Tag: suspense

Maisie didn’t hesitate.

Shoving off the bed she ran for the door, heading for the room where Match had told her Milo was.

As she threw open the door to see her sweet little boy playing happily with trains and a wooden track she felt instant relief as she caught sight of her son, dropping to her knees and folding him into a hug.

“Mama, where were you? I wanted to play trains with you,” he said all huffy and she gave a watery laugh even as tears filled her eyes. Seemed her little sweet pea wasn’t in the least fazed about being kidnapped.

“Umm, I was sleeping, baby.”

“I’m not a baby, I’m a big boy,” Milo said with all the affront a four year old could muster.

“Of course you’re a big boy,” Match said from the doorway where he was watching them.

Instinct had her picking up her son and turning so she was between him and Milo’s father. Any residual love she’d harboured after he’d disappeared leaving her alone and pregnant had vanished when he kidnapped her and her baby like he had any right to come back into their lives.

“See, daddy says I’m a big boy.”

Her heart stopped beating.

The room suddenly didn’t seem to have any air in it.

Match had told her son that he was the boy’s father?

Without her consent.

Shock quickly morphed to fury. How dare Match. Who did he think he was?

Reigning in her anger only for Milo’s benefit she looked around, she had no idea how long she’d been unconscious but it was dark out and Milo hadn’t fallen asleep so it couldn’t be all that late.

“Have you had dinner?” she asked her son.

“You promised pizza,” he said immediately, drawing a small smile out of her.

“There’s pizza in the oven, why don’t you go wash up,” Match told Milo, who squealed and wriggled in her arms until she had no choice but to put him down and let him dart out of the room.

With her son temporarily gone she stormed up to Match, stood right in front of him, uncaring she had to tilt her head up to meet his gaze. “How dare you tell Milo you’re his father.”

“I am his father.”

“A father doesn’t walk away from the woman he claims to love, leaving her pregnant, alone, and struggling. Nor does he kidnap his child and the child’s mother. You don’t know what it means to be a father,” she seethed.

His hands darted out so quickly she didn’t realise he had moved until they clamped around her biceps and lifted her off the floor. “I didn’t know you were pregnant when I left. And I left to keep you safe.”

“Sure,” Maisie scoffed. Never again would she be stupid enough to believe a word that came out of Match’s mouth.

He growled and shook her roughly. “Loving someone in my world is a weakness, its something that can be used against you. You were my weakness ness and now you and our son are in danger.”

“What happened to you?” Maisie demanded, if Match thought she was the same sweet, timid, eager to please girl she’d been when he knew her he was sorely mistaken .

This Maisie had had enough of people walking out on her.

Match was just another person to abandon her. Left by her parents behind a dumpster when she was seven months old, Maisie had bounced around the foster system never finding a stable home. She thought she had found one with Match. He could be a hard man, a cold one, but he had always been so sweet and gentle with her. Although he’d never mentioned his job she believed he had been in the military and then joined some branch of law enforcement but he would never tell her what.

Obviously she had been wrong.

The man she had stupidly fallen in love with was nothing but a low life criminal.

Tipping his head he studied her from soulless blue eyes. “Life.”

His answer to her question only fuelled her rage. “Life sucks, doesn’t mean you get to hurt people. Now tell me where my son is.”

“Our son.”

“My son,” she corrected. “You gave up all rights to Milo when you walked away from us.”

Something passed through his eyes but it was gone before she could identify it.

“If you hurt my baby I will kill you.” Maisie didn’t care how ridiculous her threat sounded. Match might have ten years, more experience, almost two feet, over a hundred pounds on her, and have her tied to a bed but her inner mama bear was out in full force.

“The boy is fine.”

“That doesn’t tell me anything. He must be terrified, you kidnapped us.”

“Can’t steal what already belongs to you.”

Maisie scoffed. “We don’t belong to you.”

“What are you willing to do for access to the kid?” Match asked, his gaze trailing over her body lighting a fire everywhere it touched. Only now the fire wasn’t one of desire like it used to be. This was no longer the man who fulfilled all her fantasies, who made her feel safe and protected.

Now he was her enemy.

Her answer came without hesitation. “Anything.”

Match couldn’t take his eyes off the woman lying unconscious and tied to his bed.

His woman.

Maisie.

Strawberry blonde hair that reached all the way down her back, huge long lashed green eyes, a sprinkling of freckles across her nose and cheekbones. She was gorgeous, sunny, beautiful inside and out.

Walking away from her had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. But the right thing to do.

