Chapter 27 Emil
EMIL
That night when I fell asleep, Sadie wasn’t just on my mind. She was also in my arms, snug against me in bed. I wasn’t obsessed with missing her and worrying whether she was alive and unharmed. Instead, I was overwhelmed with the reality and relief that she was with me again.
I couldn’t believe that the doctor who was waiting for us on the plane could give us such an optimistic outlook for both her and the baby. Yes, she had lost weight and needed nutrients. She was tired and stressed. But it was a miracle that she hadn’t been harmed.
It was a blessing that the baby was deemed healthy and growing appropriately, no cause for concern.
I knew it was because this was Sadie Langer. One of the strongest women I’d ever met.
From when I kidnapped her in Cozumel, I knew firsthand how strong and fierce of a fighter this woman was. How scrappy of a resourceful survivor she was. Pairing her tenacity to survive with the determination to protect our baby she was a force to reckon with.
That night, at last, I fell asleep peacefully.
Missing her and panicking about her had kept me perpetually exhausted for over a month. Now, my body could shut down with her pressed flush against me. We could both relax and truly rest, and we both needed it.
She was still hooked up to monitors to better track all her vitals and to triple-check that the baby was okay. But in the morning, Gabby’s obstetrician, Dr. Hannan, stopped in the room and checked over Sadie as well.
“I don’t really think it’s necessary to have all these on anymore,” Dr. Hannan said with a kind smile as she began to remove the pads that monitored the baby. She gestured at the monitor panel. “You can wait a while yet before needing that again.”
“Not much longer,” I said as I sat on the bed and supervised.
“I didn’t realize it was necessary to have another doctor’s second opinion,” Sadie said.
“Well, I was already here,” Dr. Hannan said. “Gabriella suggested that I introduce myself.”
Sadie raised her brows in a silent question, but before I could explain that Dr. Hannan was Gabby’s doctor who came often for house calls because my father insisted on the best care for her, Gabby popped in.
The door had been left slightly open. She knocked as she walked in. Or waddled, more like.
“Dr. Hannan, you forgot your notepad,” she said, holding it out. “Oh.” Her gaze landed on Sadie sitting up in the bed and she grinned. “Well, look at that. You’re carrying it all in the front too!”
“Isn’t that how we’re supposed to carry?” Sadie joked.
Gabby smiled, resting her hand on her big belly. “Well, yeah. But wow. You’re so petite.”
“And recovering well,” Dr. Hannan said.
Sensing how confused Sadie was, I introduced and explained some more. “Dr. Hannan is the doctor I arranged for you to meet before you were taken. She’s often here because Gabby, my father’s wife”—I gestured at her—“is also a patient.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Gabriella.” She offered her hand to Sadie.
“I’d introduce myself, but it seems you’re one step ahead of me. Sadie Langer,” she said, standing and arching her back. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
“Damn.” Gabby laughed. “You look ready to go too. When is your due date?” she asked.
Upon realizing Sadie was due about a month after when Gabriella was, they were all smiles and laughing about the overlap.
“Are you nervous?” Sadie asked after Dr. Hannan saw herself out.
“Yes and no. When I had Andre, I delivered early in the middle of a freaking shootout.” Gabby furrowed her brow. “And here we were all wondering if you’d be delivering…” She made a gesture with her hand. “Wherever you were.”
“All over,” Sadie replied dryly. “I was moved so often without any clue where I was.” She shook her head but didn’t seem stuck in the moment. “Regardless, I’m nervous. It’s something I’ve never experienced before.”
Gabby smiled. “Then we can be nervous together.”
“But you’ve had a child before.”
Gabby laughed. “Yeah, I know what it’ll be like. And it’s…” She opened her eyes wide. “I’ll be grateful for drugs this time.”
“You won’t have anything to worry about,” I said, rubbing Sadie’s back.
“We’ll talk,” Gabby told her. “We will most definitely commiserate and talk, Sadie.”
“Good. Because I have no clue about any of this. I’m winging it.”
“Aren’t we all? They say no two pregnancies are ever the same. I feel inexperienced and clueless too, despite having a firstborn toddling all over the place. But, while I’m here and you seem up and about, I should mention that my husband is very eager to speak with you.”
I shook my head. “He can wait.”
Gabby arched a brow and lifted her hands. “Hey, you can tell him to wait. I’m not gonna.”
