Broken Free (The Broken Series) (6 page)

Chapter Seven

“Another dream?”

Sofia nodded across from the little breakfast table, not looking at him.

“Baby, you’re going to have weird dreams, it’s completely normal.”

“It was scary.”

“I know sweetheart, they can be, but women dream of the most insane things while pregnant. Later we’re going to do a Google search and you’ll see what I mean, their dreams will make you feel a whole lot better, I promise.”

“Don’t you even want to know what I dreamed?”

“If you want to tell me, yes.”

“But don’t you want to know?”

“I don’t put much stock in dreams, Sofia, that’s the only reason I’m not at the edge of my seat. Why would I be anxious to know about something you clearly need to forget?”

“Well, maybe talking about it will help me.”

“Yes, and in that case, if you feel like it will help you, baby, tell me.”

“You’ll just think it’s stupid.”

“Tell me the dream, I want to know.”

“No you don’t.” Daniel sighed and Sofia looked at him. “Well you don’t.”

“I do.”

“You do now, yeah.”

“Yes, I do now because I see it means a lot to you. Why are you angry?”

“I’m not angry.” She stirred her coffee, annoyed. “I’m
just…” she shook her head. “Nothing. So what are we doing today?”

“We’re talking about your dream.”

“No, I don’t want to.”

“Sofia.”

She met his concerned gaze with her stubborn resolve. “Daniel.”

“Are you pissed about the cookies, because we can bend the rules a little, I was just joking about absolutely none whatsoever.”

She snorted. “No you weren’t.”

“No, but if it means that much to you, then you are free to eat whatever you like.”

“It’s not the damn cookie Daniel, okay?”

“Baby, it’s normal to be scared, remember? This is all new, you’re supposed to think of the worst things that can happen, that’s all part of your mother instincts, so you’re right on target.”

“Well I don’t like it. I’m scared all the time.” Sofia realized her mistake the minute she said it and Daniel went quiet. Shit, no doubt pissed at her for not telling him how bad it was.

“Who is scared all the time, did you s
ee more cockroaches? I can’t understand why they have to be so damn ugly.”

“Gammie,” Sofia said as Daniel hurried to help her guide the walker through the dining door.

“Morning Rachel.” He kissed her forehead.

“Morning to you too handsome. What all is wrong with my Sofia?”

“Just normal first time pregnancy jitters.” Daniel helped her into a chair.

“Aw, now don’t fret, that’s a good sign, means
you’re gonna be a mother goose like I was. I didn’t let anybody even hold my baby for the first week. And when I finally did, I sat at the edge of my seat watching with my guts tied in knots, worried they’d drop ‘em.” She gave a light giggle. “Your daddy would try to feed Laura and I wouldn’t even let him rock, too worried the baby would choke.”

Sofia frowned, trying to remember a Laura in the family
while ignoring Daniel’s persistent gaze on her. She felt terrible for not being transparent with him but she also felt stupid and scared all at the same time. She didn’t like being scared, didn’t want to be scared, wasn’t trying to be scared, she just fricking was. Stupid hormones? Estrogen? Maybe she was having a boy and was making testosterone and her body didn’t know how to handle that. She’d ask Daniel. She knew one thing. No matter what he said, or how normal it supposedly was, it didn’t make her feel better.

“Gammie, we have some good news,” Sofia said.
“Are you hungry? Daniel cooked omelets.”

“Of course I’m hungry, that’s why I’m here, the man’s cooking woke me from dream land. What’s the good news?”

“Want some tea Rachel? I have your favorite ready for you.”

“D
ara is coming,” Sofia said.

“Oh dear.” Her lower jaw bobbed a bit before she turned a bright smile to Daniel. “Tea would be lovely. Thank you.” She nailed her gray blues at Sofia. “I hope to hell she’s not going to be cooking, I don’t think my gall bladder will survive another god-awful Russian meal.”

“Gammie! Romanian, and she cooks great. Plus she’s pregnant!”

Gammie raised her brows. “
I knew it. I nearly asked her how many months she was when she was here but wasn’t sure she wasn’t just fat. One can never be sure these days.”

“Oh my
God
Gammie, I’m glad you didn’t, no, she
just
found out she’s pregnant, she’s only like two or three months!”

Gammie appeared horrified. “She’ll be a brick house before it’s over with.”

Daniel’s stifled snickers came from behind a cabinet door where he was no doubt hiding.

“Okay, you guys stop, she’s lost weight by the way.”

