Baby Mine
Greer
My husband.
Darrel has lost his mind in an epic way.
My head is throbbing from where I banged it, and I’m all around irritated.
He isn’t going to be happy when we actually meet face to face.
The coward had me kidnapped.
Kidnapped.
Then he dragged me to my own home. No one is ever going to look here. It’s not like I can hike out. There’s a phone not ten feet away from me, sitting on the counter just like it always has.
The goon who dragged me here doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about it.
They probably had the landline disconnected.
What they don’t know about is the panic room. Even Darrel doesn’t know about it.
All I need to do is convince them to let me use the bathroom in the master bedroom, and I will have foiled Darrel’s plan.
Foiled his plan. That’s laughable. Like Darrel is anywhere close to being an evil mastermind. He can barely figure out the most basic business plan. His father had to hire people to clean up his messes at work.
Yet he was smart enough to hire someone to kidnap and hide me.
That took a little bit of brain power.
Don’t underestimate him.
Or the garlic-breath goon.
My life has become some cheesy comic book.
If Darrel comes in and tells me his entire plan…
You’re stressed and nervous.
Of course, I am. It’s not every day that you get kidnapped by your ex-husband after almost freezing to death.
All I need now is some dramatic rescue attempt to finish all of this off perfectly…it’s going to be a little underwhelming when I call the police department to come instead.
But sometimes a girl needs to rescue herself.
Relying on a man just isn’t an option.
What man would I want to come rescue me?
Havoc!
You’ve got to move past that. He isn’t going to fight for you. Just like he isn’t going to trust you.
That just wasn’t meant to be, no matter how much you want it to be. I need to face reality and start working the escape plan. “Could I please have a drink and something to eat?”
“You heard my wife.” Darrel walks in, snapping orders. “She needs to care for my son and heir.”
My child will never be yours. But I can’t say that out loud yet. “Why am I here?”
“Why?” Darrel giggles. “You’re here because you didn’t appreciate the offer I made to re-institute our marriage and to give my heir back to me.
I told you, Greer, that the most important thing you could ever do was give me a son.
” He walks up to where I’m tied to a chair.
“Then, when you finally get pregnant, you don’t tell me.
What kind of loving wife does that? Explain that to me. ”
Bite your tongue. Pretend to be sweet and malleable like he wants. “The kind whose husband is sleeping with a teenager and leaves her.”
“YOU CAN’T TAKE MY SON,” he bellows in my face.
I believe I already did. “So what do you plan to do? Keep me here until I agree to marry you?”
“That’s one of your two choices.” He nods to a man in a judge’s robe standing next to him. On the other side is a doctor.
Please don’t mean what I think it means.
“The other is you stay here until my son is born. Then I’ll take what’s mine.”
“My family will never let you keep my son. Rothswyler will take him from you.”
“Your family will spread the word of your sad loss in childbirth from the rooftops as they hand the baby to me. Think about how much our son will be worth when our empires combine.”
“This was all about money?”
“Of course it was. You don’t think I really loved you.” He giggles. “I wanted your money, your name, and a child so that I could control my own trust fund. That power swaps over to the father of the most recent heir. Upon his birth, I control my family. Not my father.”
Darrel has truly lost it. It doesn’t matter what happens. His father isn’t going to give up his power to Darrel. Darrel is his father’s clone…he should know that.
“So what do you choose? Are we going to be blissfully joined again? Or are you going to stay here until you give me what I want?”
I choose to thwart you. That’s what I choose. “Let’s get married.”
“I knew you wanted me back. We’ll be married right away. Your mother and mine will announce it to society. From here, we’ll leave for our second honeymoon.”
“Can I have a few minutes to freshen up?”
Darrel nods. “I placed a dress for you in our bedroom. Go change. You have a bit of blood on your face and it’s disgusting me.”
Not as much as you disgust me.
His goon leans over and takes the handcuffs off that stuck me to this chair.
Completely ignoring the almost sheer dress that’s hanging in the master bedroom, I head directly for the closet and the hidden door inside of it.
The one I never told Darrel about.
When the door slides shut and the locks snap into place, I breathe for the first time since I saw the garlic-breath goon hunched over me.
Calling Rothswyler first would make the most sense. My heart wants to call Havoc, but my brain knows there’s only one person to dial.
“Hello?” Winnie answers.
“Hey.”
“What happened? Cordelia called me yesterday. She sounded concerned. She said something about you giving up your job.”
“That’s not important now.” I turn on the security screens and watch Darrel in the living room. He has no clue what’s happening. “Darrel decided he didn’t want to be divorced anymore.”
“What?”
