Summer Kisses (221 page)

A grave feeling snaked its way along Nicole’s spine. She inched back on the polyester, flowered bedspread and braced for the additional good news Will had to share. “What?”

“Old man Novokoff has offered a half of a million dollar reward to anyone who returns his grandson to him and another half million…”

Will’s gaze fell away with his words.

An egg-sized lump formed in her throat and Nicole swallowed around the blockage. “If they kill me.”

He nodded once. “Yeah.”

She’d known Yegor Novokoff would do this. If she were in the old man’s position and someone had hurt Luka, she would go after them with a devil’s vengeance.

The question now was what was she willing to do to protect her son? The marshals wanted her testimony. She couldn’t testify. Silence was her family’s best defense.

If the law wouldn’t help her, then there was only one way for Luka and her to be safe.

Nicole slid off the bed and walked to the adjoining door with her resolve in place. Holding the knob, she kept her back to Will. How could she make him understand how important disappearing was to her without telling the truth? She turned to face him. The muscles in her neck worked before she spoke. “You were right. Gorgon had brought the girl home to replace me as his mistress.”

“He told you that?”

“No. I just knew he was going to—” She lifted her face and stared at the ceiling tiles while trying to control the anger and the fear produced by the memory of that night. A hot tear drifted down her cheek. “He told me to prepare her for him. I couldn’t do what he asked. I couldn’t let him do to Susie what he did to me. What he made me do… I just couldn’t.”

“Did he attack you when you didn’t do as he said?”

Nicole swiped a tear from her cheek and ran her tongue across her dry lips. “Yes. Everything happened so fast. I grabbed a letter opener from the desk and stabbed him,” she lied. She had to. “I had no choice. He was going to kill me and give Luka to his wife. I have no doubt in my mind.” She locked onto Will’s gaze. “Gorgon can’t know where I am. He will kill me. Please, you must hide us.”

“I have my orders. We can only help you if you agree to turn evidence against the Novokoffs.”

Not a spark of caring flashed in his cold, steel-blue eyes.

Nicole’s heart plummeted toward the floor. Will had his orders and she was the caretaker of her family’s lives. She had to do what was best for everyone, no matter how much her only option would tear her apart inside. “I can not.”

Will crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I don’t see that you have a choice.”

His pupils widened slightly, telling Nicole his cool mask was a bluff. She stepped closer to him. “I do and I won’t.”

Will blinked.

She left the room with an escape plan already in mind.

Under the dark shadows, Luka reminded Nicole of Gorgon, which tightened her already wrung-out stomach. She repositioned herself on the bed, propped her head in her hand, and smoothed the hair from his brow, careful not to wake the sleeping child.

She prayed Luka would do something with his life that he’d love and that would earn him respect. But as long as he was with her, chances of that happening were slim. They’d always be on the run.

A tear fell over her lashes and followed the path of several others. Her gaze traveled over Luka’s small frame to where the child’s tiny toes wiggled out from under the crisp, white sheet. SpongeBob’s toothy grin sat above the blanket and spanned Luka’s rounded belly.

Nicole smiled in spite of the desolation encasing her heart. Gently, she pulled the sheet up over SpongeBob and slipped from the bed. She had no choice. There was no other way. She had to leave Luka behind.

The connecting door between her and Luka’s room and Will’s stood ajar.

Wearing her underwear and a T-shirt, Nicole tiptoed toward Will’s room and listened. His soft, deep snore satisfied her that he slept. She took care gathering her things because she had a feeling Will was a very light sleeper. If he caught her trying to leave, he’d have no choice but to throw her ass in jail.

Nicole slipped into her jeans skirt and grimaced at the zipper’s song that raked the silence. She tiptoed to the door again and checked Will. He still slept soundly.

She padded on tip-toes to Luka. The awful taste of sorrow coated her mouth while she allowed herself a full ten seconds to etch Luka’s angelic face into her memory before she pecked his forehead, spun away and snatched her bag and sandals off the floor. Then, using her body as a muffler, she unlocked the door and slipped out into the cool, dark night, locking her whole world behind her.

Thinking only of Luka’s future with a new family, she ran around the corner of the building toward the backside of the motel. When Will realized she was gone, he’d assume she would look along the highway for a means of escape. He’d be wrong.

