“No! No I was looking in my desk for your number,” she told him, frustration evident in her voice. “I never wanted this kind of…of rift between you and your son! You caused it, not me!”
“You’ll be quiet and listen and follow my instructions. I told you last week all you had to do, was sign the papers.”
“Where is Hailey?”
“I’ve sent a car for you. You’ll see your child and then we’ll discuss how you’re going to make this right,” he told her flatly. “Do you understand me? I have the money and power to make certain you never see this child again.”
“No…no, please. I’ll go outside now and wait,” she said hurriedly.
“You will not contact anyone, Liliana. Is that clear? No one. Not my son, not the police…no one will know but you and I. The car is waiting for you, I’ll see you in a few minutes,” he broke the conversation, the line silent.
Catherine stepped in front of Lili when she collected her phone and moved toward the door. “You have to listen to me,” she spoke calmly, firmly. She held a small button in her hand, clipping it to Lili’s neckband on her shirt. “I am going to listen in to everything. As soon as we know where, I will have people in place, Lili.”
“I want him locked up, Cat. I want him to never, ever come near me or Hailey again,” Lili said with a vehemence she’d never known before.
“Then we have to play it out. Find out what he wants,” Cat put a palm on her shoulder. “It might mean leaving Hailey with him for a little longer, Lili.”
“He wants Oliver,” Lili swallowed and nodded.
“Once we make certain Hailey is with him, I’ll have people there so he won’t be able to leave with her, I promise you that,” Cat said with a nod. “Alright. I’ve got the cameras cued up and we’ll get it all on video.”
Lili took off at a run, dodging people and jogging through the corridors to the main entrance and out into the light rain falling around them, a warm heat sending the concrete smell of fresh rain into the air. She looked around, the frantic quality in her features genuine until they landed on a modest sized sedan with a man standing with the door open for her.
“Ms. Charles,” he said primly, gesturing to the inside.
“You’ll take me to my baby?”
“Inside, miss, please,” he said simply, nodding and closing the door when she followed orders.
Lili barely paid attention to the back of the limo. The closed panel annoyed her. She wanted to hit it and scream and hit it some more. She shifted on the seat several times and it had barely been twenty minutes before the door was pulled wide.
A downtown hotel. She absently hitched her pack onto her shoulders and pulled in a long, hard breath.
“Where am I going?”
“Third floor, ma’am. Room three eighteen. Mr. Kensington is expecting you,” he tipped his head.
Lili went straight to the elevators, her gaze sweeping the large foyer for the three waiting cars. She wasn’t aware of her foot tapping on the tiles. Or the pair of hands twisting at her waist. Why did it feel natural to want to scratch someone’s eyes out and rip them to pieces? Is this what a mother wolf feels like, she thought fleetingly, when someone threatens her pup? But she also knew she didn’t have the strength or skills to do the things that were in her mind. She just wanted her baby.
Her palms were sweaty. She rubbed them down the sides of her slacks and fought the urge to let them close into tight, hard fists. She felt her throat dry up when she brought one hand up hard on the solid door. It was difficult to breathe and even more difficult to not strike out when he stood in the door, tall and coldly aloof and looking down at her like she was nothing. She thought she’d gotten used to it over the short time she was with Oliver in New York, but she’d been lying to herself.
“Where’s my baby?” Lili demanded, pushing past him into the suite and looking around. She ignored Gillian Kensington and headed for the closed bedroom door, stopping only when a man stepped in front of her. He gripped her wrist and turned her toward Oliver Kensington Sr. with a forceful shove.
“Sit down, Liliana. And I’ll tell you how this is going to work,” the older man paced across the room, taking a seat in a large leather chair and tenting his fingers over his lap.
“I don’t want to sit. I want to see my baby. Show her to me!” Lili demanded loudly, her voice raising another notch when she repeated the demand. “Show her to me now! Or I swear to you, I will start screaming and they will hear me at the front desk.”
