The Hitman's Pregnant Bride: A Baby Romance (8 page)

P
hoebe felt more
like a stripper than ever as she went to the raised platform. It wasn't a stage, not a real one. She had an attack of nausea, but she didn't want to show it.

She looked down at Odhran. He was perfectly smug and looked like he was totally entitled to whatever dancing she did.

Someone dimmed the lights and started music as if it were a real performance. She closed her eyes and centered herself before doing the motions of a routine that she'd done when she was 15 for several performances. She smiled as she remembered how full of fire she'd been as a teenager.

When had that changed? Maybe when she grew up and became an adult and caught just a glimpse of the world that her father had protected her from for so long. And it was her way of flipping the bird to Odhran, who thought that he could control her. She was complying with his request, but her way.

She got to the climax of the dance, when there were a lot of leaps. She was very careful with her landings, not jumping as high as she really could. She was hyper-conscious of the angles of this part of the dance to ensure the safety of her child.

Then it was at an end. She gracefully curtsied to the audience of one.

She heard Odhran clapping and gritted her teeth before replacing her grimace with a fake smile. If anything, she'd been taught to pretend as if she enjoyed performing, even when she was sick, even when she was tired, even when she felt as if she might throw up any moment.

"Excellent. I could watch it a thousand times. Do it again."

Phoebe swallowed the vomit that threatened to spill. The music started yet again. She felt as if she were a puppet whose strings he was pulling. She was sure that it was intentional. He wanted to show her that he had absolute power over her actions; she was his marionette.

"Cut the music."

What? What did Odhran want?

"I changed my mind about your costume. I want you in a ball gown."

Phoebe felt more like his doll than ever. She couldn't stop the flash of anger that crossed her face.

"You should wear my colors. Let's get you a purple gown, so you match my guards. Someone will help you backstage."

Phoebe turned around. She was in the center of the room. What kind of back stage was there?

She turned and saw a guard behind her. He picked her up off of the stage and threw her over his shoulder. She was instantly concerned about the baby in her stomach, which was in contact with the guard's shoulder.

"We use a back room as our backstage area." From the guard's tone, she surmised that the concept of kidnapping girls and forcing them to perform was an everyday occurrence Chez Odhran.

There was another man who had a purple dress in his hands.

"We have a folding screen. Hurry. He doesn't like to wait." She saw that the costumer's hands were shaking. This whole thing affected more than just her.

She took the dress from his hands and quickly went behind the folding screen. She quickly stepped into it. She looked for the silver lining. The dress definitely covered more than the first costume. She was worried about just how far Odhran was ready to go. What would happen if she couldn't find a way out or Andreas and her dad couldn't free her?

She should've just stayed at home and confronted Andreas about the black box. If she had, she wouldn't be some rich creep's ballerina doll.

It was funny how much the shock of finding out the Andreas was some kind of criminal had passed when she was kidnapped. She was still totally astounded by him keeping fake passports, international currency, guns, and everything else in their house. She thought that their marriage was honest and close. But she wasn't sure just whom she had married.

But she should've given him a chance to explain before running off.

"Are you done? He's asking for you."

Phoebe glared at the voice, even though it wasn't his fault. She could hear the nervousness in the costumer's voice. She didn't think that he was here by choice. Odhran just pulled people that he wanted to work on his estate in, and he didn't care about what they wanted.

The costumer was terrified, and Phoebe knew that the depth of his terror had to be due to being punished before. Phoebe got out because she had no desire to learn how Odhran disciplined any errant "employees." Her initial fear was turning into pure loathing for his mind games.

"Ready." Phoebe raised her chin and went back into the room where she had performed earlier.

"
W
hat
? No gourmet?"

Andreas had a bag of carry-out from Chung's. Mr. Kaine didn't know that it was just a cover.

"Nope, just some simple beef lo mein. Not really in the mood to cook something gourmet tonight."

"You aren't any closer than you were before you left?" He coughed. "And beef lo mein is just fine. Sally likes it."

Mr. Kaine and Andreas ate in the boat house, which was as well furnished as a very small guest house. He could see why Phoebe had spent time here as a kid.