“He had me kidnapped.” And whatever happens next, I know my friends will come. “I’m at my ski cabin. You know, the one we visited when we were twelve.”
“I know exactly which one you’re talking about. I’ll call in the cavalry, and come get you. Are you in a safe spot now? Or should I call a rapid response team?”
That’s what I love about Winnie, nothing phases her. “I’m sitting in the safe room watching him. Waiting for him to realize he lost.”
“Send me a copy of that. I’ll make sure it goes viral.”
“Wait, what’s that?” At the edges of the woods, men dressed all in black step out. As if they timed it exactly, they walk behind the goons Darrel had on patrol. The goons drop to the ground in unison. “Wow.”
“What?” Winnie asks.
“Look.” I turn the screen around so that she can see as more men emerge from the bushes, making a perimeter of their own.
“Rothswyler found you first, it seems.” She sounds a little disappointed.
“Is there anything he doesn’t know?”
“Very true. I’m going to pop some popcorn. Do you have any snacks in there? You might as well enjoy the show.”
Oh, good idea. The only thing we stock in here is MREs. I’m not desperate enough for that…yet. “They’re breaching.”
“Coming,” Winnie shouts, steaming bag in hand. “Sexy. Do you think the one on the left is single?”
“Winnie, my rescue video isn’t a dating app.”
“You’re no fun. Is there any sound? I want to hear Darrel whine and cry when he’s captured.”
There is. Somewhere. Got it.
The sound of footsteps on wood and Darrel muttering to himself fills the room.
“Do you think he’s going to cry or pee his pants?”
“I kind of hope both. The goon he sent to kidnap me was kind of scary.”
“I do too.”
Slow-motion movements switch to a flurry of men descending on the great room so fast, if you blinked you’d miss it.
“The one in the back corner has a nice body. Do you think you could ask him to take his mask off so I could see his face?”
“Winnie, you’re so bad.”
“That’s what you love about me.”
It really is.
“Are those tears? They look like tears to me.”
I lean into the screen. “Oh, he’s definitely crying.”
One second, all the men are wearing masks. The next, they’re all being removed.
“That doesn’t look like a military team. Those aren’t regulation haircuts. The guy by the kitchen has a mullet. A mullet.”
“They aren’t cops. They’re bikers.” I’ve seen at least half of them in Silent Valley. And there is Havoc standing in the middle of them. He came.
He came for me.
“Who is the one in the back corner?”
“That’s Bram. My fake boyfriend.” They’re actually working together. Havoc came.
“You had a fake boyfriend and didn’t tell me? We’re officially in a fight.”
“It wasn’t a big thing. Until it was a big thing. He’s too sweet and kind for you.”
“I can do sweet and kind…sometimes.”
“Really?”
“I can pretend really hard. What are you going to do now?”
“See what happens.” Then get out of here. “Maybe kiss him.”
“I vote for kissing him.”
“You vote for kissing everyone.”
“Not Darrel. Even I have my standards.”
Havoc steps forward. “Where is she?”
“Oh, it’s getting good now.”
“Shh, I want to hear this.”
“Like I don’t,” Winnie mutters.
“What are you talking about?” Darrel whines and shrinks back.
Havoc steps forward until he’s looming over Darrel. “Where is Greer? Your ex-wife. The woman you kidnapped.”
“Oh, he’s intense. Me likey.”
Me too, but I’m not ready to walk out of here and jump into his arms, either.
“I didn’t kidnap her. I just needed to make sure my son was safe. She was trying to steal my child from me. To prevent him from ever seeing his father again. Wouldn’t you do the same for your child?”
“I’d burn down the world for my son. But here’s the thing, I know Greer. And if she’s keeping your child from you, she has a very good reason for doing that.”
What did he say?
“That woman is fiercely loyal and protective. She didn’t take him from you lightly. Which means you gave her reason to believe it would be in the child’s best interest not to know you…ever. I’m going to make sure that happens. Now, I’m going to repeat. WHERE IS SHE?”
“That’s your cue.”
“I think I love him.”
“What’s new? He’s waiting.”
“No Winnie, I think I ‘love’ him.”
“I know you love him. I’ve known since the first time you said his name. Don’t you want to go out there and let him know he can stop worrying about you?”
“What if he breaks my heart?”
“What if he helps you put the pieces back together and teaches you to believe love is real?”
“You and the other spinsters already did that.”
“Go now, before you ruin my makeup.”
“Fine. I’m going. But know it’s true.”
“I’ve always known that too.”
Tears run down my face as I run through the cabin straight into Havoc’s arms. “You came for me.”
“Always.”