“Are you sure about this?” Melody asked under her breath.
She’d been watching Christian, and she could see the nerves that jittered through him, ramping up her own. He had been pacing for the last fifteen minutes, mussing his hair with his hands until it stood up on end.
At her softly spoken question, he rushed to her side and picked up one of her hands, cradling it in his own. He looked at it for a long minute, and she realized it was her left hand. He was looking at the wedding ring that still gleamed on her ring finger.
“Honestly? No.” He forced out a bark of a laugh, but there is no humor in it. “I’m not really sure of anything anymore.”
“I am.”
The words flew from her lips with more resolution than she thought she had inside her. Melody stepped closer to him, inhaling his unique masculine scent and feeling strength flow through her. Because of him. Because she knew that she would never lose his love.
“I am sure of you. I am sure that I love you and that I want a life with you.”
She closed the last inch of distance between them, losing herself in the small world that they created together where just the two of them existed.
“I am sure that you are going to love this baby more than anything in the world, and so am I.”
Christian just stared at her, his mouth working and his eyes dark with emotion, but no sound came out. Melody inhaled sharply, a deep breath to calm her nerves.
“You know, on the day that I got the pregnancy test, before I even knew that I was in love with you, Bianca told me something.”
“And what was that?” he asked her hesitantly, pushing a tendril of stray hair behind her ear. “You know you have to take anything that woman says with a grain of salt.”
“I hear that!” Bianca chimed in gruffly from where she was sitting with her ankle elevated as well as Christian could get it.
Melody shook her head at the curmudgeonly old woman. Not even being imprisoned in a damn-dark basement was enough to curb her attitude.
“She said that happiness was out there, that it existed, even when it seemed like it didn’t. And that when I found it, it was worth fighting for.” Melody looked up at him, her heart shimmering in her eyes. “That’s what I’m going to do, Christian. I found my happiness. I found you. And I am going to fight to hold on to it, no matter what Enrique throws at us.”
“I love you, Mel.”
Her chest tightened at the emotion she could hear in his voice. The same emotion that was in her own as she stared up at him.
“I love you, too.”
“Gah, are they always like this?” Amanda said to Bianca.
The older woman just snorted. Over the last hour they had formed an uneasy alliance, but at least Bianca wasn’t trying to strangle Enrique’s cousin any more.
“You should see them at home. They’re even worse when they aren’t in a life-threatening situation.”
Bianca emphasized the last few words, drawing Melody back with a start to where they were and what they were doing.
The sound of footsteps could be heard drawing closer overhead, just like clockwork as the man guarding them made his rounds. Melody looked up at Christian, nerves and adrenaline making her whole body shake, but at least her voice was strong and steady when she finally spoke.
“It’s show time. Are you ready, now?”
Christian let out a low chuckle, but she could hear the nerves in his voice too, could see them in the way his eyes constantly darted trying to see from every direction at once.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
She had to stand on the tips of her toes to reach him, pressing her mouth against his in one last kiss to steel herself, before pulling back reluctantly. Christian gave her a hooded glance.
“Let’s just get the hell out of here, alright? I’m tired, and I want you and me, in our bed.” He rolled his eyes at Bianca and Amanda, who were both watching them with wide eyes. “Alone.”
Melody kissed him again, just because she had to. Because she wasn’t sure what was about to happen. But she knew she couldn’t do another thing without that memory of his kiss to cling to and give her the strength she needed.
All too soon, Christian was stepping back, looking around the room at the other two.
“Alright. Let’s do this,” he said, suddenly sounding as casual as if he was saying they were about to go to the grocery store instead of what they actually had planned. “Ladies? If you would please take your places.”
Bianca just snorted again, but they all did what Christian asked, moving to their prescribed places.
It was a simple plan. One Melody hoped beyond hope would work.
They had built off the original plan that Christian had been so vehemently against, to pretend that Melody was hurt and to make a lot of noise, drawing one of the men. Only this time, Melody wasn’t going to go with them willingly. And if it all worked right, they would all be walking out of there together.
Christian stood just to the side of the door, holding the broken chair leg over his shoulder like a baseball bat. He nodded to each of them in turn, his blue gaze lingering on Melody where she stood in the middle of the room, in clear line of sight of whoever walked in.
“And, action.”
Melody started howling like an animal in pain, Bianca and Amanda backing her up in an odd chorus of grunts and groans. Christian pounded on the door as if the hounds of hell were after them.
Melody felt the odd urge to laugh at all the racket they were making, but underneath that urge was a panic and a fear. Not for herself, but for the others. For Christian and Bianca. For the people that had become her family over the last few months.
But it was too late to go back now. They couldn’t change their plans. Footsteps were already drawing closer. Someone was already at the door.
Melody had just drawing in a breath to let out another scream of pain when there was a hurried jangle of metal as the padlock was undone and the door flew opened.
The man chosen to guard them stumbled in, his eyes wide as they flew towards Melody. He was a gruff-looking guy that Melody recognized as one of the men that had thrown them in there in the first place.
Suddenly, she remembered her role.
With another cry, she dropped to the floor, clutching her middle.
“Help! I’m hurt. Really hurt. I need help. If Enrique finds out…”
She let the sentence trail off as if she was in too much pain to go on, but the man had no problem filling in the rest of it. It was all too easy to imagine exactly what Enrique would do. Especially after what had happened to the first man in the office.
“Holy shit! No, not Enrique!”
He looked terrified as he rushed forward, obviously thinking about the man that Enrique had killed for hitting her. Good. That’s exactly what she wanted him thinking about. She wanted him too scared to wonder where the fourth prisoner was.
The man bent down to check her, and that’s when Christian moved in to strike, hitting him in the back of the head with the chair leg. Enrique’s man collapsed, knocked unconscious, as his eyes rolled back in his head.
Melody jumped to her feet, taking Christian’s hand as if it was a part of herself, and she looked up at her husband.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.”