to see Justin’s fierce face right then. None of this shit made any sense, and she was terrified.
Baby Alex clung to her and whimpered with every sound of gunfire and scream in the background.
She ran from room to room on the ground floor. There was no one about, but the west side of the house was almost completely damaged, and gunshots from the outside had almost completely died down. An eerie silence lingered once the screaming stopped.
Nakia run back up the stairs just as the front door was kicked in.
Colt and Imani’s room was on the west side of the house, which seemed to have sustained the most damage from the explosion. She ran toward their room now on hearing Imani’s dog barking, thinking that they were probably hurt from the blast. At the sight of part of the bedroom wall in rubble, Nakia came to a stunned halt. After a glance inside the room, she noted Imani lying unmoving on the floor, partially covered by debris. Imani’s Coton de Tulear was barking his head off and running in circles by Imani’s head. He looked as though he was trying to wake his mistress up, but Imani remained motionless on the floor. Crushing sadness filled her at the thought that Imani could be lying in that room dead with no one to care for her. Her tears almost blinded her. She started toward Imani, intending to secure her body.
“Not another step or I’ll kill you and the kid.” A menacing acc
ented voice stopped her in her tracks.
Nakia had her back to the men who’d just come along the hall. She didn’t know how many there were, but from the widening of Alex’s eyes and his whispered, “Man,” she knew that they were in trouble. Almost dissolving into a fit of hysterics at the seemingly insurmountable threat, Nakia hardened her resolve and eased her gun into the waistband of her jeans. No way could she try to take them on. She used her blouse and baby Alex to hide the outline of her weapon. She turned slowly, wanting to see who she was up against.
There were at least six men in the hall, and more seemed to be roaming about on the ground floor. It was clear that they had overpowered Colt’s security team. Bile rose from her stomach to her throat, almost choking her with sorrow at the lives lost. Unshed tears burned her eyes at the thought of Colt and Justin probably out there somewhere; otherwise, how had these men gotten in here? She had to have some hope that the men were fine until she saw bodies to the contrary.
“You have me at a disadvantage.” Nakia was proud of how steady her voice sounded when she was scared shitless, but her anger over their senseless killing gave her added steel in her spine. “Who are you, and what do you want?”
“Secure the woman and the kid. I want out of here in two minutes! And someone, for Christ’s sake shut that mutt up!”
The man’s accent finally registered, and she blanched. He was Russian. There wasn’t a chance in hell that the Italian mob of Chicago was going to be working with their Russian foes. What was going on here?
The man looked past her to Imani on the floor. He looked back at her, and Nakia swallowed hard. She had no idea what his cold expression meant as he raised his gun toward the puppy.
“No, don’t hurt him,” Nakia shouted desperately. “He’ll be quiet. Just have someone lock him in the bathroom. It’s still standing.”
The Russian nodded at one of his men, who then grabbed the puppy not too gently, threw him into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.
Nakia could still hear the puppy whining, but she breathed a sigh of relief that he was at least alive.
“Which one of them is the engineer?” one of the men asked the Russian. This man sounded like a normal American.
Nakia had no idea what to think.
“I don’t know, but this one is holding the kid,” the Russian muttered.
“The boss will be pissed if we bring back the wrong one,” another man noted. That one was American as well.
The Russian shot him at point-blank range, muttering, “Your boss can go fuck himself.”
Alex screamed and started crying in earnest. “It’s okay, little man. I’ve got you.” Nakia rocked and soothed him as the Russian turned a hard scowl toward them. Thankfully, Alex stuck his thumb in his mouth, curled his other little arm around her neck, put his head on her shoulder, and whimpered softly.
The Russian looked at Nakia and smiled grimly. “You’re a good mama.” He smirked.
“Why the fuck did you do that?” yelled another man as he came toward their group. He looked down at the man the Russian had killed in disbelief.
A few of the other men, who looked Russian, pointed their guns at the man looking down at his friend in horror.
“Unless you want to be next, mudak, I suggest you shut the fuck up,” he muttered. He turned away after issuing his threat as though bored before looking over at Imani’s fallen body again and then at Nakia. “The engineer is the one with the baby,” the Russian insisted.
Nakia tried to look confidently back.
“If you’re not the engineer, you’re going to pray for your own death,” the Russian told her coldly. “Pat her down. Make sure she doesn’t have any of her damn gadgets on her.”
One of the men approached her to carry out the Russian’s orders.
Nakia froze with apprehension. Alex, probably sensing her angst, started screaming and clutching her tightly as the man got close to them. He was so hysterical that the man stopped and looked back at the Russian for guidance.
The Russian hissed with annoyance and started muttering in his language. “At least take her watch. I heard they did some shit with that.”
Nakia hastily slid her Fitbit off her hand and gave it to the man hovering next to her.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here before those Ragnarson bastards return,” he ordered.