"You know, Phoebe or Sally disappearing is my worst nightmare. It's the thing that I've been the most worried about since I started at the FBI. I know that you think that I should be breaking more rules, but my job is everything that I have left. I'm trying to uphold my oath. It's the hardest decision that I've ever faced, but giving into Odhran's pressure could mean the death of hundreds or thousands just to start."

"Odhran has a bomb?" Andreas wanted to confirm what exactly the Crucible was.

Grimacing, Harold said, "It's much more than a bomb." He got to his feet. "I'm going to carry this delicious beef lo mein up to my wife while it's still hot."

Andreas waited until he was gone to go straight for Harold's coat. He must've worn it back out here after he went to pick up his car. His wallet was in the same place that Andreas had found it before: his right pocket. Harold was right-handed. Andreas whipped out the fake that he had Chung print from his image of Harold's FBI badge with the right RFID. Using the edge of his shirt to prevent any fingerprints staying on it, he wiped the prints before putting Harold's badge back where it belonged. Chung could definitely handle something like this, and Harold's now fake badge could probably get him in.

Andreas put Harold's real badge into his own wallet in a little pocket that would block the signal until he wanted to take it out. He could access all the FBI's databases now and get some real answers. If Harold was flagged, he'd have a real excuse: he'd been pick-pocketed, and he had the fake ID to prove it.

"
W
ake up
." Phoebe opened one eye. The stress of dancing for Odhran last night had made her sleep deeply, despite her fear.

"What time is it?"

"Five AM." Odhran was far too cheerful for Phoebe. "You're going to sit for a painter."

"What?"

"You'll need to change into this." Odhran was holding a mesh nightgown in his hands. There was a glint of malice in his eyes and she knew that he wasn't a patient man. He had forced her to dance again and again and again until her limbs shook and her whole body was soaked with perspiration. The ball gown had covered her up better, yeah, but it was stifling. She had sweated like crazy. He finally called a halt when she thought that she was going to faint right there on the stage.

It chilled her to think that he might think of doing more to her than he already had. She knew that she had to get out of his estate in any way that she could as fast as she could.

Somehow.

She went into her bathroom for a semblance of privacy and got into the sheer mesh gown.

When she got out, there was someone else in the room, a slender older man who had an easel set up in the corner. She didn't know if he had been there the whole time and she hadn't noticed him or if he'd come in just moments before.

"Just sit on the bed. This painting is a gift for your father."

Phoebe's blood turned to ice.

Why would he want to deliver a painting when he could just deliver her? Was this part of his game, or was it some kind of sick warning?

A long time later, Phoebe was pressing her lips together by the time the painter had completed a painting that Odhran liked.

"Beautiful," he said, his eyes going to Phoebe's curves. "Your dear daddy will like this."

Phoebe knew better than to ask why her father would like it.

The painter and Odhran finally left her alone in her room. She heard the click of the lock.

Phoebe felt her lips quiver as her tears were finally allowed to come out. She practically ripped off the strange mesh gown off of her when she was alone. She went into the shower to wash away things that soap couldn't. She began to sob inside of the shower and wrapped her arms around herself. She'd been hopeful throughout this whole nightmare, but he was raising the stakes of the mind game. She couldn't bear the thought of being touched by Odhran if that was his next play, since she’d been asked to dress in overly revealing clothing.

She thought about the baby. She was lucky that she wasn’t showing yet.

She heard footsteps outside of her door. She held her breath, her eyes wide, nearly hyperventilating as they came closer and closer to her door. Then the footsteps went away. What in the world was that about? Did he come here to…and then change his mind? She curled her body into a ball, sure that she wouldn’t feel safe in her prison any longer. Odhran was totally unpredictable. She had no idea when Andreas or her Dad would find her. Even the FBI had blind spots…and she had no idea what Andreas was involved with.

A
ndreas couldn't get
comfortable when he lay down to sleep that night. He was staying in the boat house to keep close to the Kaines until Phoebe was found. He kept thinking of worst-case scenarios. It was karma; he'd hurt enough people to know just what humans were capable of. His hands weren't clean. He thought of Phoebe on the other end of the things that he'd done in the name of the Agency, and he couldn't fall asleep. When he closed his eyes, he saw Phoebe on the other end of his knife.