She hurried across the motel owner’s yard. Cool, fresh cut grass clung to her feet. Chlorine tickled her nostrils as she raced by the pool where Will had taken Luka swimming twelve short hours ago. Behind her, from inside the owner’s house, a dog howled. She had to hustle before the dog woke his master and someone spied her.

Huddling next to what once was an outhouse, Nicole dropped her sandals to the ground and while keeping an eye on the surrounding darkness she wiggled her feet into them. Then she raced through the hip-high grassy meadow, checking over her shoulder every few seconds for signs of anyone chasing after her.

At the tree line she caught her breath and then whispered to Luka, “I love you, sweetheart, and I promise, one day I’ll find you. I promise.” Blinking away tears that threatened to fall, she inhaled the scent of moss and flowers. To stay on course, she had to follow a star, and the sky was filled with them. Nicole turned and headed northwest, disappearing into the forest.

***

“What the hell do you mean she’s gone?” Gary’s bellow battered Will’s eardrum and made him yank his cell phone away from his ear. “How the hell did you let that happen?”

He hated that he’d fucked up. He didn’t need Gary to add to the tension jack-hammering his temples. Will paced the concrete sidewalk outside the rooms. Luka still slept, curled up in the blankets with not a worry in the world. “I needed to fuckin’ sleep, okay? Katrina slipped out without me hearing her. Last time I checked in on her was around two. Both her and the kid were sleeping.” Or she had been pretending to be asleep. Damn. He should’ve handcuffed her to the bed, but he didn’t want to send Luka into therapy.

“She left the kid?” Gary questioned. “Some kind of mother she is.”

“She’s not like that.” Will scrubbed a hand over his face while recalling the loving touches Katrina gave her son. What the hell was he going to tell the kid when he woke and saw his mother was gone? “We forced her to do this, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“She pleaded with me to put her and the boy under protection last night. She was pretty insistent. I played hardball and said no, not without her testimony against Gorgon. I guess she figured if she left we’d have no choice but to take the boy.”

“So you think she ran to save her son?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Why the hell wouldn’t she just testify? She could’ve stayed with him.”

“I don’t know. She said she couldn’t. She’s hiding something.”

“You need to find her, Will.”

“I know, but I can’t go trampling around the countryside with the kid.”

“I’ll send someone out to pick him up.”

“No.” Will stopped in midstep, imagining Luka’s frightened expression. “You come. I don’t want anyone to know where we are. If word got out and Katrina hasn’t made it too far, she could be found before the sun sets again. We can’t blow the case. Besides, Luka saw you at the station. I’ll tell him you’re my step-brother.”

“Step-brother?”

“He’ll buy it. I’ll explain later. He’s a good kid. He’ll be okay going with you. He trusts me.” Will grabbed the doorknob. “In the meantime, I’ll get him up and take him for breakfast. I can look around town for Katrina.”

“What are you going to tell the kid?”

“Damn if I know.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in a couple hours.”

“Bring my car. She doesn’t know it. You can take your SUV.”

“Okay.”

“One more thing,” Will said, stopping Gary from disconnecting. “I don’t want Child Services brought in just yet. Can we bend the rules on this one? Do you think Sharon would watch over him?”

“I’ll ask her.”

Twenty minutes later, Will had Luka in the back seat of Gary’s SUV and they were headed toward town. Luka looked forward to chocolate chip pancakes while on the way, Will searched every ditch and corner for Katrina.

He felt heavy. Pressure swelled against Gorgon’s right bicep, causing his fingers to tingle. A moment later the force dispelled and his blood rushed through his veins in a free fall. He blinked against the brilliant light surrounding him, failing miserably to open his eyes.
Had he died?

If he had, with wings, wouldn’t he feel light?

Maybe heaven wasn’t in his destiny.

He was so thirsty. Maybe he was in hell.

No. Hell was hot and a deep seated chill encased his bones, causing him to shiver.

“Yegor, our son wakes.”

His mother’s cry grabbed onto his waning consciousness like a lifeline tossed to a drowning soul in a heaving sea. It pulled him from the thick, opaque sluggishness that weighed both his mind and body.

