Page 18 of Wired Courage

Yes, he’d made a grave error in coming on this mission.

Chapter Fourteen

Day Twenty-Four

Sophie squatted under the barbell, then lifted with a powerful push of her glutes and legs. This exercise had been really hard to do even without weight when she first started; her entire pelvic area had been weakened by pregnancy and giving birth. Two weeks of steadily increasing weight and reps had brought her to an approximation of her former strength, and that wasn’t the only change.

She’d lost the puffy water weight of pregnancy, her abs had tightened up a good deal, breast milk was down to almost nothing, and her chest was normal size again.

But as she did another set of squats, watching herself in the mirror, the ache of the Momi-shaped hole in Sophie’s heart had not shrunk at all.

Today made two weeks since the men had left. Connor had communicated briefly at first, just a few short lines that came into the secret chat box they’d used to communicate since their first encounters online. He’d posted their progress: landing on the mainland, rendezvous with their team, the arrival at the surveillance node close to the stronghold, planting the cameras inside the fortress . . . then nothing.

Nothing!For a week.

Sophie dropped the bar and stomped over to the lat pulldown machine. She sat on the bench and used her abs for leverage as she pulled down on the bar, worry and anger a potent fuel.

She finished her weight routine and stood up, looking around the immaculate, top-of-the-line gym. Connor spared no expense on his equipment, and with Nam cooking healthy, nutritious food for her, she’d been in the equivalent of a fitness spa since her arrival.

Time for her afternoon run.

Sophie put in her earbuds and picked up her phone, checking it for the hundredth time for anything new. No ransom note or request had come in since the baby had disappeared. Alika had told her that the Kaua`i police had no further leads, and he’d updated Detective Jenkins recently on what Security Solutions was doing, operating on the assumption that Momi had been taken by her grandmother.

She’d caught up her father, Marcella, and her friend Lei, briefing them on the situation, but talking about it just made her angry and frustrated. After the initial calls, she’d stopped communicating except to let them know things were status quo.

As she thumbed to her favorite running playlist, the phone dinged with an incoming text message from an unknown number. She read:“Sophie. This is Armita. Come to the magnolia tree to find what you seek.”

“What?” Sophie cried aloud. “What are you talking about?” She replied quickly:“Tell me something only Armita would know so that I can be sure it’s you.”

“Your dogs were beautiful the night I visited your balcony,”came back immediately.“Contact no one. I have left the compound with your treasure and she must not find us.”

Armita had to be referring to Pim Wat! And the magnolia tree? Where was that?“What’s going on?”Sophie texted.“Please, I need to know more!”

“She will be looking for us. Come alone. Tell no one, not even your men.”

A photo appeared on Sophie’s phone.

Sophie gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as she gazed down at her baby’s photo—Sophie would know that precious face anywhere. Momi’s large, light brown eyes were open. Angelic curls topped her head, and her cheeks were sweetly pink, and plump with health.

“Thank you, Armita. I will come,”she texted back.

A message appeared:Not Deliverable.

Armita had destroyed the phone already. The nanny was taking no chances in being tracked.

Sophie sat down on the weight bench abruptly as her knees gave way.

She stared at her daughter’s face, eating up the precious vision—and realized that the baby’s head rested on a current newspaper, printed in Thai. The date appeared beside her tiny, shell-like ear.

Come alone and tell no one?What if the message was a trap?

The message could be from someone trying to lure Sophie out of hiding. Perhaps her nanny had caved in to pressure from her mother and told Pim Wat, or someone else, about that midnight visit she’d made to Sophie’s apartment.

Only one thing was certain: this person had access to her daughter—the photo gave proof of life. Whoever it was also had access to Armita, because only Armita knew the details of her nighttime visit to Sophie—and about the magnolia tree.

Sophie shut her eyes. Her surroundings went dim as she was transported back in time to her childhood home, a large wooden compound built on palisades near the Ping River. The magnolia tree she remembered grew up through a raised deck upon which she’d loved to play with her cousins as a child. Tall and robust, its spreading arms had provided shade and a place to climb. They’d even had a rope swing tied to one of its branches.

That house had been sold many years ago, shortly after her parents’ divorce and Sophie’s departure for boarding school. She’d then met her father at various hotels over the years, and spent time with her mother at her Aunt Malee’s house, right next door.

---