Page 37 of Wired Courage

Soft, velvety, tawny-skinned cheeks.

A little button nose.

Pouting bud of mouth, working as if to get ready for another wail.

She was so adorable. . .

Momi arched her back, opened her mouth, and let out a powerful bellow that made all three women jump.

“She’s hungry,” Armita said. “I was heating her bottle. I had a wet nurse for her at the compound, but she has been taking the formula and bottle just fine since we left.” Armita gestured to a pan resting on the gas stove. A small glass bottle of milk heated in water just beginning to steam around it.

Sophie’s breasts ached.Maybe there was still something left for her daughter. But no. She already knew there wasn’t. As Momi wound up for another howl, Sophie blinked back tears and held out her hand. Armita slipped the bottle of warm milk into it without a word, and Sophie placed it between her daughter’s searching lips.

The three of them sighed in relief as the infant settled, sucking hard and seeming to hum to herself as she found comforting nourishment.

“I don’t know if I will ever get tired of looking at her face,” Sophie said.

“You never will. I never have.”

Armita’s hand squeezed her shoulder, and Sophie met her nanny’s loving gaze with a smile. Sophie looked back down at her daughter. She slid a finger into Momi’s grasping hand, marveling at the beauty of her tiny digits, the flexing of long fingers that were the exact shape of Sophie’s own. “I cannot believe I’m holding her again.”

“I hurt for your suffering, being without her,” Armita said. “I could not go along once I discovered what they wanted her for.”

Sophie frowned. “Why did Pim Wat take her?”

“The crown prince of Thailand is sick with leukemia.”

Sophie gasped. “Oh no! He’s just a child.”

“Yes. And you, Sophie, are a match to give him a needed bone marrow transplant.” Armita met Sophie’s eyes. “You are his second cousin. Everyone around him, and throughout the court, has been tested, and your DNA was on file after your kidnapping as a child. You are the only match that has been discovered. Pim Wat hoped that Momi might be one, so she took her. Taking the marrow sample from Momi’s hip was . . .” Armita shut her eyes. “It is a painful test with a big needle for such a small body. She is not a match.”

Sophie’s breath caught and she squeezed the baby tightly, hardly able to endure imagining the procedure. “And after Mother found out that my child could not donate?”

“Pim Wat decided to keep her. To try again to have a daughter.”

“As if she were a stray puppy she had decided to adopt,” Sophie ground out.

“I’m afraid so. I could not watch her do what she did to you, all over again.”

“And after Armita contacted me about what my sister was doing, I told her we had to get the baby back to you,” Malee said. “We decided Armita would hide here until you could come get the two of them.”

Sophie met Armita’s gaze. “How did you get away from the stronghold?”

Armita stroked the baby’s soft curls as she spoke. “I have a few friends among the Yam Khûmk?n; but the truth is, the Master was not excited about having a child in the stronghold. He did not like having Pim Wat’s attention distracted from him and his missions for her. He allowed us to get away. Turned a blind eye.”

“The Master?”

Armita sighed. “How he came into Pim Wat’s life is a long story. But the summary is that the Master is the leader of the Yam Khûmk?n, and your mother’s lover. A very powerful man. I would venture to say, more powerful even than the king, though he is sworn to protect the monarchy.”

“How is it that I have never heard of this man? I have researched the Yam Khûmk?n extensively.” Sophie felt drunk on her daughter’s sweet, milky smell. She tucked her nose in beside Momi’s neck for a deep inhale. She loved the feel of Momi’s weight, the tiny grunts and rumbles the baby emitted—her daughter was altogether addicting.

“The Master stays in the shadows. He allows no photographs, has no footprint, carries no name. He is . . .”

“Evil,” Malee said over her shoulder. She had begun washing up in the kitchen, and she splashed angrily at the sink.

“I don’t think evil is correct,” Armita said in her measured way. “There is compassion in the Master. He is kinder than Pim Wat has ever been. But he does not hesitate to kill and to use any means necessary to control those around him. He rules absolutely.” Armita’s words were thoughtful, as if she had considered them a long time. “He’s not evil. But heisruthless.”

“I suspect that this Master has my men.” Sophie filled the two women in on the missing rescue party. “Now that my child and I are reunited, my attention must turn to getting Jake, Connor, and the other men back. Did you see any sign of them at the compound? Hear anything about their capture?”

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