“Well thank the good Lord for that. The halls are already narrow here. Is she going to be staying here? I hope she doesn’t shed worse now that she’s pregnant, I could make a wig with the amount of hair I found in the tub after she bathed.” Gammie took the cup of tea from Daniel who went behind Sofia and massaged her shoulders. Her grandmother grew suddenly serious. “Oh my.”

“What?”

She put her tea cup down. “Who’s the father?”

Uh-oh. She didn’t want to say she thought it was Seth. Dara
said it was him and Sofia believed her. “Seth.”

“Oh my Lord,” she gasped, her words frail. She looked at Daniel
and Sofia looked up at him, finding his gaze lowered. “Seth’s going to be a father. Does that sweet boy know?”

“I told him when I visited him.”

“What’d he say, is he happy?” Gammie asked.

“Yes,” Daniel said quietly. “Very.”

“But…”

“We’re working on getting him out Rachel. We have a plan.”

Her eyes brightened with hope. “Of course you do, I never doubted for a second that you had a plan. What’s the plan?”

“I don’t think Dan—”

“It’s okay.” Daniel squeezed Sofia’s shoulders then filled her grandmother in on all the newest details, surprised to hear him not leave a thing out.

“I knew there was something fishy about that whole story, that boy is a
good
boy, I knew it all along in the bottom of my heart, no doubt about it. A better boy than I’ve seen in a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of boys in my time. Well, aside from you Daniel. When do you go to find this girl?”

“Today if I have my way.”

“You will have your way. Sofia make sure Daniel gets his way, will you?”

Sofia patted his hand and smiled up at him. “Yes Gammie, I will give Daniel his way.”

He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips then helped her up. “Shower?”

“Better go make sure there’s no cockroaches first Daniel,” Gammie said, skimming the front page of the newspaper on the table. “She’s gonna mark that child with terror if she keeps getting traumatized by those nasty things.”

Daniel handed Sofia her saucer of daily vitamins along with a huge glass of whole organic milk. Yum. Sofia downed it then handed the glass back to Daniel who leaned and kissed her, or more like licked the milk from her lips.

“Keep that up and I’ll come back home with a man, you watch
,” Gammie mumbled.

Sofia giggled. “And where will you find a man?”

“I have prospects.”

Sofia cracked up. “
Where
do you have prospects?”

“At Church bingo.” She sipped her tea, appearing for all the world like the perfectly healthy grandmother, her spectacles perched on her nose.

“You don’t go to Church bingo!”

“I’m thinking about it.”

Sofia looked up at Daniel, excitement coursing through her. “Really Gammie?”

She sighed and licked her finger, turning the page. “Might as well, watching you two has sort of inspired me to live again. I’m not that old you know.”

“No, not old at all,” Daniel chimed in. “When are we going? I think we should all go. As a family. Church bingo sounds like the perfect tradition to start.”

“Oh my God, really?” Sofia couldn’t believe her ears.

“Yes, absolutely. Dara too.”

“And my boy Seth when he comes home,” Gammie said
, head lowered to peer at them over her glasses. “I’ll need some new clothes if I’m going to snag me a man.”

“Oh my
God!”
Sofia laughed at hearing her grandmother talk that way.

She
quirked a gray brow over the rim of her glasses. “Your grandmother’s got some moves, I should warn you.”

Daniel and Sofia both laughed and hugged. Church bingo. How frickn romantic!

Chapter Eight

“Wow, look at this place. So quaint,” Sofia whispered as they pulled up at a cute yellow house in the middle of a quiet middle class neighborhood.

“Yeah,” Daniel muttered, shutting off the car.

“You think she’s home?”

“
Baby, how would I know that? I’m hoping if she is, having you with me will make her feel comfortable enough to at least talk to us.” Daniel noticed Sofia smiling at the house.

“Aww, such a cute house.”

They got down and Daniel eyed the friendly looking neighborhood. His brother had been smart. Daniel stood at the door with Sofia and rang the bell. The window panes were clean, the paint looked fresh. A very nice place to call home Daniel would think, after living in that Amityville horror of a house.

A
girl peered out the window, startling the shit out of them. Sofia gave an animated wave and huge smile. But the flash of a guarded look in startling green eyes said they were twin killer clowns. Sofia called out, “It’s Daniel and Sofia, Seth’s brother and sister n-law. He asked us to come check on you, uh, he gave us the address.” She hissed, “What’s her frickn name again?”

“Sarah,” Daniel whispered quickly.