His obsession with her had put her in danger and leaving had been the only way to ensure her safety. In doing so he’d lost the chance to be a father.

Fury still burned inside him and it warred with the love he felt for the mother of his child.

Match knew he wasn’t a good man, not even close. He was a danger both to his son and Maisie.

Still he reached out a hand and stroked the side of her head, wondering if her hair was still as soft as he remembered.

It was.

When he tangled his fingers in the silky locks and tugged just hard enough he knew her scalp would sting, she woke scared and confused.

“Milo!” she shrieked, bolting upright so fast he only just avoided her head plowing into his nose.

Her frantic gaze flew around the room in search of their son and he gave a cold laugh, drawing it to him.

“Not nice not knowing where your child is, is it?” he mocked.

The Maisie he knew would have burst into tears, sobbed and pleaded, apologised even though they both knew none of this was her fault. Growing up in the foster system she’d become a people pleaser, desperate for any scrap of attention someone threw her way

But tears wasn’t what he got.

Instead fury filled the eyes of his gorgeous girl and her lip curled in a snarl. “You sick, twisted monster! You abandon me and our son and you have the audacity to be angry with me about that? Go to hell.”

Along with anger at being spoken to like that was a heavy dose of pride and a whole lot of desire. He hadn’t touched a woman since Maisie and seeing her again had need sizzling through his system like a wildfire.

“Sorry to break it to you, sweetheart,” he sneered, “I’m already there, and now, so are you.”

Maisie ushered her energetic little ball of energy towards where she’d parked the car. Milo might only be four years old but he seemed to need less sleep than she did.

“Mama, can we get pizza for dinner?” he asked excitedly, bouncing up and down and taking her arm with him since she was holding his hand.

Not having to cook dinner? Yeah, she could go along with that. She yawned and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Raising a son on your own was exhausting. This was not how she’d expected to become a parent. She’d been in love with Match, thought he loved her too, when he’d disappeared from her life like he’d never even existed she’d been hurt and confused.

Then she’d found out she was pregnant.

Maisie had done everything she could to try to find him, m but Match wasn’t even his real name and nothing he’d told her about himself seemed to be true.

So life as a single mom it was.

There was plenty of guilt about all the things she couldn’t do for Milo, all the things she couldn’t give him. But between working long hours to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, she gave him everything she had and had to make peace with what she couldn’t.

Days like today at the fair made up for it.

“You can eat more after the corn dog, and the hot dog, and the nachos, and the cotton candy, and the popcorn?” she teased as they headed further away from the fair.

“I’m growing, Mama, I need lots of food,” Milo giggled.

“Course my big boy does.” She ruffled his hair as an uneasy feeling filled her. The fair had been busy and they’d arrived a little later than she’d planned, meaning all the good parking was already taken. Maisie hated parking, needed somewhere quiet, without too many cars, so she didn’t risk dinting one of them.

The result, they were parked down a quiet one way street, and had left behind the last of the hustle and bustle a good two minutes ago.

“And ice cream for dessert?” Milo pushed the boundaries as any preschooler should do.

“We’ll see, sweet pea,” she said distractedly. Something felt wrong but she didn’t know what. “Come on, my big boy, lets get into the car, its getting chilly.”

Just as she was reaching around to open the back door and get Milo settled in his carseat, something sharp pricked the back of her neck.

Any hope it was just a bug biting her quickly fled when almost immediately her vision began to blur and her legs wobble.

No.

Her baby.

She couldn’t let them hurt her sweet, bubbly little boy.

Maisie swung her purse at the figure she now detected beside her but her movement was slow and clumsy, the drugs already taking over.

As she swayed and fell, hitting the ground hard, she could have sworn it was Match looking down at her.

She had to be mistaken.

Match had abandoned her, and even if he’d come back what reason would he have for drugging her?

There were no answers to be found as she was swallowed by the darkness.

Hiding in the shadows he watched her riding the carousel with a blonde haired little boy.

His little boy.

He knew it with every fiber of his being. Would know it even if the child wasn’t a mini replica of him. The timing fitted perfectly, the child looked about four and it had been five years since he’d last seen her.

She hadn’t told him she’d had a child.

Their child.

He deserved to know.

Anger coursed through his body even as he knew it wasn’t justified. He’d left her without a word, hadn’t told her how to get in touch with him. How could she have told him she was pregnant with his son?

Still the anger remained.

This was his son.

His son.

And he had missed out on the first four years of his life.

Someone had to pay for that and he hadn’t yet decided who.