‘So do I.’ Jaco jammed his hands into his pockets. ‘So do I...’
* * *
Leah awoke with a start. There was a faint sort of scratching noise coming from the front door. Heart racing, she slipped out of bed and glanced into the crib, where Gabriel was sleeping peacefully, before moving silently into the living area of the tiny apartment she had called home for the past few months.
The noise was coming from the other side of the front door and now, as she strained to listen, she could just make out whispered male voices. Oh, God! Someone was trying to break in.
She turned, stumbling back towards the bedroom, where her phone was on the bedside table. But it was too late—she didn’t have time to get there. With the force of a tornado suddenly they were in, beside her, their terrifying presence filling the small room.
Her scream was instantly muffled by a large hand clamped over her mouth, pulling her back against a body built like a brick wall. She fought wildly, kicking out behind her, desperately flailing her arms to try and attack him until he easily pinned them to her body with an arm of steel around her chest.
Panic surged through her, and the powerful instinct to protect her baby son overwhelmed every other thought. Somehow she would get rid of these thugs. Somehow she would talk her way out of this.
It seemed there were two of them—one holding her prisoner, the other shutting the door behind them, then moving over to the window and pulling back the curtains a couple of inches to look out onto the street. Only then did he switch on the overhead light and come to stand before her.
Jaco! Leah stared at him in utter astonishment.
A relief of sorts washed over her, but it was short-lived. One look at his harshly drawn face, the cold determination in his eyes, and her worst fears came crowding in. He must have found out about Gabriel. He had come to claim his son.
‘Yes, it’s her.’ Jaco nodded, speaking in Italian to the brute who still had his hand clamped across her mouth. ‘The boy must be in there.’ He looked over his shoulder.
Leah squirmed wildly, making the vice-like grip around her tighten still further.
‘Don’t fight it, Leah.’
He swung his gaze back to her, finally making eye contact. Leah gasped beneath the restraining hand. The familiarity of those eyes, now emanating such chilling intensity, was almost enough to stop her pounding heart.
‘You and the baby are leaving with us. Right away.’
Leah roused herself, widening her eyes, shooting him as much poisonous venom as she could possibly muster. No way was he taking them anywhere.
‘I will instruct Cesare to remove his hand, but only once I know you are going to be sensible.’ He waited, his gaze fixed on her face, coldly assessing her. ‘Can I trust you?’
Leah nodded frantically, and after a second’s pause Jaco gestured to his minder.
Leah screamed. As loudly as her panicked lungs would let her. It was an ear-piercing shriek that echoed off the walls and saw a hand clamped firmly over her mouth again. Only this time it wasn’t the minder’s—this time it was Jaco’s.
‘Big mistake, Leah.’
His face was only inches from her own, and his powerful frame was pressed up against her so that she could feel the heat emanating from him, sense the barely leashed rage that held him so taut, shone in his eyes.
‘If you want to do this the hard way, we will. But for all our sakes I suggest that you do as you’re told. It will be far simpler in the long run.’
Leah glared back at him, blinking against the hot, seductive whisper of his breath fanning across her face, using her eyes to impart as much anger and determination and bravery as was possible when she was sandwiched between two muscled men.
She stared into Jaco’s deep brown eyes—eyes that had mesmerised her from their very first meeting. The memory of them had haunted her for weeks after she had fled Sicily. But now those eyes stirred something else in her—something gut-wrenchingly deep and primal. For it was like looking into the eyes of her son—the exact same shape, the same colour.
Gabriel was a miniature version of his father. And it was that that made her lungs, already struggling to keep her alive, threaten to give up altogether.
‘I am going to give you one more chance.’ He delivered his ultimatum softly. ‘When I remove my hand you are going to remain silent while I tell you what is going to happen. Is that understood?’
Leah nodded. What choice did she have?
Very slowly, Jaco peeled his hand away from her mouth.
‘There—that’s better.’
He still stood within a couple of inches of her, watching her intently, his eyes fixed on her mouth as if willing it to stay closed. Leah felt the burn of his gaze on her lips, felt them swell as the blood returned to them, twitch with something other than fear.
‘You can let go of her, Cesare. Go and stand by the door.’
With a grunt of obedience her captor released her and moved away.
Leah let out a gasping breath. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
The words came out in a torrent of fury, but Leah kept her voice low, mindful of Jaco’s warning, and even more mindful of the fact that he was standing between her and the bedroom where Gabriel was still sleeping. With her mind racing in all directions she desperately tried to figure out a way of distracting Jaco so that she could go to Gabriel, scoop him up and run away with him—and keep on running until she woke up from this nightmare.
But this was no bad dream. This was horribly real. As the heavy breathing of the man mountain who was guarding the front door behind her reminded her. Not to mention the arrogant specimen of manhood who had planted himself before her.
‘I’ve told you—you and the baby are leaving. Go and pack a bag.’
Leah shook her head in disbelief, furrowing her brow as she stared at him. ‘Jaco, this is ridiculous. Have you taken leave of your senses?’
Jaco gave a low growl. ‘I can assure you my senses are perfectly intact. Now, do as you’re told.’
‘But—’
‘Five minutes, Leah. You have five minutes to gather your belongings.’
‘And if I refuse?’
‘Then you will be leaving with nothing. Because you and the baby are coming with me, either way.’
‘So you are kidnapping us? Is that it?’ Her voice shrieked with rising hysteria.
‘I prefer to call it removing you to a place of safety.’
‘Safety?’ Astonishment stiffened her spine. ‘We were perfectly safe here, until you crashed in.’
‘No, you weren’t, Leah.’
‘What do you mean? Of course we were.’
‘I am not prepared to discuss this now. You are under my protection and you will do as I say. Go and pack.’
Putting his hands on her shoulders, he turned her in the direction of the bedroom, the touch of his fingers burning against her bare flesh.
‘And hurry up about it.’
Leah stood in the dark room, listening to the sound of her baby’s soft breathing and the thud of her own heart. This was complete madness. Her eyes quickly darted around, but there was no escape from here. The apartment was on the fourth floor of a high-rise tower block, and the only window offered nothing more than a view of the sleeping London skyline.
Working on autopilot,