Was Malik really going to make it so easy? Hand his daughter over in exchange for Mia—no more questions asked? No more bullets flying? It seemed too good to be true.
With a deep breath that only seemed to set his lungs aflame, he looked back across the car where he still cupped Mia’s cheek.
“You should let your hair down,” she said, eyeing his low bun. “Your hair was down in the only picture she has of you. It’ll make it easier for her to recognize you.”
He stroked her cheek with his thumb once more, unable to escape the fact that Emma would soon be back in his arms but Mia would be ripped from them. Another woman he cared for deeply—taken. Another woman he’d promised to protect—hurt.
“It was a long time since I cared to know a woman after Lisa…” He drew in a sharp breath when his eyes burned, fighting through the emotion tightening his chest. It showed in his voice, however, which came weaker than before. “I won’t sleep, Mia.”
Her own eyes filled.
“I won’t sleep until I get you back.” He made his vow to the thoughts she wouldn’t dare utter but were written across her eyes. “As soon as I have Emma in a safe place, I’ll find you. Twenty-four hours. Forty-eight, tops. You planted the GPS, right? The way we practiced?”
She nodded. She even smiled. But her eyes told the real story.
He searched her gaze, knowing there was nothing else he could say to erase the shattered gleam from her eyes. All he could do was prove his words by taking action.
And he would.
But, for now… it had to be Emma.
As if his thoughts had summoned her, the sound of an engine roaring from behind tore Linc and Mia from their reverie. They turned to look out of the car’s rear window and caught sight of a black SUV barreling across the rocky beach. The truck’s big tires kicked up pebbles as it moved, the uneven terrain causing it to bob back and forth before it finally came to a stop several hundred feet away. Even from a distance, the head full of curly blonde hair was visible from the backseat, popping up through the windshield.
Linc’s breath quickened, an unbearable tingle racing across every bone in his body. His hands trembled as he seized one of the two guns sitting in the center console. The thought of Emma being in that car rendered him weak. Like a frail baby bird who hadn’t yet learned how to fly. For a moment, the gun in his hand seemed like a foreign object, so encased was his mind with the need to have his baby girl in his arms for the first time. He found clarity quickly enough, however, and cocked both guns.
The sound snapped Mia out of her own trance, and her wide brown eyes flew to him, gleaming with tears.
He reached out the moment the first tear popped from her eye and raced down her cheek, catching it with his thumb while giving her one of the guns.
“It looks like it’s only Hakeem, Malik’s head of security, and maybe two others.” she whispered, her voice stunned as if she couldn’t believe her husband was actually going through with it. “He didn’t bring an army.”
“Election’s two weeks away. You’ve been gone too long. People are going to start asking questions if they haven’t already. I’ve got time to fight. For the rest of my life if I have to. He doesn’t. It was only a matter of time before he had no other choice but to give me what I wanted.”
“I’m glad you’re getting her back.” Her voice broke softly just as another tear jetted down her cheek. “I really am, Linc. She’s lucky to have a father like you. And I’m lucky too. The time I’ve gotten to spend with you, it’s… it’s been the best time of my entire—”
“Don’t.” He lowered his eyes with a shake of his head, still pressing the gun into her hand. “Don’t say goodbye to me.”
“I just want you to know that I—”
“We’re not saying goodbye, Mia. That’s what we’re not going to do. Take the gun.”
She swallowed thickly and took the gun without further argument. It shook in her hand as well.
“Remember what we talked about…” Both their eyes went to the rearview mirror overhead just as the driver’s side door to the SUV opened in the distance. His eyes went back to hers. “If anything goes wrong, you pull the trigger, you understand?”
She nodded sharply.
“You a’ight?” he asked.
She nodded again. She even tried to say the word “Yes”. Nothing but hot air left her lips, however, as her gaze rose back up to the rearview.
He reached across the car, took the back of her neck in his hand, and pulled her in. Their lips met in a hot kiss, their breathy moans mingling between them as their eyes fluttered closed. Linc felt like he could sink inside her and live under her skin forever. His fingers dug into the back of her neck and tried to do just that. To claw his way in.
He broke the kiss and turned away before her sweet taste could draw him any deeper. Before her big brown eyes could keep him rooted to that seat for another moment longer. Another moment, he knew, might be a moment too long. So he threw open the driver’s door while grabbing the only remaining gun from the center console. On his way out of the car, he pulled the black elastic band from his hair, letting the wavy brown strands tumble down over his shoulders.
The muggy air outside encased him, making every breath a little more ragged. He looked up at the overcast sky with the roll of dirty waves in his ears before his squinted eyes looked across the beach.
He waited for bullets to fly.
Nothing came.
Not as he circled the car to the passenger’s side, opened the door and pulled Mia out, taking her arm in a gentle grip as she stumbled out onto the rocks. Her knees trembled in time with his, making it a clumsy walk toward the rear of the car.
Across the beach, the doors to the SUV opened as well. Two men stepped out with rifles at their sides, glaring across the beach at Linc and Mia from where they stood on either side of the truck. Hakeem climbed out of the driver’s side a second later and motioned for the two men to hold their fire as he made his way to the back door.
