Nakia tenderly patted his back and whispered soothing words to calm him,
“Good morning, ma’am. I’ll take care of the baby for you,” the maid offered.
The woman’s unwavering, almost desperate focus on Alex made her pause. “I got him,” Nakia murmured.
“Mrs. Ragnarson, I need to take the baby,” the maid insisted.
Nakia was immediately suspicious. It was clear that the woman was mistaking her for Imani. And with Alex calling her mama and pressing his face into her neck, the woman was confused. While Nakia had to consider that she was wearing Imani’s clothes, the similarities between her and Imani weren’t really that many. Yes, they had long hair, were almost the same height and had similar skin tones, although her skin tone was a bit darker. However, the two women couldn’t look more different. She was tall at five-nine with serious curves, while Imani was several inches shorter and sleek like a runner. Imani’s eyes were light brown, hazel, while hers were gray. Her long hair was usually worn in a sleek straight curtain, while Imani’s tresses were a mass of thick shiny curls. No, they looked nothing alike.
Nakia wasn’t sure who the woman was either, but it seemed odd that there was gunfire on the outside, everyone running for cover, and the other woman hadn’t tried to warn her of the danger or appear panicked by it. “What’s happening out there? Is that gunshots I hear?” Nakia asked. She watched the maid carefully and tightened her hold on her gun, anticipating a weapon at any moment.
“I don’t know, Mrs. Ragnarson. I need to take care of the baby.” The maid reached for Alex again, but Nakia settled him more securely to her hip.
“I’ll keep him, thanks. Why don’t you go see what’s happening out there?”
The maid shook her head and wrung her hands.
This woman was wasting her damn time. Nakia pushed past her impatiently and ran toward the room that she knew was Colt’s office. It was empty. She would have given anything to see Justin’s fierce face right then. None of this shit made any sense, and she was terrified.
Baby Alex clung to her and whimpered with every sound of gunfire and scream in the background.
She ran from room to room on the ground floor. There was no one about, but the west side of the house was almost completely damaged, and gunshots from the outside had almost completely died down. An eerie silence lingered once the screaming stopped.
Nakia run back up the stairs just as the front door was kicked in.
Colt and Imani’s room was on the west side of the house, which seemed to have sustained the most damage from the explosion. She ran toward their room now on hearing Imani’s dog barking, thinking that they were probably hurt from the blast. At the sight of part of the bedroom wall in rubble, Nakia came to a stunned halt. After a glance inside the room, she noted Imani lying unmoving on the floor, partially covered by debris. Imani’s Coton de Tulear was barking his head off and running in circles by Imani’s head. He looked as though he was trying to wake his mistress up, but Imani remained motionless on the floor. Crushing sadness filled her at the thought that Imani could be lying in that room dead with no one to care for her. Her tears almost blinded her. She started toward Imani, intending to secure her body.
“Not another step or I’ll kill you and the kid.” A menacing accented voice stopped her in her tracks.
Nakia had her back to the men who’d just come along the hall. She didn’t know how many there were, but from the widening of Alex’s eyes and his whispered, “Man,” she knew that they were in trouble. Almost dissolving into a fit of hysterics at the seemingly insurmountable threat, Nakia hardened her resolve and eased her gun into the waistband of her jeans. No way could she try to take them on. She used her blouse and baby Alex to hide the outline of her weapon. She turned slowly, wanting to see who she was up against.
There were at least six men in the hall, and more seemed to be roaming about on the ground floor. It was clear that they had overpowered Colt’s security team. Bile rose from her stomach to her throat, almost choking her with sorrow at the lives lost. Unshed tears burned her eyes at the thought of Colt and Justin probably out there somewhere; otherwise, how had these men gotten in here? She had to have some hope that the men were fine until she saw bodies to the contrary.
“You have me at a disadvantage.” Nakia was proud of how steady her voice sounded when she was scared shitless, but her anger over their senseless killing gave her added steel in her spine. “Who are you, and what do you want?”
“Secure the woman and the kid. I want out of here in two minutes! And someone, for Christ’s sake shut that mutt up!”
The man’s accent finally registered, and she blanched. He was Russian. There wasn’t a chance in hell that the Italian mob of Chicago was going to be working with their Russian foes. What was going on here?
The man looked past her to Imani on the floor. He looked back at her, and Nakia swallowed hard. She had no idea what his cold expression meant as he raised his gun toward the puppy.
“No, don’t hurt him,” Nakia shouted desperately. “He’ll be quiet. Just have someone lock him in the bathroom. It’s still standing.”
The Russian nodded at one of his men, who then grabbed the puppy not too gently, threw him into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.
Nakia could still hear the puppy whining, but she breathed a sigh of relief that he was at least alive.
“Which one of them is the engineer?” one of the men asked the Russian. This man sounded like a normal American.
Nakia had no idea what to think.
“I don’t know, but this one is holding the kid,” the Russian muttered.
“The boss will be pissed if we bring back the wrong one,” another man noted. That one was American as well.
The Russian shot him at point-blank range, muttering, “Your boss can go fuck himself.”
Alex screamed and started crying in earnest. “It’s okay, little man. I’ve got you.” Nakia rocked and soothed him as the Russian turned a hard scowl toward them. Thankfully, Alex stuck his thumb in his mouth, curled his other little arm around her neck, put his head on her shoulder, and whimpered softly.
The Russian looked at Nakia and smiled grimly. “You’re a good mama.” He smirked.
“Why the fuck did you do that?” yelled another man as he came toward their group. He looked down at the man the Russian had killed in disbelief.
A few of the other men, who looked Russian, pointed their guns at the man looking down at his friend in horror.
“Unless you want to be next, mudak, I suggest you shut the fuck up,” he muttered. He turned away after issuing his threat as though bored before looking over at Imani’s fallen body again and then at Nakia. “The engineer is the one with the baby,” the Russian insisted.
Nakia tried to look confidently back.
“If you’re not the engineer, you’re going to pray for your own death,” the Russian told her coldly. “Pat her down. Make sure she doesn’t have any of her damn gadgets on her.”
One of the men approached her to carry out the Russian’s orders.