She stood resolutely behind a chair. Her body was feeling weak. A hunger was starting to rage through her blood at his proximity, but evidently Isandro’s passion had burnt itself out. And no way would she be revealing her own vulnerability to him.
She watched as he opened his drawer and plucked something small and shiny out. He came around the desk and handed it to her.
‘Here—it’s a mobile phone.’
She looked at it, confused. ‘But I have my own phone. I don’t need yours.’
‘You do need it if you’re going out on your own and taking my son with you.’
Her eyes met his. ‘He’s my son too.’
His jaw clenched. ‘This phone has all my numbers stored in case something should happen.’
‘What on earth could happen?’
‘You just need to be careful. We were featured extensively in the papers after that night in Seville. People know you’re back on the scene. Change like that makes me and Zac and you vulnerable.’
Rowan felt a shiver of fear. She wasn’t stupid. Of course a man as wealthy as Isandro could be a target for all sorts. She still ignored the phone.
‘We don’t have to go into Seville—’
Irritation shot through Isandro. Couldn’t she see he was doing this for her? The fact was, ever since he’d heard her crying the other night and witnessed her withdrawing into herself, he’d been … frightened. He wanted a reaction—wanted to make her do something. Wanted to see her during the day now as well as the night. His body throbbed uncomfortably and he tried not to let his eyes roam over her hungrily as she stood in front of him.
He was so distracted that he barely noticed when she finally accepted the phone. ‘I still don’t see how it’s different to my own.’
Isandro shook his head. ‘If anything happens just speed-dial me on number one. But I’ll send Hernán with you too, so I’m sure you’ll be safe.’
Rowan turned the phone over and back. She looked up for a second before she left. There was an intensity in his eyes that she couldn’t fathom and which made her legs weak. She had to get out of there. She turned to walk out, but at the door he called her.
She turned back.
‘I’ll see you at the office. The girls will be looking forward to seeing Zac.’
A moment of pure exhilaration gripped her at his banal words, for all the world as if this was normal, as if they were a happily married couple discussing plans for the next day. And then just as swiftly Rowan felt that everything was crystal-clear. How could she have been so stupid? Anger rose, swift and bright. She walked back into the room, clutching the phone.
She held it out. ‘This isn’t about security at all, is it?’
Isandro had the gall to look nonplussed.
‘You’re afraid I’ll try to run with Zac if you give me the slightest chance, aren’t you? You’re testing me.’
Two spots of colour were high on her cheeks and she was shaking. Isandro was genuinely taken aback. He hadn’t thought of that for a second, and now he felt stupid for not doing so. Because clearly it was uppermost in her mind. He advanced around the desk.
‘Is it cramping your style for me to know where you are at every moment of your journey?’
Rowan wanted to throw the phone back in his face. She could feel its imprint in her palm. She longed to tell him she didn’t want to go to Seville, but she knew this was an important step in the process of making him trust her with Zac. Still words slipped out, helplessly. ‘When will you just trust that I have only the best intentions where Zac in concerned?’
His eyes glittered down at her, a stormy blue. ‘Oh, maybe on the twelfth of never.’
Rowan backed away to leave again. ‘Send an army with us if you wish, Isandro. I don’t care.’
But she did, she knew, as she left and went upstairs.
Isandro went and sat down behind his desk, driving a hand through his hair. Even as she had been standing there, mocking him for his own lack of suspicion, he’d been aware of her. Aware of her body, of the rise and fall of those soft breasts under her shirt. He wanted her. Mistress or wife. In his bed. And he hated to admit that he’d been ridiculously comforted to see a spark return to her eyes after two days in which her only animation had been inspired by Zac.
He’d vowed after the other night not to touch her again, but he knew that might be taking his will a step too far. The woman was running rings around him and she didn’t even know it. But if she did, or if she suspected for a second …
His phone rang and he answered curtly. He heard his assistant’s voice. ‘What …? Nothing?’ His hand spiked through his hair again. ‘Yes, I want you to keep looking. Leave no stone unturned. She can’t have just disappeared off the face of the earth.’
