“Smart,” Carlo muttered as we took in the show. “Are you planning to follow?”
I shook my head. Diego had assured me he’d take care of it, and I needed to be on the other side of anything that occurred so I could secure the child.
“Excellent. I was hoping to get back to Amara in one piece.” He grinned, referencing his pretty wife back in Greece.
I adjusted the cuffs of my dress shirt but kept an eye on the lobby door where Diego’s men had disappeared. “Tell Amara that Faith and I will have you both over for dinner when things are settled back home.”
“She’ll like that. She loves to get time in with Penny. She’s been griping about having a baby of our own.”
I frowned. “Then give her one.”
Carlo rubbed at his face. “It’s a lot of responsibility, as you know.”
I nodded. “It is, but the rewards are far greater than the weight of the responsibility. I assure you of this. Penny is my light. My beacon. She is what I look forward to coming home to. And soon, I will have Faith and Eden too. A house full of love and laughter. It’s all I could ever want or need.”
“Do you think you could love again after Alexandra?” Carlo asked tentatively.
“Alexandra was my world. I loved her more than I could have ever thought possible. Then Penny came and that love shifted to add her to my heart. When I lost Alexandra, I believed for a long while that I’d earned only one great love of my life. And then I saw Faith, and something inside of me clicked. She was meant to be mine.”
“I see the way you look at her,” Carlo admitted. “She’s special.”
“She is.” There was no reason to deny it. I would never deny my love for Alexandra nor would I replace it with Faith’s. I would however allow space in my heart as my Alexandra demanded of me.
“I’m happy for you, Joel.” Carlo patted the back of the leather seat.
I was just about to thank him when my phone rang.
“It is done. We have the girl. She’s unharmed. Scared but on her way out to you.” Diego informed me of the news.
“Thank you, Diego,” I said while my gaze searched the entrance of the hotel, waiting for the child to be brought out.
“Anytime, mi amigo. I still owe you. This one was not only easy, but my men enjoyed hurting the mancha en la tierra.” Stain on the Earth. I’d learned European Spanish as I did a lot of business in Spain, but the Mexican or even Mexican-American phrasing was often my favorite. They had a flair for mixing words and slang that you didn’t hear in Europe.
He hung up, and my phone rang again. This time it was Alan, the head of the security team I’d left with Faith.
“She’s on the move. Tried to slip through the jack and jill bathroom at the hospital to escape us. We’ve let her think she’s gotten away. We followed her to the lobby where she stopped at the emergency entrance. She’s pacing back and forth in clear view of my team.”
“Excellent. Just in case, don’t let her get into any vehicles. I don’t care if you have to shoot out the tires. Whatever it takes.”
“There she is,” Carlo announced, and exited the vehicle.
I glanced up and noted a huge man of Latin decent with tattoos running up and down his neck and arms stomping his big, booted feet in our direction. He was holding Eden delicately, the little girl clinging to his neck like he was her personal Superman .
“We’ve got Eden,” I reported to Alan and hung up. Then I opened the door as the team of six men approached as a group of one.
“Hey, darling one,” I cooed and pressed my hand to Eden’s back.
The little girl turned her head, and her eyes went huge as she recognized me. Then she flung herself into my arms. Her eyes wide and bulging with fear.
I held her close, inhaling her sweet, apple-scented hair.
“Mimi? Papa?” she cried, her lip trembling.
“I’m taking you to Mimi right now, okay?” I stated softly.
Tears fell down her cheeks, and I wiped them away before tucking her against my chest. I looked up at the men still standing there. “Thank you. Please extend my gratitude to your boss.”
None of the men spoke, just nodded, turned around, and went back the way they came. I had no idea what the situation inside Aiden Bradford’s gilded cage looked like, and I didn’t care. I trusted Diego to hold true to his promise to hurt the man without killing him. That was enough for me.
I cradled Eden to my chest and got back into the limo. “Back to the hospital,” I instructed Carlo, who bolted around the car and back into the driver’s seat.