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“That you’re creating problems that aren’t there. Like I did with Julia. I was so convinced she had to be somehow working against me because my feelings for her scared me. Maybe you’re a little scared right now. You’ve only known this woman for a couple of months, and now you’re going to be tied to her forever through your child. A kid is a big responsibility, especially when you weren’t planning one.”
Was Domino right?
Was he just scared because everything was happening so fast and there was a very real possibility that he could lose both Lila and their baby?
They needed uninterrupted time to really get to know one another without death threats hanging over their heads. He needed to understand more about her, and as much as he didn’t like it, he needed to let her understand him too.
That month they had spent together had been special and he’d fallen hard and fast, but neither of them had mentioned the future. Then he’d broken up with her, and she’d found out she was pregnant. Now they had been thrown back together neither of them quite prepared for what that meant for them and their future.
But it was a future he wanted.
That much Surf was sure of.
One he would fight for.
Lila and their unborn child meant everything to him. He didn’t want to lose them, not to a psychopath with delusions of grandeur or to the unresolved issues he still had from his childhood.
Nothing in his life had been easy, but he had fought to get out of the hellhole that could so easily have claimed him. He’d fought through BUD/s and Hell Week to become a SEAL. He’d fought to get a place on one of Prey’s teams. He would fight for Lila and the future he wanted with her.
And it started here, tonight.
It had been a mistake to break up with her, to not bring her in and offer her the same protection the rest of his teammates had given their wives and fiancées. It was a mistake he wasn’t going to repeat. No matter how different their childhoods had been, it didn’t change one simple and very important fact.
He was in love with the woman.
Hopelessly and eternally in love with her.
The SUV pulled to a stop in the forest surrounding the estate of movie producer Ross Duffy and his wife Zara. They were positive that when the couple had orchestrated Lila’s disappearance, they’d brought her here. He had no idea why Ross had agreed to go along with his wife’s plans, but they were all convinced that Zara was Kristoff Mikhailov’s Dark Beauty which meant this had something to do with Zara and Kristoff’s plan to overthrow the government.
Surf couldn’t help but feel there was more to it, something personal as well. Zara and Lila had worked together as kids, and Ross had produced several movies and TV shows that both girls had worked on, as well as other movies and TV shows Lila’s parents had been in.
As he looked through the trees and caught sight of the lights glowing inside the mansion, Surf sent up a silent prayer.
Hold on, mama bear. I’m coming for you.
* * * * *
November 17th
9:44 P.M.
Numb.
Lila had progressed to the stage of feeling completely empty inside. She wasn’t angry, wasn’t scared, wasn’t upset, wasn’t finding her reserves of courage, but neither was she paralyzed with fear.
She just felt nothing.
Maybe that was better.
It was so unlikely that anyone was going to find her here. According to Zara, she had been officially reported missing, so the cops would be looking for her. Given who she was and who her family was, she had no doubts that the police would go all out to try to find her. But why would they think to look for her in Switzerland?
Prey likewise knew she was gone, and they had the added advantage of knowing that she had been taken by the woman they knew only as Dark Beauty, but they didn’t know that the woman’s real identity was the famous actress Zara Duffy. Without knowing who Dark Beauty was, they could never know that she was here in Switzerland at the house belonging to Zara’s husband, Ross.
No one was coming.
Her chances of escape seemed improbable at best.
There wasn’t a second where she wasn’t being watched. If not by Ross, then by the men who seemed to be here to patrol and protect the property.