He got out of bed when it was clear that he wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. He should look more deeply into the engineering company that they had found. He puled out a laptop.

He went to their corporate press releases. There were press releases about military applications for several of their products. He kept clicking through them. The average American didn't pay much attention to defense; it was taken care of for them. But many of the government's biggest defense contractors were publicly traded, which meant that some of their information was available to a casual observer.

And Andreas was much more than that.

His head began to pound as the hours ticked by, but he ignored it. He needed to figure out what exactly the Crucible was so he could save Phoebe. It was the key to getting his wife back where she belonged.

He needed to come to clean to her, but he'd have to find her first.

Rubbing his eyes, he noticed that he'd gone through an enormous amount of pages, learning more about large-scale weapons than he ever wanted. He was tempted to access the FBI from his laptop, but he needed to wait for a better place to go. He knew just where he was going to go with Harold's card. Together, they could get the information that he needed to find his wife.

His phone rang.

"Hello?"

"You asleep?"

Andreas rubbed his eyes. "No."

"We've got the green light for a meeting."

"Roger."

Chung hung up. The information that he'd needed to convey was there.

T
he next morning
, Andreas had already finished his eggs and was ready to grab his coat to get out.

Mr. Kaine’s phone rang. Mr. Kaine looked at Andreas, who froze right where he was. He said a prayer of thanks that Mrs. Kaine was still asleep.

It rang again. Mr. Kaine put the phone on speaker and mute at the same time.

“Good morning, Harold. What a lovely day, isn’t it? Your daughter is a very beautiful dancer. You’ve definitely placed me in a tempting position.”

“If you lay a hand on her…”

Odhran cut him off. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on giving into my primal impulses. She’s not my enemy. She’s pretty useless when it comes to information, which is the most precious currency, as you know. I need you to give me what I want.”

“Take me instead.”

Andreas’ eyes popped open. Was Mr. Kaine offering what he thought he was?

“That’s all I can give.”

“Fair enough.” Odhran paused. “We can make the trade at a park near the Pentagon. They block all the signals around there, so it’s definitely ideal. I’ll text you the meeting time and exact location.”

Harold hit the red button on his phone to hang up. His face was so white that Andreas wondered if he should ask him to sit down.

“I think I know where she is.”

“Where?”

H
arold had given him an address
, and Andreas had taken his laptop to Chip’s to get a secure connection when he hacked the FBI. The ID worked perfectly to unlock the door. He used the satellites to check for weak points on the estate, but he couldn’t find anything. Whoever was in charge of the security of the estate was very good. There wasn’t any way to just march in and grab his wife without setting off a bunch of alarms.

Sighing, he drank a sip of Chip’s coffee, choking it down for the caffeine. He changed the coordinates of the satellites. If Harold wound up in this thug’s hands, he might not make it out if he planned on being a martyr, a hero. Sighing, he sat back, seeing his screen but not reading it.

His mind ran the different scenarios. The outcome for Mr. Kaine would be pretty grim. He cleared his history and closed his laptop.

“The cookie you requested, sir.” Andreas looked up at the barista, who had a plain package wrapped in brown paper.

“Thank you for my cookie.”

Andreas tossed his coffee in the trash and headed for the back rooms at Chip’s. When he was in one of the small offices, he opened the package up. It was a layout of the underground tunnels at Odhran’s estate. There was an area that was highlighted. This was the second part of the same mission. They wanted him to go into the estate and get whatever they’d highlighted. This couldn’t be connected to the first mission to take out Harold Kaine, could it?

He raised an eyebrow. What was going on? Did they mean for Harold Kaine to sacrifice himself and kill two birds with one stone?

He wasn’t sure if they were giving a way out of stone-cold murdering his father-in-law. The layout didn’t actually show any accessible doors or passages leading from any level into the house itself. Memorizing the layout, tracing with his finger several routes through the estate, he sighed. He knew that it still wasn’t going to be easy. He needed to get his wife first; the retrieval was secondary. He hoped that he could do both.

He only had one more job after this one. He was almost done.