Emma jumped out next, her own skinny knees wobbling, wearing baby blue overalls with a matching bow clipped on the side of her blonde curls, and Linc was frozen in place. Emotion blurred his vision, but not enough to erase the sight of the wind picking up her spiraled hair and making it flutter around her face. Not enough to cloud the sight of her innocent green eyes flying across the expanse toward him and Mia, or the squint in her orbs as she looked at them.
Hakeem—the man who Mia had identified as Malik’s head of security, snatched Emma’s arm, stealing her attention. His hold appeared tight enough to make the blood charging through Linc’s veins boil. So hot he worried they might melt right through his skin. Then, Hakeem was pulling Emma, so quickly it made her stumble to keep up with him, her eyes lowered as she seemed to give every bit of her concentration to not tripping and falling.
And Linc was guiding Mia as well, his heart never so torn in two as it was at that moment. Moving toward the girl he’d loved most from the moment her mother had spoken her name to him, all while knowing he’d have to let go of the one he loved second most. The closest second he’d ever believed he’d be blessed with again.
“It’s okay, Linc,” Mia whispered.
Only then did he realized that he had her arm in a death grip, even though the time had come for him to release her the way Hakeem had released Emma across the way.
Emma moved forward once she was free, peeking over her shoulder at Hakeem every few seconds. Hakeem motioned to Linc every time Emma looked over her shoulder at him as if she didn’t understand what was happening. As if no one had explained to her that her father was there to take her back to her rightful place. Back into his arms, where she belonged. Where he’d never let another bad thing happen to her again.
When Emma turned back toward him, and her eyes met Linc’s once more, his hold of Mia’s arm finally loosened.
“I love you, Linc.”
He distantly heard Mia’s voice in his ear, and his eyes tried to shift to her, bu
t Emma’s pull was too strong. Even as he opened his mouth to respond to Mia, he couldn’t because Emma was squinting at him from across the beach. Her blond hair blowing across her face as she took him in. Mia had told him that Emma had a picture of him. But how old had the picture been? Would she recognize him? Would she come to him? Or would she fear him? Would she refuse the genuine safety of his arms for the faux safety of Malik’s? The man who’d stolen her from him? Would Linc’s home be good enough for her? Or did she already believe she was home?
The questions running through his mind made his stomach go sick. They sent a zap of terror racing through his body.
So when Emma’s mouth fell open in the distance and Linc saw her mouth the word, “Dad?” he had to clench his teeth to stop the tears from falling from his burning eyes.
And then Emma broke into a furious run, screaming, “Dad!”
Linc nearly fell to his knees. The entire world became a blur, and all he saw was her. That tiny girl racing across the rocky beach as fast as her short legs would allow. Her chubby cheeks blazing red and her big green eyes filled with fat tears. He moved toward her like a zombie, enslaved by the sound of that word on her lips—dad—being screamed at the top of her lungs. A little louder with each step she took in her race to get to him, hitting a shrieking pinnacle that eventually made her voice go hoarse. Leaving nothing but wheezing air flying from her curled lips as she continued to cry out for him anyway.
When she was within a foot of him, the warmth in his veins became too much, and Linc did sink to his knees, opening his arms just in time for Emma to launch her tiny body into them. Her little arms slung around his neck with surprising strength, enough to make his already gasping breath come up short as he wrapped his own arms around her body and embraced her just as tightly. They gasped in each other’s arms, too overcome to speak a single word or even move their bones. Not even considering the danger they were both still in.
During his last phone call with Malik, Linc had warned him that he had a friend on standby. A friend who—in the event Linc or Emma turned up hurt or dead—was ready to release news of Mia’s abduction. He’d assured Malik that his friend was ready to release the photo of Mia, bound to the bed with black mascara running down her eyes, to the London press come morning. Effectively killing any chance of Malik winning the election.
Not even the idea of Hakeem disregarding that treat and attempting to put a bullet between his eyes was enough to bring Linc back to the present, however. To pull him from the beautiful world he was in. A world where he was hugging his daughter for the first time, and she was hugging him back. Where she’d found her home in his arms, the same way he’d found his home in hers. Where the promise he’d whispered to his wife was finally fulfilled.
He knew, at that moment, he’d die before he ever let his daughter know the same fate as her mother. He’d die to protect Emma by any means necessary. His thoughts snapped him out of his haze and, still holding her close, he moved backward toward the car and huddled behind the passenger door that still hung open, using it as a shield to block them from harm just in case Hakeem decided to try him. He could still see Hakeem and his goons in the distance, but if they decided to open fire, the door would make it much harder for a bullet to connect.
Emma was the first to pull back, and Linc followed suit, both of their cheeks crimson red as they searched each other’s eyes for the first time. Their chests heaved, and Linc reached up to push her curls away from her face, her tears making the strands stick to her cheeks.
Her voice still strained from screaming, she whispered, “Daddy?”
Linc couldn’t help a smile, which quickly ebbed into a soft laugh as he stroked her hair, nodding. “Yes, baby.” His hands moved from her hair to her cheeks, her cheeks to her shoulders, and her shoulders to her arms, his fingers shaking wildly as his eyes followed his hands, looking her over as his gaze shot back up to hers, amazed that he was actually touching her. Looking at her. “You okay?”
