My phone ringing pulled me from one of the sexiest dreams of my entire life. Slapping at the nightstand, I fought to turn it off so I could sink back into the steaminess. When it went quiet, I sighed and fell back into the pillows once more. Come to mama, I thought, as I allowed the heaviness in my brain to wash back over me. Until the ringer went off again. Someone was going to die. Slowly. Painfully. With much malice aforethought. Raising up on my elbow, I turned the light on. Glared against the brightness. Scooping up my phone, my snarl of outrage turned into a purr of delight. Just the man I needed. I connected the call. "Hey."Nico was quiet for a second. "Jessa?""Mhm." I slid my free hand down my belly. "You woke me up. I was about to get your co-""You're on speaker phone, Doc," he interrupted. "But, please, feel free to continue. What were you about to get?" Foster said. "A knife so I can stab you multiple times. What the hell, Nico?" I glared at the

Pushing to my feet, I walked with Willow and Tali out to the kitchen. Sitting around and waiting for word was going to test my patience and my sanity. I needed to do something. Anything. "Willow, we need to get you an OB/GYN set up. You can use mine if you want. She's a great lady," I said as we gathered around the kitchen island that was bigger than most conference tables. She nodded. "Yeah, that's probably best. I was just going to ask if you wanted to be my designated vagina diver." She shrugged.I snorted. "Your way with words continues to astound and amaze."She winked, smiled. "We've all got our skill sets." She looked around her professional home kitchen, a lost look in her eyes. "I don't know what I should be doing with myself right now. Do I go skulk Ryker's steps as he gets things lined up to go to Italy? Do I stay here? What if some crazy bitches think they can touch him? Who will kill them? Or slice off their hands?" She wrung her hands together, chewed on her bot

I ripped the phone from Willow's hands. "Nico?""This is Foster.""Where is Nico?""In the local police station. We -" "What the hell happened, Foster?" I cut him off."If you'd stop talking, I could tell you," he said, a biting snap to his tone.I bit my lip to keep from striking out at him. "Thank you. We were out for a drink. The house was getting cramped. Downtown Corinaldo, me, Mas, Nico. That's it. But I think we've got some shadows.""What do you mean by shadows?"Maggie took the phone, put it on speaker. "You're talking to all of us at Hilltop.""I think we were followed. Either electronically or physically. But there's no other explanation. I've already called the embassy, told them that Nico's been arrested.""On what charges?" Maggie asked. "Unknown. Apparently those only have to be read to Nico. We're getting someone associated with the family to represent him. According to Andrea, they have forty-eight hours to validate his arrest. If the state

I hovered by the phone as I waited for Nico to call me. Wringing my hands so hard I winced, I shook them out before I started giving myself blisters. I was not cut out for this worrying business. At all. A woman of action, I needed to be doing something. Anything. But actively working towards a solution instead of just sitting around and growing a baby. Not that that wasn't important, but I could literally do that while I slept, so it wasn't really taking a lot of mental focus from the issue of the day right now.Nico. If the Petters were, in fact, behind all this, then I was going to be first in line to start busting some heads. As soon as Nik and Mags taught me how to do it without hurting myself. Hell, I could just use my medical knowledge. No one would ever know what happened to them. I smiled at the thought. Rubbed a hand down my belly. "Isn't that right, baby cakes? Momma can handle herself. Beat the poopy out of anyone who tries to hurt your daddy." I nodded. "Damn

I looked at the clock. Just after five in the evening and I felt like my day had been packed full of nothing but brain-numbing meetings. And Interpol hadn't even been that bad. In fact, it was nice to be able to focus solely on debriefing them. Not having to worry about the minutiae that goes into this kind of undertaking.I'd learned the last time with Willow's parents and ex-husband what kind of planning went into a takedown. I was happy to never be part of one again. Fate seemed to have different ideas on that part, but at least we'd been able to hand off the biggest part of it. Now we could tighten our focus to just Jaz and Amara. My woman's sister and my niece. Honestly, Jaz gave me more concern than Amara. The woman had been in captivity for twenty-six years. There was no telling what mental state she would be in. From my association with both Jessa and Willow, I had learned more about human trafficking victims than I ever wanted to know. And what I'd learned wasn't good.