He slammed down the phone. He also hated this impulse to find out for himself exactly where she had been all this time. Forewarned was forearmed, he told himself. It was clear she’d been trying to tell him, but he would not listen to her lies before he had the truth in his own hands.
The next day Rowan looked at the phone for a long time. It seemed to shine up at her malevolently. But at the last second she threw it into Zac’s bag of necessities. She knew it would be childish to leave it behind, and she had no doubt that Isandro would be most likely checking up on her.
She couldn’t help a frisson of excitement as she settled Zac into the baby seat of the Jeep. The thought of Seville didn’t scare her any more; she was feeling so much stronger these days. They loaded up—she in the back with Zac and Hernán driving. They waved goodbye to Ana-Lucía, who was on the steps.
Then Rowan was distracted, because Zac was grouchy and demanding attention. She tended to him for a few minutes, digging out water and a biscuit, so she didn’t see Hernán slowing down or coming to a stop until he had, about a mile outside the small town.
She looked around his seat and asked in Spanish, ‘Everything okay?’
‘No problem. A car has broken down and I recognise it as my cousin’s. I’ll just check to see if he’s okay …’
She looked back through the rear window. The broken down car was some distance behind them. Hernán had obviously passed it before he’d seen it. She made funny faces and played with Zac, and then cast another half-interested look back to the other car.
What she saw made her blood run cold and her heart stop. As she watched Hernán approach the car, a man stepped out from under the hood with a wrench and hit him on the head. It was so unbelievable and so fantastic that Rowan literally did not believe her eyes—not even when she saw another man emerge from the back of the car. Hernán fell to the ground, and the man with the wrench approached her in the Jeep.
She was stuck, couldn’t move, but finally, when he was mere seconds away and she saw the flesh-coloured balaclava, she jerked into action and fumbled for the locks on the doors. There was only one thought in her head: Zac.
She was too late. The door on Rowan’s side was pulled open, and the man grabbed her and pulled her out so fast and with such violence that her head spun. He was shouting at her in Spanish, but she couldn’t make any sense of it. Then the other man arrived. He grabbed her too, and said roughly, ‘Habla español?’
She shook her head again, to try and clear it. He took that as a no.
‘Stupido—Hernán said she’s English. She doesn’t speak Spanish. Get the kid.’
Rowan forced her mind to clear. Sheer primal protectiveness came to the fore and gave her courage. She made for the other side of the Jeep and Zac, babbling in English. She knew she’d have an advantage if they thought she didn’t understand them.
She got to the door before they did. She ranted in English. It worked. The two men looked at her, and then she heard them say, ‘Let her take the kid. What does it matter? I don’t want to hold a screaming brat, do you?’
The other one grunted and gestured for Rowan to open the door. She did. Her hands were shaking so much that it took an age to undo Zac’s straps and lift him out. She grabbed his bag
too, in a moment of blinding clarity. Zac sensed the tension immediately and started to whimper.
The men shoved her roughly and moved her towards the other car. Everything happened in terrifying slow motion, and yet conversely so fast that before Rowan knew it one of the men had frisked her and she was sitting in the back of the car, arms firmly wrapped around Zac. Rowan’s flesh still crawled from where the man had felt her bottom.
One of them put a secure blindfold over her eyes. They then got into the front and started the engine, pulling away with a screech of tyres. She couldn’t let herself be scared. Think, think, think. She repeated the words like a mantra. The phone. She had to find it and call Isandro somehow. If she didn’t it would be hours before the alarm might be raised. She just prayed that it wouldn’t ring. She shushed and settled Zac securely into her chest, and then with a free hand started to feel for the bag. She found it—and felt a big hand over hers, stopping her. Her heart thudded painfully.
‘Water!’ she said urgently. ‘Water for my baby.’
