“Let me speak to him,” she demanded in a low voice.

“Yes, Sam,” Tomas demanded. “Let me speak with my beloved niece.”

Slowly, Sam handed the receiver over to Sophie and watched her expression grow even colder as she put it to her ear.

He rose to stand beside her, but she turned away, and when he touched her shoulder, she flinched and shrugged him off.

“Tomas, this is Sophie. Listen to what I have to say and listen well. I have what you want. I’ll bring you the key.”

Sam lunged for the phone, but Sophie wrenched it from his grasp and backed away as far as the cord would allow. She angrily held up a finger to stop him and glared fiercely, a clear order for him not to interfere.

He stood there seething, his rage growing with each moment.

“If you harm Mrs. Kelly, if you so much as scratch her, I’ll disappear with that key and I’ll destroy it. You’ll never find it. You’ll never have access to my father’s wealth or his dealings.”

She paused for a moment and seemed to listen to something Tomas said. Sam tried to lean closer, but again she twisted away.

“Don’t fuck with me, Tomas,” she said softly. “I have nothing to lose. I’ll come to you, but you get nothing until she’s freed. Do we have a deal?”

She turned back to Sam and slid the phone down to her neck before finally handing it back to him. Sam jerked it away and put it to his ear, only to hear a dial tone.

He exploded. “Sophie, what the fuck?”

He was furious at her for agreeing to trade herself for his mother and furious because he knew nothing of the deal. No location, nothing. He hated the helpless feeling that gripped him, and he hated being dependent on Sophie for information.

“I did what needed to be done,” she said calmly. “If it had been my father, your mother would already be dead.”

The room erupted in various exclamations and curses. Garrett and Donovan pushed up next to Sophie, and both of them looked as furious as Sam felt.

“What the hell was that all about?” Donovan demanded.

Hurt flickered in Sophie’s eyes for a brief second before she steeled herself once again and any emotion was lost as she stared first at Sam and then the others.

“Tomas isn’t as disciplined as my father was. My father would have killed Marlene to send a message. He didn’t negotiate. He didn’t bargain. He demanded, and if his demands weren’t met, he acted. Tomas is weaker. It’s why your mother is alive. All he wants, all he craves, is wealth and power, and with my father gone, he sees it all at his fingertips. Only I am standing in his way. His sights are on me. No one else matters. Not your mother, not you, not anyone else.”

She said it so matter-of-factly that it could have been the weather they were discussing. Sam stared at her incredulously. Did she honestly believe he was going to throw her under the bus?

He stared at his brothers, who were still glaring at Sophie, but now he wasn’t sure whether they were pissed because she’d so readily agreed to the trade or whether they were pissed because she’d taken control out of their hands.

“That was a goddamn stupid thing to do,” Garrett all but roared at her.

She did flinch this time and took a step back. Garrett ignored it and stepped forward until he stared down at her from his full height.

“Do you honestly think any of us would just hand you and our niece or nephew over to that bastard? Are you out of your mind?”

Now she looked panicked, and her gaze jerked to Sam in a plea for help, only he didn’t feel particularly helpful at the moment. He was too goddamn pissed.

Even Donovan, who from the beginning had treated her much more gently than Garrett, advanced on her with a deep scowl on his face.

“You may not realize it yet, but you’re part of this family,” Donovan all but snarled. “We’ll find a way to take down that bastard and rescue our mother, but it won’t be because we handed you over like a bunch of fucking pansies.”

Sophie’s eyes widened and tears shimmered there, turning the blue to liquid. Sam wasn’t ready to rescue her yet. She needed to hear this, needed to understand what he himself hadn’t been able to say yet. Maybe he hadn’t realized it himself.

Steele stepped forward, and soon the remaining members of KGI formed a circle around her. She was trapped. Nowhere to run. No place she could deny her value.

“KGI doesn’t hide behind a woman. Even one as courageous as yourself,” Steele said in his quiet, stern voice.

Rio glanced at Steele in amusement before adding his own statement to the mix.

“And I rarely agree with anything Steele has to say, but in this I do. You may have never had anyone you could count on in the past, but you do now. And we’re not going to let you do something foolish like walk into a certain death.”

All the color leeched out of Sophie’s cheeks. She looked stunned. She glanced frantically from face to face and then finally came back to Sam. She looked at him, her eyes pleading. For what? Confirmation? Understanding?

His heart turned over in his chest. Did she really not think she had any value except as a bargaining tool? His breath caught and held. Of course, she wouldn’t. He hadn’t given her any reason to believe differently. Things had gone so crazily fast in the days since he’d pulled her from the lake that he hadn’t really given her presence in his life any thought beyond the immediacy of the here and now. He didn’t even know if she wanted a place in his life. He hadn’t offered her one. Hadn’t made her believe in her value.

“Sophie, what did Tomas say?” Sam asked gently. “What else did he say? About the exchange. Where are we supposed to make it?”

Some of the light left her eyes, but damn it, he couldn’t tell her everything he wanted to tell her in front of all his men, and their first priority had to be the information.

Her voice was scratchy, and she wiped at her cheek with the back of her sleeve as she spoke.

“He’s here. In the U.S.”

“Where?” Garrett bit out.

“My father owned a large estate in West Texas. It’s isolated and I’m sure the local law enforcement is on his payroll. He moved into places and took over. That’s how he operated. Tomas took your mother there. He wants to make the exchange. We have forty-eight hours.”

She looked up at Sam. “He wants you and me to go alone.”

“Fuck that,” Donovan muttered.

Sam turned to Donovan. “Do we have intel on a holding in Texas?”

“There were two to my knowledge,” Donovan said.

