Page 108 of Where the Wind Whispers

Still, she grabbed her gun as she watched an arm come up and smash the back passenger window, blowing out the glass.

Violet already had her hand raised, her gun aimed and ready. She whispered an apology to the baby as she pulled the trigger, knowing it would only scare her daughter more.

Anastasya cried loudly as Violet watched heated metal plug into the man’s forehead. She was already cocking the hammer back and aiming again as another man came up to the window.

Fuck them.

If they were going to take her—or her baby—they were going to have to fucking work for it.

Violet just pulled the trigger a second time when the glass from the back window behind her was punched out, too. She hit her target, the bullet plowing into the man’s left eye, but then her gun flew from her hand when someone grabbed her hair and yanked hard, sending her flying backward in the seat.

Cursing, Violet held tight to her child as doors were opened and men were climbing in. She heard their Italian, and their English. They warned her, and another promised.

“Give us the child,” she heard.

“Stop fighting, princess,” another told her.

“Fuck you,” Violet spat.

Violet didn’t listen. She broke every single fingernail against the faces that shadowed her vision. She felt the heel of her stiletto stab into the soft flesh of one of the men’s groins hard enough to make him vomit down the backseat.

And then …

Then Anastasya was gone.

Ripped from her arms as another man grabbed her ankles and pulled her the opposite way. Violet flipped over onto her stomach, kicking her foot out at the man and hitting him in the face as she clamored back toward the way her daughter was going.

Doors were slammed closed on her, and she crashed into it as the man walked away, her daughter’s bright gray eyes filled with tears over the man’s shoulder.

No.

No, no, no.

The words were screamed inside her head, but Violet didn’t even realize she was screaming it out loud too until her throat ached.

“Please don't take my baby!”

Didn’t they understand what they were doing?

Didn’t they know what Alberto would do to her baby?

By the time Violet was able to get out of the SUV, the cars were already pulling away, disappearing far faster than they had come, and leaving her screaming on her knees for what they had taken.

Something so precious …

They had no idea they were driving her baby girl to her death.

None at all.

Violet, tear-stained, bloody, and sobbing, stumbled back to the SUV. She searched for her phone, but it took far too long for her to find the fucking thing. Dialing Kaz’s number, the call rang and rang and rang. It was rare for him not to pick up a call—rarer for him not to answer one from her. Her hands shook so badly that she almost dropped the phone when she ended the call and tried again.

He still didn’t answer.

Where was he?

Violet let out a sound that could only be described as pure agony when Kaz’s voicemail picked up, and she screamed into the phone for him to fucking pick up.

Her words were just a vomit of pain.