“You were my best chance at escape. I never intended to do anything more than make my father think I was doing what he wanted. But I saw you and I wanted you more than I wanted my freedom.”
The color deepened in his eyes. They went dark and his body went still.
“Why did you want your freedom?” he asked softly.
She kept her gaze even, not betraying the surge of rage that flashed through her blood.
“I hated him.”
Sam’s brow furrowed and he frowned. “Why?”
“You know what kind of man he was—is.”
“But what did he do to you, Sophie?”
“Besides demanding that I whore myself for him? Is it important? I would think that’s bad enough. You said it yourself. Who the hell does that? What kind of father asks his daughter to do that?”
It wasn’t everything, but it was all Sam needed to know, and it was certainly a credible enough reason for a daughter to hate her father.
“Remember the note, Sam? The one you received that last morning?”
He nodded.
“I’m the one who sent it. I’m the one who told you about the arms shipment and when and where it was going down.”
His eyes widened in shock and then narrowed just as quickly. His lips drew into a tight line, and he looked suspiciously at her.
She rubbed her chest, trying in vain to wipe away the ache. No, he didn’t trust her. She didn’t blame him, but it hurt nonetheless.
“Want me to tell you what was in it?”
She quoted back the contents in a low, steady voice and never broke his gaze. She wouldn’t look away, wouldn’t give him any reason to believe she was lying. Word for word. She knew them by heart. She should. She’d typed up the note, printed it out in the hotel lobby and paid the front desk clerk to deliver it.
Sam dragged a hand over his hair, looked away and then back at her, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Why? I don’t understand. Why not just tell me?”
She tried to laugh, but her throat closed in on her. “What would you have done, Sam? If I had unloaded that kind of story on you, would you have believed me? You would have been angry, just like you are now. You would have been suspicions of any information I gave you about my father.”
He nodded grudgingly and sighed his acknowledgment.
“I waited long enough for you to leave and then I took my opportunity. I was helped by two employees in my father’s house who were loyal to my mother and, as a result, me. I’ve been running ever since.”
“When did you find out you were pregnant?”
She closed her eyes, remembering all too vividly the fear and the joy. The panic that she wouldn’t be able to keep herself or her child safe as her pregnancy progressed.
“It hasn’t been long,” she said huskily. “Maybe if I hadn’t been so busy slipping from place to place, keeping one step ahead of my father’s men, I would have realized that the fatigue and sickness wasn’t due to stress and fear. When I noticed my pants were snug and I hadn’t been eating well, I tried to remember the last time I’d had a period. Then I knew.”
“That time in the shower,” Sam murmured.
She smiled faintly. “Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you come to me immediately? If you were in trouble and you knew where to find me, why didn’t you come before now?”
If only it had been that easy.
“As I said, I didn’t know I was pregnant until six weeks ago—”
“Is that the only reason you came? Because you’re pregnant?”
He sounded accusing, and she just stared at him. What had he expected?
“It’s a big part, yeah,” she said, her chin going up.
She could be as belligerent as him any day of the week. Damn it, but she was tired of having to defend herself.
“This is the first place they would have looked for me. They’ve probably been watching you for months, waiting for me to show up. It’s the only reason you’re still alive. My father had information on KGI. While he may not have had the balls to launch an all-out attack on you here, he would have done whatever was necessary to take you out. He’s a patient man when it comes to vengeance.”
Sam’s frown deepened. “What changed then? Why now?” The overt suspicion in his voice hit her like a poisoned dart. Yeah, she knew he had a right, but it was starting to seriously piss her off.
“What changed is that bastard caught up to me. What changed is that I’m not as fast or as agile as I used to be. Being five months pregnant with your child changes a lot, including my ability to take care of myself and protect us both from ass**les that my uncle sends.”
“Uncle?”
Sam latched onto her slip, his eyes sharpening.
“Uncle, father, whatever. They’re partners. Either way I betrayed them both. They won’t forgive that.”
“We were led to believe that Tomas Mouton was a patsy of your father’s and nothing more. He had no power. Alex pulled all the strings and Tomas just took up space in Mouton’s organization.”
“I’m sure that’s true.” Indeed it was. But with her father dead, Tomas would have seized his opportunity to take over the network. And his first order of business would have been to recover the key Sophie had stolen and execute her for her betrayal of the Mouton family.
She kept that information buried, unsure of how much if anything she should tell Sam about the key or the fact that she’d killed her father. There was such a thing as too much information all at once. She wanted Sam to be willing to offer her and their child his protection, not toss her out on her ass at the first opportunity.