To his right, a steady bleep kept rhythm with the rise and fall of his chest. The air filling his lungs was fresh. He was reminded of a frosty Serbian dawn, yet, a wash of bad antiseptic moistened his tongue as he licked his parched lips.

“Gorgon, do not worry. We are here with you.” His mother’s soft hand warmed his left forearm below his elbow.

Worry. Why should he worry?
His mother always vexed too much over him. He reached to calm her fear and acute stinging zapped through his right hand and up his arm. He bolted forward in reaction and hot fire ripped through his gut. His shriek rolled over a raw throat and escaped him between clenched teeth.

Tears burned his closed lids.

A familiar force at his left shoulder pushed him back.

“You must lie still.” His father’s order cut through the fog. “That’s it. Relax, son, and breathe deep. The doctor said you must not move.”

The constant beep-beep vibrating his left ear drum raced against his heartbeat. Beads of perspiration spouted on his forehead and upper lip.

“Breathe deep.”

Gorgon listened to the voice that had never led him astray and sucked in puffs of antiseptic-spiced air.

The doctor? Where was he? What the hell had happened to him?

Gorgon felt his father’s strength and forced his eyes open. He twisted his neck to the side and blinked. “The light,” he managed to croak across dry lips.

“Sophia, pull the string. The damn light is blinding him.”

Following the click, the radiance pushing against Gorgon’s lids faded. “Where am I?”

“Mercy Hospital,” his mother answered as her hand again found his arm and brushed against the grain of his hair.

“Why?”

“You don’t remember?” Yegor asked.

Gorgon squinted, his brows knitted, at his father’s concerned stare. The gray at the old man’s temples seemed to extend further into his brown hair and the tiny lines edging Yegor’s dark eyes had deepened since the last time he’d seen his father.

He shook his head and a pinball of throbbing spikes rolled between his dark eyes. Every nerve of his body zinged with pain. He had to lie still. “No.”

“Katrina did this to you. The doctor said you were lucky, but the fear of infection is still great. You must rest.”

Yegor’s gaze shifted and he pointed to Gorgon’s lower abdomen. Tubes revealing a vile discharge ran from under the white coverlet and down the side of the bed. The other tubes connected to his body brought fresh air and liquid to him.

“That bitch.” His mother’s soft fingers became talons biting into his flesh. Her green eyes shimmered with fiery tears. “I will not rest until she is dead for what she has done to my baby.”

“Katrina.” He looked between his parents. The name that had always brought him joy now made the fire in his gut twist with searing agony. Gorgon closed his eyes and rested his pounding head against the stiff pillow.

The night came back to him in flashes. In his mind’s eye, he saw Katrina’s hard-hearted expression, shed of any respect or fear for him. The callous angles of her face were filled with contempt and… He ground his teeth. Something more––a new-found dignity.

Gorgon jerked and curled his fingers into a fist while he recalled the blazing knife twisting his intestines like a twirl of pasta.

The beeping of the machine behind him increased. His father had warned him many times to rid himself of the cunt, but no, he let his heart or maybe his cock, rule his thoughts. Katrina was an angel at sixteen. His kitten. She bore his child.

He shrugged off his mother’s hand and glared up at his father. “Where is she?”

The old man shook his head. “We do not know, yet.”

“And Luka?”

“He is gone too.”

Even though he had set his jaw for the truth, Gorgon’s head dropped back against the pillow and his heart froze in his chest. His father was not blaming him for the loss of the family’s heir. He should. But then a father forgives a son’s shortcomings and allows him a second opportunity to prove himself. A second. Not a third.

“How long have I been sleeping?”

“Three days,” Yegor said.

“Three days.” His eyes widened, imagining the distance Katrina could’ve covered in the time. She and Luka could be anywhere in the world by now, but he knew they weren’t. She didn’t have the resources to escape the boundaries of this country. Where would she hide? “Set me up.”

“The doctor—”

“Now,” Gorgon cut his mother’s protest off while ignoring the pricking in his hand and fumbling for the control hanging on the railing.

“Help him, Mother, before he hurts himself.”

His mother’s eyes narrowed with concern while she pressed the control’s button. The bed ground under him and slowly slid back and up.