“Emma,” she said, grasping my hand. “No.”
I shook her off, tucking the emotions down deep in my gut for now. I was upset that Noah had been taken, that Artem had made me think that he was something different and then ended up taking a helpless old man to get my attention. I was horrified that I had married someone like him, someone who could flip his emotions and make me believe.
Well, it didn’t matter. He was the only one that could help me right now. I had to get Noah back.
After getting a sobbing Gertie a cup of coffee to replace the one she had spilled, I pulled out my cell phone and hit the contact, walking into the kitchen so she couldn’t hear me.
“Emma,” he answered.
“I’ll come home,” I said immediately.
“Did my picture change your mind?”
There was a teasing nature in his voice, but I wasn’t in the mood. “I will come back under one condition, Artem.”
“Emma, what’s wrong?” Artem asked, likely picking up on the urgency in my voice. “What the fuck has happened?”
“I will come back if you bring Noah back,” I forced out, tears clogging my throat. “Just bring him back.”
Artem was silent for a few moments and I had to check to see if the call was still live. “Stay in the fucking house,” he finally said. “I will be there soon. Promise me that you will stay in the house, Emma.”
“Just bring him back,” I repeated before hanging up the phone. I wanted to scream at him, to tell him this was not how you made someone love you. I didn’t care who he was or what he thought he was doing by taking Noah, but it wasn’t right.
This was why I couldn’t love a man like Artem. How could anyone?
Pressing the cell phone to my forehead, I forced myself to take a few cleansing breaths. I would go back to him if it meant that Noah would come back to Gertie and their lives would be whole again.
“Emma?”
I turned to find Gertie behind me, her tear-stricken face making me sick to my stomach. “Gertie. You shouldn’t be up.”
She continued to stare at me. “Why am I not calling the cops?”
Swallowing, I slid the phone in my back pocket so that I could wipe the tears from my cheeks. “Why don’t we sit down?”
She wordlessly did as I asked, only a mere shell of the vibrant woman that Gertie normally was. I took the chair across from her, drawing in a breath. “I have reason to believe that my husband has taken Noah.”
“But why?” she cried. “He didn’t mean anything by what he said last night. He was just trying to protect you.”
I didn’t know what Noah had said to Artem, but I doubted that had much to do with the sudden turn of events. “Artem kidnapped me,” I started out, figuring I needed to tell her much of the truth. “He’s got a grudge against my father, thinking he was the one who killed his parents many years ago. In exchange for my father’s life, he took me instead and brought me to Alaska.”
“That sounds like the beginnings of a Lifetime movie,” Gertie whispered, wiping the tears from her eyes with the edge of the blanket.
“I know,” I admitted, my shoulders slumping. “It wasn’t long after I got here that I married him. We had a wedding and a reception, where he flew my brother and father in to witness the marriage.” I could still remember how I had felt when I had seen them, and what Harvey had told me about the research he wanted to do on Artem’s claims. “I’m legally married to him.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Gertie sighed, reaching across the table.
I clasped her hand in mine, squeezing it. “It’s okay. I would do anything for my family, and if it meant keeping my father in Artem’s good graces, then only I needed to suffer.”
“Did he beat you?”
I shook my head. “No, he’s not—I mean, he’s never hurt me.” Punished me, yes, but after the one shock with the collar, anything he had done afterward was for my pleasure, not my pain.
That’s why this didn’t make any sense, taking Noah like this.
It didn’t feel like Artem’s style, but then again, he had taken me. “I ran away,” I continued, pushing aside my doubts about Noah’s kidnapping. Though Artem had kidnapped me, I didn’t see why he would take Noah when he could have just taken me again. Besides, he wasn’t one to send someone else to do his bidding.
Or at least I didn’t think he was. “And I ended up here. Artem wants me to come home.”
“That doesn’t sound much like a home, Emma,” Gertie replied softly.
It was a prison, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. There was nothing about his mansion that would feel like home, especially if this were true. I would be walking right back into the same mess I had left, though my heart would be a little heavier this time. Artem had given me hope that maybe he did have something inside I hadn’t seen yet.
Hope was very dangerous, especially when the heart was involved, and I felt like mine had been crushed.
“You can’t go,” Gertie finally said, clenching my hand. “You aren’t going back.”
I gave her a grim smile. “I have to. That way we can get Noah back.”
“He wouldn’t want you to sacrifice yourself like this,” she shot back, her gaze narrowing. “My Noah wouldn’t want this.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I told her. “Artem is on his way, and we will have Noah home before it’s time for him to go to bed.”
Gertie shook her head slowly. “Emma.”
“I never meant for you or Noah to be involved in this,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
She drew in a breath. “It’s not your fault, Emma. Noah’s going to be just fine. You’ll see. Then you will stay here with us while we figure this out.” She then rose from the table, draping the blanket over the chair. Though she was starting to act like herself, I could still see the weight of what had happened to her husband on her shoulders. She was worried.
I was worried.
Chapter 4
Artem
I tapped my fingers on my knee nervously as the car navigated through the roads, heading toward the farmhouse, wishing that I could just walk the rest of the way to alleviate some of the tension in my body. I fucking hated feeling like this, like I wasn’t in control of the situation.
I was far from in control of this situation.
“What’s the plan?”
I didn’t turn to face Anatoly, preferring to keep my expression neutral. That, and I didn’t want to see his “I told you she was trouble” look on his fucking face. We had been in the middle of a briefing with my brigadiers when Emma had called me, and I knew that he couldn’t stand the fact that I had put her ahead of the bratva again.