“I DID IT,” ELLIE said quietly in the dark room. “I told him I wanted a divorce because I was in love with you. Now uphold your end of the deal. Let her go.”
Timothy smiled at her. His same cheerful, thin smile that he’d had for years. But everything else about him had changed. He’d once been tidy, slender and pale in wire-rimmed glasses. But he hadn’t shaved for months. His clothes were dirty and baggy.
He was nearly unrecognizable, and not just in appearance. Ellie had never imagined he would hold a six-year-old girl as hostage for revenge. Looking at Catia’s wide-eyed, tearstained face as the scared child clung to her teddy bear, Ellie could hardly believe that she’d once felt desperately sorry for the way she’d treated Timothy Wright.
“Nice work,” he said with a satisfied nod. “I knew you just needed the right motivation to get rid of him.”
Ellie looked at him with narrowed eyes. “So let the girl go.”
“Sure. Fine. I never much liked kids anyway.” He pushed Catia toward Pedro, who was waiting by the door. “Take her home. Or as close as you can get without being caught.” Timothy turned back to Ellie with a bright, benign smile. “See? I’m not a bad person, Ellie. You’ve just forced me to do bad things.”
Catia gave a little sob. Ellie fell to her knees in front of the girl, hugging her tight. “It’s all right,” she whispered, holding her close one last time. “You’ll be safe. He’s going to take you home.” She turned fiercely to Pedro. “If you hurt her—”
“I won’t. I’m just in this for the money.” The man’s eyes flickered at her, then Timothy. “Besides, I’m not the one you should be worried about, senhora. Tchau.”
As they left, Ellie closed her eyes, praying for the little girl’s safety. Diogo would find her. He would surely have realized by now that Ellie would never divorce him. Not when she’d told him she would love him forever…
“Alone at last,” Timothy said with a sickly sweet smile. Looking around the old concrete house with ragged curtains, tucked deeply inside the maze of the favela, Ellie felt her belly tense into another hard contraction. She’d been feeling contractions all morning. She’d felt the first one right after Diogo told her he didn’t love her, and they’d only increased since Pedro had given her Timothy’s note.
Now, she looked at the man she’d nearly married on that lovely spring day so long ago.
“Why did you do this?” she asked. “Why did you have me say those horrible things to Diogo?”
“I wanted him to know how it feels to lose what you love most,” Timothy said, baring his teeth. “To have his heart ripped out.”
“But he won’t feel anything like that. He doesn’t love me!”
“I’ve been watching you both for months. He hasn’t been with another woman in all that time. Doesn’t even look. He comes home every night at five sharp. You claim he’s not in love? Nice try.”
The thought went through her like lightning. Was it actually possible that Diogo might love her? Oh please, she thought, briefly closing her eyes. Please come for me.
Timothy gave a little cackle. “Diogo Serrador thinks he’s so powerful. He’s got the good looks, the charm, the billions. But I’ve still beaten him. I’ve won you.”
She felt another contraction. A hard, long contraction that was different from the others, that made her feel weak and broke a sheen of sweat all over her body. No, she told the babies desperately. Not yet. She couldn’t go into labor here!
She had to give Diogo time.
“Oh, Ellie.” Sitting down on the old ragged blanket that covered the bed, Timothy looked up at her with a hangdog expression. “I love you so much, can’t you see that? I would do anything for you. Ever since that day I saw you at the Dairy Burger with your blond hair glowing like an angel, I knew you were different from all the others. You never laughed at me. You respected me. Admired me. And I knew you would be mine. But you were always so worried about money. I knew I’d have to be rich for you.”
“You really did it, didn’t you?” she breathed as pain went through her. “Sold babies for profit.”
He shrugged. “Childless couples. Female CEOs who spent too long on their careers. All so rich—and all so desperate for babies of their very own. While poor women give birth all the time to children they can’t support. Or protect.” He gave a sly grin. “I was simply providing a service. I did it for you, Ellie. Always for you.”
She felt sick. How could she have missed so much of his true character? How could she have glossed over the way he’d been so obsessed with winning her? How could she have ever thought that he actually loved her?
“But Serrador ruined everything.” Timothy narrowed his eyes at her belly in a way that made her fold her hands over her stomach protectively. “You’d be pregnant with my child now if not for him. I would’ve had you in my bed every night. Wanting me. Only me.”
“No, Timothy,” she said softly. She shook her head. “I made a mistake. I never should have agreed to marry you. This feeling you have for me isn’t love. You don’t even know me.”
His thin lips turned up into a snarl.
“Perhaps you’re right,” he said crudely. “The girl I adored was innocent and pure. She never would have spread her legs for a Brazilian playboy like a sailor’s whore.”
She gasped.
Timothy shook his head and leapt up from the bed to take her arm. “I’m sorry!” he cried. “I know it was all his fault. He raped you. That’s the only explanation. But do you see how love can make you do crazy things? Seeing you pregnant is driving me insane. But not for longs.”
“What do you mean?” she whispered.
He gave her a cheerful smile. “I have a local doctor on the payroll. In about an hour, he’s going to help deliver your babies, and then you’ll be free to come with me.”