Emma seemed just as amazed at the sight of him, unable to speak another word, but only able to nod her head.
“You wanna come with me?” he asked, his heart stopping in mid-beat, terrified of the answer.
She nodded again.
And his heart resumed beating. “You don’t have to be scared, a’ight?”
She shook her head, voice coming as weak as a baby bird’s. “I’m not scared.”
The first tear fell from Linc’s eyes, not realizing how badly he’d needed to hear those words from her until they’d already petered from her lips. “Did they hurt you, baby?”
She shook her head no and then found her voice once more, full of hope. “Is mommy with you?”
His mouth fell open. He couldn’t speak.
“He told me…” Emma sputtered, her face going even redder than it already was, face crumbling. “He said…”
Linc already knew the words she couldn’t speak, and his horrified silence seemed to confirm the thoughts racing through her head because she flung her body at him once more, clapping her hands around his neck before bursting into tears on his shoulder.
“I’m never gonna let anything happen to you,” he promised into her ear, struggling to hold himself together as the weight of the terrible truth hit his daughter for the first time. He realized at that moment that he had no idea how to comfort her. How to tell a little girl that her mother was gone and was never coming back. He didn’t know how she liked to be held. The best words to use to soothe her. How to make the pain go away.
He didn’t know, but he’d breathe his last breath fighting to figure it all out.
Locking his arms tight around her, Linc stood. Her skinny legs naturally locked around his waist as he lifted her off the ground. Her every limb fastened around him so tightly not even a crowbar could unlatch them. He clutched the back of her head and turned his nose into her hair, breathing in her scent.
She smelled like Lisa.
The realization made fresh tears fill his eyes.
But when his glistening orbs focused—as well as his wild mind—on the black SUV across the beach, his tears dried. The sight of Hakeem grabbing hold of Mia’s arm with the same violent grip he’d just used to grab Emma’s froze Linc’s heart like a block of ice. Hakeem snatched the gun from Mia’s hand with a scowl. A gun Mia hadn’t even tried to use on him. Linc knew it was because she was outnumbered, three against one, and hadn’t wanted to risk Emma’s safety or jeopardize the trade. He clenched his teeth as Hakeem dragged her to the truck. She looked over her shoulder at Linc as he did, her eyes wide, her chin trembling, and lips curled as her face collapsed with tears.
“He’s going to kill me, Linc.”
He sucked in a sharp breath as the look on her face blasted him back to the night of their first and only argument. He bared his teeth at the memory of the terror in her eyes. His muscles tensed, and white-hot rage nearly melted his veins.
He’d promised Mia he’d make her a widow.
And even with his daughter in his arms for the first time, it was a promise he intended to keep.
33
It should’ve been a moment of celebration as Linc looked into the rearview mirror and saw the drawbridge he’d just cleared, rising, ensuring that no one would be trailing him once he hightailed it out of France and never looked back. It should’ve been a moment of celebration that the blonde bundle curled up in the passenger seat next to him—with the chest strap of her seat belt pushed incorrectly behind her back—was finally safe with him and not with the monster who’d dropped millions to purchase her. It should’ve been a celebration that they’d both gotten out of the trade alive when Malik could’ve easily waged all out war.
But Linc couldn’t celebrate. Not with the memory of Mia’s face as Hakeem dragged her away, staining his mind. The memory of her telling him she was as good as dead now that Malik knew they’d slept together. He thought about all the horrible ways Malik would enjoy hurting her, and he knew he couldn’t waste any time.
/> When the drawbridge finished its rise, leaving him and Emma alone, nothing but freedom awaiting them down the quiet road ahead, Linc licked his lips and moved his gaze to the passenger seat.
Emma’s eyes met his, staring with just as much wonderment as he felt for her in his heart.
A heart that was somehow calming and exploding all at once. That would never be big enough to fit the love filling his every breath for the little girl looking back at him. As they held each other’s gaze across the car, he realized Mia had been right. Emma was brave. As much as it hurt him, Linc couldn’t deny the truth. He was a stranger to her. She didn’t know him any better than some random man on the street. But, regardless, not once had she recoiled after he’d locked her body in a breathtaking hug on the beach. Not once had the tiniest glimmer of fear flashed across her eyes thereafter. Most children who’d been ripped away from the only home they’d ever known would be inconsolable. Terrified. But somehow, Emma knew.
She knew her home was with him.
Not only was she brave, but smart. It made him wonder, as his eyes broke away from her and landed on the yellow stuffed bear sitting in front of the gearshift, if that bear had been a miscalculation for a little girl that was five going on fifty. Regardless, he picked up the bear, stared at it for a moment, and then cut his eyes to Emma while licking his lips. With a deep breath, he leaned in close and offered it to her.
She accepted the stuffed animal on offer, then fluttered her lashes, peeking up at him as her cheeks reddened with a gentle smile.
She’d be the death of him. He knew it as he felt his own cheeks warming too, moving to volcanic levels when she took the bear in her small hand, hugged it to her chest, and buried her face inside it.
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