“Sarah!” Sofia glanced up at Daniel with a pained expression. “We should’ve rehearsed,” she whispered.

Daniel sighed when seconds passed and nothing happened.

Sofia knocked softly. “Please, we’d just like to welcome you to the family.”

“What?” Daniel hissed.

Sofia widened her eyes at him. “What do you want me to say, we’d like to put you in jail?” Sofia mostly mouthed.

They both straightened
at the sound of locks being disengaged. After the third lock, Daniel and Sofia exchanged amazed glances. The door slowly cracked open.

“Sarah? I’m Sofia, and this is Daniel, Seth’s brother.”

She nodded. “Seth tells me about you.”

Daniel c
ould hardly believe the sound of her voice, like a child.

“Yes
,” Sofia sang, “and he’s told us so much about you. Good stuff, and we just wanted to drop by and say hello, let you know how Seth is doing?”

Her perfect brows furrowed and she
hit Daniel with that intense green gaze. “How is he?”

Okay, that kind of
emotion in a woman’s voice was a good sign.

“He’s worried about you,” Daniel said. “Asked us to make sure you’re okay.”

She opened the door and stood as though presenting herself to them to look at or examine. She wore a red sundress with tiny yellow flowers all over it. She finally stepped aside. “Come in. I put on tea.”

They went in and she locked the doors back and directed them to sit in the small living room through the beautiful cased arched opening on the right. Daniel was surprised at how clean it was. Immaculate. Like maybe she didn’t touch a thing since she’d moved in.

Sofia leaned in
as they made their way to the floral couch and whispered, “Wow, she’s
beautiful!”

Daniel regarded her at hearing the
suspicious tone in her voice. Like he should have told her? He merely raised his brows as he sat next to her, not sure how to respond. She raised one of her brows back at him and Daniel guessed he’d responded poorly.

“Just let me do the talking,” Daniel whispered.

She gave him more suspicious eyeballing and he turned her face
for a soft kiss. “I love you,” he whispered. “Don’t look at me that way.”

He
r lips smiled beneath his and he pulled back at hearing Sarah coming.

She set the tea on the table and they went through the motions of normalcy while Daniel waited for the right moment, hoping for the right words.
Tact. He still had that. Somewhere in him.

“Mmm, the tea is yummy, very nice,” Sofia sang
, like her best friend.

“Thank you.”

The words were jerky sounding, like she’d not said them very much in her life and worried she was saying it wrong. Fucking sad. “Sarah,” Daniel began, careful with his tone. “I’m not sure if Seth told you or not but…he’s looking at spending life in prison.”

Sarah froze where she sat, her bright green eyes filled with anguish and horror. She shook her head. “He say no, he say he is coming out.”

Daniel leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, looking at the coffee table. “He’s not. But we think we found a way to get him out immediately.”

Tears filled her eyes and she wiped them quickly when they overflowed. “He tell me there is no chance to stay in, can you help him?” The desperate beg in her tone matched her sincere gaze.

Daniel grabbed Sofia’s hand, needing the support. “We found…we found the movies that his uncle made. Bad movies.”

She covered her face with both hands and Sofia hurried
and sat next to her, putting an arm around her shoulder. “It’s not your fault, you’re not in trouble, what that man did to you and Seth was very very bad and it’s good he’s dead.”

“He hurts Seth, I didn’t mean to.”

Sofia looked at Daniel with hope in her eyes. “You did the right thing to stop him. It’s called self-defense when somebody is hurting another person and you stop them you don’t get in trouble, did you know that?”

“I am so scared he will kill Seth. I am so angry and scared and I got this knife and stab him, I did not mean to kill him but then…then I cannot stop stabbing I keep stabbing and stabbing and stabbing.” She sobbed and covered her face, shaking her head. “He is such a bad man.”

“Yes he was and I’m so very glad you killed him and saved my brother’s life, thank you so much Sarah,” Daniel said. “Do you understand that the movies we found will help get Seth out of jail?”

She wiped her eyes. “I want to tell police that I do this and Seth make me not
to tell. I don’t care to go to jail for Seth,” she wailed. “I go to jail for him, I love him.” She wiped her eyes, sobbing. “I love him, tell me what to do to help.”

Oh hell. She loved him. Did that mean Seth loved her too?

Daniel went and knelt before her. He took hold of her hands and squeezed them, sorry he did the instant he saw Sofia’s jealous look. “All you have to do is tell the truth. And the movies we have will get him out of jail and they will also keep you from going to jail, they will not put you in jail when they see these movies and you tell them you were trying to stop him from hurting Seth.”

