Wait for Me (25 page)

Sophie’s voice brought her head up. “Kenya, I had my doubts about ye, coming back.”

“So did I, Sophie.” No point in lying, she fought her demons like everyone. “Jonathan and I have worked things out.”

Sophie’s tight expression never changed. The woman meant what she’d said; Kenya had lost some of her favor by leaving.

“To answer your question, Kenya. I’d just lost my father in the house fire and my mother wanted no part of the land after that. It only held a bad lasting memory," she paused. Embarrassed, Kenya sighed, even spoke with such a high, and might tone; Kenya tilted her head then gave an apologetic nod. Sophie continued, "Honest, I thought Brian would have been murdered by now, he was and still is a ruthless bastard of a man with the only redeeming quality being fathering Jonathan.” Pain and hatred filled Sophie’s face and Calder rubbed a hand soothingly down her back until her shoulders relaxed and she eased down onto the bed beside Seamus. Jonathan released Kenya going to his mother’s side to place a gentle kiss on her cheek. He whispered something in her ear and she shot a glance at Kenya and gave a nod saying nothing with no expression. Was that disdain for her or the baby?

She had to get some air, didn’t like that feeling of being rejected. “I’m gonna go check on Julia, then go back to the estate, and get freshened up.” Grabbing her purse and coat, Kenya closed her hand around the door handle banging her nails trying to get out of there. “I must look a mess,” she said, shaking the sting from her hand. Earlier, she’d thrown on a pair of jeans and a sweater, ran a comb through her hair, and hauled it to the hospital so fast she forgot how she must look. She stopped at Jonathan coming up behind her.

“We’ll get some dinner and turn in early. I have a meeting in town with our lawyer and the shareholders meeting is in a day. Things need to be prepared.” Jonathan filed in behind her at the door his hand a comfort on her hip. “I came straight from the plane and could use a shower.”

Outside the room, he helped her on with her coat holding her tight to his chest. “Mo Ru’n, stop,” he spoke close to her face clutching the coat around her stomach. “She is upset, but she is happy for us. I love you and our little one…do ye hear me Kenya?” His warm breath caressed her ears seconds before his lips kissed up to her cheek. “Do ye love me, Mo Ru’n?”

“I do. Guess I should have expected that cold reception.”

“No ye should nae ever have a cold reception from yer family and this is your family now. I will speak with her.”

“Don’t do that,” she said, turning in his embrace. “She warned me she’d be upset if I hurt you and I did hurt you, good reason or not.”

“Aye, it can no be helped. Let time cure it.”

“You told her we’re married and the baby and she still…”

“I told her we’re together. The bairn and our marriage stay between us until we know Brian cannot hurt you.”

That eased her mind knowing its grandmother wasn’t shunning her child. Jonathan released her to speak with the guard beside Seamus’s door then made a motion to Jamie at the end of the hall with Julia.

“Leave your rental for Julia. I’ll pull my car around.”

“Let me make one call. I have to try to talk some sense into my sister one last time.”

“Look at me, Kenya.” She did. “Ye did nae kill your parents or drive them away. Morgan’s hurting and she’s taking it out on you. Doona allow her to hurt ye. I will not be civil if harm is brought to you or our bairn.”

“She’s family; honey…one last attempt so I can ease my mind.”

He gathered her closer licking the seam of her mouth. Kenya pressed her sensitive breast against his hard torso running her hands up his back holding him to her. He tasted of mint and coffee and she knew he was tired and hadn’t slept in over a day.

Jonathan joined Jamie in the middle of the isle and Julia filed in beside her. “Are you okay sweetie?” Julia asked weaving their arms together. “The baby?”

Kenya told Julia about the baby in the States, before Jonathan came back. She’d helped her get through the first rough weeks after leaving Ireland and Jonathan. Jonathan voiced his opinion on her telling Julia, but he was glad she had someone to confide in.

“Julia, I had no idea how bad it would feel to get married in secret and hide the pregnancy.”

“When everything’s over I’ll give you the most beautiful baby shower. Everything will be just fine.” 

“My woman will have her day,” Jonathan assured coming up behind Kenya, placing a knuckle beneath her chin he held her stare and placed a soft kiss on her mouth. “We will have a proper Irish-African American wedding. This is our sacrifice to the heritage of this family. A family you’re about to become the head of, Kenya.” 

