by Apryl Baker
Saul’s delivery guy arrived before Jim did, which didn’t sit well with Angel. Granted, Saul’s was only a short walk, but still, they’d had to cook the food before bringing it.
“Well, shit.” Jasper looked around, perplexed. “Where are we gonna sit and eat? This place is filthy.”
He had a point. The thick coating of dust and God only knew what else covered the floor. Angel wasn’t exactly sure what the building had been before, since all fixtures and signage had been stripped. They hadn’t even left a random chair sitting around. It was just one big open space with a few rooms in the back. They were as empty as the front.
“I guess we’ll eat standing up.” She shrugged and walked over to help him with the bags. She’d asked for a salad and pizza. Saul had her regular order on hand, since she’d stopped so often to pick up pizza for dinner. The heavenly smell floating in the air didn’t make her stomach rejoice at all. It protested instead, and nausea decided to rear its ugly head.
“Hello?” They both looked up to see a large man lumbering through the front door, a clipboard in his hand. “Mrs. Kincaid?”
“Jim?” Angel turned away from the pizza, but it didn’t really help her stomach all that much.
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded and shut the door behind him. “Sorry for the delay this morning. I still haven’t been able to reach Chad. I’ll be happy to walk the building with you and do an in-depth estimate in his place.”
As irritated as she was at the situation, he had gotten here in the timeframe he’d promised, so she bit back her smartass remark. She needed to get the ball rolling. Nik did a thorough check of the contractors in the area and assured her this man was one of the best.
“I appreciate that. I’d like to get work started within the next few days.”
“Of course. I can have crews ready to go as early as tomorrow.” He looked down at his clipboard, his expression changing. “I almost forgot. I found this on the door outside.”
Angel took the manila envelope he handed her, frowning. It was addressed to her. Opening it, she pulled out photos and felt her world tilt.
Photos of her.
She blinked, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
Photos of her in a hospital bed.
In Miami.
Right after Matthew’s birth.
Raw pain bled out of the image of her talking to the doctor, listening to him tell her the baby didn’t make it. That they’d already disposed of his body.
How?
Why would anyone send this to her?
“Mrs. Kincaid?”
She heard Jasper’s concerned voice, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the image. Bile rose, and she coughed, trying to choke it down. Black spots danced in front of her eyes, and she reached out, trying to find something to steady herself with, but there was nothing.
Darkness started to eat away at her vision, but still she couldn’t look away from the photo. Angel shook her head, but the blurriness wouldn’t go away.
And when her legs gave out, and she fell, her eyes remained on the image until there was nothing left but the dark of unconsciousness.
“Motherfucker!”
Kade paced while Nikoli sat in Kade’s office chair, eyes glued to the screen in front of him. He’d tried to find Mason this morning, who knew more about hacking than Nikoli did, but his youngest brother was nowhere to be found.
Dylan flew out to Miami last night to be their eyes and ears on the ground there. No one in the cartel knew Dylan, so they all agreed it would be safest for him to go snooping. He also knew more about gang intel than any of them did. He’d been working the gang unit of LAPD before he took the job here at KS&I.
“Cool your shit.” Nikoli didn’t even glance his way. “It’s going to take as long as it takes. You don’t want this tracing back to us.”
“Mason installed firewalls that make it impossible to trace shit back here.”
“Nothing is impossible. Difficult, but not impossible.”
Nik was currently hacked into several governmental websites in Miami looking for information on Juan Ramirez and his son.
Or maybe Kade’s son.
This waiting around was killing him. He had no patience for it. Nik had been working since around seven this morning. It was now well past noon. Kade’s every instinct prodded him to get on a plane, hunt the motherfucker down, and take his son back, but Dylan was right. He had no proof, only gut instinct, and that would get him arrested.
Nik’s phone buzzed, and he glanced at it. The ringtone was Lily’s.
“Hey, Lily Bells. You on your lunch break?” Nik got up and walked out of the office. As much as the interruption irritated Kade, he kept his anger in check. He couldn’t fault his brother for taking a break to speak with his woman. Kade would have done the same.
Well, maybe today he wouldn’t. He was hiding things from Angel. That was the reason he’d snuck out so early this morning. He wanted to tell her everything, that she’d had such a physical reaction to the boy because it might be Matthew, but he couldn’t do that to her. To get her hopes up and then find out he wasn’t theirs? It would crush her, and Kade would rather slice off an appendage than cause her any more pain.
His mother had often known things she shouldn’t have, things her sons didn’t want her to know. Things they’d done that would have made her so disappointed, but guilt usually got the best of them. Strangely, she’d never been shocked when they confessed or admitted she was right about something being wrong.
A mother knows her child.
That was what she’d always say. Kade got lost once, and it had taken them about an hour to find him. He’d been six or seven. He remembered being afraid and thinking if he was lost for too long, his parents wouldn’t recognize him. It was a child’s fear, but his mother had sat him down in her lap, hugged him close, and assured him that even if he had been lost for years and years, she would always know him, because a mother knew her child.