“But I stab so many times.”

“I know, I know, it’s okay. You were scared, that’s all.”

“And angry.”
Her eyes were wide as though that incriminated her.

“Yes, and angry and you had a right to be angry Sarah, remember all the bad things he’s done?”

“Very bad,” she nodded, wailing.

“Yes sweetheart, very bad.”

“Oh honey,” Sofia whispered, pulling her in her arms. “You are a hero, you got rid of a very bad man and you saved Seth, thank you so much. And now you’re going to help get him home where he belongs.”

She nodded and gasped, “Please, take me to police right now, I need to help Seth. He is very angry when he tells me to shhh not say the truth.” She put her hand over her mouth and sobbed. “I want to say truth, want to save him to not go to jail. I go to jail.” She nodded rapidly. “I go to jail, not him, he is so good to me, I go to jail!” She sobbed and hugged Sofia.

“We’ll go right now,” Sofia said, eyeing Daniel to see if that was a good idea.

He nodded. The sooner the better. “And Seth will come home.”

Daniel felt guilty for pretending he knew what the fuck they would do with her when she confessed. He needed to call his lawyer. Excitement made him want to vomit as he stood. “Help her get ready Sofia.” He pointed at his phone then outside, and she nodded.

Daniel walked outside and nearly collapsed on the steps, tears filling his eyes. A sob escaped him as he fought to keep his cool. Thank you God. Thank you.
He didn’t care that he wasn’t religious. Sofia was. That was enough for him.

He found his lawyer
’s phone number and dialed it. But the very brief conversation that ensued shredded all his hopes. If she confessed, she’d go to jail and await trial. No doubt about it. And he couldn’t be sure that the evidence would clear either of them. Fucking wow. Just fucking wow.

Daniel would
take her home anyway. It was time to pull out his demon wild card. He had hoped to God it wouldn’t come to this, but he had no choice. He knew somebody who could help. Somebody who was deeply entrenched in the judicial system’s wicked sexual perversions. The man had supplied them with choice kinks for years and he had the kind of pull his brother needed.

But
involving his father came with risks. And now that he had Sofia and a baby on the way, it was a thousand times worse. But the movie they’d found….if Daniel had to, he’d use it to keep his father in line. He had his own nightmare playing in his head, an unending horror clip he couldn’t escape. And push came to shove, he’d use both as leverage. His father would help his brother with no strings attached, or Daniel would prosecute that motherfucker.

****

Daniel waited with Sofia at the airport, dizzy with dejavu. His notion about it not being a good time for Dara to be coming was stronger than ever. But whether he liked it or not, the Romanian freight train barreled toward their lives. At least Sofia seemed just as uncomfortable. But it was all to do with Sarah living at the house. She voiced the complication that would present should Seth get out. When Seth
got out
, he’d corrected her. He’d not contacted his father yet, but soon. He just needed to build the right courage. The kind that accompanied ruthless killing.

The sound of her
Romanian voice squealed from across the square and Daniel couldn’t believe his eyes. Either she’d lied her ass off again, or she’d gained seventy-five pounds in the week she’d talked to Sofia.

“Holy
fucking shit,” Daniel muttered.

“Don’t you dare say it,” Sofia
somehow managed while smiling and squealing then hurrying to hug the glob of rapidly advancing red. Daniel plastered on his smile, wondering what else she may have lied about. She could hide a pregnancy till her due date and nobody would be the wiser.

She turned to Daniel with arms open wide. “Awwww little sugar daddy!”

Even the hug was dejavu with Daniel having to grab hold of her to keep from being torpedoed backwards from the initial
oomph
of her body making contact before her arms sucked him in. “Good to see you Dara.” The words jolted out of him at the momentum of her bouncy hug. It was like being molested by a Romanian marshmallow bear, fucking weird.

“Oh my goodness, such a
healthy
father.” She marked the words with seduction and bounced her brows that weren’t quite adult caterpillars…maybe teenager. He hated to say it, but Sarah was ten times prettier. He couldn’t wait to see how that panned out. But with Dara supposedly carrying his baby, that put Sarah at a serious disadvantage. Poor girl. And her personality was entirely different from Dara. Complete opposites. Dara would run her over.

They headed home and Daniel couldn’t wait till the day was over and Sofia and his baby were in his arms. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would get it over with
and call his father.