‘It’s okay—she just wants water. Let her get it.’
The hand left hers and Rowan searched. She found the water instantly, and then searched for the phone. About to give up hope, and fearful that the man would take the bag and get the water himself, finally she found it. She could have wept with relief. It was so small she could tuck it into her palm behind the bottle.
When she could feel that Zac had taken the bottle in his hands himself, she surreptitiously moved her hand behind him, to hide what she was doing. The men were talking now, arguing. Rowan used their preoccupation. She felt for where she thought the first digit would be. Then she pressed it, and racked her brain for where the call button had been.
With no idea if she was doing anything right, she pressed a button just as she felt the car slowing, then turning onto what she guessed was a motorway as their speed duly increased. She used the moment to throw the phone back into the baby bag. Was it her imagination or had she heard someone’s voice, distant but there? Rowan knew that if she had got through to Isandro this might be her only chance, so she leant forward and said loudly in Spanish, ‘Why are you kidnapping us? Where are you taking us? Why did you knock Hernán out? He could be badly hurt—you should call an ambulance …’
There was silence for a second, and then mayhem. She sensed the blow before it came, but it still snapped her head sideways. ‘She speaks Spanish!’
Zac started to cry again, and Rowan calmed him down, knowing that their patience was less than thin.
One of them shouted back, ‘We’re taking you away for a while, to give your rich husband time to think about how much you’re worth. And once we have you …’ He mentioned in lurid detail what they would do to her, and Rowan blanked her mind. It was the only way. Thankfully Zac seemed to have quietened; she could feel him heavy against her chest. Tears pricked her eyes. She couldn’t believe this. If anything happened to Zac … She vowed that it wouldn’t. They would have to step over her dead body first.
After what seemed like hours over potholed roads they stopped. Rowan knew they’d been climbing in altitude because her ears had popped. One of the men pulled her from the car and ripped off her blindfold. She blinked painfully. Zac was a dead weight, mercifully asleep.
‘No harm you seeing where we are now, because, querida, it’s too remote to worry about.’
He shoved her in front of him towards a small stone shack. It was up on the top of a mountain, and there was literally nothing else in sight but craggy peaks.
Despair rose. The shack was windowless and cold and damp. She was pushed into a room and the baby bag hurled after her. Alone at last, Rowan put Zac down on a mattress and rummaged through the bag. She found the phone and the screen was smashed. It must have happened when the bag had hit the ground.
She busied herself getting a blanket for Zac to lie on. He was waking up again, groggy and cranky. She only had milk and baby snacks. She gave him another biscuit, which kept him occupied for a while, and then a bottle. She changed his nappy, trying to make things as normal as possible.
But after that his energy was boundless, and she couldn’t blame him after being in the car and asleep for most of the day. She tried to encourage him to play quietly, but of course he had no understanding of the situation they were in.
He marched to the door and tried to reach up to open it, crying out when he couldn’t. Rowan had been searching in vain for any means of escape, and darted forward just as the door opened, knocking Zac backwards. He started to cry, and the man bent down, his huge hand heading straight for Zac’s head.
‘No!’ Rowan screamed, and pulled Zac back out of danger. She straightened up, breathing harshly, and had no warning of the hand that now came her way, cracking across her face. She felt her lip split and staggered back. The man went for Zac again, but like a tigress Rowan made a leap and caught Zac up into her chest.
Her head was ringing and she could taste blood. ‘Don’t touch him.’
The man stepped forward, but Rowan stood her ground.
He stopped then for a second, as if slightly confused. ‘If I hear him so much as breathe I’ll throw him down the mountain.’
He left the room and, shaking, Rowan went to the mattress and sat down, taking Zac with her. He was mercifully quiet, his eyes huge as he looked at her and her cut mouth. He put out a finger and pointed. Rowan tried to smile, but pain lanced her head. She spoke softly to try and reassure him, and got a tissue to try to stem the blood coming from her lip.