“I told him last night that he can wait.” My father was clearly eager to speak with Sadie. He was impatient to speak with her and question her back when he first heard the rumors that she had been with me and was carrying my child.
I didn’t care how little he wanted to wait. I was adamant that Sadie rest. That she recover and relax after the last five weeks of captivity. Her health mattered more, dammit.
“No, I get it,” Sadie said, putting her hand on my arm. “He’s going to want to talk to me before letting me stay any longer.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” I told her gruffly. My father would get over his issues with her.
He still saw her as an agent, one who could be tricking me and trying to get close to the family to screw us over. And that wasn’t a worry. He had to adjust and get used to seeing her as the woman carrying my baby. The friend I counted on to have my back. The one I loved.
Because as I gazed down at her and marveled at the zest for life that sparkled in her aqua eyes, I knew it was love. I loved her, and she wouldn’t ever be told to leave my life. I wouldn’t allow it.
It had taken these weeks of suffering through her absence for that fact to fully be revealed.
Love. It was love that connected us. And my father wasn’t going to stand in our way.
“No.” Gabby shook her head and made a face. “Luka’s slow to trust, and rightly so, but he’s got a big heart.” She smiled. “He accepted Raisa and she was supposed to be a rival. He’ll come around and trust you, too.”
I pulled her in for a side hug, grateful that she was a solid judge of character like that despite only now meeting Sadie.
“Besides, he was witness to how miserable and furious this guy was the entire time you were missing.” Gabby elbowed me gently. “I think he’s made it clear that he’ll destroy the world to reach you. Luka wouldn’t try to dismiss you for the sake of not wanting to upset him.”
She had that right. I would stand up for Sadie to even my father.
“But I’m not changing my mind. He can wait. You need to rest—”
“For what?” Sadie asked. “You heard the doctors. I’m okay. I’ll take it easy, but it’s not like I should stay in bed. I’ll drink water and eat. If anything I researched online is true, being mobile and on my feet is better than sitting too much.”
Gabby nodded. “That’s definitely true.”
“I can meet with him now,” Sadie told me. “And with the reason I suspect I was taken, I want to meet him and talk with him to better have a plan of attack against those who likely arranged my kidnapping.”
“Are you sure you’re not too tired or—”
“I’m sure,” she said quickly, smiling.
I sighed, hating the idea of her rushing anything. When she took my hand and squeezed it, though, I softened. She wasn’t a weakling and it would be stupid of me to assume she was.
“I’ll take you to him now,” Gabby offered, leading the way out of my room.
Even though Sadie held my hand as we walked, Gabriella chattered away as we went.
Out of the privacy of my room, I struggled with having to share her at all.
I could tell she and Gabby were on a fast track to friendship, no doubt bonding already as they talked about being so far in their pregnancies.
I was glad to see them get along. It mattered.
But knowing my father would be thorough in questioning her, I had to brace myself for sharing her with him like that, too.
I sighed, wondering when I’d be able to celebrate Sadie’s return the way I wanted to—just the two of us, in this new phase of love and companionship that not even enemy lines could break.
I would follow her lead and make sure she had what she wanted to feel safe again, but as she told me in my room, she wanted to meet my father. She didn’t want to put off this conversation.
We entered the study as he waited to end a call. Lifting a finger at Gabriella walking in with me and Sadie behind her, he smiled slightly.
Gabby went over to kiss his cheek and then left.
I guided Sadie to the chair and then took another one for myself.
He hung up and eyed us both carefully. “Ms. Langer. I trust you are recovering well?”
She nodded. “I am. Thanks for the hospitality. Especially since someone with my background should expect the opposite of your generosity.”
He folded his hands on the desk. “Is that so?”
“Of course,” Sadie replied. “As far as I can recall, no Pakhan has ever been chummy with the FBI for the hell of it.”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to consider a friendship starting here,” he warned. “I’m only humoring his need to have you close.” He gestured at me.
She shrugged. “I’m slow to make friends as well.”
“Oh, really?” I laughed wryly after how she and Gabby seemed to be on the fast track to being besties after knowing each other for several minutes. “You and Gabby forgot I was even there.”
“For the last time,” my father growled. “Her name is Gabriella.”
I grinned and shrugged.
“I’m slow to make friends,” Sadie repeated, “but I’m strategic in forming alliances when they make sense.”
“You think I want you to be my ally?” my father asked. “Just because you allegedly were fired and seduced my son to knock you up, it’s imperative that I welcome you to my world, my home, and my family?”