Page 45 of Seductive Secrets

“We need help!” Mark called out, lifting his hands in the air, palms out to ease the officer’s wariness. “We’ve been kidnapped! We were held in that building over there,” he pointed to the building from which they’d just escaped, “for…I don’t know how long. Please! You’ve got to help us!”

The officer’s eyes sharpened. “What are your names?” he demanded, his hand on his weapon as he crouched slightly, prepared for anything.

“I’m Mark DuBreck and this is my fiancée, Melissa Abernathy!”

The officer’s eyes widened and he straightened. His hand was still on his weapon, but he pulled his radio to his mouth. “Dispatch, this is Officer Kelvin. I have DuBreck and Abernathy. I need backup and an ambulance.”

There was a muttered response but the officer nodded as if the words made sense. “Let’s get you to a safe place,” he said, putting an arm around them as he looked back at the building. “Head towards that door,” he ordered, pointing towards the harbor offices. “Tell the officer inside who you are and she’ll keep you safe. How many men are still in the building?”

Mark put an arm around Melissa and shook his head. “We aren’t sure, but at least four. They kept us in a room but there was always a guard with us, but there were more sleeping in the next room.”

The officer nodded, then relayed that information to the dispatcher. In the distance, sirens could now be heard. Mark and Melissa hurried towards the building where another officer pushed open the doors, waving them inside.

“We’re okay now,” Mark told Melissa as they huddled against an interior wall. “We’re okay!”

Melissa sobbed, laying her head against Mark’s shoulder. There was some shouting and they heard a gunshot. Mark tightened his arms around her again, muttering curses and prayers at the same time.

Fifteen minutes later, it was all over. A paramedic approached with two wool blankets. “You guys okay?” she asked, bending down to look into their eyes.

“What happened?”

The paramedic smiled. “Right now, there are five guys being handcuffed and hauled into cruisers. They’ll be charged with kidnapping.”

Mark shook his head, pulling the blanket more fully over Melissa. “But why? Why were we kidnapped?”

The officer bent down, a serious expression in her eyes. “You don’t know why?”

Melissa sniffed. “We have no idea!” she replied. “One minute, we’re making dinner, the next moment, a bunch of men are in my house, demanding that I give them back the ‘stuff’. We don’t know what the stuff is that they were looking for.”

The officer smiled. “They were looking for drugs, ma’am.”

“What drugs?” she snapped. “I’m a general practitioner!” Melissa was angry now. “The only drugs we have are at the office!”

The officer nodded. “I don’t think they were looking for medical drugs.” She stood up and extended her hand. “I think you should speak with Angela Bertucci.”

“Angela?” Mark asked. “She works out of the Chicago office. I resigned and was moving here to Baltimore to be with Melissa.”

“Yes, sir. We’re starting to figure all of this out. I think you should speak with the detective on this case. You’ve been gone a while. Detective Meyers will fill you in on everything.”

Mark and Melissa stood up, but he kept his arm around her. At this point, they didn’t care about anything other than the fact that they were free!

Epilogue

“No!” she wailed, pulling away from James to pace around the bedroom. “Not going to happen.”

James watched his wife, knowing that she was scared. No, not scared. Angela was terrified.

“Talk to me, honey,” he urged. “What is so frightening?”

Angela crossed her arms over her chest, looked over at his dresser where the stick rested, then sank down to the floor. Not intentionally. Her knees…they just gave out on her.

“I can’t do it, James!” she whispered, eyes huge in her pale face. “I can’t bring a child into this world! I know the dangers! I know what could happen to something as vulnerable as a small child!”

James felt the muscles in his stomach loosen. Angela was pregnant. They hadn’t planned the pregnancy. But they’d been married for several years and their sexual need for each other hadn’t waned. If anything, it had increased.

Now that he understood her fears, he could deal with them. It wasn’t that she didn’t want children. It was that she was afraid for their children’s safety.

He knelt down in front of her, resting his hands on her knees. “Ang, I don’t have any uncles in my family. Marco, Dash, Callum, and Kasim will be this child’s uncles.” He rubbed her outer thighs soothingly, trying to bring her back. Right now, she was caught up in the horrors of her childhood. “With all of us raising this child, do you seriously think that anything bad could happen to our baby?”

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