His Suitable Bride(111)

Despair rose. The shack was windowless and cold and damp. She was pushed into a room and the baby bag hurled after her. Alone at last, Rowan put Zac down on a mattress and rummaged through the bag. She found the phone and the screen was smashed. It must have happened when the bag had hit the ground.

She busied herself getting a blanket for Zac to lie on. He was waking up again, groggy and cranky. She only had milk and baby snacks. She gave him another biscuit, which kept him occupied for a while, and then a bottle. She changed his nappy, trying to make things as normal as possible.

But after that his energy was boundless, and she couldn’t blame him after being in the car and asleep for most of the day. She tried to encourage him to play quietly, but of course he had no understanding of the situation they were in.

He marched to the door and tried to reach up to open it, crying out when he couldn’t. Rowan had been searching in vain for any means of escape, and darted forward just as the door opened, knocking Zac backwards. He started to cry, and the man bent down, his huge hand heading straight for Zac’s head.

‘No!’ Rowan screamed, and pulled Zac back out of danger. She straightened up, breathing harshly, and had no warning of the hand that now came her way, cracking across her face. She felt her lip split and staggered back. The man went for Zac again, but like a tigress Rowan made a leap and caught Zac up into her chest.

Her head was ringing and she could taste blood. ‘Don’t touch him.’

The man stepped forward, but Rowan stood her ground.

He stopped then for a second, as if slightly confused. ‘If I hear him so much as breathe I’ll throw him down the mountain.’

He left the room and, shaking, Rowan went to the mattress and sat down, taking Zac with her. He was mercifully quiet, his eyes huge as he looked at her and her cut mouth. He put out a finger and pointed. Rowan tried to smile, but pain lanced her head. She spoke softly to try and reassure him, and got a tissue to try to stem the blood coming from her lip.

Losing all sense of time and place in the dim light, Rowan found her eyes closing. Zac had fallen asleep against her chest, and she wrapped his blanket around him to keep him warm. Her head kept nodding, and when she jerked upright some time later and found they were in the same position she had no idea of how much time had passed. She was so stiff that her legs had gone numb, her arms had pins and needles.

She came fully awake in an instant, though, when she sensed something outside. A movement, something … Zac woke too, and whimpered. Immediately Rowan was on her guard and stood up on wobbly legs, holding Zac tight within his blanket against her.

This was it. She knew it. They were going to try to take Zac from her and then—Her mind went blank with the horror of what was about to come.

The door opened, light streaming in from a flashlight and Rowan blinked. ‘You will have to kill me to get to my son. My husband is on his way, and he knows exactly what—’

‘Rowan? Mi Dios, what have they done to you?’

Rowan thought she was hearing things. She had to be making it up. It couldn’t possibly be—

‘Sandro …?’

‘Sí. Yes. It’s me.’ His voice didn’t sound like him. She couldn’t trust it. It couldn’t be possible. He came into the room, and more lights blazed behind him. Rowan felt disembodied, wasn’t sure if she was standing or sitting or lying down. All she was aware of was Zac in her arms.

And then he stood in front of her. Tall and dark in the light, and so handsome and vital and real. If it was a hallucination then she could die happy right now.





CHAPTER TEN


THE adrenalin was still pumping through Isandro’s body, and the metallic taste of fear was still in his mouth. When he’d opened that door all he’d seen had been two huge pairs of violet eyes. And such determination and fearlessness in Rowan’s. For a second the emotion coursing through him made him stop. He couldn’t actually touch them yet because he was shaking so much.

Rowan finally allowed the relief in, the reality, and then all the other emotions she’d been suppressing surged up. ‘Sandro, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said I’d go to Seville. If we hadn’t been going then this wouldn’t have happened. Zac should have been at home. I could have gone on my own. You were right. I never should have come back in the first place. It’s my fault—’

Isandro’s heart clenched painfully. It had been his suggestion, his fault. And yet she was blaming herself. ‘Shh, Rowan, it’s okay. Give Zac to me.’

She stopped, feeling her mouth trembling, her limbs starting to shake. She knew she had to let go of Zac but she just couldn’t. She tried, but it was as if her arms were welded across him, holding him so tight. A sob broke free. ‘I can’t—I can’t let him go.’