“I can and I will. You lost the right to be his mother when you stole him away like a thief in the night.”
Anna brought her hands to her mouth, knowing Nikos could use his money and power and man-eating lawyers to keep her from her son forever. She’d been stupid to run away, and now her worst nightmare had come true. Her baby would grow up without her, living in Las Vegas with a heartless, womanizing billionaire and his new mistress…
“I’m so sorry, Anna,” Natalie sobbed behind her. “I tried to stop them. I tried.”
“It’s all right, Natalie,” Anna whispered. But it wasn’t all right. It would never be all right again.
A door slammed back against the wall, causing Anna to jump as a third bodyguard entered from the kitchen and placed a tray on the table. Steam rose from the samovar as Nikos went to the table and poured undiluted tea, followed by hot water, into a blue china cup.
She stared at her great-grandmother’s china teacup. It looked so fragile and small in his fingers, she thought. It could be crushed in a moment by those tanned, muscular hands.
Nikos could destroy anything he wanted. And he had.
“I’ve been here two weeks,” Anna said bitterly as she watched him take a drink. “What took you so long?”
He lowered the cup, and his unsmiling gaze never once looked from hers.
“I ordered my men to wait until you and the child were separated. Easier that way. Less risk of you doing something foolish.”
Stupid. Stupid. She never should have left her baby—not even to go to an all-night market in St. Petersburg. After all, Misha wasn’t really sick, just teething and cranky, with a tiny fever that barely registered on her thermometer.
“I was stupid to leave,” she whispered.
“It took you four months to figure that out?”
Anna barely heard him. No, the really stupid move had been coming here in the first place. After four months on the move, always just one step ahead of Nikos’s men, and with money running out, Anna had convinced herself that Nikos wouldn’t be staking out her great-grandmother’s old palace. Now mortgaged to the hilt, the crumbling palace was their family’s last asset. Natalie was trying to repair the murals in hopes that they’d be able to find a buyer and pay off their paralyzing debt. A fruitless hope, in Anna’s opinion.
As fruitless as trying to escape Nikos Stavrakis. He was bigger than her by six inches, and eighty pounds of hard muscle. He had three bodyguards, with more waiting in cars hidden behind the palace.
The police, she thought, but that hope faded as soon as it came. By the time she managed to summon a policeman Nikos would be long gone. Or he’d pay off anyone who took her side. Nikos Stavrakis’s wealth and power made him above the law.
She had only one option left. Begging.
“Please,” she whispered. She took a deep breath and forced herself to say in a louder voice, “Nikos, please don’t take my child. It would kill me.”
He barked a harsh laugh. “That’s what I’d call a bonus.”
She should have known better than to ask him for anything. “You…you heartless bastard!”
“Heartless?” He threw the cup at the fireplace. It smashed and fell in a thousand chiming pieces. “Heartless!” he roared.
Suddenly afraid, Anna drew back. “Nikos—”
“You let me believe that my son was dead! I thought you both were dead. I returned from New York and you were gone. Do you know how many days I waited for the ransom note, Anna? Do you have any idea how long I waited for your bodies to be discovered? Seven days. You made me wait seven damn days before you bothered to let me know you were both alive!”
Anna’s breaths came in tiny rattling gasps. “You betrayed me. You caused my father’s death! Did you think I’d never find out?”
His dark eyes widened, then narrowed. “Your father made his own choices, as you have made yours. I’m taking my son back where he belongs.”
“No. Please.” Tears welled up in her eyes and she grabbed at his coat sleeve. “You can’t take him. I’m—I’m still breastfeeding. Think what it would do to Misha to lose his mother, the only parent he’s ever known…”#p#分页标题#e#
His eyes went dark, and Anna wanted to bite off her tongue. How could she have drawn attention to the fact that she’d not only denied Nikos the chance to experience the first four months of their child’s life, but she’d broken her promise about their son’s name?
Then he bared his teeth in the wolflike semblance of a smile. “You are mistaken, zoe mou. I have no intention of taking him away from you.”