She straightened her back. “I didn’t realize it would bother like that.” When had she wanted a big wedding? Never. Touching his hand on her face, she said, “I’m fine, honey, honest.”

“I know you’re fine,” he said, winking at her. “I want you happy. After this is over you'll have whatever you want—”

“You say that because you know I'll change my mind and want a small reception in the pub or something because by the time all this is over we’ll be a family of three.”

“Working on a family of four…” he added winking seductively. His eyes roamed a hot trail down between her thighs. He bit his bottom lip then raised a warm smile up for her to drool over. The man was model gorgeous and hers to play with. She returned his sensual smile. “Meet me out front after you make your call. Don’t expect much, Mo Ru’n,” Jonathan said, pulling on his coat. “Money changes people, and we have enough to make your sister disown ye in front of the world and she has already done that.” Kenya halted with the cell in her hand. 

The rotating doors spun behind Jonathan leaving the building.

As much as she hated what her sister did, she knew this would eat her parents alive and had to do something. Brian is a dangerous man and eventually he would have her so far under his control there would be nothing to save.

“He loves you so much, Kenya. It’s all over his face.”

“I love him, Julia, in a way I’ve never loved a man before…with my soul.”

“I’m gonna stay her with dark and sexy.” Julia grinned walking her to the doors. Kenya aimed her keys at the parking lot pressing the button until the lights on the rental car flickered, then handed Julia the keys.

“I left my laptop in the back. I’ll see you tomorrow unless something happens.”

Kenya did a little jog across the parking lot to the car. Opening the door, she stuck her head in the back seat retrieving her laptop case. Morgan’s voice came over the line making Kenya’s back tense with her cold words. 

"How did you get my number? Look, Kenya, stay out of my life."

"So this is where we’re at? After everything our family’s gone through, this is where you wanna leave things between us, tore up? Are you serious, Morgan? You and Michael have always treated me like a stepchild all my life and now this, you want my…” She couldn’t say husband, “my boyfriend's family. What have I ever done to you, Morgan?"

"Everything just fall's into your lap free and clear. You didn’t even know Momma. You never even asked about her. And Daddy left because of you. You destroyed our family, Kenya, not me or Michael—
you
.”

“For the first time in my life, I’m not gonna let you hurt me, Morgan. I asked about our biological parents all the time. Nobody ever pretended we weren’t adopted.” She paced the parking lot, shaking a hand in one pocket of her coat. Morgan and Michael’s dislike had gone so much deeper than she ever knew until Jonathan made her face that. “Morgan, I’m your sister…don’t do this to our family. Rick is an amazing man. Go back home and—” 

“Shut up! You don’t know anything about Rick and now some rich guy just fall’s into your path and practically hands you a damn country. Well you’re not taking this away from me, Kenya. You got all the attention because you were the baby.”

“Are you doing this because you and Rick are divorcing? You’re pissed at me because your husband left?”

“You make everybody leave, Kenya.

Instinctively she laid a protective hand over her child growing in her womb. “That’s so ugly, Morgan,” she groaned and fought not to scream her anger into the phone. “How can you turn on your family, your sister?” She slumped against her car and felt the first drops of rain on her nose. Wiping her face, she squeezed her eyes shut. When would this hate end?

“Until you were born my father loved me. You came along and blew all that to hell, sending him running away from his children,” Morgan complained bitterly and Kenya blinked at her indignation. “It’s my turn to take something from you.”

"How do you even know, Brian? This is all out of spite, my own sister, Morgan.”

“Don’t worry about how I know him, just leave us alone and go back to the States.”

“I can't believe you're this shallow.” Bracing a hand to her hip, she leaned into Jonathan at her back, his arms around her waist. Arguing with Morgan she never heard him walk up.

"Brian loves me and Blakemore Estates will be ours soon. Forget we're family, Kenya, I have." The line went dead. Kenya cursed under her breath.

Mouth slack, flabbergasted at Morgan’s hate vibrating through the phone, Kenya flexed her fingers around the phone, before it went dead.

“My sister's lost her mind. Here…" she reached back holding her phone out, "Can you hold this? I wanna double check under the seat, I can't find the little notepad I carry with me."

"I'll buy you a new one," a thick Irish baroque caressing her ears wasn’t Jonathan’s.

Fear gripped her and she opened her mouth to scream, but pressed her lips together as she caught the glint of metal in the man’s hand.

