Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
ANNA
U gh. I knew I shouldn’t have eaten so much yesterday, but I couldn’t resist my mom’s strawberry-ricotta bruschetta. Boy, was I paying the price for my over indulgence, as I puked so hard it felt like my insides were being forced out of me. I didn’t see any humor in the situation, but apparently Nic did because he was staring down at me with a huge grin on his face. I glared up at him, even as he laid a cool washcloth on my forehead and rubbed soothing circles on my back.
“This isn’t funny,” I moaned. “I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to eat one of my favorite dishes again after this.”
“You never know what cravings you’ll have,” he chuckled. “Maybe you’ll get lucky and bruschetta will be the only thing you want.”
Just hearing the word ‘bruschetta’ was enough to set off another round of puking. By the time I was done, my stomach was completely empty and I was thoroughly drained. Nic cleaned me up, helped me brush my teeth, and carried me back to bed. I tried to focus on why he mentioned cravings and dropped a kiss onto my belly before he left the room, but I was too tired to figure it all out before I drifted off to sleep.
I woke up a couple of hours later feeling much improved. A little hungry even. When I padded down to the kitchen, I was glad I’d taken the time to dress before leaving our bedroom because I found Sophia there with two of the guards.
“Morning, sweetie.” I dropped a kiss on Sophia’s forehead and headed over to the toaster to pop a couple of slices of bread inside. “You hungry?”
“No, Daddy made me pancakes,” she replied, looking up from the picture she was coloring. “He said I should be quiet like a mouse until you woke up because you needed extra sleep, but now that you’re awake I don’t have to be a mouse anymore, right?”
“I don’t know.” I cocked my head and squinted my eyes at her. “You do make an adorable mouse.”
“I’m not a real mouse!” she squealed, jumping off her chair. “Just quiet like one and now I want to be loud, loud, loud.”
“How about we go to the park, and you can be as loud as you want as long as you don’t overdo it and get too tired?”
“Yay!” she shrieked. “I love the park.”
“Head upstairs, change into play clothes, and we’ll go as soon as I’ve eaten my toast.”
“Okie-dokie,” she tossed over her shoulder as she skipped to the stairs.
“We only have two men available to accompany you to the park this morning, Miss Martin. Mr. DeLuca has a meeting and the other men will be covering him there.”
I was startled by the sound of the guard speaking, since they mostly faded into the background.
“We go to the park all the time,” I muttered, nibbling on the edge of the dry toast when it popped up.
“Maybe this afternoon would be better,” he suggested.
I barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes as I wandered down the hall towards Nic’s office. We were always surrounded by men, but it had been weeks and there hadn’t been any sign of the danger Nic was trying to protect us from. But if the guard didn’t think it was safe, I figured it was best to run our trip to the park past Nic before we left. As I neared his office, I heard his voice through the door. It was low with an undercurrent of irritation.
“You’d better find O’Reilly and his son. Soon. Really fucking soon. Brandon hasn’t seen any sign of them on Carly’s trail. I might not know what the hell they’re up to, but I’ll damn well put a bullet in you if they manage to get close to my family.”
Discomfort twisted inside me at the verbal reminder of the kind of man Nic was outside of our home. I tapped lightly on the door and cracked it open, drawing Nic’s attention to me. He ended the call and strolled over to me, stopping in front of me and running a fingertip along my cheek. “I like seeing the color back in your face.”
“I’m feeling much better.”
“I’m sure you are,” he replied, cryptically.
“In fact, I feel so good that I’d like to take Sophia to the park this morning.” It’s a question couched as a statement because I’m annoyed that I have to ask permission for something so mundane.
“I have a meeting and won’t be available until this afternoon,” he answered, his voice full of regret.
“We’re just going across the street and we’ll have two guards with us the entire time.”
“Gianna,” he groaned. “Why is it so impossible to tell you no?”
“Because you love me,” I quipped with a smile.
“I really do,” he murmured against my lips before claiming them in a hard kiss.
The trip to the park was as uneventful as I’d expected. I pushed Sophia on the swing, watched as she went down the slide, and chased after her in the open field. As we were riding the carousel, I started to feel light-headed and was relieved when she told me she needed to use the bathroom. The guards were standing, each one covering an entrance to the open area in front of the ride. Their heads were swiveling as they assessed the area for possible threats, particularly the tunnels under the bridges where, I suppose, someone could easily be hiding in the shadows. There were so many people milling around, it seemed like overkill to me. I jerked my head towards the public restroom across the way to let them know where we were headed, before I helped Sophia off a brightly painted, wooden horse. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she was off, racing ahead of me. I moved as quickly as I could to catch up to her, reaching her just as she was a few feet away from the bathroom door. I placed my hand on her shoulder to slow her down, ready to remind her about not running off like that when I noticed the shadow of two men coming up behind us, quickly. Looking over my shoulder, I expected to see the guards. I was shocked when I found two burly men I’d never seen before, their hands outstretched as they reached past me for Sophia.
“Run!” I screamed at Sophia, stepping into their path. She looked up at me in startled confusion, never having heard me raise my voice to her before. I gave her a little shove. “Get to Daddy’s friends. Now!”
Her wide eyes filled with tears, but she nodded and went running past us. One minute, I was watching Sophia’s little legs moving as fast as they could as she ran to the guards who were running towards us, and the next, I saw nothing but black as something was dropped over my head. Strong arms wrapped around the middle of my body and lifted me off the ground. It felt like I was hefted over somebody’s shoulder and then I was flying through the air, landing hard on my side on a firm, carpeted surface. I heard the roaring of an engine, the squealing of tires, and then I went flying until somebody reached out and pushed me back down. They weren’t the least bit gentle, and I didn’t think for a moment that they’d done it to protect me from harm.
I opened my mouth to scream, but it came out as a startled yelp when I heard a rough voice in my ear. “I told ‘em ta go after the girl. It seemed only fair since DeLuca cost me a daughter, don’ ya think?”
Oh, crap. This was really bad.
“Everyone knows DeLuca is a sucker for his young one, but ya just wouldn’t let me boys get to her, would ya?”
I felt crushing pain in my wrist as my hand was lifted, followed by a sharp tug on the ring on my finger.
“Judging by the size o’ this rock, I’m thinking I still managed to catch meself a mighty fine prize.”