Chapter Five
The sun sank toward the horizon as Sasha’s dread climbed. She had to make a decision.
She watched Harper on a blanket in the middle of the floor, clutching a new teddy bear under one arm as she scribbled with a fresh box of crayons across a pristine coloring book. At the moment, her daughter played more like a typical kid than she had in…well, ever.
Sasha swallowed and glanced at London on the sofa beside her. “Thank you for bringing Harper some toys. You didn’t have to—”
“It was our pleasure.” London grinned. “It gives my husbands a glimpse into our future.”
Sasha wondered how and why a woman with a seemingly sweet disposition and an air of innocence had fallen for two brothers.
Not that she was judging. Little shocked her anymore.
She’d spent years in New Orleans, in the heart of the Quarter, where most anything was not only possible but happened regularly.
Dulce cried in fussy whines and pants. The Santiago brothers passed her back and forth, doing their best with voices and funny faces to make their daughter smile. They loved her madly, and it showed.
Sasha’s chest tightened. Harper would never know a father’s love. Mike was gone forever, and Sasha couldn’t imagine a future in which she met another man she’d choose to share her life—or her daughter—with.
“She’s hungry,” she murmured to the pretty blonde with the big, winking diamond on her ring finger.
“Yep. Some things a mother just knows.” London paused. “Listen, I realize the choice in front of you is gut-wrenching. In your shoes, I’d be falling apart. I love my husbands more than life…but the love a woman feels for her child is something else altogether, pure and unbreakable.”
Sasha nodded, too close to tears to speak. She’d been turning this dilemma over in her head for hours. She felt tied up in knots.
London laid a hand over hers. “Your daughter will be safe with us. I’ll be with her.
Javier and Xander are protectors, and I guarantee their first call once we leave here will be to Xander’s bestie, Logan.
He’s a former Navy SEAL with twin daughters of his own.
Logan will fix us up with the best damn bodyguards in the state.
No one will let anything happen to Harper. ”
Though that eased her mind some, Sasha still hesitated, biting her lip. “All that would turn your life upside down. And the expense—”
“Sasha, Nick once helped my husbands and me in desperate times. I wouldn’t be alive today if that man hadn’t stepped in.
We can never repay him. This is the one and only favor he’s ever asked of us.
You and Harper are important to him, so you’re important to us.
Besides, your daughter is absolutely precious.
It will be a privilege to keep her safe while she recovers. ”
Sasha was running out of reasons to refuse except the thought of being separated from her baby wrenched her heart. But refusing the Santiagos’ offer wouldn’t be best for her daughter, just easier for her own peace of mind. “You’re not worried about Dulce getting sick?”
“I can keep the girls apart until Harper is better. Frankly, that’s one of the perks of having two husbands.”
A smile flitted across London’s glowing face as if she paused to remember some of the other undoubtedly pleasurable perks of being married to two handsome, rich men.
Sasha cast a glance at Nick. He watched her intently.
At times, he seemed ruthless, like the hardened criminal she’d expected.
And sometimes, he didn’t seem like a bad guy at all.
He was definitely dangerous; Mike hadn’t been wrong about that.
But even with Nick’s audacious sexual demands, he didn’t seem dangerous to her.
And if she was honest, the memory of him on top of her, pinning her down, gaze penetrating hers, made her breath catch.
God, she was in way over her head. The situation—Clifford, the danger, Harper’s illness, Nick’s demands, her own crazy attraction to him—was spinning beyond her control. She had to start making some decisions now. Dithering could get everyone killed.
“Let us watch Harper for you,” London implored, then cast a sidelong glance across the room. “You and Nick are up to your eyeballs in trouble. Harper needs rest, and we owe Nick. You’re the only other thing I’ve ever seen him care about. You need him…and I think he needs you.”
Sasha resisted that notion. “I don’t have anything to give him.”
Except the one thing he’d demanded.
“You do.” London didn’t spell it out, just looked as if she knew the truth and thought Sasha was being a coward for not facing it.
“I’m helping him take Clifford down. That’s all he needs.”
“Don’t you want revenge, too? That crooked bastard killed your husband.”
Of course Sasha wanted vengeance for Mike, but she owed her daughter a normal childhood.
So far, all Harper had known was being homeless, dirt poor, and afraid.
Maybe…if she and Nick managed the seemingly impossible, her baby could someday have a home and toys and a safe school in a lovely neighborhood.
Maybe Harper would forget all about this terrible time in their lives.
“All right. I’ll go.” Sasha’s voice shook. “Harper can stay with you.”
With a sigh of relief, London laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Thank goodness. I know that was a tough decision. I promise, we’ll do everything in our power to protect her.”
“I believe you.” And Sasha did. Something about London’s demeanor told her the woman had overcome devastation. Because London understood pain and suffering, she would never heap them on anyone else.
The blonde hugged her. Then Sasha heard London’s soft voice in her ear. “Nick needs you in other ways. Don’t be afraid of whatever’s between you. He’s a good guy with a crappy past who got framed for a vicious crime. What he needs most isn’t your help, but your caring.”
Before Sasha could reply, London backed away and cozied up next to Harper on the floor. Blinking, Sasha stared. What could she say? The only thing between her and Nick right now was Mike’s missing evidence and her agreement to be his mistress for the month.
She lifted her gaze to the man. A tingling wave of awareness spread through her. Hunger darkened his face. Her heart careened wildly. Would he want the first installment of his payment tonight?
“Sasha?” he asked, glancing at London playing with Harper on the blanket.
“She’s not coming with us.” Sasha knew she would fall apart when the time came to leave her baby—her most important reason for living—behind. But it might save her daughter’s life.
“Good.” He nodded her way, then glanced out the window. “It will be dark in thirty minutes. We’ll leave then.”