Angel knew Matthew the moment she saw him. She knew he was hers. Every instinct in her drove it home, her body physically reacting to leaving him. A mother knows her child.
He should have listened to her. He should have gone straight to the hotel and…and what?
He had no proof. No evidence. He’d have wound up in jail for attempted kidnapping. There was no way in hell he’d have left there without his son or in handcuffs.
“Sorry,” Nik muttered a few minutes later. “She’s worried. Having security trailing her is making her nervous. You know how anxious she gets if strangers are around. They won’t know how to help her if one accidently touches her and she’s not expecting it.”
“I thought she was a lot better?”
Nik shrugged and sat back down. “With people she knows, yes. Strangers, though? Whole other ball game. And her fucking boss is a flirt. Fucker better keep his distance.”
“You know this because…?”
“Because I met him a few days after she started working there. Fucker thought he was going to keep her there all hours. I explained to him if he didn’t fuck off, I’d buy the damn company and then let’s see what might happen.”
“Did you tell Lily you spoke to him?”
“Shit, no. Do you think I have a death wish?” His onyx eyes widened, horrified at the thought.
“He might tell her, though.”
Nikoli cracked his knuckles, a Cheshire Cat grin overtaking his face. “I thought of that. Fucker knows if he says one word to my girl, I will buy the company and toss him out on his ass and get him blacklisted in the industry.”
“You’re a video game mogul. How do you plan on blacklisting him in an industry you know nothing about?”
“The literary agency she’s at is one of the oldest and most prestigious in New York. They know the right people. I’d have them do it.”
“You’re an evil motherfucker, you know that?”
“Yup.”
Kade resumed his pacing, and Nikoli went back to hacking. Why
was this taking so damn long? He needed information.
“Wearing the stain off the floors isn’t going to make this go faster.”
“I can’t help it.” He stopped and slouched against the wall, the pent-up frustration urging him to hit the wall instead. “If he has my kid…”
“If he has my fucking nephew, God won’t be able to hide him. I’ll spend every dime I have hunting the fucker down.” The fury rolling out of his brother matched his own. “When do we get the DNA results back?”
“Dylan promised they’d be couriered over this evening, no later than eight.” The hours were ticking by slower than molasses, as Angel would say.
Max Sheridon, the firm’s tracking expert, knocked then poked his head through the door. “Why aren’t you answering your phone?”
“My phone?” He pulled it out and found the battery dead. He forgot to charge it last night. “What’s going on?”
“Jasper called. There’s a problem. He said to get your ass to Angel’s new bar like your life depended on it.”
“Why?” Fear knotted in his belly, every scenario running like a herd of wild horses through his mind. He’d worked with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit for too long.
“He didn’t say. He just said to git there.” Max’s Texan drawl came out thicker whenever he was upset. Now was one of those times. Max liked and respected Angel. Jasper had to have used a tone to get Max riled up.
He didn’t waste another second, just flew out of the room, aware both men were right behind him.
“It has to be the cartel.” Kade knew it in his gut. “Can’t you drive faster?” Nik had slid into the driver’s seat before he could. Kade hadn’t argued, figuring he wasn’t in any condition to drive in midday traffic in his enraged condition.
“I’m already over the speed limit. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“Jasper, this is Max. We’re on our way. Boss wants to talk to you.” Max handed his cell over to Kade without him having to ask for it.
“What the fuck happened?”
“Someone left pictures for her.” Jasper took a deep, steadying breath. “They’re pictures of her in the hospital. She looks younger.”
“Motherfucking bastards.” He slammed his fist into the dashboard so hard it cracked. “Where is she?”
“In my lap.”
“What the fuck…”
“Calm down. She passed out, and the floor is filthy. If I can’t get her to wake up in a few minutes, I’m calling an ambulance. She hit the floor hard.”
“Don’t fucking wait. Call 9-1-1 now. We’ll be there in five minutes.”
“9-1-1?” Nik honked the horn and hit the gas. “What’s wrong with Angel?”
“Passed out. Some bastard sent her photos from when she was in the hospital in Miami.” At least that was what he assumed. She might have been hospitalized in the six years they were apart, but he had a sinking feeling in his stomach this was the cartel announcing they knew who she was.
They arrived the same time as the ambulance. Kade almost knocked the EMTs down in his rush to get to Angel. Watkins was sitting on the floor, Angel unconscious in his lap. Another man he didn’t recognize stood behind them. He dropped to his knees beside them and took her face in his hands. “Moye serdste.”
She looked so pale. Whoever caused this was going to suffer.
The EMTs forced him to move and let them work. They lifted her to the stretcher and started taking vitals. Watkins followed and handed him the photos. Just as he suspected, these were from the day they lost everything. Bastards took photographs. Sick, fucking bastards.
Rage burst over his skin like a flash fire through a forest. A sound somewhere between a growl and roar left him. Nik took the photos from him and started cursing in a mixture of Russian and English, a bad habit they shared.
“Sir, we’re going to take her to the ER. I would feel better if she had a CT since she hit her head when she fell, and we can’t wake her up.”