Oliver Kensington was out of the chair and ready to sweep his hand across her face when he stopped himself. He caught himself up stiffly and nodded to the man by the door.
He turned the knob and pushed the door open, barely getting out of the way of Lili as she rushed forward. Dark eyes went from the surprised look on the older woman’s face as she sat on the bed, gently patting Hailey’s back as she slept.
She felt the hands at her waist before she could move further into the room and the door closed solidly in her face as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“She’s alright,” Lili whispered, stumbling forward and sinking to the sofa. “Don’t hurt her, please. She’s not responsible for this…she’s innocent…”
“Then all you have to do is follow orders,” came the cold, simple comment.
“I can’t change Oliver’s mind! I didn’t ask him to come out here.” Lili looked from one to the other frantically. “I haven’t spoken to him since before Thanksgiving! You should know that! You’ve kept my letters from him! I didn’t know he was coming here!”
“But you can make him change his mind,” Gillian Kensington stepped forward. “You’re a woman. You can make him angry. You can make him hate you enough to want to return to New York. I’m a woman, too, Liliana. I know what you can do if you set your mind to it.”
Lili blinked at her. Forcing her mind to hear what she was saying.
“You want me to make him angry? Angry enough to undo what he’s done? I don’t know if I can…you don’t realize how determined he is…”
“If you want your child, you’ll make it happen,” her father-in-law interrupted sharply. “I don’t care how you act it, I don’t care what lies you have to tell him. Have I made myself clear?”
“You tell him that you’ve been using him all along,” Gillian suggested with a casual flip of her hand. “You hoped for a long ride on easy street but you’ve found someone else. I even have an extra set of the divorce papers for you,” she handed a sheath of papers to Lili. “You sign them and throw them at him.”
“It’ll hurt him,” Lili choked on her whisper. “It’ll hurt him terribly. Don’t you care?”
“I care enough to want him where he belongs, among people of his level. Not climbing around some filthy hole with engineers and builders. My son is a leader, not a worker,” Gillian responded with a glare. “Make it happen, Liliana, and you get the child back. I told you how useless you were to us, you couldn’t even produce an heir for my son.”
“The driver is waiting outside for you,” Oliver stood up and gripped her wrist, giving a sharp pull and dragging her to the door. “Get this finished. Or I’ll send that child somewhere you’ll never find her. Is that clear?”
Lili let her head bob up and down, wobbling knees barely carrying her from the apartment. She was struggling with tears as she rolled the papers and stepped into the elevator.
While Lili was stumbling out of the downtown Seattle hotel, an office filled with women were waiting for the explosion.
Chapter Twenty-One
Oliver stood at an angle facing Eve’s desk. His hands flat on the edge, head hanging between his shoulders and legs braced, every muscle in his body tense with contained power. He’d walked into the office, furious, worried and ready to tear anything apart he could get his hands on.
Then he found out Lili was with his father. He didn’t believe it was possible to become any more furious.
He’d been wrong. He’d made a severe tactical e
rror and she was caught in the middle. Their baby was caught in the middle and all he could see at the moment was red.
“You let her go there alone?” His words were barely above a whisper.
“Let her?” Catherine said with a hard edge. “I couldn’t have stopped her short of throwing her in a room and locking the door, Oliver. Your father has her child. I’m amazed she’s as restrained as she is. Somehow she has her emotions controlled and is functioning on the logic that we’ll turn this around. Cassidy is there, watching the room. He won’t take Hailey anywhere. We have an undercover officer outside, watching the driver. What else would you have done? Our primary concern was making certain he didn’t take Hailey somewhere we couldn’t find her.”
Oliver didn’t answer right away, he was working on breathing.
“She shouldn’t be…how the hell do you get through to an ego like that?” His hands thumped down on the desk, the sides of his suit jacket flapping as he spun and paced the large office. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with the man?”
“He’ll go to jail now,” Daphne tapped on her phone and ended the call. “Kate will be here in a few. Let her handle it once he’s taken into custody.”