“Make one sound and your mother will be a widow back in the States,” one of the men warned, stepping into the light closing a meaty hand over her wrist. She instinctively shoved at the hard arm encircling her waist flailing her arm hoping a security camera caught her movements. “One call and he’s dead. Stop moving!”

She stilled at his words. The two other men stood half in shadow and half in the light and the closer the man drug her into the shadows she caught a glimpse of a black sedan waiting with the door open. There were no security guards anywhere. A large palm pressed at the top of her head shoving her into the car. He got in beside her while another, lean and mean, got in on the other side.

“We just wanna talk to you,” meaty hands said, holding her to his chest in an uncomfortable side hold. The man beside her grabbed her legs as she tried kicking him in the tight space.

“Fighter…great!” he barked and pulled out his phone rubbing his leg where she’d kicked him. “Do you wanna hear him die, or…”

She threw up her hands in a plea. “No, no, no—no. What does Brian want?”

“Aye, she’s bright or very stupid,” Lean and Mean said, running a hand down her thigh. Blakemore finds the sexiest women. Kenya swallowed the bile rising in her throat behind his nasty hand on her pants. She tensed her leg trying to draw it back and he gripped it spreading them apart in the small space. Kenya kept fighting and felt a cramp seize around her waist, slipping down to her pelvis. Oh…her baby!

She shot looks around the car and the other men were just watching as she struggled for her life.

Meaty hands yanked her up against his chest, arms crushing around her stomach. Kenya swung at Lean and Mean catching him in the face. A gun hammer rang through the cab of the car.

“She is nae to be harmed. Yer so stupid!” She cringed at the gun beside her face aimed at the man groping her legs. Slowly his grip loosened and she drew her legs into her body, stomach twitching. God, please, please, please don’t let anything happen to my baby. “Och, yer a dumb one. Brian’ll kill ye for touching her,” he said, bringing his face close to her ear, the stench of cigar and alcohol closed over her nostrils. Lord the only one not trying to feel her up had been drinking. “Now, woman, doona make a sound. We’ll leave just as soon as I get the okay.”

Her breathing heavy, she said, “The signal for what? What does he want from me?” She groaned, pressing her face away from the cold steel along her jaw. Which only pressed her closer to the man’s mouth beside hers.

One of the men from the front jerked a glance indicating something outside the car then bit out angered, “Parking lot security—.” The man holding her twisted his shoulders around. His body pushed her forward as he strained to look out the back window. Kenya rocked forward screaming. Let someone hear her. The motion threw him off balanced and the car rocked under his abrupt movement and he slapped out a hand to catch them before they banged into the back of the front seat. A rough callused hand clamped over her mouth. He couldn’t shoot her with the gun so close she thought and took a chance, prayed they lied about her father and screamed against his hand. They weren’t taking her without a fight. Security had to hear her struggling.

“Pull off, go-go-go.”

“They’re still out there,” a man said from the front arguing over the seat. “They’ll see us.”

Kenya struggled hoping someone would come. When her stomach started to cramp, she knew she had to get free. Fist balled, she swung her arm hitting the back window with the side of her fist. Please whoever’s out there hear her.

“Shut her up!” Lean and Mean hollered reaching for his gun swiveling in his seat toward the door. Had someone heard her? She fell back as the car lurched forward than rocked back as something hit the trunk. Kenya smacked her head on the back of the front seat. Meaty hands shoved her to the center on the seat; the mechanics of the window whirred, lowering the glass seconds before the man aimed his gun out the opening.

She swung. The thud rocked up her arm as she made contact with the man’s hard skull and fell back. The man in the front crawled over the seat looking like a wild beast, hands locking around her throat.

“Shut up.” Grappling with the hands digging into her skin around her neck, she shoved with her legs at the man’s chest over her. She clawed at his face; digging her nails into the backs of his ears Kenya tried ripping them from his head. 

Cursing, the men fought whoever hit the car through the window, guns blazing. Kenya fell back when the car door was wrenched open and Lean and Mean was pulled from the car. Kenya’s throat burned, with the crazy man from the front seats large hands around her neck. Oof! Whooshed from her as the man dropped down on her dead weight—literally. She shoved at the massive shoulders covering her face and wiggled her hips trying to unwedge herself from the hulking form. Her breathing sped up as his weight settled between her legs crushing her. Either he was dead or unconscious, but he wasn’t budging. Kenya felt his hot breath on her face and knew he was unconscious.