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“In the living room, baby girl,” Elias called. “You’re back sooner than expected.”
“My special package was closer than expected.” She was starting to pant a little, but she wasn’t one to give up.
Instead of releasing me, she adjusted her hold and lifted me a little higher so only my toes were brushing the floor. If I weren’t scared she might drop me, I would have gone limp and made her take all my weight.
As we walked into the living room, the first thing I saw was that the seventy-five-inch flat-screen mounted on the wall was divided into what were apparently different security camera feeds. What caught my attention most was that one looked like the outside of my parents’ house.
Elias was what caught my focus next. He stood at a small wet bar, one arm in a sling, pouring a glass of something amber-colored. When his eyes landed on me, he grinned. “Hey, Abi.”
“Um, hi?”
“I think we should change hotels,” Sammy said, taking me over to the couch. Finally releasing me, she pushed me carefully onto the cushion. “Mom is downstairs in the restaurant. She bartered favors for a meeting with Abi.”
“Damn. We weren’t expecting you back for at least another hour.”
I scowled at Sammy, but she ignored me and walked over to Elias, taking the drink from his hand and tossed the contents back like a shot.
“Your mom was super sweet. You’re the one who was unnecessarily cruel. If anyone is going to decide whether my baby gets to be a part of his or her grandmother’s life, it’s me. You don’t get a say. Especially since you’re the one who stole their father from us both.”
“If it’s a boy, fine.” She poured herself another large amount of whiskey. “Let her live with you for all I care. Wait, don’t do that. I am not a fan of seeing my mother that frequently. Tell ya what, I’ll design you a house with a mother-in-law suite and she can visit, but she has to stay in that wing of the house when I drop by.”
“Or, and this is my preferred option, you can fuck off.” I grabbed a pillow and hugged it to my chest, watching her closely as she took another gulp from the glass. “You’re getting really fucking annoying about the whole ‘if it’s a boy’ thing. What? A niece isn’t as important to you as a nephew? Fine. She doesn’t need an auntie like you anyway.”
She slammed her glass down on the bar, her eyes shooting flames at me. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything was to protect you. From her. And she just walks in and bats her eyes at you, and you melt because you think she is so fucking sweet. I would die for you and that baby, and you’re making me out to be the villain!”
“What would you call the person who killed my baby’s father?” I gritted out. “You took Vaughn from me and your mom!”
“Just you, Abi. I didn’t take anything from her.”
Elias pulled Sammy into a one-armed hug, murmuring something quietly to her that had her pressing her face into his chest. Her shoulders sagged.
Out of the corner of my eye, movement on the TV caught my attention. My dad walked out of the house and waved at one of the neighbors walking their dog on his way to the mailbox. A strangled, wheezing type of sound came out of me. But that image wasn’t the only one. There were live feeds in the kitchen. One in the garage. And another in my bedroom—directly over the bed.
“Are you spying on me?” I demanded, jumping to my feet to confront Sammy and Elias. “That’s such a gross invasion of privacy.”
Elias rubbed his hand up and down Sammy’s back, but he gave me a grim smile. “We don’t normally watch the feeds. But it was a messy morning, and he wanted a shower before you two got back. I told him I’d keep an eye on everything for a little while.”
A shiver went up my back. I wasn’t sure if it was fear or anticipation, but my heart started ricocheting around in my chest. “H-he, who? Cristiano?” I guessed. “Ryan?”
“Why are you saying another man’s name, zhizn moya?”
I closed my eyes, savoring the sound of that voice, his accent so thick my nipples pebbled in instant reaction. My brain screamed it was a trick, but hope that had been fluttering around inside me since Emmie had called to tell me I was married wouldn’t die.
Slowly, I turned toward the sound and forced myself to open my eyes, to face the reality that I hadn’t heard what I thought I did.
My knees went weak when I saw Vaughn standing in the doorway to one of the bedrooms. He was rubbing a towel over his hair, dressed in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms. A giant bruise on his chest caught my attention, the angry discoloration taking up most of one side and wrapping around his rib cage.
“Vaughn?” I whimpered, taking a step forward, only to have the world go dim around the edges.
“Wildfire!” he bellowed my name as he stumbled forward.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
vaughn
Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Abi’s eyes went unfocused and she began to sway. I heard Elias and Samara both curse, the three of us all rushing forward. Ignoring the protesting muscles in my leg, I reached my sweet girl and swung her up into my arms. Her head rolled against my shoulder, her body limp in my arms, but I felt her breath on my neck and nearly howled with relief.
Samara’s eyes were full of worry as she pulled Abi’s hair back from her pale face. “Her pulse is racing. I should have taken her straight to bed when we got here. Damn it. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
