“You lie, pelirroja.” His hot breath stirred the hair at the back of her neck, and she shivered. “You’re gonna go back there tomorrow, and when the cop goes back to work after lunch, you’re gonna take the kid for a walk—away from the cameras at his house. Then you’re gonna turn that kid over to us. You got it?”
She nodded. What else could she do at this point? If she refused, he’d inflict more pain on her. She had a feeling he liked administering pain.
“Wh-why do you want him? Are you going to hurt him?”
He shoved her away from him and she stumbled against the wall. “Don’t worry about it. And if you get any bright ideas? We will kill that kid. Kill you. Kill the cop. And even kill that mutt. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Stay there against the wall until you hear a car drive by. And if you call the police? Let’s just say that goes under the category of bright idea and it’ll have the same ending. It might take longer, but we always get our man...and baby, if it comes to it.”
Her muscles rigid, Emily froze in place until she heard the sound of an engine roll by. She spun around and flew out of the utility room. Dropping to her knees, she scrabbled for her purse on the ground and pulled out her gun.
She had nobody to shoot, but she wasn’t going to go to her room without this baby in her hand. She grabbed the bottle on the grass and pressed it to her chest. Thank goodness it hadn’t broken. She needed that wine more than ever right now.
With her knees trembling, she wobbled to her room and slipped inside. She threw the chain and slid to the floor, the bed at her back, pointing her gun at the door.
After several minutes and several deep breaths, she staggered to her feet and placed her weapon on the credenza. She screwed open the bottle and poured the wine all the way to the top of a plastic cup.
She gulped half of it before she sank down at the foot of the bed. Maybe she should kidnap Wyatt tomorrow morning and drive back to Phoenix with him and deposit him with Marcus. She could make a good case to a judge why she felt it was in the baby’s best interest to leave Paradiso and bring him to his biological father. No family court judge in their right mind would blame Marcus for doing that after what she’d just been through.
She bounded up from the bed and fished her phone from her purse. Still no message from Marcus. Did he think she was joking? Overreacting? He wouldn’t think that once she told him what happened tonight.
She didn’t have a plan yet, but she sure as hell wasn’t turning Wyatt over to those maniacs.
IN THE MORNING, Nash adjusted the angle of the camera in the corner of the living room, but if Emily took his laptop out to the patio again, he wouldn’t catch her in the act of snooping through his email. He couldn’t take the laptop with him today. She’d be suspicious. Maybe that would be a good thing, a subtle hint that he knew she’d been into his email.
How’d she get into it, anyway? He’d password protected it. It probably wouldn’t take a tech genius to bypass an email password, but Emily was a nanny. Wasn’t she?
All her references checked out and she even had an online presence, but if passwords could be hacked, identities could be forged.
Nash ran a hand through his hair. She could just be a nosy nanny.
He grabbed the laptop and stuffed it into his bag. She could think what she wanted. He didn’t have any top secret info on his computer, but he didn’t like the idea of someone spying on him.
Wyatt crowed from his high chair, and Nash ran a thumb across the baby’s soft hair. “I know you like her, buddy, and so do I, but I’ve had enough duplicitous women in my life to last me—starting with your mama.”
The doorbell made him jump, even though he’d been expecting Emily any minute.
Denali got to the door first and barked.
“I know.” Nash patted the husky’s head. “You like her, too.”
He swung open the door, and Emily lifted her hand in a wave. “Reporting for duty, unless Wyatt’s mom decided to return and whisk him away.”
“Not back yet. I’m sure I’ll hear something today.” He widened the door and stepped to the side.
As she crossed the threshold, Denali jumped, landing his paws against her side. Emily winced and staggered backward.
“Whoa, boy.” Nash placed a hand on Emily’s back to steady her. “Are you okay?”
“He just took me by surprise.” She grabbed Denali’s head and touched her nose to his wet, black one. “How are you, Denali?”
“I fed him already, and I gave Wyatt a bottle and put him in his high chair. I didn’t feed him any food, though.” He grabbed his bag and hat. He wanted to get out of here so she wouldn’t notice the missing laptop.
She dropped a backpack on the kitchen table and leaned in to give Wyatt a kiss on his head. “Hello, big guy. Missed you.”
Nash cocked his head as he watched Emily stroke Wyatt’s hair. Her voice sounded almost shaky. She really did care about him. “I have to run, Emily. Do you have everything you need? I’ll stop by for lunch again.”
“We’re fine.” She jabbed her finger at the backpack. “I even brought a swimsuit today. Wyatt liked the water so much, I’ll make a swimmer out of him.”
But you won’t be surfing the internet and my email after the swim this time.
Nash cleared his throat. “You two have a great morning. If there’s anything you need...anything you want to ask me, you have my number.”
Emily’s head jerked up, her green eyes wide. “L-like what?”
“Like... I don’t know. Whatever.” He chucked Wyatt under the chin and then strode to the
