CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

NATALIE

The call came surprisingly early. 

Ari, Netta and I had just finished breakfast. I made blueberry pancakes in an attempt to keep Ari in good spirits but she could see the tension and worry in our faces, no matter how much we tried to smile and be reassuring. 

"When will Daddy be back?" she demanded. 

"Soon," I said, my gut feeling like I swallowed a cement brick. 

"Where did he go?" 

"He's working sweetheart," I said, smoothing my hand over her bedhead hair sticking up all over the place. 

"Why does he have to work so much? I miss him." 

"I miss him too," I said in a low voice, then took a deep breath and lowered myself to her eye level. "He's doing a very important job though." 

"He is?" her eyes widened. 

I nodded. "He's making the world a safer place for you, me, Netta, all of us. You should be proud of him." 

He's making a safer world for your unborn, freshly conceived sibling as well. 

Ari grinned. "I'll tell him when he comes home!"

"He'll love that," I told her warmly. He really would.

Stop. Don't think about him like he's gone already. 

Netta had been quiet since we arrived at the safe house, which was unusual for her. I could tell she was just as worried as me. 

"He's done dangerous missions before," she whispered when Ari was out of earshot. "He'll be alright. He always comes back." 

But the uncertainty on her face was as clear as day. 

She didn't know for certain but she must have heard rumors. Antigua was just as bad as they claimed, if not worse. 

He was no ordinary enemy. And Solomon, the love of my life, did not walk into any ordinary warzone. 

I rubbed a hand across my belly, unable to get the passion and intimacy of last night out of my mind. I could still feel him on my skin and in the breath from my lungs. 

Nothing physically felt different in my body. It was too soon to tell, of course. A baby probably hadn't even been conceived yet. Sperm could live in the body for up to seven days if I remembered high school sex ed correctly. I didn't even know what point I was at in my cycle, or if I was even fertile anymore. 

Still, I rubbed my belly as if it were a lamp that held a magical genie. I wished for a living manifestation of Sol. I didn't even know if we successfully made a child but I already saw him as a boy in my mind. He had my blue eyes and Sol's dark hair and swarthy skin. His strong build and signature smirk of course. 

A name hadn't come to me yet. But even if my body hadn't made him yet, my mind was already eager to meet him. 

A sudden ringing sound made me jump. 

Netta and I looked at each other knowingly. It was the landline. 

A simple cordless phone sat in a cradle on the kitchen counter and lit up with UNKNOWN NUMBER across the screen. 

My heart soared. It had to be him. 

"Get it. I'll distract the kid," Netta said, scurrying off to join Ari in front of the TV with her cartoons. 

I picked up the phone and stepped into the bedroom as I hit the answer button with a trembling finger and my heart in my throat. 

"Hello?" My voice was weak, uncertain. 

"Hey, beautiful." 

"Oh my God!"

I crumpled to the floor with the relief pouring over me so hard and fast that my head spun. Solomon’s voice on the phone was the sweetest sound I heard in years. He sounded like he was right next to me and I desperately wished he was. 

"Are you okay? Did you do it?" 

"Our forces overwhelmed them and none of the girls were hurt. We're getting them out. Everything is going to be okay."

"I'm so glad to hear that! You have no idea." I grinned from ear to ear, so stupidly happy to hear his voice. "And Antigua?"

"I'm glad you asked, babe." The cocky smirk came through in his voice like I could feel it directly on my skin. “He’s dying to talk to you.”

A scuffling sound crackled across the phone receiver and I suddenly heard the low, whimpering moans of a man in serious pain. 

"Hello?" I said. 

"Ugh, you motherfuckers will pay!" came the familiar, saliva-laden voice that haunted my nightmares. "I'll kill you all for this." 

BANG!

"Ahhh, fuck!" 

I could only guess that Sol shot some non-lethal part of Antigua's body that kept him alive but in terrible pain. 

Speaking loudly and clearly into the phone, I said what I always wanted to say.

"How does it feel?" I asked. "To experience excruciating pain at the enjoyment of others?"

"Fuck you, bitch! I'll cut your clit and your tits off for this!" 

"Oh no," I replied. "Your disgusting hands will never touch me again. The last thing you'll feel is my husband's gun shooting your pathetic balls off."

Another BANG! rang out followed by a deafening scream in my ear. Farther away I heard Sol's voice say, "Where you're going, you don't need kneecaps anyway." 

Antigua's big game talk quickly turned to blubbering, pleading and crying. 

"Please, I'll pay you... whatever you want," he whimpered.

"You know I almost regret asking my husband to kill you," I said. "A better sentence would be life in prison being raped daily. But for some reason, I don't think even inmates would want to fuck you." 

"I'm sorry..." 

"That's a fucking laugh! I can only imagine how much you profited daily from selling my body. Are you sorry about Leah too?" 

I was yelling into the phone at that point and hoped Netta had covered Ari's ears. If Antigua said any words in response, they were unintelligible from the groans and whimpers of pain.

"She was so smart and kind. She could have done so much good in this world. But you had no idea of that. All you saw was a profitable body to hand around to your customers like a fucking crack pipe."

"I'm so sorry... please."

"Solomon, you there?" I asked. 

"Right here, babe." 

"I'm done talking to this piece of shit. Do what you need to do." 

"Yes, ma'am. And hey, listen." 

"Yeah?"

"I love you, Natalie. So fucking much. I can't wait to come home to you and our family." The emotion was thick in his voice. Shouts and commotion rang out in the background and what sounded like more gunshots. 

“Sol, are you sure you’re safe?” I asked. “Please be careful and get home to me in one piece.” 

“I will, babe, I promise. We have control here. I’ll be home to you before the sun goes down.”

“Okay.” I unclenched my fists, looking at the marks my nails made from digging into my palms. “I love you too. So fucking much.” 

 Thanks to him, my love and my protector, I finally took my first steps in letting go of the hatred and pain I held onto for so long.