That meant she had to pack up the clothes Nick had washed for Harper, along with the pretty new things the Santiagos had apparently brought and her new medicine. In less than five minutes, she was handing a bag to London, then pulling Harper into her lap.
God, she ached at the thought of leaving her baby. Again, Sasha asked herself what kind of mother would leave her daughter, but the answer was simple: the sort who wanted her child to live.
“Baby, you’re going to go spend a few days with Ms. London and Dulce. They have lots of toys and I’ll bet if you asked, they’d feed you some ice cream. Okay?”
“Icth cream?” Harper’s face lit up, her smile so much like Mike’s.
She nodded. “Does that sound good?”
Harper bobbed her head.
“We’ll have lots of fun,” London promised.
“Yeah!” Harper hugged the teddy bear in her grip.
It seemed like a blink later that Xander cradled a sleeping Dulce and hustled his brother out the door. Their wife followed, carrying all of Harper’s worldly belongings on her shoulder and holding the little girl’s hand. To Sasha’s surprise, Harper didn’t cling to her mother, just hugged her.
“I’ll miss you.” Sasha held in a cry, trying not to clutch her desperately.
“Miss you, mama.” The girl planted a sweet kiss on her cheek. “Come back soon?”
Sasha certainly hoped so, but she refused to make a promise she might not be able to keep. “I’ll do my very best, sweetheart.”
“Who wants chicken nuggets for dinner?” London distracted the girl.
After one last squeeze, Harper turned back to the other woman. “With frewnch fries?”
London laughed. “Of course.”
“I love you,” Sasha called out to her baby.
“Love you.” Harper waved, more intent on London’s promise of fried food.
As her daughter disappeared around the corner, London looked her way with a silent promise that Harper would be safe.
Thank you, she mouthed.
Then they were gone.
Sasha pressed her lips together and gripped the threshold, doing her best not to fall to her knees and sob. What if she never saw her daughter again?
Suddenly, Nick wrapped strong hands around her shoulders and drew her back against his big chest, cradling her. “Harper will be all right.”
He said that like it was a fact.
“I haven’t been away from her for a second since she was fifteen months old.” When Sasha closed her eyes, tears spilled from the corners.
Mike’s funeral. She’d left her daughter with a neighbor during the graveside service because it had been scorching and cloying and pouring down rain. With every word from the minister’s lips, she’d been silently praying to God to help Mike’s soul rest easy and to keep Harper safe.
“It’s better for her,” Nick reminded her in a calm voice.
Sasha knew that. It just didn’t feel that way. “We’re leaving?”
“Now,” he confirmed as he released her.
She suddenly felt cold again. “I’m ready. I already gathered my things.”
It took less than two minutes for him to shut off all the lights, grab their bags, and lead her out into the alley.
The evening was crisp. Sasha pulled her sweater tighter around her. Nick watched everything around them as he slung his backpack and her duffel over his shoulder and guided her down the road with a hot palm at her back.
In fifteen silent minutes, they reached a parking garage. Nick sneaked his way around the security guard, ducked under a series of video surveillance cameras, then crept through the shadows and up the stairs until they reached a black SUV on the third floor, near an executive entrance door.
Glancing one last time over his shoulder, Nick pulled the keys from his pocket and unlocked the vehicle with a beep before he opened the passenger door. “Get in.”
She did as he stowed their bags. “How are we going to get out without being seen?”
“Easy,” he assured as he climbed in beside her. “The license plate is registered to the corporation. Vehicle’s new.”
She could smell the pristine leather and off-the-factory-floor parts. “So?”
“The windows are tinted. No one will be able to see us. I’m sure it’s equipped with a sticker to get us out of this garage without having to even roll down a window. The question is, where are we going? What do you know?”
While Nick backed out of the parking spot and the SUV glided down the ramp, she tried to recollect everything she’d done to solve the puzzle Mike had left her.
Nick’s big fingers around the steering wheel distracted her.
His thumb tapped the leather beneath—the same thumb he’d brushed across her nipple last night.
She shivered with forbidden pleasure at the memory.
True to his word, when they reached the exit, the security arm lifted without them having to engage the guard at the exit.
“Sasha?”
His deep voice demanded an answer. She didn’t know what to say. “I’ve been over and over this. He left me a message, and I’m still not sure what it means.”
“Tell me.”
Wringing her hands, Sasha tried to squelch hope from burgeoning again. So many times over the past interminable months, she’d thought she had the answer to this mystery. Failure dashed her every time. She wasn’t sure if she could take it again.
On the other hand, she had no choice. Her future—and her daughter’s—depended on it.
“The day before Mike’s murder, he arranged to have flowers sent to the house on what became the day of his funeral. Inside the envelope was a card that didn’t make any sense and this.” She pulled up a long chain she’d tucked under her shirt with a mysterious key attached.
Nick reached over and slid the key into his palm. She felt the heat of his hand radiating to her chest. A jolt of something more than awareness fluttered through Sasha. It refused to subside, no matter how much she steeled herself against it.
A bump in the road jerked them. His knuckles brushed the swells of her breasts. A gasp slipped out before she could stop the sound.
His stare zipped up to her, and she felt caught. Could he see her heart pounding? Her nipples beading?
Suddenly, he released the key and leaned back into his seat, focused on the dark road ahead. “What did the card say?”
Sasha tried to string two thoughts together. “Um, gibberish, really. Something about it being Han Solo’s turn to stop Darth Vader by finding the ammunition in the Death Star. He even signed the card as Luke Skywalker.”
Frowning, Nick heaved a long sigh. “That sly motherfucker.”
She tensed, searching his pensive face. “Did that make sense to you?”
Nick nodded. “I know where he hid his evidence. Sit back. We’re heading to New Orleans.”