LITMIR.BIZ

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step quickened as he told himself he had to be wrong. But even before he grabbed the doorknob and turned it, he knew.

      AS SOON AS JENNA WAS fairly sure that Franco wasn’t coming right back out to his car, she pushed open the laundry room door, sneaked down the hall and slipped out the rear door of the estate. She knew she wouldn’t get far on foot carrying Lexi and the cat.

      “Mommy?” Lexi whispered. “I’m cold.”

      “I know, baby. Hang on.” The child was growing heavy. The cat started to squirm. Jenna knew she couldn’t put Fred down. He might run off. She had to do something and fast.

      She glanced toward the four-car garage. What choice did she have? She’d have to take one of Lorenzo’s vehicles.

      But when she opened the side door she saw that the garage was nearly empty. Lorenzo had sold all but one car: his large black SUV.

      Of course he would have sold the cars. Because he was planning to leave the country. She should have known. He’d been too calm during the divorce, too agreeable. True, she hadn’t asked him for anything but Lexi. Still, it hadn’t been like Lorenzo to give up anything that he felt was his. He’d never planned to let her get away with Lexi.

      Jenna stared at the large black SUV. Lorenzo always left his keys in it, as if daring anyone to steal it. Her heart leaped at the sight of Lexi’s car seat in the back. Did she dare?

      The ridiculousness of the question made her laugh. Lorenzo was going to kill her for stealing Lexi back. It wouldn’t matter what else Jenna took.

      She opened the rear door, set Lexi in her seat and Fred on the floor. The cat jumped up on the back sat beside Lexi as Jenna snapped the child in, before rushing around to the driver’s side and slipping behind the wheel.

      Once she opened the garage door, she would have to move fast. She reached for the key.

      LORENZO DANTE LET OUT a howl of anger and pain at the sight of the empty bed, the covers thrown back, Alexandria gone.

      He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He glanced around, checked the bathroom, ran down the hall to his bedroom. No little girl.

      Letting out a string of curses, he charged into his daughter’s room and ripped the covers from the bed, whirling them into the air in a rage as he crushed the fabric in his fists the way he would crush his ex-wife’s throat when he found her.

      It had to have been Jenna who took the child. Part of him still couldn’t believe it, though. Jenna knew what he would do to her. She was smart enough to fear him. He’d made sure of that as soon as they were married. He’d gotten her young so he could train her to be the wife he wanted. She’d bent to his wishes from the start, because she’d had no other choice.

      Until Alexandria had been born a year later.

      That’s when Jenna had started to change, he realized now. The pregnancy hadn’t been her idea. In fact, he was almost certain she was entertaining thoughts of leaving him when he’d decided to change her mind by getting her pregnant. Foolish young woman that she’d been. As if he had ever planned to let her leave him.

      She’d thought he didn’t know about the birth control pills she had started secretly taking. He’d simply replaced the contraceptives with sugar pills, and was pleased when she’d quickly gotten pregnant.

      He’d thought he had her exactly where he wanted her. Now she would obey him. Now that she was tied down with a baby. And it had worked for a while. He’d tried to act the loving husband and father.

      But he’d learned the hard way that she, too, had been acting. He’d come home one day to find her gone. She’d filed for divorce, gotten a restraining order against him. She couldn’t have thought he would ever allow her to leave him, let alone take his daughter.

      Unfortunately, he’d gotten into some trouble inside the organization and needed to keep a low profile. At Valencia’s urging, Lorenzo hadn’t fought the divorce. He’d let Jenna think she’d gotten away with it—and sole custody of Alexandria. He’d even let Valencia think he wasn’t going to cause Jenna any trouble.

      But no one walked away from Lorenzo Dante. No one took anything of his, either—and lived to tell about it.

      Jenna had stolen his daughter. First in court, then again tonight. Just because he’d let her think she’d gotten away with it the first time, now she thought she could do it again? He blamed Valencia for tying his hands and keeping him from taking care of Jenna right away. If he had killed her the moment she’d taken Lexi and filed for divorce, he would have saved himself a lot of aggravation.

      He flung the blankets back onto the empty bed, wanting to trash the room to relieve the anger that had started building downstairs with just the thought of seeing Franco tonight. Then Franco had been late….

      Lorenzo reminded himself that the thug was still downstairs. Waiting.

      It would be impolite to make him wait, Lorenzo thought with grim humor.

      Wanting to finish his business with Franco so he could deal with his ex-wife, Lorenzo started out of the room, then heard a car engine.

      He ran to the window and looked out in time to see his black SUV come tearing out of the garage. In the glow of the garage light, he saw Jenna behind the wheel. She’d taken his car, too?

      Fury tore through his veins like a grass fire in a stiff wind. What did she think she was doing?

      He started to charge out of the bedroom after her, already thinking he could take one of the other cars, chase her down, run her off the road and—

      He stopped as he remembered. He’d sold the other cars because he was skipping the country. Just as he’d sold the house and everything in it. Because he planned to fly out as soon as he settled up here tonight. He didn’t want any hired killers coming after him. That’s why he was buying his way out of the organization.

      The realization that he wouldn’t be able to catch her hit him like a blow. He’d made Franco come to the service entry to show contempt for him and his new job. Even if he took Franco’s car, he wouldn’t be able to catch Jenna. She was on an entirely different road, was getting away, and there was nothing he could do about it.

      He slammed his fist into the wall three times in quick succession. Franco called up an inquiry, which Lorenzo ignored as he tried to calm down.

      That’s when he remembered. All the air rushed out of him. The money. The money to pay off Valencia. He’d left it in a duffel bag in the back of the SUV.

      No! He felt his knees go weak. He had to sit down on the edge of the bed to keep from falling. The room blurred in a haze of red as his rage sent his blood pressure soaring. His money.

      No, not his money. Valencia’s money. As if taking his money wasn’t bad enough, she’d taken the money he owed a man who could crush him—and would.

      He’d kill her. If Valencia didn’t kill him first. Lorenzo swore and dropped his head into his hands. He’d never dreamed Jenna would come to the house and try to take Alexandria. She knew what would happen if she did. What the hell was wrong with her? The woman he’d married had been so shy and quiet, so submissive, so malleable.

      Even during the divorce, Jenna hadn’t asked for a penny of his money in court, refusing even child support when the judge had tried to insist on it.

      So what had happened to that woman? A woman who would never have taken his daughter, let alone his damn car, and worse, his money.

      He pushed himself to his feet. He couldn’t call in his stolen car to the cops. Not with the money in the back. Nor could he send the cops after Jenna for taking their daughter. She had sole custody. Not that he’d ever put much store in handling things legally, anyway.

      His hands began to shake.

      He would get the money back. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was Valencia. Unfortunately, Valencia expected the money tonight. It was the

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