Sam glanced back at Sophie. “Where, Sophie? Where are we going?”

“Rock Springs. Not far from Del Rio and the border.”

Sam faced his men. “Okay, I want all the intel we can gather on this place. Sat imagery, the local climate, topo maps, the works. I want to know who takes a piss and when, and I want it yesterday. The clock is ticking. Garrett, you and Donovan need to get with Sean and see what kind of local cooperation we can have to keep this hospital locked down and provide protection for Rusty and Dad.”

He sighed as the weight of their mission settled over his shoulders. The mother of his child—and his child—for the life of his mother? It didn’t even bear thinking about. If he had anything to do with it, it would never come to that.

“Garrett,” he said as his brother started to leave with the others.

Garrett stopped and glanced back at Sam.

“Get on the horn with Resnick.”

Sophie stiffened and turned away.

“Yeah, and?” Garrett said.

“Tell him to stay the fuck out of our way.”

CHAPTER 25

SOPHIE was shaking so bad she was going to fall if she didn’t sit down. Her senses were shattered, and she needed to get away from the overwhelming presence of so many people. There was no friendly welcome from Rusty, who sat isolated in the corner of the room, and Sam would never let her get a foot outside the door without him.

She’d never been more scared or more overwhelmed in her life.

Sam pressed in and put a hand on her shoulder. She jumped and skittered sideways, the light touch hard on her already frayed nerves.

“Sophie,” he said softly. “I’m going to take you down the hall so a doctor can examine you.”

Her baby. Yes, she wanted to make sure everything was okay with her baby.

Numbly she allowed Sam to lead her from the room. He kept her tight to his side, and they only traveled three doors down to what looked to be a private doctor’s lounge.

It was empty when they went inside, and he directed her to sit on one of the leather couches that lined the wall. Then he sat beside her and took her hands in his.

She stared down, watching as his fingers grazed lightly, soothingly over her palms.

“The doctor will be here in a moment. I wanted a chance to talk with you privately.”

She raised her head in alarm.

He held her gaze, and she was surprised by the tenderness in his eyes. No anger. No judgment.

Never before had she felt quite so overwhelmed. The events of the last few minutes had somehow unhinged her. She felt so desperately adrift, and she was more afraid now than she’d been when she’d run so many months ago, and kept running.

Before, she’d had nothing to lose, and now? She stood to lose so much and maybe nothing at all.

Angered by the tears that slithered down her cheeks—had she done nothing but cry for the last hour?—she scrubbed at the wetness with the back of her hand and looked away so Sam wouldn’t be witness to her awful, gut-wrenching weakness.

But he turned her back. Ever so gently, he touched her chin and brought her back around. He swiped at one damp trail with his thumb, and his gaze softened all the more as he stared into her eyes.

“I lied, you know,” she said brokenly.

He looked startled by her admission. “About what?”

She pulled away from him and stood, unable to just sit there when every muscle in her body fidgeted uncontrollably. She paced three steps and then stopped, her back to Sam. Her heart raced, and even as she wiped at the tears, she felt the uncontrollable urge to weep more.

“I gave you a bullshit line about why I killed my father, and maybe some of it was true. But I killed him for my mother. And now because of that, you could lose yours.”

She turned then so she could at least look him in the eye.

“I’m so sorry, Sam. I never meant for this to happen. I never dreamed ...”

“What did he do to you, honey?” Sam asked. “What about your mother? You never mentioned her.”

“You’re so lucky,” she said with all the envy in her heart. “Even with all that has happened, you’re so fortunate. You have such a wonderful family.”

He rose to stand in front of her. He seemed indecisive as to whether he should touch her or not, and finally he just stood there and watched her.

“And you didn’t have a family.”

She slowly shook her head. “My mother was the closest thing to family, but even she was too cowed by my father to ever do anything to gain his disapproval. He didn’t marry her. He didn’t want me to have his last name. He thought it would be inconvenient were his enemies to ever try to use me to weaken him. Inconvenient. What they didn’t know was that he wouldn’t have cared. He would have never given or sacrificed anything for me or anyone else. But he didn’t want to be inconvenienced. God.”

“Ah Sophie,” Sam said quietly.

“He killed her. And do you know why? He wasn’t angry with her. She had nothing to do with it. She was unfortunate enough to be in the room when a man my father was cutting a deal with questioned whether or not he had the stomach to do what it took to get the job done. Want to know what my father did then?”

Sam closed his eyes. “Jesus, Sophie, you don’t have to tell me this.”

“Yes, yes, I do, so maybe you’ll understand, because even I don’t understand. I don’t understand any of it. We were eating dinner. He had this asshole over to discuss business. When the man questioned him, he simply pulled out a gun and shot my mother in the head. At the dinner table. And then calmly went back to eating. His only comment? ‘Do you doubt me now?’ ”

“Holy shit, how old were you?”

She was quiet for a moment because all she could think of was the image of her mother, slumped forward in her chair, the sound of her fork clattering to the table. And the blood. So much blood. It had run onto the pristine white tablecloth. Sophie hadn’t screamed. She hadn’t reacted. She’d known even as young as she was that if she’d made any sound, it was likely her father would have killed her too. Just to make a point.

“I was ten,” she finally said. “He went back to eating and then complained because his steak was too well done. I remember being afraid for the cook, but his mood was strangely relaxed, and aside from pushing his plate aside and wiping his mouth, he did nothing more than stare at the man across the table. Then he asked him if he’d like an after dinner drink. They retired to my father’s study while I sat there staring at my mother. I sat there until the maid came to lead me away, and my father’s men then disposed of my mother’s body just like they disposed of everything else in my father’s life that displeased him.”