“It has always been serious, Sophia. I have never given you reason to think otherwise, have I?”
Sophia noted his emphasis. Well… “No. No, you haven’t. But neither have I.”
“Listen, you’re a hundred percent right and I understand you’re hurting and angry with me. I should have stayed there, holding you in my arms, comforting you, sharing the happy news with you, instead of making you sad and aching.” A deep sigh came out from his chest unhindered as he searched to explain his explosive, uncivilized behavior. “Sometimes, Sophia, my emotions get out of control. With you, they are even more volatile. I was so taken aback, I re-acted.”
“When you re-act next time? Who will you hurt? Gabriela? This baby?”
Christ. He flinched and his eyes darkened with pain. “I’d never—”
She instantly repented, putting a finger on his lips. “I’m sorry. That was unnecessary.”
“Then forgive me,” he whispered, “and give me a chance to show you that I am worthy of your trust.” Please, Sophia. “I’ve been trying, doing my best. You, sweetheart, know how much I’ve changed since I met you, but you can’t ask me to be whole other man without a past or to change my inner nature.”
A tiger will never behave like a deer, Sophia. A hurt tiger will always be even more skittery. The emotions that crossed her face told him very clearly that she didn’t want him to be another man; she just wanted him to be more trustful of her.
Ah! Alistair narrowed his eyes, hoping they hadn’t shown that he knew her defenses were falling apart. Now, she just needs time to realize it too. “You are an exceedingly stubborn woman.”
Oh?! I am the stubborn one?! Haughtily, Sophia raised an eyebrow. “You knew that before we married, Husband.”
He nodded curtly to avoid closing his eyes to enjoy the richness of the word as it washed over him. “Aye, Wife. That trait is an integral part of the package.” Fortunately.
“You accepted me, for better or worse.” Sophia tilted her chin, quite unsure of his change of mood. He was looking at her in a strange way through those long black lashes of his. What have I lost in these last seconds?
“You did the same.” Alistair’s forest-green eyes flashed open and she saw so much love inside that her heart beat stronger.
Would it be so hard to forgive him? After what seemed to Alistair a long moment, Sophia sighed. “Yes, seems I did it, didn’t I?”
“I’m so sorry, Sophia. I love you so.” His eyes filled with tears. He vowed, “I promise you I’ll never mistrust you again.”
Leaning her head on his strong shoulder, she whispered, “It’s going to be a boy. He was conceived on your birthday.”
“You can’t know yet. It could be a girl.” Anything you want, my love. Anything.
“I’m pregnant. Don’t contradict me.”
“Never.” He kissed her forehead and tightened his arms around her. “You’re going to be very spoiled, so get used to it.”
Alistair’s dreams were all coming true and he couldn’t remember ever feeling happier.
London, In a dimly lit room
8:49 p.m.
On Ghost’s computer screen, the 3D floor plan of Sophia’s house rotated slowly. He didn’t have access to her wi-fi or security system anymore, but he still had access to her telephone lines.
The problem was that her house cameras and security devices were not accessible through them.
He turned the floor plan on the screen again, scrutinizing it. He had to find a way to get into that house, and soon.
To kidnap her in the middle of London as the Brazilian criminal had proposed was not a good idea. Not with all her bodyguards and CCTV cameras.
He scanned his notes. Many ideas came to his mind, but he discarded them one after the other. Now that her routine was hectic, things were turning out to be more and more difficult to predict.
To make things worse, his team was getting out of hand, especially the ones that were under the control of Uó.
He had never in his whole life seen such barbaric men and women as the ones that answered to the thin man.
For once, Ghost didn’t know if he would be able to fulfill his expectations.
He didn’t like to make impetuous decisions. His decisions were always planned and weighed. But this time they would have to be done hastily.
He picked up his paper-weight, looking at the snakes hissing at him as if scoffing at his intelligence. In a fit of rage, he threw it against the wall, where it bounced and fell to the carpet.
The clock was ticking.
