Chapter 10
ROSA
A phone rings, startling me awake, as I roll over. The nausea I’ve felt for the last week and a half should hit at any moment. Rory has his family doctor coming over later this morning to check me out. I wonder if I’ll ever actually meet his family?
“Hello? Uh. Yeah. One second.” He presses the mute button on his phone. “I have to go out.”
Panic flairs on my face. “But?”
“I promise.” He leans over and kisses my forehead. “No one is going to hurt you.”
Dread pushes up the bile I feel gurgling in my throat as I nod. “Are you showering before you go?”
He hops out of bed and strolls to his dresser. “My shower last night is all I need.” He waves his arm to the bathroom. “Feel free.”
I will myself to hold it together as I stand. “What about your doctor?”
“Oh. He texted. He’ll be here in an hour. You’ll like him. He’s a nice old guy.”
“Okay. Sure.” I pad into the bathroom to pee and shower.
Setting the plate in the sink, I glance around the apartment. It’s much less extravagant than what I am used to. But a great improvement to the cheap motels we stayed in over the last few weeks. A knock sends a bolt of dread through my body. Looking through the peephole, there’s an older white-haired guy staring at the door. I open the door to his smiling face.
“Hello.” His accent is very Russian which makes my heart skip a beat. “I’m Dr. Kovalev. You must be Rosa?”
“Yes. Please come in. Rory should be back soon.”
“No worries. He mentioned you’ve been sick to your stomach.”
We walk into the kitchen as he sets his bag on the end of the counter. “Would you like some coffee or juice?”
“No. Thank you. Tell me about your symptoms.”
“I’ve been nauseous for the past week or so. I thought it was food poisoning.”
The man nods. “Are you throwing up all day?”
“No. I throw up in the mornings and sometimes in the late afternoon. It’s like my stomach has butterflies in it.”
He reaches for his bag. “Could you be pregnant?”
Chewing on my lip, I drop my gaze. “Maybe.”
“That would explain your symptoms.” He pulls out a white box with a pink border. “Go pee on the stick and we’ll see.”
I take the box from his hand and trudge to the bathroom. Will Rory be mad? Blowing out my breath, I read the directions and do what it says. A few minutes later, I walk out with the stick in my hand and the box in the other. “It says I’m pregnant.”
Dr. Kovalev smiles from my kitchen sink. He’s been rinsing my dishes to put into the dishwasher. “Well, that solves the mystery. I’ll write down the vitamins you need to take and text Rory the name of an OB/GYN here in Manhattan.”
I’m staring at the man as the nausea peaks. Turning, I run back to the bathroom and empty my stomach for the second time today.
He strolls in and pulls a washcloth off the counter, running it under water. “Here.” He helps me to stand as I take the cloth. “You’re worried about what he’s going to do about your pregnancy?”
Nodding, I lean into the sink to rinse my mouth. “Yeah.”
“Rory is an interesting man. I’ve known him all his life. This will make him happy. His father, eh? Probably not, but it’ll be okay.”
The way the man talks about Rory and his family gives me comfort. Maybe he’s right.
The front door opens, and I bound out expecting to see Rory. My father’s uncle, Arturo, and my father’s brother, Marco, stand in the living room with Cheshire cat grins.
“What the fuck?”
Dr. Kovalev steps up behind me muttering in a foreign language I recognize as Russian. He switches to English. “Mr. Aguilar. Why are you here?”
“We’re her family. We’ve come to take her home.”
I race around the doctor to get into the master bedroom to lock the door. I have no way to contact Rory. They’re going to kill me. I rush to the bathroom door as the bedroom door splinters from the jamb. Arturo and my Uncle Marco step into the room and move in to corner me.
“It’s time for you to stop running. We have the flash drive. This is over now.”
I stop and cross my arms, glaring in defiance at Uncle Marco. “I’m not going with you. Where is Rory?”
A sadistic smile covers his face as my Uncle Arturo chuckles. “Wait. You fell for the assassin?”
“What are you talking about?”
“He’s the Russian we sent to find you and bring you back.”
“What?” The old man hovers at the door, cringing at his words. My heart sinks. “He knows you’re taking me?”
“Of course he knows, you stupid bitch. Did you think he was going to keep you, and you’d live happily ever after like a fucking fairy tale?”
The doctor moves into the room. “This isn’t necessary. I’ll take her to the estate, and we’ll work this all out.”
Uncle Arturo pulls a gun and points it at the man. “We’re taking her now. It would be a shame for the Bravikovs to lose their favorite doctor.”
“Bravikov?”
Arturo nods. “Ding ding. You’re not as dumb as you look. The man who murdered your father sent his assassin brother to bring you to us. It was an agreement.” He opens the dresser drawer and pulls out clothes and throws them on the bed. “Get dressed for travel. We’re leaving.”
“But?” I stare at the doctor as he avoids my eyes. “Is it true?”
