As though to emphasize his point, his stomach let out a low rumble.
Mac pulled Fiona to him and wrapped his arms around her waist as she rested her head against his chest. “We’ll figure this out. I won’t let them hurt either of you.”
He pressed a kiss to her temple and prayed he could keep that promise.
15
For being in such a precarious situation, Fiona was surprised at how safe she felt in Mac’s arms.
She was hungry. Gray would wake any minute. He’d be hungry, and need to go to the bathroom, and only be as scared as she and Mac seemed to be.
They needed to remain calm.
And right here, Fiona felt much calmer than she could have imagined.
“We’re going to be all right,” Mac reassured her. “Whoever this is, we’ll find a way to stay safe. We’ll cooperate and bide our time. We’ll have a chance. When we do, we’ll take it.”
Fiona wasn’t sure she believed him, but the thought made her feel better anyway. “Thank you for trying to make me feel better. I want to believe that.”
“The good news is that the Battens should have noticed we were missing by now if no one did earlier.” He tightened his hold on her for a moment then released her as Gray started to stir. “Go to him.”
Fiona did just that, settling in next to Gray again as he sat up.
“Mama, where are we?” His sleep-filled voice held more fear than Fiona had hoped.
“We’re together. That’s the most important part.” She pulled him closer as he rested his head against her.
“I’m hungry.”
“I know, buddy. We’ll get something to eat soon.” As long as their abductors remembered to bring them food.
Mac finally let himself slide down the wall to sit in one of the corners where he could see the door. Fiona watched as leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.
“I’m just going to rest for a minute,” he muttered, but Fiona knew he’d be asleep in seconds. With all of the stresses he’d been under, he had to hit the end of his adrenaline at some point.
After a few more minutes, she could tell her son had fully woken up. “I’m hungry, Mama. Can we eat?”
“Soon.” If Mac hadn’t desperately needed some sleep, she likely would have started pounding on the door already. “Why don’t you tell me about the games you played with the other children yesterday?”
As she’d suspected he would, Gray launched into an elaborate story about the game of tag and some other game he didn’t know the name of, but one of the girls told him how to play. From what she could gather, “one of the girls” was probably the next queen of Eyjania.
Her life kept becoming more and more surreal.
Even more so when you considered she’d been involved in multiple abductions in a very short period of time. Most people were never part of even one, and here she was part of two.
A scratching noise at the door made Gray freeze as Fiona’s head snapped around and Mac startled awake. Before the door could open, Mac had placed himself between her and whoever was about to enter.
“Here.” Lefty’s gruff voice was accompanied by a metallic bang. Peeking around Mac, Fiona could tell it was a food tray, but she couldn’t tell what kind of breakfast it held.
“Wait!” Mac moved closer to the door. “What do you want with us? Keep me, but let them go. They don’t mean as much as I do. My sister is the queen of Islas del Sargasso.”
She could see Lefty shake his head. “We only need one of you, but you’re not that one. We’ll decide what happens to the other two later.”
Mac took another half step forward. “We? You’ll both decide? You have equal say in what happens? Or are you the one in control?”
“We make decisions together.” The defensive tone in Lefty’s voice told Fiona all she needed to know.
Mr. Villain made all the decisions and didn’t listen to anything Lefty had to say, but Lefty would never admit it to Mac.