Acquisition (12 page)

Over the next month, Abby focused on the good and tried to ignore the bad. She started helping Luka with the foundation, meaning they sometimes worked from his home office, and sometimes went into the foundation’s building downtown. Lucas always accompanied them, and he was soon a popular sight among foundation employees.

Luka was integrating her into the daily running of the foundation, going out of his way to include her in all aspects of his duties. She was given input on a great number of things, and it allowed her to see the best parts of Luka and the Rinaldi family.

She’d been coming to the office daily with him for a little more than a month when the words spontaneously came out of her mouth. Luka was pouring over a grant proposal for a charity that provided shoes in South America and Africa. His brow was furrowed, and he was muttering under his breath about the manufacturer charging too much for shoes when it hit her. She couldn’t stifle the urge, and she no longer felt the desire to do so. “I love you, Luka.”

He paused in the middle of his perusal of the papers, looking up from his desk where she stood near his side, nursing Lucas. He frowned at her. “What did you say?”

It had been easier to say when he wasn’t looking at her, and she had to wet her dry lips with the tip of her tongue before she could say them again. “I love you. I don’t think I ever stopped, but I wasn’t ready to admit it or say the words until now.”

He still had a faint frown. “I’m glad to hear them, but why this particular moment?”

She shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t on the side Lucas was nursing from at the moment. “I don’t know. It was just the right time.”

Luka pushed away from his desk slightly and took her hand, pulling her onto his lap. Lucas was briefly disrupted and made his displeasure known with a sharp squeal. After repositioning the baby, she sank against Luka and enjoyed their afternoon cuddle. If they hadn’t been in the foundation’s office, she was certain they would have been doing more than cuddling after Lucas went down for his afternoon nap.

Life was good, and the mafia thing wasn’t bothering her much at all anymore. It had faded into the background, and she was confident that as long as she continued to turn a blind eye toward it, it wouldn’t affect her life or relationship with Luka. She didn’t consider it denial. She was simply focusing on the best parts and ignoring the worst.

***

Abby followed the nurse down the hallway while she rocked Lucas in her arms. He’d been fussy the past couple of days, and was currently crying in a shrill pitch that indicated he was in pain. When he’d woken up that morning tugging at his ear, along with running a slight fever, it was time to bring him to the clinic.

Luka had an important meeting that he couldn’t miss, but she was going to join him at the office as soon as Lucas saw the doctor. There was a car waiting for them, along with two of Luka’s goons, though she felt sort of bad referring to them that way. Tony and Stephan had been nothing but polite and deferential to her, and she understood why they were necessary, even if she didn’t like the idea of needing bodyguards to protect her from any enemies Luka might have.

It didn’t mean she was going to let them traipse into the clinic with her. She’d drawn the line at that, not wanting to draw attention to herself and Lucas. Luka had reluctantly agreed to the stipulation, ensuring the guards would listen when she told them to stay in the parking lot with the SUV.

The nurse led them into a room and started taking notes. “He’s such a big boy,” commented the nurse as she weighed him. “He’s in the seventieth percentile for five-month-olds.”

Lucas was on the chubby side, with adorable cheeks that invited pinching, though she didn’t give in to the urge. Whenever she did, he screamed bloody murder no matter how lightly she tweaked him. He was already showing a strong personality and making his preferences known. She wasn’t at all surprised, considering the Rinaldi genes in him.

The nurse left them a short time later, and she sat with Lucas on her lap, surprised when the door opened almost as soon as the nurse had left. “That was fast,” she commented to the young doctor entering the room.

“We’re hurrying them through today,” he said in a gruff voice.

Lucas flinched at the man’s tone, and she glanced automatically at his chest, expecting to see he was a resident or even an intern, since he hadn’t pitched his voice lower and more gently for Lucas. She was going to tease the doctor about needing to work on his bedside manner when she realized he wasn’t wearing a name tag, though his lab coat was embroidered with a name. She knew it was the wrong name, because Dr. Wellesley was who they usually saw, and he was an older man, not this rough-edged young guy with a stern demeanor and scary voice.