Losing all sense of time and place in the dim light, Rowan found her eyes closing. Zac had fallen asleep against her chest, and she wrapped his blanket around him to keep him warm. Her head kept nodding, and when she jerked upright some time later and found they were in the same position she had no idea of how much time had passed. She was so stiff that her legs had gone numb, her arms had pins and needles.
She came fully awake in an instant, though, when she sensed something outside. A movement, something … Zac woke too, and whimpered. Immediately Rowan was on her guard and stood up on wobbly legs, holding Zac tight within his blanket against her.
This was it. She knew it. They were going to try to take Zac from her and then—Her mind went blank with the horror of what was about to come.
The door opened, light streaming in from a flashlight and Rowan blinked. ‘You will have to kill me to get to my son. My husband is on his way, and he knows exactly what—’
‘Rowan? Mi Dios, what have they done to you?’
Rowan thought she was hearing things. She had to be making it up. It couldn’t possibly be—
‘Sandro …?’
‘Sí. Yes. It’s me.’ His voice didn’t sound like him. She couldn’t trust it. It couldn’t be possible. He came into the room, and more lights blazed behind him. Rowan felt disembodied, wasn’t sure if she was standing or sitting or lying down. All she was aware of was Zac in her arms.
And then he stood in front of her. Tall and dark in the light, and so handsome and vital and real. If it was a hallucination then she could die happy right now.
CHAPTER TEN
THE adrenalin was still pumping through Isandro’s body, and the metallic taste of fear was still in his mouth. When he’d opened that door all he’d seen had been two huge pairs of violet eyes. And such determination and fearlessness in Rowan’s. For a second the emotion coursing through him made him stop. He couldn’t actually touch them yet because he was shaking so much.
Rowan finally allowed the relief in, the reality, and then all the other emotions she’d been suppressing surged up. ‘Sandro, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said I’d go to Seville. If we hadn’t been going then this wouldn’t have happened. Zac should have been at home. I could have gone on my own. You were right. I never should have come back in the first place. It’s my fault—’
Isandro’s heart clenched painfully. It had been his suggestion, his fault. And yet she was blaming herself. ‘Shh, Rowan, it’s okay. Give Zac to me
.’
She stopped, feeling her mouth trembling, her limbs starting to shake. She knew she had to let go of Zac but she just couldn’t. She tried, but it was as if her arms were welded across him, holding him so tight. A sob broke free. ‘I can’t—I can’t let him go.’
‘You can. Here …’
She felt Isandro put his hands over hers and warmth seemed to seep through her chilled skin. She felt Zac move instinctively towards his father, and somehow, finally, she was able to relax her arms from their death grip.
He took Zac and held him close for a long moment, and then she watched incredulously as he handed him to someone behind him. Then he turned to her and took her hands in his again. ‘Do you think you can walk?’
She nodded, feeling slightly removed from everything. Why wasn’t he just leaving now that Zac was okay?
‘Of course—I’m fine—’ She took a step and her legs promptly gave way, but as if he’d been expecting it Isandro caught her and scooped her up into his arms.
Rowan’s mouth felt funny, and as they came out into the other room her eyes blinked in the intense light. Isandro was looking at her. At her mouth.
‘What happened?’
An ugly voice came from beside the door. ‘I hit her when your brat wouldn’t shut up.’
Rowan tensed immediately in reaction to the horribly familiar voice and knew the two men were there, albeit probably tied up. She felt Isandro tense too. But without a word he walked outside and gently placed her in the back of a warmed Jeep, beside Zac, who was in a baby seat being tended to by a female police officer who smiled kindly at Rowan.
Rowan vaguely took in all the police, the flashing lights. She heard a scuffle and then Isandro was walking back out and cradling his hand. He sat into the front passenger side of the Jeep and the driver expertly swung them around to drive away.
Rowan knew he’d gone back in there and hit the man, and she felt glad. Because she would have hit him herself if she’d had the strength.
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