Nakia almost fainted in relief on hearing that Justin and Colt were still alive somewhere. And then the devastation of Imani’s death rocked through her again. She blinked rapidly to keep her tears at bay. She had to be strong for the baby. Squaring her shoulders with a new resolve, she remained rooted to the spot despite the male hand on her arm trying to get her to move. “Let me leave the baby here. He can get cranky when we take him from the house.”
“Either we take the kid, or we kill him. Your choice,” the Russian told her coldly. “And you’d better keep that brat quiet, or we will quiet him for you.” He pulled her along, and Nakia didn’t resist this time.
Nakia clutched Alex to her, vowing at that moment to protect him at all cost. As the men escorted them from the house at gunpoint, Nakia wished that she could close her eyes to the horror of the many dead and injured bodies they passed along the way to the waiting SUVs lining the driveway.
The Russian stopped abruptly and calmly shot the few men she had identified as Americans.
Hiding Alex’s face against her, Nakia bit back the scream and bile that rose in her throat at the senseless killing. They continued the parade to the SUVs after as though nothing had happened.
They had only been in the car for about ten minutes when her phone started vibrating in her pocket. With Alex now asleep against her side, his little body not only hid her gun but also hid her phone. She only hoped that in their haste to leave, the men continued in their negligence of checking her for weapons and continued to dismiss her as a threat.
Chapter Fourteen
“Motherfucker, you’d better hope nothing happens to my son or even your mother won’t recognize your ass when I’m done with you,” Colt roared.
“I don’t know who these guys are,” Baldacci whined. “No one was supposed to die! Fuck, they killed my men! You think I’d help them after that? Whoever did that is an animal! And there sure as fuck was no plan to take your son! We don’t mess with kids, man. That’s not how we work. You have to believe me.”
“Well, someone had the bright idea to do all this shit because you ran your mouth about my wife. So, I’m still going to fuck you up for this!”
Justin remained stonily silent during the running exchange between Colt and the asshole Baldacci. He hadn’t been able to think straight since they arrived at Colt’s house and walked into their worst nightmare. He’d been in war zones that had been easier to stomach.
Colt had lost his shit when they’d found Imani unconscious on the floor of their bombed-out bedroom. At first, they’d thought she was dead. Colt had been like a mad man and had moved most of the debris she’d been trapped under by himself.
“What the fuck? Imani?” His voice was clogged with tears. He gently shook the shoulders of her limp body. “Baby?” Tears rolled down his cheeks. “Come on, baby. Wake up!” His grief was palpable, and Justin fought hard to hold his shit together.
Justin and Mac stood next to Colt’s bent figure as he clutched Imani against his chest, his arms almost crushing her. Tears continued to stream down Colt’s face. Justin got down on his knees beside him and gently placed his hand over Colt’s. “Let me take a look, Colt.”
“No! No!” Colt shook his hand away. He buried his face against Imani’s with huge sobs of pain.
Justin couldn’t help the tears that came to his eyes on hearing his brother’s gut-wrenching sorrow. “Let me see her, brother.” With some basic medical training and out of necessity, he had sometimes been the medic for his Special Forces unit. He wanted to try to help his brother now.
Colt reluctantly allowed him to examine
Imani. It took awhile, but Justin eventually found the slight pulse and the bloodied bruised spot in the back of her head. “She’s alive,” he whispered. “Her pulse is weak, but there’s some swelling and bruising here that could explain her unconsciousness. We need to get her out of the dust and rubble. I can take a better look at it then.”
His words only seemed to make Colt more anguished, but this time Justin was happy to see the hope return to his brother’s watery gaze. Things moved fast after that. Tending the swollen area, clearing her air passage, and getting her cleaned up took almost an hour. However, in that time, they had also taken stock of the damages, the lost lives, and most devastating fact that both Nakia and Alex were missing.
One of the guards who’d been badly hurt but would survive his injuries told them that Nakia and Alex were taken by a group of men. The news of that had made Baldacci laugh.
Wrong move.
Colt had been on him in seconds.
“You authorized this? You killed these people? Hurt my people? And took my son and Nakia?”
“Look, the mission was only to take your wife. We didn’t know the lawyer was here. I don’t know who authorized the taking of the lawyer and your son. I’m not into human trafficking, and that’s all they’d be good for.”
Baldacci almost choked on his own spit when Colt punched him in the throat.
Waiting for Baldacci to stop coughing and wheezing for air, Colt growled, “Someone gave that directive, bastard.”
The thought of Nakia in the hands of Baldacci’s men had been devastating enough, but now this was an unknown force, unknown enemy and that chilled him to the bone. Justin was clenching his teeth so hard he couldn’t speak. With the assholes having his nephew and his woman, they weren’t taking any chances.
When Imani finally regained consciousness, she was a mother bear on a warpath. The fact that the men had used C-4 explosives to gain access to the property infuriated her more than anything. Their complete lack of care for human life pushed the scales. And while they’d only been determined to teach Baldacci and his men a lesson, they had to now change their assessment to something more permanent for this new crew.
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