She clutched Lucas tighter to her as she tried to think. She was certain the dark-haired stranger wasn’t a doctor, and when he held out his hands for Lucas, she unconsciously tightened her hold and shook her head.

“Give me the kid.”

She shook her head again. “No, thank you. I think we’ll wait for his regular pediatrician.”

The imposter doctor opened his lab coat enough for her to see a gun at his hip. “Give me the kid,” he said in a cold, hard voice.

She tried to reel backward, but there was nowhere to go since she was seated. All she managed to do was get to her feet before stumbling and falling into the wall, though she ensured Lucas didn’t connect with it too. Her shoulder stung, but she ignored the pain as she tried to back away from the man looming over them. His gun was frightening, but she knew she couldn’t let him have Lucas.

She opened her mouth and started screaming, and he backhanded her as hard as he could. Stars danced behind her eyes, and she fell toward the corner, her head colliding with the cabinet on the way down. She didn’t quite blackout, but she was definitely in a gray zone. Abby tried to keep a strong hold on Lucas, but the imposter had little difficulty prying the baby from her hands.

She made a sound of protest, not quite able to scream again, because her mind was too jumbled at the moment. Lucas was screaming plenty, apparently sensing the person who held him was bad—or maybe just because he wanted his mom since he was sick.

She tried to get her feet as the man in the lab coat drew his gun and ran to the door. She heard feet pounding down the hallway, and she tried to rouse herself enough to get up and follow him, but she wasn’t able to move. With another heave, propelled by desperation, she managed to sit upright before a wave of dizziness crashed over her, sending her back to the floor, and straight into blackness.

***

Luka’s face was the first she saw when she opened her eyes sometime later. Abby winced at the bright light, and the way it increased her headache. “Lucas” she rasped.

Luka’s expression was a mix of terror and anger, and he shook his head. “We don’t know where he is. Do you remember much?”

She almost nodded, before realizing that would increase the pain in her head. “This guy came in. Tall, broad-shouldered, and with dirty blonde hair. His eyes were cold, and his manner was just
off
. I could tell right away he wasn’t really a doctor, and then I saw he was wearing Dr. Wellesley’s lab coat, and I knew for sure he wasn’t a pediatrician.”

“What happened then?”

“I tried to keep him from taking Lucas, but he hit me really hard in the face, and I hit my head on the way down. I think I remember him taking Lucas from me, and then the rest is kind of a blur.” Abby burst into tears as she finished speaking, gladly embracing Luka when he sat on the bed and put his arms around her. Abruptly, she realized she was in a hospital room. “I need to get out of here. We have to find our baby.”

“We’re turning the city upside down even as we speak. So far, we’ve kept it out of the papers to keep the FBI from sniffing around.”

She frowned at him. “They should be involved. They’ll find our baby.”

His expression reflected doubt. “Or they’ll get so caught up on investigating the Rinaldis that they’ll let Lucas fall through the cracks.”

Abby scowled. “That wouldn’t happen. You’re putting the mafia before your son.”

He flinched, looking wounded. “I’m not. I promise you that. Do you really find it so hard to believe that someone would want to bring down the Rinaldi family to boost their career, and they’d focus more on those crimes than the crime of taking Lucas? Isn’t it conceivable they might not care about a mobster’s son going missing?”

She wanted to keep protesting, but she wasn’t sure if she was right. His words did make a terrible sort of sense. “Three days. If he isn’t back in my arms by then, I’m going to the FBI myself. Agreed?”

He nodded. “Two days was my limit, love.”

She let out a small sigh, not entirely pacified, but cautious in case he was correct. Besides, if—no, when—Luka and his brothers found the kidnappers, she knew they would make them pay in a way the FBI never could or would. Anyone who would steal an infant from its mother’s arms deserved whatever the Rinaldis chose to do to him. “Fine, but I want out of here. I need to help.”