For whom, he didn’t quite know anymore.
Chapter 23
Craigdale Castel
Monday, March 14, 2011
7:01 a.m.
Sophia woke and breathed slowly as if testing what would happen. The nausea and dizziness had considerably improved with Zofran, but hadn’t left her completely. She still hadn’t worked out the nausea pattern yet, as she had not been sick in her first pregnancy.
Alistair lay tangled with her, his dark head propped heavily on her shoulder. She wished she could lay there with him all morning.
They had worked out all their doubts and he had apologized so many times, he earned her complete forgiveness.
She ran her fingers through his ink-black, bed-tousled hair, combing it. “Alistair Connor, wake up, we have to go back.”
He clutched her tightly. “I don’t want it to be morning.”
She smiled. “I don’t think even the Marquis of I-give-the-orders-Amen can make the sun go back to sleep.”
“He can try.” He pulled the coverlet over them both. They couldn’t even see each other under the heavy blanket.
She giggled and squeaked when she realized he had moved down. Spreading quick kisses over her belly, saying endearing things to her and the baby, Alistair made everything right. Sophia ceased worrying about what time it was or what would happen later that day.
On Craigdale Airstrip
By Alistair MacCraig’s G650
8:57 a.m.
“I must have you here every weekend. I want to accompany this pregnancy step by step, as if I were your father.”
“Oh, Lachlann! You’ll have me all weepy.” Sophia blinked at the tears in her eyes. “I’ve been crying over the littlest things these days.”
Lachlann chuckled and embraced his daughter-in-law. “I’m not easily scared by women’s tears. Katherine found herself overly emotional, especially with Alistair Connor. As her time drew near, she practically melted in tears.”
“Did she get really fat?” Gabriela asked, following the conversation, holding Sophia’s hand.
I surrender. “All right!” Sophia exclaimed. She dropped to her haunches to look into her daughter’s beautiful blue eyes. “I’ll get really fat, but only for the baby, deal?”
An absolutely happy smile opened on Gabriela’s face. To everyone’s surprise, she stretched out her little, pink gloved hand to shake Sophia’s, as she had seen the adults do. “Deal, Mama.”
Atwood House
Friday, March 18, 2011
4:49 p.m.
“Sophia, sweetheart, I’m home!” Alistair called happily, opening their bedroom door.
When no one answered, he threw the bags he was carrying on the bed and crossed the room directly to Sophia’s bathroom, concerned.
Sophia was sitting in a corner. Her forehead was pressed to her knees and she was breathing heavily.
“Hey, mo chridhe.” He crouched next to her, lifting her hair from her face. “How do you feel?”
“It’s disgusting.”
He had the audacity to laugh. “Come now, Sophia. I’m not going to be disgusted because my pregnant wife is tossing up her cookies.”
“No,” she wailed feebly. “I’m not throwing up. I’m nauseous and dizzy.”
“Aye, aye,” he soothed her and scooped her from the floor in his arms tenderly, careful not to jolt her so much. “Let me put you in bed and get you the other drug John prescribed. Where is i
t?”
“In the drawer of my bedside table. I swear this is your fault.” She moaned again and put her head on the curve of his shoulder, clinging to his neck, eyes closed.
“My fault?” His chest shook with silent mirth. “How?”
She fisted his hair and yanked it hard.
“Ow!” he complained. “What was that for?
“Hairy. I bet that this little warrior is going to be hairy.” She smiled wanly at him. “It’s said that hairy babies cause nausea.”
“It could always be a tiny hairy lady.” He placed her on the bed, finding the medicine on her drawer.
“Tiny? Your son?” she doubted, in a small voice as he roamed her fridge, taking out a bottle of water. “He’s going to be a huge Highland warrior.”
He helped her take her half pill of Phenergan with a small gulp of water. “It’s a little Sophia!”
She kept her eyes closed, waiting for the dizziness to pass. “Oh, shush!”
