Chapter 3

Leah's POV

I caught Damian's trousers before he could step around me.

“Take me to a hospital.”

He looked at my hands on his leg, then at the blood on the concrete.

“Why are you out here?”

“The man Remo brought gave me something. I don't know what. The baby's barely moving.”

“He was sent to help you.”

“Then why wouldn't he take me in?”

Damian pulled his leg back. I held on.

“Please. You can stay with Bianca. Give me a driver.”

He bent down and caught my wrist, lifting it off his trousers one finger at a time.

“You had to do this tonight.”

I stared at him.

The car was right behind his shoulder. The door was open. A hospital was a drive away, and he was standing between me and it.

“I didn't choose this.”

His phone rang. He looked at the screen and answered.

“Is she ready?”

I tried to get up while he listened. My hand slid down the car, leaving a red streak on the paint.

“I'm coming,” he said.

“Damian.”

He ended the call.

“Bianca needs me upstairs.”

“So does your child.”

A shout came from the side door.

Remo emerged with two men. Between them was Nora. One man held her arms behind her back; the other had twisted a handful of her hair around his fist.

She saw me beside the car and stopped struggling for a second.

“You got out.”

Remo struck her across the mouth.

“Don't talk.”

I tried to reach her. Damian caught my upper arm and kept me beside him.

“She opened the cell,” Remo told him. “Cut the hallway lights. And look what I found on her.”

He held up my contact card.

“She sent our address to somebody outside the family.”

Damian looked at Nora.

“Who?”

“She needs a hospital,” Nora said.

“Who did you contact?”

“Look at her. She's your wife.”

“Nora,” I whispered. “Don't.”

She pulled against the men holding her.

“You can see the blood. You heard her. How much more do you need before you let her go?”

Damian released my arm.

For one breath I thought he'd listened.

Then he looked at Remo.

“Kill her. Take Leah back downstairs.”

I grabbed his coat.

“No. I asked her. It was me.”

He removed my hand again.

“Then you should have thought about what you were asking her to do.”

“You can still stop this,” I said.

He paused at the steps. I could see his hand on the railing, his wedding band against the metal.

“She works for us. She helped because I begged her. Don't make her pay for it.”

He looked back at Remo, not at me.

“You have your orders.”

Then he went inside. I heard the door latch behind him. No one in the yard needed to ask what he meant.

I called his name until one of the guards pulled me away from the car. Nora tried to turn toward me. Remo drew his gun, and I heard the shot before I could close my eyes.

Her knees folded. The men let her drop.

I kept looking at the place where she'd fallen while they dragged me through the side door.

Remo didn't take me back to my cell. He unlocked a narrower door at the end of the passage. Cold seawater covered the floor beyond it. I could hear it washing against the walls.

“Wait here. You won't be running off again.”

“She's not moving,” I said. “Remo, the baby isn't moving.”

He pushed me through. I slipped, caught the edge of a pipe, and felt the water soak through my dress.

The door closed.

I braced both hands against it and tried to stand, but another contraction forced me down. I pushed my shoulder above the water and kept one palm over my belly.

I had a name ready. Lucy. I'd wanted to say it aloud when I held her, not through a door to a man who wouldn't open it.

“Lucy. Please.”

Music started overhead. I heard chairs scrape, then applause. People were cheering for a baby they had already decided to welcome.

I held my breath and waited for a movement beneath my hand.

Nothing.

I tried again to reach the latch. My fingers couldn't get a grip. I slid back down, keeping my cheek above the water.

Nora had sent the message.

I tried to remember the number on the card, as though saying it might help it arrive.

Somewhere behind me, metal scraped against metal.

A light moved across the water from the far end of the room. I tried to call out. My mouth opened, but no sound came.

Someone waded toward me.

Hands lifted my shoulders. A voice said, “We've got you. Stay with me.”

I reached for the sleeve and couldn't hold it.

Damian's POV

Bianca's son was sleeping when the dining room doors opened. I had just set down my glass.

“Where's my wife?” I asked the guard.

He looked behind him before answering.

“Sir. We went down to get her.”

“Then bring her up.”

His mouth moved without a sound. I stepped away from the table.

“Say it.”

“Your wife and the baby,” he said. “They're dead.”