Page 49 of Wired Courage

“It’s complicated . . .” Tears welled in Sophie’s eyes again. Momi howled, drowning her words.

“You don’t need a man,” Armita said. “We can take care of our girl just fine without a penis in our midst.”

Clearly, the women in Sophie’s life weren’t sympathetic to her broken heart.

Sophie got out of bed, holding her crying baby close, and followed Armita into her aunt’s palatial bathroom. A huge sunken tub awaited, gently steaming. Armita helped Sophie by taking the baby so she could disrobe, then handing Sophie the naked child once she was safely settled on the tub’s built-in seat.

Momi blinked her tightly shut eyes as the warm water touched her skin. She flailed in reflex, arching to howl again. Sophie tucked her arms in close, pressing her baby against her chest. She sank a little deeper into the water, so only Sophie’s shoulders and Momi’s head were not submerged.

Gradually, the child began to relax. “There you are, my darling, beautiful girl. Hello. Does your tummy hurt? Oh, my dear, my tummy hurts too. So does my heart.” Sophie kissed and snuggled the infant, and Momi’s plump, pink mouth suckled at her wet skin.

Sophie suddenly remembered her dream—that dream she’d had of nursing her child in the bath!Her milk had let down just from the dream. What a bizarre déjà vu! Sophie moved to the shallower end of the bath, and offered her breast. Momi clamped on, giving a happy little grunt. Sophie bit her tongue on a gasp of pain. She gazed down at Momi’s contented face and felt, miracle of miracles, the powerful sensation of her milk letting down.

“Oh, my dear one.” Tears rose in Sophie’s eyes yet again—she was living the dream she’d had, a dream that had sustained her.Her grief over Jake and the lurking depression receded as feel-good hormones flooded her system.

Her daughter was her priority.

She shut her eyes and felt nothing but blissful, pure, maternal love—until her breast ran dry a moment later, and Momi growled in frustration. “Yes, darling, we’re going to have to work up to a full meal for you out of these poor dried-up things,” she murmured, and put her daughter on the other side.

Later,with Momi down for a nap, Sophie called her aunt and nanny into the dining room. Freshly dressed, her hair brushed out, Sophie was up and moving and she planned to stay that way. “We need a plan. A strategy. Jake is out of my life for now, so I’ll be going forward alone. We can’t let the Master get Pim Wat back—she’s too dangerous, and there’s no doubt in my mind that she’ll come after us if she ever gets loose. I want you, Malee, to monitor her phone. The Master will eventually call her. How long was she visiting you for?”

“She didn’t say. But Pim Wat usually swoops in on me for three to five days.” Malee rubbed coconut oil into her bruised throat as she spoke. “He’s only called once, that I’m aware of, when she had stayed a week.”

“Good. That gives us a little time. Where is her phone? I need to get his number. I know I told McDonald that I wanted them to make a trade for me, but I’m virtually sure they won’t help us get Connor back.”

“Why do you need to get Connor back?” Armita’s triangular face and uplifted brows expressed a certain mulish annoyance. “I think you might be better off with a completely fresh start from these men in your life.”

“Hamilton is very important to me—and to our company, Security Solutions, for reasons I can’t go into right now. I owe him a lot for trying to get Momi back for me—in fact, I owe a debt to all the men who gave their lives to that mission.” Sophie blew out a shaky breath. “I have to try to get him returned. I have the advantage of already knowing what the Master wants me to do—give bone marrow for the crown prince. I will negotiate Connor’s release in trade for that.”

“Doing the donation is a good thing,” Malee agreed. “Our cousin is only a child.”

“I would do it for that reason alone,” Sophie said. “The proposed trade is just a way to get Hamilton back, but the Master doesn’t have to know that. Give me Mother’s phone. I need to get into it to obtain the Master’s number.”

Sophie plugged the phone into her laptop and used one of her decryption programs to unlock her mother’s phone password. The whole enterprise took about five minutes.

Armita peered over her shoulder as Sophie scrolled through the numbers on the phone. “The Master” was listed underFavorites.

“I was hoping to find out his real name,” Sophie said.

“Everyone in the Yam Khûmk?n gives up his name. They get a number, and a designation. They no longer hold their former identities,” Armita said.

Sophie frowned. “In all my research about the Yam Khûmk?n, I couldn’t find out even that basic fact.”

“There is no substitute for in-person espionage,” Armita said. “Lack of individuality is another layer of anonymity for their agents, as well as a tool to bond the men to the cause.”

Sophie cocked a brow. “You have definitely added to your skill set and knowledge base.” She patted her former nanny’s arm. “I am so glad that you will be here, helping me raise Momi. Now that I have the Master’s contact information, I just have to call the CIA back and see if they have decided about helping me negotiate Connor’s release. If they have, I will let them take the lead with the Yam Khûmk?n. If they have not . . .”

“In any case, you should call the baby’s father and let him know Momi is safe,” Armita said. “He deserves that.”

A twist of guilt cramped Sophie’s belly. “Of course. That was next on my list.”

How had she somehow forgotten that Alika was a player in her child’s life?She had been so focused on getting the baby back, on bonding with her child again, that she had forgotten she shared Momi with him, and his family. And her own father, too!

She would have to figure out how sharing Momi with Alika could work. She had planned to stay on Phi Ni Island for the immediate future, to conduct negotiations for Connor’s release, and resume Security Solutions business from there.

She was definitely not going back to her apartment on the Big Island. Right now, she couldn’t be in the same building as Jake, let alone working closely with him at that extension office.

Those days were over.

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