Chapter 44
Chapter Forty Four
Elsa
I move fast.
Too fast to care about dignity. My hands shake as I drag my jeans up under the stupid gown, denim catching on my calves while paper and fabric twist around me.
I don’t care that Dr. Bianchi is still in the room.
I don’t care about modesty.
I don’t care about anything except getting dressed, getting out of here, and finding Antonio.
My sweater goes over my head next, hair snagging in the collar, and I yank it down hard enough to feel the seam scrape my shoulder.
Shoes. Purse. Breathe.
Then I turn and come face-to-face with the doctor.
She’s standing there staring at me, and her face has gone white. Not pale. White.
Terrified.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
My mind is already halfway out the door. “Sorry about what?”
I glance toward the exam room entrance. Antonio said he’d be right back.
Vito is out there. Antonio is out there.
Nobody is getting to me.
Nobody is getting past them.
Then I look back at her and really see her.
She looks like she might faint.
My stomach drops.
“Don’t worry,” I say automatically, trying to calm her because, apparently, I’m the calm one now.
“They won’t let anyone get past them.”
Her eyes fill with horror.
“It’s too late for that.”
Every muscle in my body locks.
“What do you mean?” My voice comes out thin.
She shakes her head frantically.
“They threatened my family. They said if I didn’t cooperate, they’d hurt my husband. My little boy.” Tears spill over now. “They told me all I had to do was let him in before your security sweep. They said he only wanted to talk. They said no one would get hurt.”
Cold crashes through me.
“What did you do?”
She makes a broken sound. “I let him hide in my office.”
No.
I move for the door on instinct, panic taking over so fast my vision narrows.
The exam room door opens.
A man walks in.
Huge. Broad. Dead-eyed.
He fills the doorway, and terror slams into me so hard I can’t breathe.
I back up immediately.
“Doctor,” I say, hearing the panic in my own voice now. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
She looks at him, then at me, realization finally dawning.
“They said they wouldn’t—”
“They lied.”
The man smiles.
Slow. Ugly.
My blood turns to ice.
“The decision on the acquisition is out of my hands now,” I say, backing away from him one step at a time. “There’s nothing I can do for you.”
He keeps coming.
Finally, he speaks.
“That’s why this isn’t a kidnapping anymore.”
The meaning hits me like a blade.
No reason to keep me alive.
The doctor grabs a scalpel from the instrument tray on the counter, but he backhands her so hard the crack of it fills the room. She flies sideways into the cabinet and collapses in a heap. Out cold.
The scalpel skids away.
Now it’s just me.
And him.
He stalks toward me, patient now, like he already knows how this ends.
I lunge for the other side of the exam table, putting it between us.
“What do you want from me?”
He says nothing.
Just keeps coming.
“Bellandi isn’t getting the acquisition,” I say, voice breaking. “There’s nothing left to bargain for.”
Nothing.
Then desperation rips through me, and I blurt, “I’m pregnant.”
His expression doesn’t change.
“I’m having twins.”
His smile widens.
“Three birds. One stone.”
My babies.
Terror goes white-hot.
I cannot die here.
I keep the exam table between us, moving when he moves, forcing him to go around it, trying to buy a second where there isn’t one.
Where is Antonio?