KIDNAPPED, A Romantic Suspense Novel by Suzanne Ferrell Read Free Book Online Page B

She’d blinked back her tears. “Then that’s what we’ll get you.”
    Two days later, Aimee had died. She’d told Lucy about Aimee’s wish and Lucy had stood next to her tiny coffin, took her own barrettes out of her hair and tucked them into Aimee’s tiny hands.
    Grief so strong she thought she’d faint from it, filled her. Sami fought her tears, hugging Nicky closer, as much for her own comfort as his.
    Aimee had been five years old the last time Sami held her. Had her daughter lived, she would’ve been Nicky’s age now. The pneumonia that finally ended her battle with leukemia came upon her quickly. Aimee’s poor, weakened immune system, just couldn’t fight the strain of bacteria resistant to most antibiotics.
    Sami had held her throughout the night, alternately soothing her child, praying to god, then railing at him for putting her tiny daughter through such hell. The priest, her mother and father had all tried to comfort her. In her anger and pain, Sami pushed them away. No one understood the despair she suffered for Aimee.
    The one person who should have been there—Michael, her husband—could not find the courage to look at his dying daughter, or his desperate wife.
     
    So she’d stayed with Aimee throughout that last long day. Never leaving her side. Not eating. Not drinking. Not sleeping. She bathed her daughter in the same alcohol bath she was using now on little Nicky. But nothing had helped her Aimee. Nothing. The fever just raged harder and hotter.
    Sami slipped her hand behind Nicky’s neck. He seemed a little cooler. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. She couldn’t tell if the alcohol bath was doing him any good without a thermometer. She never replaced the one Michael had thrown at her the week after Aimee died. Then he’d stomped out of the house, suitcase in hand, sending her divorce papers the next day by courier.
    That was the last day a man other than her father and brothers had been in her house. Until Jake.
    ”Sergei...Lexus...don’t hit me...nyet, nyet...pujyalsta”
    “Shh, shh, Nicky.” Sami smoothed her hand over his cheek, shoulder and down his back. “It’s okay. No one is going to hurt you. Jake and I will protect you.”
    “Jake...police come now...must tell Jake...Petrov,Madson... He thrashed a little in the bed.
    Sami pulled him closer, gently rocking him back and forth with her one free arm. She wished she knew some words of comfort in his native tongue. “Hush now, Nicholai. Go to sleep. You are safe. I’ll protect you.”
    “Andropov…three hundred. Baranov…four-fifty…,” Nicky whispered more calmly.
    “Nicky? What are you talking about?” She pulled back slightly to look at him.
    His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be quoting a list in his sleep. “…Chernitsky…two-seventy-five. Dorogoi…three hundred. Dyakov…five hundred…Grachev…” His words started to slur off. “…three-fifty.”
    The little boy curled into her body. Finally his body relaxed, his breathing became less labored. What in the world did Nicky know? Jake called him a witness. His list sounded more like a financial ledger. Was that it? Did he have a list somewhere with all the Kreshnins’ business listed? Had he memorized it? Just when she thought she knew what was going on, the puzzle changed.
    Sami continued to rock his small body even after he’d fallen asleep. It felt good to hold a child once more. For so many years she’d avoided treating any children who came to the ER. Her coworkers, who understood how painful it was for her, always managed to volunteer to take them when it was her turn.
    A heavy sigh escaped her. It wouldn’t do to let herself get too attached to Nicky.
    Her heart swelled with need. The need of a mother who has lost a child.
    She called herself a fool. Already, she was attached.
    With great determination, Sami forced herself to concentrate on something other than the small boy lying at her side. Sexy, kidnapper Jake popped up as first and