Emily wrapped the cotton cardigan more tightly around her. Despite the warm weather, the breeze had picked up, and she felt an ominous chill. Dr. Hardy had kindly stopped by the cottage on his way to the office and confirmed Maggie’s diagnosis. Although once Emily realized her birth control implant had been removed, it wasn’t difficult to guess. She’d gone from virgin to sex maniac in a matter of days. Caroline’s unabashed texts were filled with suggestions for bedroom antics. Nathan would snatch her phone and hold it out of reach as he read Caroline’s pornographic ideas. My god, half of this shit I’ve never heard of, and I’ve been around. Emily had blanched at the remark, but Nathan was quick to ease her mind. Emily, it was meaningless. A facade. I didn’t have a different name like you did, but I was another person just the same. Emily had given him a wicked smile and crawled into his lap. Now, this reverse cowgirl sounds interesting....
It was odd for a woman who had been so solitary to perceive Nathan’s absence with such intensity. Nevertheless, she felt a palpable ache, a phantom pain. Perhaps that feeling had been there all along, but like the memories of her captivity, she had packed it away, unresolved. And now she was carrying his child. Despite the unexpected news and the awful timing, Emily was filled with a foreign feeling that she correctly noted was... hope. She ran a gentle hand over her flat belly and imagined herself rounded and full. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed the burly man standing beside one of the marked beach exit trails through the dunes. The voice behind her had her spinning around as she skirted a beached jellyfish. Dario Sava stood with his hands in the pockets of a duster, a stylish fedora tilted just so.
“You were supposed to be mine, you know.”
Emily studied him for a moment, struck by the utter lack of emotion in his wistful words. While attractive and quietly confident, the apathy in his dark eyes made her shudder. She examined her options. The man had no weapon that she could see, and she had taken down men bigger than his henchman.
“I would have taken good care of you. Tala would have spoiled you rotten. You would have wanted for nothing. Known no fear. Your life would have been so different.”
“And yet, you were the cause of that fear. Is that something a father would do, Mr. Sava?”
If he was surprised by the use of his name, he didn’t show it.
“Perhaps not. Nevertheless, your father took something from me, took everything from me, and order must be restored. I cannot go to Tala while this injustice lingers.”
Emily noticed then his gaunt face and thin frame.
“The cancer has returned.” It wasn’t a question.
“With a vengeance, I’m afraid.” Dario spoke with the disinterest of someone talking about the weather.
“You’re one to speak of injustice.”
“Ah, my dear, you understand little of the world. Moving from order to chaos is the natural way of things.” Dario paused and looked out to the horizon. You make me mourn the loss of having you as a child. I could have taught you so much.”
The hulk began to step toward her. Emily readied her stance.
“I must ask you not to resist. Pedro is merely our escort. You will come willingly, or I will detonate the small explosive in the case currently in the possession of your lover. You should pray the explosion kills him; the toxin that will be released brings a much more unpleasant end.”
Emily thought for a moment. There was a chance he was bluffing. Tox and Ren had examined the case and found no explosive. But they hadn’t opened the canister that contained the toxin.
“I see your mind working. I assure you I mean what I say. However, if the inevitable demise of Nathan Bishop and everyone in his vicinity isn’t motivation enough, Pedro’s brother is across the way with your father in his crosshairs as he reads on the porch. It’s strange, really. You’ve lived a selfish existence thus far, focused solely on self-preservation. Your father has sacrificed everything for you. Have you ever danced with the notion of doing the same for him?”
No. She hadn’t. It was a scenario she hadn’t considered. Would she?
“Lead the way.”
With that, Emily took her place between the guard and Dario as they walked off the beach and climbed into a black SUV. The man in the back seat beside her sat stone-faced and vigilant. Dario took the passenger seat and Pedro climbed behind the wheel. Again, Emily weighed her options.
“I apologize for the tranquilizer. We have a long drive ahead of us, and like you, I minimize risk.”
Before Emily could resist or think about the effect of the drug on the new life inside her, she felt the prick in her arm, and knowing it was useless to struggle, sat back and watched the world go by. She couldn’t even put her hand to the window as she watched Hercules Reynolds maneuver Charlie’s three unwieldy dogs down the narrow sidewalk and stop to watch as the sleek SUV turned the corner and drove away.