A Reputation For Revenge(118)
“And you? You don’t look terribly happy.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “I’ll get by. But Anna...” He rubbed the back of his head wearily. “I couldn’t let her down. She loved me. Marrying me would have ruined her life.”
“Her happiness means more to you than your own?”
“She’s the mother of my son. The best damn partner I ever had at work. My friend. My lover. Of course I want her to be happy. It’s all I want.”
The Scotswoman raised her head and looked at him. Her eyes were kind, but sad. “Sir, what do you think love is?”
For a second he just stared at her. Then his heart started to pound in his chest.
“Oh, my God,” he whispered.
Was it possible that she was right? That he loved Anna?
He didn’t just want her in his bed, that was true. He didn’t just enjoy her company, appreciate her skills as a mother or respect her perfect secretarial work.
He wanted her face to be the first he woke up to and the last he saw before he slept.
He wanted to see her face light up when she had a business idea, or when she was splashing around in the pool with their son.
He wanted her to be happy. To work as his secretary if that was what it took to make her glow from the inside out. Her happiness was everything.
That was love?
Oh, my God. He loved her. He didn’t deserve her, but what if he could spend the rest of his life striving to make her happy?
Because without Anna he now realized that his life was empty. His fortune, his business empire—meant nothing. Without her this penthouse was no better than his childhood tenement, and his life was just as lonely and hungry.
Money didn’t matter.
Love mattered.
Family mattered.
Oh, my God. Anna.
“Bless you,” he said to Mrs. Burbridge. He raced down the hall to the door. He had to find Anna—now, at once.
He stopped short when he saw Cooper standing outside his door. The burly bodyguard’s face was white and drawn.
“Boss—”
But at that moment Nikos saw the bundle in Cooper’s arms. His baby son, wrapped in a blanket. Michael’s little face was red and miserable as he cried.
“We found him at the front entrance to the casino,” Cooper said. “Alone.”
Nikos’s heart stopped in his throat as he took his son in his arms. “Alone?”
The burly man nodded grimly. “A valet said a van stopped beneath the marquee, left the baby on the ground, and drove away.”
Nikos held his son close, crooning to him softly, rocking him back and forth against his chest, just like Anna had taught him. The baby’s tears subsided. Michael was comforted, but Nikos was not. “Anna wouldn’t let herself be separated from Misha.”
Looking miserable, Cooper handed him a letter. Nikos scanned it quickly.
Nikos
I’ve realized that sharing custody will never work. I’m in love with Victor Sinistyn and leaving with him for South America. You once said I was no kind of mother, and I guess you were right. Trying to keep our baby safe and warm would be too much effort where we’re going. Please don’t bother trying to find me. Raise our son well.
Anna
“Boss?” Cooper repeated unhappily. His voice echoed in the private outside hallway against the steel of the elevator doors. “What do you want me to do?”
Nikos’s heart was pounding. She’d left him. The moment he’d realized he loved her with all his heart, she’d left him. His worst fear had come true.
But something nagged at him, overriding the pain, and he read the letter again. A mere hour after she’d left Nikos she’d decided to leave both him and Misha behind for a life with Victor Sinistyn?
Maybe it was her handwriting, but he didn’t believe a word of it.
“She’s in trouble,” Nikos said slowly. “Someone forced her to write this letter.”
“You think she’s been kidnapped?”
“Sinistyn,” he breathed. The man had made it clear he wanted Anna, and when Nikos had shoved her out of L’Hermitage without bodyguards he’d handed her to him on a silver plate. He cursed himself under his breath. “Get the plane ready.”
“It’s ready now—for your trip to Asia.”
“Screw Singapore. Let Haverstock take the bid,” he said, throwing away the billion-dollar deal to his chief rival without a thought.
“Where are we going to look for her? South America?”
Nikos shook his head. “Sinistyn put that in to throw us off the track. No. He’s going someplace else. Somewhere private. Somewhere my power does not easily reach.” He glanced down at the letter, forcing himself to read it again slowly.