He nods. “Roric’s father sent him to get you and kill you if necessary. They needed to protect Cynric and the bratva.”
“Oh…” My entire world crashes around my heart. My unborn child and I are going to die at the hands of my family or worse. What happens when you traffic a woman and the buyer finds out she’s pregnant?
Arturo screams with spit coming out of his mouth. “Get ready. We’re leaving.”
I grab the clothes off the bed and put them on over the shorts and t-shirt I’m wearing. The socks seem too loose, but I slip them on my feet as someone hands me my tennis shoes. Everything that’s happened over the last few months is a complete blur. He fucking lied to me. I never actually meant anything to him.
Arturo’s hand wraps around my upper arm as he drags me from the room. “You fucking stole from us.” His grip tightens as we go out the door. “Stupid bitch.”
I turn to make a comment as his hand slams across my face. Blackness surrounds my vision as I fall to the ground…
RORIC
Stepping into my father’s foyer, I rush past the soldier guarding his study. Pushing open the door, I bark at my father sitting behind his beloved antique desk. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Roric? When did you become the pakhan?”
“I’m not the pakhan, but I’m not your bitch either. Why was I summoned by a lower-level bratva soldier?”
“I was busy.” My father smirks from his seat. “It appears you’ve become attached to the cartel bitch.”
“Her name is Rosa. She’s not a threat to us. She gave us the flash drive. Surely there is stuff on there to help us with the Aguilars.”
“We got what we needed from the drive and gave it back to them.”
“What?” My neck hairs stand straight out as my mind processes his words. “Why did you give it back?”
“Leverage. They know we have everything on the drive. This will keep them in line.”
“I disagree, but you’re the boss. So, Rosa’s not in any danger anymore?”
“No. They’re taking her home, and what they do with her is none of our business.”
“The hell it isn’t. She’s mine.”
“What do you mean, ‘she’s yours’?”
“I married her. They can’t have her.” I’ll marry her tomorrow and pretend it was before.
“Well, fuck. They already do.”
Blood rushes into my brain and muffles the words coming out of my father’s mouth. I bolt from his study and dash to my SUV. “Fuck!” How the fuck did this happen?
Thirty minutes later, I run into the apartment. Dr. Kovalev, my father’s doctor, a man we fondly call the dentist because he lost his license years ago, sits at the counter. “They took her.”
“No fucking way.” I slam my fist into the wall and create a large crater with drywall pieces flying to the floor. “When did they leave?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
I pivot to leave as he calls my name. “She’s pregnant.”
“What?” A wrecking ball hits me in the stomach as my mind wraps around his words. “Pregnant?”
Nodding he holds up a piece of white plastic. “Pregnant.”
“Fuck!” An imaginary video of Rosa round with my child and a child babbling in her arms play through my head. “A baby.” Reaching for the edge of the counter, I steady myself. “Fuck. She’s carrying my child. I need her back.” I grab my phone out of my pocket, pressing buttons until my oldest brother, Cynric, answers. “I need you and the rest of the brothers. My wife is missing.”
“Wife? When? Who did you marry?”
“The woman who witnessed you killing that prick. I married her. She’s pregnant. I want her back.”
Cynric growls. “Well, fuck. Papa gave her to Arturo.”
“Yes. I want her back.”
“Give me a couple minutes.”
I’m staring at my phone and our dentist fidgets next to me. “What?”
“You need to know something.”
“Okay. What?” Anticipation bubbles to my brain remembering he was here because she’s sick. “Oh God, is she okay?”
“They hit her.” His words echo through the apartment, taking on a life of their own in my head. Dialing my father, he answers.
“Roric?”
“I know you’re not happy about my choice of woman, but you should know the dentist confirmed she’s pregnant with my child. They hit her, Papa.”
A string of Russian swear words stream out of my father’s mouth, making me smile. He’ll move heaven and earth to find her now. My mother will haunt him from the afterlife if anything happens to a grandchild. “We’ll get her. Fuck!” The call ends.
It takes my father less than five minutes to call me back. “The Aguilars won’t give her back. They said she’s promised to some sheikh.”
“What the fuck does that mean? Wait. They’re selling her. Over my dead body. I’ll kill every fucking one of them. I’ll cover everything in Aguilar blood.” My phone vibrates. “It’s Cynric.”
“Take his call.”
I answer Cynric. “She’s pregnant.”
“That makes this easier, I suppose. They’re taking her out of the city in a half hour. Apparently, they offered her to someone willing to pay top dollar for her. They actually advertised her as ‘Snow White’. Can you believe that? I’ve texted everyone the address. Fingers is working on tracing phones, now.”
“I’m on the move. Who’s with me?”
The doctor grabs his bag and moves towards the door. “I’m coming.”
“You don’t want to be there. I’m going to kill people.”
He guffaws. “I don’t care about them. I care about your woman and your child.”
Nodding, I rush through the door.