“I never thought he’d…they…Hailey is their grandchild, for god’s sake!” He shoved two sets of fingers through his hair, clutching his shoulders tightly. “She’s a child!” Were the last whispered words of fury.
“We know,” Cat said quietly, checking her watch. “Lili should be back soon.”
“Why can’t I just go in there and take Hailey out?” He demanded, looking from one to the other. A few shrugged but looked to Cat for an answer.
“You want him locked up tight? You need to play it through. Get as much as you can on the recorder and turn it all over to the prosecutor.” Catherine said honestly. “With the video from Lili’s office, we were able to get warrants and because of his attitude, Kate already has a judge denying bail once he’s brought in. He has the means to vanish and cause all this trouble for you again.”
“I’m not a stupid guy, but I honestly never saw this coming,” blue eyes stared at the window and saw nothing outside. Not even the faint thrust of rain drops against the glass.
Lacie pulled the door to Eve’s office open, hands up and rubbing her shoulders.
“I’m very sorry it happened, Oliver,” Eve shook her head. “A junior and senior isn’t something we’d thought of, at least not on opposite…”
“Opposite sides,” he finished sourly, his head shaking numbly. “No, it’s not something I’d thought of, either, Eve and this isn’t your fault.”
“Lili just left the car and is coming through the lobby,” Catherine exhaled slowly. “Cassidy says there’s no movement at the room where your father is.”
Lili made it around the corner into the office. Her eyes swung around quickly and her body flew across the floor and into the open arms. Babbling words broke from her lips as tears fell along her cheeks. She leaned back enough to repeat it over and over.
“He took my baby!”
Oliver felt an acute sensation of helplessness.
“I’ll get her back, Lili, I promise you. We’ll get her back,” he whispered over and over. He held her close, finally raising his head and looking around the room. “How long do I have to wait before I storm his hotel?”
“Look, I know this isn’t easy,” Cat paced the floor, listening to the earpiece. “Yes, I know, Cass…I know…” she looked at the others. “We can’t rush it. You’re madly in love with Lili. It’s going to take a bit longer than ten minutes for her to piss you off enough that you go storming anywhere and swearing you’re headed back to New York.”
Oliver tightened his hold when Lili shuddered in his arms.
“I saw her. I saw her sleeping,” Lili said quietly, unable to move. “I tried going to her, but he…there’s a man there with your mother and father, he grabbed me and wouldn’t let me in the room with her. He has some woman watching her. She won’t know,” the dark head resting on Oliver’s shoulder shook slightly. “She won’t know this. Any of it,” she said vehemently. “I’ll make certain she never knows any of this ever happened.”
“No, she won’t.” Oliver agreed firmly. “Alright. So how long?”
“The camera shows that the car that brought Lili back is waiting outside the employee apartments. He’s staked out your apartment, Lili,” Cat moved and perched on the edge of Eve’s desk. “You two need to go home shouting and fighting and putting on a good show for him.”
“I just want my baby,” Lili whispered painfully.
“I know,” Cat answered, stepping forward and taking the recorder from Lili’s shirt. She gestured at Oliver and deftly pinned it to his lapel. “I don’t know how he’ll contact you. I don’t know if he’ll wait for you to call him or what, Oliver. This isn’t something we have a manual for.”
“Alright,” Oliver gripped her shoulders and leaned her up, his hand automatically handing her a handkerchief from his breast pocket. “Let’s go home and wait.”
“I have you on speed dial,” Cat followed as they left the office and then the daycare. “Cass thinks he’ll call you but only after you storm from the apartment. She suggests you lay low for two hours then you storm out of the apartment, slam things, mumble to yourself and head to the parking lot. We’re pretty sure at that point, you’ll get a call from your father. He’ll either tell you where to go or tell you he has a car there to bring you over.”