“Ah-ah! This is not the way to talk to your husband, Marchioness. Behave or I won’t give you the presents I’ve bought.”
Her brows twisted in confusion as she opened her eyes to look around. “What is all this?”
In different size and colors, there were more than twenty bags scattered on the bed.
“I put Malcolm and Berkley to work a bit this afternoon. They’re getting lazy.” Alistair grinned in a lopsided way. “Then…I hit the shops.”
“You…hit the shops?” she repeated dumfounded and motioned with her fingers for him to give her one of the bags. He hates shopping.
“Now I know why you women buy thousands of articles for you and babies. There are a million different things that are needed. A million different products to be bought. In a million different sizes and colors.” He was smiling happily. He settled her more comfortably on the bed, putting two pillows behind her back. He circled the bed and propped on the other side, opening a bag. “It took me the whole afternoon. This is for you to carry the baby’s things.” From a Louis Vuitton brown bag and box, he produced a navy bag for baby products.
“That’s beautiful, thank you.”
“A kind woman helped me and I bought a quick guide so I could figure everything out, but I still wasn’t sure. So, I also bought a book.” He made a face and showed her a copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting.
“You bought a guide and a book…” Her eyes twinkled with laughter. She couldn’t hide the amused twist of her lips. “I see. You have been very busy, Handsome.”
Alistair’s smile faded. He looked at her for a long while. “What’s so funny? I think I deserve to choose some of my daughter’s clothes.”
“Son,” she reaffirmed and then looked to the other side of the bed, her eyes going round. “Am I giving birth to an army?”
“Not an army,” Alistair crooned. “But, yes, I want many, many children.”
“Oh, God,” Sophia moaned weakly and helplessly. “Really? How many children do you want?”
“Eleven. A football team,” he teased.
“Can we think about the next one after this one is born?” she asked, smiling lovingly at him.
“Mmmm.” Her big husband actually pouted.
Sophia giggled. “I can promise one more, my lord.”
“Twins,” he affirmed. “I want twins.”
“Alistair Connor!” Her lips curled up. “How am I supposed to have twins? Am I a witch? What is the spell which creates them?”
“You have twin sisters. Tavish had a twin, but he was stillborn. Wouldn’t it be nice?”
Sophia faked a shudder. “Can you imagine the size I would be? And, of course, I would have to have another plastic surgery for my breasts.”
He palmed her breasts, softly and gently, not touching her sore nipples. His eyes flashed green flames. “I like the idea even more now. We could go bigger.”
Pervert!! She smiled. “I’ll think about that.”
“Great! Now, I read the back of the boxes, and I consulted the guides, but—Christ, Sophia!—there are so many different pacifiers and bottles. My mother bought Nathalie’s trousseau, so I didn’t remember the brands very well.”
“My love, I’ll nurse the baby. We won’t need pacifiers or bottles for at least six months.”
“Nae?”
She shook her head slowly, “No.”
Ah, of course. “Then, I think I got these right,” he informed her. Heating and breast pads, lotion for sore nipples, and a nursing pillow.
She watched, fascinated, as he started emptying the bags.
“Since she is going to be born at the end of autumn, I bought smaller warmer clothes and bigger lighter ones.” From the other bags, out came the clothes, from tiny Hermès suede shoes, to beautiful Dior dresses, including comfortable and practical jammies, T-shirts and onesies, leggings, mittens, hats, socks, booties, and winter coats in different colors and sizes.
Alistair Connor, you’re so crazily sweet. “Of course, he will need smaller warmer clothes. Your father would go crazy if I don’t spend December and January in the Highlands.”
“She—He—” He stopped and ran his fingers in his hair, confused. “What do you prefer? A daughter or a son?”
Oh, my love, you’re such a dear. “It doesn’t matter the sex as long as it’s born healthy.” Just to tease him she said, “Anyway, it’s a boy.”
“Then I have to start thinking of boys names. Perhaps I should exchange this beautiful dress, and a few of the pink clothes for light green and yellow ones.”
