Page 17 of Kidnapped By the Boss

Chapter Six: Katya

It was obvious from the look on Vincent’s face that he wasn’t pleased with the suggestion I’d just made, and if we weren’t both standing in a room with our sleeping son, he would probably start yelling. Devrick had already suggested that we postpone our honeymoon, but when Vincent and I spoke about it before, we decided that we wouldn’t, and now here I was telling him that I now thought we should.

I imagined that frustrated him pretty badly.

“Can you put Sascha in his crib so we can go and talk about this?” he asked.

I nodded, knowing that was code for, ‘Can we go to a room where I can be appropriately angry?’

Carefully, I lifted Sascha up so I could give him a kiss on the forehead, and then Vincent came over and gave him a kiss as well and gave his forehead a little rub. After that, I carefully lowered him down into his crib. I made sure he was nice and snug, then I turned on his humidifier and Vincent and I tiptoed out of the room.

Vincent didn’t say anything still until we were inside our bedroom, then he shut the door and turned around and looked at me. I hunkered down, preparing for the onslaught of anger I was about to get, but he just crossed his arms and sadly said, “You really don’t think we should go?”

It was almostmoreupsetting for him to be as obviously anguished about it as he was, versus just being mad. Vincent had abitof a temper, and though he’d done a really good job of controlling it when it came to me, there were still times when he lost his cool. I’d gotten used to managing it, knowing how to call him out when his anger issues were making him act more like an asshole than I knew him to be, but sometimes I and everyone else had to just ride out the storm. Usually just letting him yell a bit did the trick.

That was what I’d prepared myself for when I drove home planning to propose the postponement, not this horribly sad, puppy dog face.

“Honey…” I hummed. “I’m sorry, it’s just that this guy really freaks me out. I know that we were planning to bring my mom and Sascha with us for safety, but I still don’t feel good about it. I wouldn’t put it past this guy to plant a bomb in our plane or something. Or maybe we get away, but we come home to find all the rest of our friends and family dead because they have some hidden threat we aren’t anticipating. The sense I get about this guy is that it’s hard to know what he’s going to do next. He’s got tricks up his sleeve that he hasn’t shown us for sure.”

Vincent fell down to sit on the bed. “I get it.”

“I know how much we were both looking forward to it, I do. And I’m not saying we shouldnevergo, I just don’t think we should go right now. I really think we need to be here, trying to find out everything we can about these people, and trying to neutralize this threat before it becomes a bigger issue.”

“Yeah, I understand, I really do. And I trust your judgment. When Devrick suggested it, I thought he was just being paranoid and over-careful, which I was fine with because that’s his job, but hearing you say it, just really made it hit home that we’re not going to be able to do this right now.” His head drooped and it was heartbreaking. “I can call tomorrow and get everything canceled.”

“Baby, you’re killing me,” I said, kneeling down in front of him and setting my head on his knees so I could look up at his fallen face. “I’m disappointed too.” I was quiet for a few seconds, and then a thought hit me. “Hey! You know what?”

He looked up at me. “What?”

“Just because we’re not going to Barbados doesn’t mean we can’t have a honeymoon. The only pieces of that puzzle that are truly necessary are you and me,” I said. “I know a big part of it was getting away from everything and everyone, and going and being somewhere beautiful and warm, but that’ll happen eventually. For now we can just have a… minimoon.”

Vincent’s head lifted a little bit. “Minimoon?”

“Yeah. To tide us over until we can go to Barbados like we planned. I trust our extended support to protect our family, but you and I know that we wouldn’t forgive ourselves if something happened while we were away. But wedeservea honeymoon, and we should have one, just here. A minimoon!”

Thankfully, I could see Vincent’s mood lifting. His head had picked totally up and he was staring up at the ceiling. Gears were turning, but I couldn’t figure out if he was just trying to decide what he felt about the idea of a minimoon or just trying to convince himself that this would be okay.

Either way, after he thought about it for a minute he looked down at me and said, “Okay. I know that we need to stay here, but I think you’re right, we should at least be here, but we can still celebrate our marriage.”

I nodded at him with a smile. “Definitely.”

Though I expected us to begin right away, Vincent almost seemed to intentionally be keeping himself from me. It wasn’t in a bad way like I thought he didn’t want to do it, he just wrapped me up tightly in his arms and fell right asleep.

It was strange.

At least until the next day and I learned what he was really up to. He was out of bed before I even woke up, and I couldn’t find him anywhere in the main house that I looked. I was just about to head out to his office when I noticed my mom in the kitchen downstairs, helping herself to the breakfast spread that our chef put together daily.

“Mama?” I asked, speaking in Russian. “What are you doing here?”

My mom had a house on the property that sheloved. It wasn’t that she wasn’t welcome at our home, or even an unusual sight, but when she could stick to her house, she did. She loved it there. She even had us bring Sascha there when she wanted to spend time with him, so for her to be here unexpectedly was a little strange.

“Vincent asked me to come,” she replied.

I tilted my head to the side. “He did.”

She nodded. “Yeah. In fact, he asked me to come and stay for a couple of days to take care of Sascha. He didn’t say why, but you know since he asked, I was going to agree.”

My mom and Vincent were thick as thieves. It was unexpected after the role he’d played in my father and brother’s deaths, but she understood that ultimately he wasn’t responsible. It also turned out that my mom didn’t care for my dad a whole lot. Maybe she wouldn’t have wished him dead, but I think she knew that she wasn’t ever going to escape him as long as he was alive. In a way, Vincent and my relationship led to her being freed, and their shared love for me helped them bond.