He shook his head. “The doctor wants you to stay here overnight. You took a pretty hard hit to the head, and he wants to monitor the swelling in your brain.”

She shook her head and then gasped in agony at the explosion of pain. “I need to get out of here. I have to find Lucas.”

Luka’s embrace was still tender, but his tone was stern. “You’re not going anywhere tonight, love. You won’t do Lucas any good if you get out of here and die from a blood clot or concussion.”

She recognized the wisdom of his words, but it felt wrong to be lounging in the hospital bed while her baby was out there somewhere frightened and alone. As though thinking of him triggered the response, her breasts started to tingle, and she knew letdown was imminent. “I’ll need a breast pump. I don’t want to lose my milk while he’s gone.”

“I’ll make sure you have one, but he’s not going to be gone that long. We’ll have him back soon.” He spoke with such sharp determination that it was difficult not to believe in him. She clung to the hope that he was right, and their baby would be back with them before they knew it.

***

Two agonizing days later, she finished her latest pumping session before storing the bottles of milk in the refrigerator and returning to the living room of Luka’s condo. It had become the unofficial headquarters of the search for Lucas. The Rinaldi associates were in and out all hours of the day investigating leads, but so far, they hadn’t found the baby. Luka had told her that morning he was calling the FBI that evening, and she was counting down the hours, torn between fear at what might happen to Lucas if they weren’t involved and anxiety about what the feds’ involvement could mean for her family long-term.

The longer the time from when he was taken, the less optimistic she was about him being found. At first, she had assumed he was taken because of Luka’s mob ties, but as the hours passed without any contact from his abductors, or any demands for ransom, she started to speculate they had been the victim of a more random kidnapping.

Babies were a prime commodity, often sold to desperate couples who couldn’t adopt for whatever reason or have their own. She’d spent hours of the last few days torturing herself learning about infant kidnapping and the child slavery trade on the Internet. She would prefer someone had taken Lucas just to get Luka’s cooperation, because there was still a chance to get their baby back then. If someone had sold Lucas to another couple, that person was likely long gone, as were the people who had bought him, taking her son with them.

She knew she was hovering on the edge of a breakdown, but she couldn’t find a way to avoid it. She couldn’t sleep, she could barely eat, and her thoughts obsessed over what was happening to her baby. Was he being cared for properly? Was he missing her and Luka? She didn’t doubt that one at all, but she hoped that if he had been stolen that his memory would soon fade, and he’d be able to be happy again. One of them deserved to be, because she was certain neither she nor Luka would ever be happy again if their baby wasn’t returned.

Sometimes, she was bitter about it all, and she could feel the rage swelling whenever she looked at Luka or a member of his family. Sometimes, she wanted to scream at them that this was all their fault, and if they had been legitimate and honest people, no one would have taken their baby to get back at them. Since she knew it would do no good and would simply make Luka feel worse, she had resisted the compulsion.

For the first time in days, the landline phone rang, and she stiffened as she walked closer to it. Luka hit the speakerphone before the first ring finished, and she held her breath as she waited tensely for ransom demands.

“Hello, Mr. Rinaldi,” said a grave-sounding voice, tinged with insincerity.

“Who is this?” barked Luka.

“This is Senator Randall Adams, Luka. I’ve heard your son is missing, and I’d like to meet with you. I’d like to offer my assistance in any way I can to help find your son and ensure he’s returned where he belongs…before something terrible happens.”

The words themselves were kind and sympathetic, but Abby was certain there was a hint of threat underneath them. She was certain she wasn’t the only one, judging by the tensing of postures in the room.

“We’ve kept it out of the papers. How did you hear about our misfortune, Senator?” Luka sounded politely interested, but his hand was clenched into a fist on his lap.