He barely heard the EMT, but he nodded. Nik promised to meet him at the hospital, and he climbed into the ambulance, working hard to keep his anger under control.
Los Muertos.
Rage turned into a cold, hard determination.
They would pay for this and for his son if it was the last fucking thing he ever did.
The sterile scent pulled old memories to the surface for Kade as he paced in the waiting room of Presbyterian Hospital. The vinyl covered chairs, the magazine rack, the tile floor…he shook his head and buried those memories. Now was not the time to let that awful night get in the way.
She still hadn’t regained consciousness by the time they’d arrived at the hospital, and he could see how much it worried the EMTs. It only made his own unease deepen. What was taking so long? They’d taken her back an hour ago.
“Angel girl is going to be fine.” Kade glanced at Nik, who stood lounging against the wall among the magazine racks. His expression betrayed the assurance he tried to convey. The boy looked as scared as he did.
Sometimes Kade forgot how well Angel knew his brother. The two of them shared a bond it had taken Kade months to understand. He and Nik had almost ruined their relationship over a woman once. If he didn’t know how much Angel loved him, he could easily have gotten jealous.
Watching them, however, he grew to understand they’d naturally fallen into more of a sibling relationship. Nik had no family in Boston, and Angel needed someone to fill the hole the death of her brother left. It was as simple as that, and instead of jealousy, he felt nothing but gratitude toward his brother for helping her stay sane until he could find her again.
“Why the fuck haven’t they come out and told us something?” Nik pushed off the wall and started to pace.
A question Kade had no answer for.
Another half an hour ticked by until finally the doctor came out and called Angel’s name. Kade and Nik both rushed him. He heard the men behind him hurry over as well, but he focused his entire attention on the doctor.
“What’s wrong with her?” he blurted.
“You are…?”
“Her husband, Kade Kincaid.”
“Mr. Kincaid.” The doctor nodded and spoke directly to him. “I’m Doctor Blake. Your wife’s CT is clear, but she does have a concussion. Given her condition, we are going to keep her overnight.”
“The shock, you mean?” Kade asked, already thanking God nothing serious was wrong.
“She is in shock, yes, but I wasn’t referring to that.” The doctor frowned. “I’m referring to her pregnancy.”
“Her what?” Kade’s entire body went slack, and Nik caught him. Pregnant?
“You didn’t know?” The doctor smiled. “Now I’m wondering if your wife knows. She hasn’t been conscious long enough to ask her.”
“What do you mean? I thought she just had a concussion.” He wanted to reach out and shake the man.
“From what I was told by the EMTs, she had a shock severe enough to make her faint. We ran bloodwork when she came in. Her pregnancy showed up in the labs. It worried me that she wasn’t waking up for more than a minute or two at a time. We ran a head CT that showed no anomalies. It could simply be the shock to her system she suffered, but I’d rather be safe and keep her overnight for observation even if she does fully wake up in the next few hours. We’ll run another CT later to make sure we didn’t miss something small. All her labs and her scans are clean, Mr. Kincaid. We’re just taking precautions.”
It did nothing to ease his own worry. She should be awake. Shock should not keep her unconscious.
“Can I see her?”
“Of course. We’ve had her moved to a room. Marcy will show you to her.”
Nurse Marcy eyeballed them. “I’m guessing all of you are coming?”
“I’d say yes.” Kade knew the men here all adored his wife, and the more prayers she had, the better.
Nurse Marcy shook her head. “Follow me.”
They rode the elevator up to the sixth floor where pat
ient rooms were located. Kade rushed in, and his heart dropped into his stomach. She lay there so still and pale, her red hair tousled. Innocent, vulnerable, and he wanted nothing more than to see her open those cat eyes and glare at him. Hell, she could scream every curse word she knew at him, and all he’d do would be to grin because he’d know she was okay.
“She needs rest more than anything.” Nurse Marcy checked the IV machine she was hooked up to. “Rest and fluids.”
“Fluids?”
“She was a little dehydrated when she came in. Most likely from the pregnancy. Congratulations, by the way.”
“I…” He rubbed his forehead. Pregnant. “Thank you.”
“I’m her nurse until seven tonight, then Linda comes on. I’ll be outside if you need anything, Mr. Kincaid.”
Kade ignored her, but he did see Max staring at her, his eyes oddly guarded. Something to ask about later, but right now, all his attention was on his wife. Nik pulled a chair up for him, and he sank down, taking her hand. It felt cold to the touch.
“Moye serdste.” He cupped her cheek with his other hand and leaned up far enough to place a gentle kiss on her lips. “Please wake up.”
Nik sat across the bed on the other side while he told the boys to go find more chairs. No one would be leaving tonight. They’d locked up the office on their way out. Thankfully, there were no clients coming in today.
“She’s okay.” Nik took her other hand. “They said she was okay.”
He nodded, unable to confirm she was fine, because she wasn’t awake.
“Why the fuck isn’t she awake, then?” Nik ran a hand through his hair, one of Kade’s habits when he was scared or worried.
“Did you see anyone following you?” Kade turned his attention to Watkins. “Anything that felt out of the ordinary this morning?”