Eyes wide, Sophia gasped when Alistair emptied another bag on the bed. Talking excitedly, he put the clothes on her lap, “Of course, I bought a few outfits for you. I didn’t know your size exactly, so I tried on one of those cushions—”
What?! “You did what?!”
Oh, fuck. He flushed as he had never done before. “Well, you know…they have those cushions to see how big your belly—” I want to know how it’s going to be.
Sophia lost it. She couldn’t imagine that big husband of hers trying on a pregnancy belly. Her giggles escalated to a laugh only to be stopped by renewed dizziness.
Alistair growled, “You’re going to be sick.”
Sophia breathed deep a few times and pushed the nausea away. “I can’t imagine the sales clerks’ surprise.”
“I’m trying to be supportive here.”
I know, meu amor, I know. “It’s just that you bought almost everything the baby will need for a year, minus the diapers.”
“Oh, nae. We still need to get the stroller, the baby kangaroo or whatever it’s called, decorate the nursery. Hmm…what else?” He picked up his guide and looked at the list, on which he had crossed items and marked others.
Oh, he is nervous. She sat gingerly on the bed and put her finger over his lips, just as he would restart his unremitting listing. “Slow down, Husband. I had Gabriela and did it with ease. I’ve even kept a few of her loveliest things. Seriously, we can do this together and bit by bit. Let’s wait to know the baby’s sex.”
All right. “I think I got overexcited,” he conceded. And anxious.
“That’s really very sweet of you, Lord Caveman,” she kissed her lips.
“There is one more thing.” He pulled out a box from Graff from his inner breast pocket. “This is a small token.”
“Oh, Alistair Connor, you shouldn’t—”
He interrupted her protesting. “I can never fully express my deep gratitude for your staying by my side during all these months; I know they have been harsh. For showing me how positive thinking, being proactive instead of reactive, lack of resentment, and real unselfish love are character habits that can be relearned.”
“You’re not indebted to me, Alistair Connor.” Never! I did all that because I love you.
“Indebted? Nae. In love.” He opened the box and took out a ten carat, flawless white, heart cut diamond suspended by a thin and delicate platinum chain. “This has never belonged to anyone. It’s a renewing of my vows to you. I
’m once again giving my heart back to you, because you, Sophia MacCraig, my beloved wife, made me the happiest of the men; made my inner sun come out to shine; your gentle support helped me blow away the dark clouds that shadowed my life. You made me grow and helped me cope more easily with the tragedies I experienced in life.” His eyes misted as did hers. He lifted her hair and fastened the necklace. Carefully, he pulled her into his arms. “You made me believe in miracles, in magic, and, most importantly of all, in trust, love, and life. I love you so much, Sophia, that but for Nathalie’s, all the feelings and emotions I had before were evanescent; my heart was just waiting for you to arrive to start beating and to recognize that happiness is to be cared for, and it’ll be forever lasting.”
London, In a dimly lit room
4:42 p.m.
Ghost turned on the screen to the secret camera he installed in Uó’s suite and shook his head. The man was having sex with a woman instead of studying the plans.
Intelligence could never be replaced by brutal strength and animalistic behavior, but now, he would have to find a way to combine the two.
“This will never succeed,” Ghost murmured. He turned the screen off.
A few minutes after, Uó called Alberto and him. Ghost linked the calls and turned the camera on again. He didn’t waste time and started the conversation. He hadn’t liked the last one he had with Uó, when the thin man informed him he had new plans and would not follow his anymore.
“This was supposed to be a simple kidnapping: hide the victim drugged for a month or so, while I bought the diamonds with the ransom money and fled. The victim would find her way back home. One way or another. Neat and clean.”
Alberto translated, Uó answered and he translated again, “Neat and clean? Either this is a fucking kidnapping or it’s not. You in, man?”
When Ghost hesitated a bit, Uó started to shout at Alberto what Ghost could guess were curses and threats. He quickly answered, “Yes, yes, I’m in.”