Page 9 of Little Deer
“Yes, but?—”
The bottle in her hand goes flying, and this time, it hits Zeno square in the forehead. He curses, and I step forward. “Get away from me!” she screams, frantically searching around for something else to throw.
“Kida!” I bark, but this time my tone doesn’t stop her. I knew I should have kept my mouth shut. Damn it. If the cops haven’t been called already, they will be soon and that shit is not on my plan tonight. Guess we have to do this the hard way.
I move fast, grabbing her wrist to keep her from throwing anything else, but also make sure I don’t crush her or the baby. She struggles, but I quickly and easily restrain her. “Stop it,” I snap at her. “You’re going to hurt him, and I refuse to bring him back to his mother with a single scratch or bruise on him.”
“Fuck you,” she hisses furiously, still struggling, but at a lesser degree.
I huff out a frustrated sigh. “Kida, we do not want to hurt you. Or your sister. I get it, you don’t trust us now that we’ve told you who we are and what we do, but in this, you need to trust us. The safest place you can be is with us. With us, you will be safe. Your sister is safe and being cared for right now by her brother-in-law’s doctor, my sister, and a woman that has a dog that loves to take bites out of people if they even think of pissing him off. We’ll explain everything else when we get there, but right now, you need to come with us.”
“I don’t?—”
“You do,” I interrupt, staring down into her eyes. “Do you want to die?” I ask her harshly. “Are you willing to sacrificehim?” I nod at the still crying baby, though his cries have turned hoarse. “Because any of those other people that will come in that door, they are going to force you out of here. They will rip him from your arms, and you will never hear him again. That’s if they don’t kill him in front of you. Because that is exactly the kind of people they are, and then you will disappear. Either sold, killed, raped and disposed of.” Her body shudders with fear at my words. Good, we’re getting somewhere. “We are not going to do that. We will never do that, and as much as you don’t want to believe that, we are your only shot at getting out of this alive. I need you to get him loaded up quickly, grab anything you need immediately like diapers and formula, and then we need to get out of here. I will replace anything else you or he needs okay. Clothes, whatever. Can you do that?”
She still looks like she wants to argue, but perhaps my gory reality check is enough to sink in that this isn’t a fight she wants to keep digging her heels on. Her eyes search mine, and some of the fear fades, but then it’s replaced by a dark determination. A fire that almost makes me smile, but I keep my stern expression in place. “If you even think about hurting a single hair on his head, or mine, or Lucy’s, I’ll kill you myself. I don’t care if you are mafia,” she threatens darkly, pulling away from me. Then she looks at Zeno. “And that goes for you too.”
I glance at Zeno, whose eyes narrow. “Get what you need. We’ve wasted enough time.” He nods at the baby. “If you need to hand him to one of us?—”
“Fuck off,” she hisses at him. “You’re not touching him.” Zeno opens his mouth to argue with her, but I shake my head sharply, indicating for him to let it go. The more she fights, the shorter our window.
Zeno huffs out an annoyed sigh, but nods. “Fine, what do you need? Point it out so I can grab it then.”
Kida gets to work on telling both of us everything the baby will need. I put my foot down when she starts to say she needs a swing and other things for him. We don’t have the time or space for that shit. “We’re making one trip out of here, Ms. Delgado,” I warn her. “So only what is essential. Now, hurry, please, so we can get the hell out of here before we have company.”
She rushes to pack up the last of a few things, all while the baby continues to cry. She tries to calm him at the same time, but it only ends with her dropping more things she tries to put in the bag she grabbed. I step forward, impatient, and while she’s distracted, I scoop the baby from her arms. She rounds on me, eyes furious, but I just put the baby in the crook of my arm and bark, “You can have him back in the car. Pack things up. He’s fine with me.” She wants to argue but Zeno takes that moment to grab the bag from her hand too and starts stuffing things in it.
“You two are fucking bossy, you know that?” she barks, but she starts grabbing things and yanking the bag away from Zeno roughly.
“Whatever it takes to get you to move faster,” Zeno snaps back at her. “The longer you take the more danger you put us in.” They glare at each other but I ignore it and look down at the now silent baby in my arms.
He looks up at me with dark brown eyes that are puffy and red-rimmed from crying. His face is a dark angry red, and his little lips are open in a suckling motion. My chest tightens realizing how hungry he must be and how much he wants his mother. He’s so fucking tiny in my arms, wearing only a white onesie and a diaper. His thin, dark brown hair is standing on end, and I can’t help but smile.
He’s a cute kid. I give him my pinkie finger, not making a sound when he latches on to it with his tiny little hand, gripping it with a surprising strength. “You’re going to be a strong one,aren’t you,ometto?” I ask him softly in Italian. He doesn’t react to my words, just watches me.
“We’re good,” Zeno announces, snapping my attention back to him. Kida holds out her arms for the baby, but I shake my head.
“Car, then we’ll give him to you,” I tell her. Am I being a dick to not hand her nephew back to her, yes, but I also need her to cooperate and get in the SUV and not try to make a break for it. I don’t like using a child this way, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Kida’s lips pinch, but we leave the apartment, and I have Zeno quickly turn out all the lights and put up a few cameras in case we get lucky and Leonardo’s men do show up here. Once Kida and Zeno are in the SUV, I hand him back to his aunt and climb into the driver’s seat.
We pull away, but I don’t breathe a sigh of relief until we’re driving through Nico’s gates.
7
LUCY
I hearhis cry and everything in my body reacts. Soren. Where is he? Why is he crying? Why is no one helping him?
I fight the darkness holding me down, using every ounce of determination I can muster to pull out of it. I need to get to my son. He needs me.
I force my eyes open, staring blearily at the darkened room around me, but I know instantly that I’m no longer in that hell hole I was before. No, this place is different. Nicer. Even the bed feels nicer. It takes a second, but I manage to turn my head, and I stare, none of them noticing me.
I see Kida, standing there, trying to rock Soren, while also trying to give him a bottle. He batts it away, his face red and angry. Her face looks devastated, desperate, like she can’t understand the problem.
The other people around her, though, I don’t know who they are. Two women, three men, and, wait, is that a dog? I blink, trying to focus my gaze and push the drugs in my system awayso I can think clearly. He’s a giant beast, and if I weren’t so exhausted, I might be terrified that he’s so close to Soren, but he looks up at the crying baby with a worried look on his face. Like he can’t understand why he’s crying or why the humans around him can’t make it stop and help him.
Who are these people? Why are they here?