Free? The word terrified her. Another hard contraction went through her, making her knees weak. She grasped the hard metal bedframe for balance. “The babies… aren’t due for two weeks,” she gasped.
“It’s close enough. The little brats will be fine. They’ll be going to their new parents in Manhattan, who have paid me a hefty sum for newborn twins with no questions asked. I’m a rich man now, Ellie. Not as rich as Serrador, but I can buy you everything you could want. You’ll never have to work again. Your only job will be to love me all day long….”
Her belly tensed, and she nearly fell. She had to get out of here. If she gave birth to her twins now, they would be taken from her. She and Diogo would never see them again.
She had to be strong. Strong for her children. Strong for the man she loved!
“If you take the babies, Diogo will kill you.” She sat down on the bed as her legs threatened to give way beneath her.
“He won’t even find me,” Timothy said scornfully. “As soon as we leave here, we’ll disappear forever.”
She couldn’t let that happen. She had to distract him. Her heart pounding, she unbuttoned the top buttons of her shirt, giving him a better look at her full cleavage. “Ooh, it’s hot in here,” she said, fanning herself. “Why not just let Diogo have the babies, Timothy? Then you and I can leave together.”
She could see the beads of sweat on Timothy’s pale, thin forehead as he came closer, staring at her chest.
“But I want Serrador to suffer,” he whispered. “And those babies are my getaway money. I want that four million dollars. The private plane will take us to West Africa, to a place where he’ll never find us.”
She tried to hide her fear.
“What’s the hurry to leave?” she said, leaning back against the bed. “Why not stay and enjoy ourselves right here?”
“Yes…” With a shudder, he buried his head in her hair, smelling it deeply. She felt him tentatively reach out to touch her breasts. It made her ill, but she forced herself to remain still.
Diogo, she thought desperately, where are you? He was so powerful, so smart. Somehow he would find them. She just had to give him time. Had to…
Timothy slowly squeezed one full breast, then the other. “Yes,” he breathed. “It’s so good. Just as I always thought it would be…”
But revulsion overcame Ellie. As he tried to kiss her, she couldn’t stop herself from struggling. As he leaned over her, she kicked him in the face.
He fell back for a moment, dazed. But as she tried to scramble up for the door, he grabbed her hair. With a growl, he threw her back against the bed.
“So that’s how it’s going to be, eh?” She saw him pick up a small, wickedly gleaming knife from a tray. “Fine. Have it your way—”
She gave a desperate scream as he held the knife above her in a flash of cold steel—
A dark shadow swept upon him like an angel of death. Six feet, four inches of hard muscle threw Timothy back, tossing him to the ground.
Diogo towered over him, his expression contorted with vengeful fury.
“Serrador,” he whimpered, quivering on the floor. “How?”
Diogo didn’t answer. But beneath his mask of rage, Ellie saw the fear. He’d been so afraid of losing her.
Timothy slithered up from the floor, trying to slash at him with the knife. With a growl, Diogo punched him in the face, knocking him back down easily. He grabbed the blade, bending it back in the other man’s hand. Blood trickled from Diogo’s fingers, but his face showed no pain—only rage.
The knife fell to the floor with a clatter.
“Mercy. Please,” Timothy cried, feebly trying to protect his face. “Don’t hurt me.”
“I showed you mercy. Twice.” Diogo punched him across the jaw, knocking him back. “You’ve threatened my wife. My children. Never again!”
“Diogo,” she whispered. “He didn’t hurt me. Please… let him go.”
“Yes, let me go!” With a high, eerie scream, Timothy fell flat onto the ground, a weak, shapeless, whimpering mass.
Diogo took a deep breath, visibly controlling his rage. “I will let you leave, Wright,” he said in a low voice. “Because she asked me. But if I ever see you again…”
Ellie felt another hard contraction. “Help, Diogo,” she choked. “The babies…”
Diogo immediately flew to her. He fell on his knees before the bed, cradling her face in his arms. “Ellie. What’s wrong?”
“Catia?” she gasped. “Did you—find—”
“She’s safe,” he said. “We have her. We found Pedro. But if Wright hurt you—”
“I’m all right,” she sobbed, holding him tight. “But I’m having contractions. The babies are coming.”
He picked her up in his strong arms.
“You’re safe now, querida,” he said soothingly. “My bodyguards are right behind me. We’ll get you to the hospital.”
Ellie caressed his strong, handsome face.
“You came for me,” she whispered in wonder. “You knew I would never leave you. You know I’ll love you forever.”
“I knew.” Unshed tears shone in his dark eyes as he shook his head. “It just took me too damned long. Forgive me for being a coward and a fool.” He looked down at her. “I love you, Ellie. Your strength, your pure heart, your joy. I want you to know. I will love you until the day I die.”
He loved her.
A rush of joy went through her body.
But she saw Timothy rise to his knees behind them. Holding a gun in his hand, he raised it deliberately…
“Diogo!” she shrieked. “Look out!”
Diogo turned, holding heavily pregnant Ellie in his arms. But he moved slowly. Too slowly.
Timothy said hoarsely, “If I can’t have her…” And he fired.