“I’ll keep my phone on, Cat,” Oliver glanced down at the dark eyes blinking as she listened. “I’ll handle him and myself.”
“Are you going to where they have Hailey?” Lili asked as they approached the door to the lobby.
“When the car outside watching, leaves, I’ll follow.”
“I’m going with you.”
“I wouldn’t try and stop you,” Catherine said softly, stopping at the door.
“I’m okay,” Lili hugged her and pushed her shoulders back, head up. “Me, first,” she said firmly, shoving at the door and applying herself to a long, furious stride. Which wasn’t actually that difficult to effect.
Lili found it wasn’t very difficult at all to pull fury into her features. Long legs covered the expanse of the lobby and out into the spitting early evening rain. She headed to the right, taking turns and setting her features to pure anger at the couple keeping her from her baby. No, anger wasn’t hard to find at all, she realized coldly. She made it to the coded gate at the same time she realized Oliver had come up behind her and she flung one arm back, her palm out flat and warning.
She didn’t say anything as she shoved her hand into the slot, getting the green light when it read her thumb print.
“I don’t want to talk to you!” She turned to face him long enough for anyone watching to see the anger, see the words she spoke. She waited for effect for him to come closer and both her hands were on his chest with a hard shove. “Go! Go home and leave me alone!”
“Fuck that shit! Not until I get some damn answers from you, Lili!” Oliver followed behind her, his shoulder braced for the gate she slammed behind her. “God damn it, Lili!”
She took off for her apartment, keeping herself in check until he caught the door with his hand and refused to allow her to close it on him. He made it inside just in time for her to collapse in his arms, tears flowing without being checked for several long minutes.
“Oh god, Oliver!” She broke in his arms, sobbing and shuddering. “I wanted to hurt them! I wanted so much to be big enough, strong enough…I wanted to scratch and tear at them! I don’t know how I…I’m so scared!”
He led her to the sofa and sunk down, holding her close on his lap. He’d rarely known a time when he didn’t have words. When he didn’t have answers. He didn’t like the feeling.
“I don’t know if I’m big enough or strong enough, baby, but I promise you, they’ll never hurt you again,” he held her close, his hand stroking gently over her head as the clock ticked in the sil
ence of the apartment.
“I should be playing in the bathtub…” She said softly, a sob breaking free in the ragged breath.
“Lili…she’s alright. I know she’s alright,” he said fiercely. He pulled his phone out, dragged in a long breath. “Catherine…” He tapped the speaker button and held the phone up.
“That was a good show,” she said carefully. “You two alright?”
“As alright as we can be,” he answered. “Now we’re just watching the damn clock.”
“Alright. I just wanted to let you know, the guy in the car made a call after you’d disappeared into the apartment. No activity at the hotel where your parents are, though, so that’s a good thing. We’re watching Hailey, Lili, I promise you. No one will take her out of that hotel but you and Oliver.”
“Thank you,” came the shaking whisper.
“Thanks, Catherine,” Oliver closed the phone and dropped it into his pocket. His head came to rest against hers and they let the silence surround them for a few minutes before Lili got up and turned the music on.
Louder than normal.
She went to the door and peered out the peep hole and then the window. He didn’t know what to say or how to comfort her when she began pacing and looking at the clock. But he did know she had to put something inside her. He went to the fridge and pulled a protein drink from inside, shaking it and breaking the seal. He had her gaze on him and drank half of it before handing it to her without a word. She nodded and finished the strawberry puree in the bottle.
“How long…” Lili swallowed hard and stared, her head up. She was done crying.
“I think we can assume we fight fast,” he tried for a tease and received a little smile. It was nice but did nothing to alleviate the tension and fury inside him. “Put your hands on your ears when I slam the door,” he cupped her face and kissed her. “I won’t let anything happen to our baby, Lili. I promise you that. Alright?” She nodded and returned his kiss, her eyes closed as he drew in a long breath and went to the door.
WindSwept Narrows: #20 Fleur & Liliana Page 15
