Saving Anya by Latrivia S. Nelson Page B

both quickly moved into the room.
    “ No. Sit,” Briggy said.
    “ Here, let us help you,” Renee said, grabbing Royal’s arm.
    They walked with her back over to the rocking chair and sat down beside her on the floor.
    “ I’m so glad you’re here,” Royal said, sincerely. She looked down at her two friends and felt for the first time in the last two days a semblance of hope.
    “ We’re family,” Briggy reminded, touching Royal’s hand. “We are all we have.”
    Renee looked over at two of her friends and felt nothing but love for them. All they did have were the Medlov men and each other, but she had so much more…all of her family in Atlanta and now the baby growing inside of her. She was surrounded by love, and yet she felt so vulnerable. If this could happen to Royal, of all people, what would happen to her child? She knew all too well that Anatoly had enemies. And she had known it well before sleeping with him, but she had chosen this and maybe she had chosen the same fate for her child.
    “ Oh my God,” Renee said aloud before she knew it.
    “ What’s wrong?” Royal asked, stopping her conversation with Briggy.
    Renee realized that she had zoned out and quickly recovered from her frantic thoughts. “Nothing, I just…can’t believe what is happening.” In that statement, at least she wasn’t lying.
    Briggy shared Renee’s concern. Nodding she returned to Royal. “When was the last time that you took a hot bath and a nap?”
    The idea was preposterous to Royal. “Oh, I can’t sleep,” she said with dark circles under her blood shot eyes. “I have to stay up and take care of the boys. I mean, look at what all of this has done to them. What kind of homecoming is this? And me… I’m so stressed out and absent…they deserve more than this.” Flustered, she put her hands on her face and wiped the tears now freely flowing.
    “ That’s what we’re here for,” Renee said, standing up. “Come on. We’ll listen on the monitors. If they wake up while we’re tending to you then one of us will take care of them.”
    “ I don’t know,” Royal said concerned.
    “ Trust us,” Briggy begged.
    Just then, the house phone rang loud throughout the house. Dmitry had it hooked up to an intercom assuming that the kidnappers would be most likely to call it.
    All three women went deathly still.
    Running to the phone, Royal picked it up and clicked the talk button.
    “ Hello…hello,” she answered, voice quivering.
    A man’s voice dubbed over a machine responded. “Let’s not act surprised. You know who this is. Where is Dmitry Medlov?”
    Royal’s heart nearly exploded out of her chest. Looking over at Renee, who clasped her hands to her mouth, she felt herself nearly collapse. “Where is my daughter? Where is my baby?”
    “ This is Dmitry,” Dmitry answered on the other phone. His voice was rough and curt, and sounded like he felt, ready to kill. He stood in the war room with his men while they tried to track the call.
    “ Tell your bitch to hang up now; otherwise, we send your a darling little finger in a box,” the voice said devilishly.
    Chills zipped down Royal’s spine. Hanging up before Dmitry could speak, she headed out of the room towards the war room to hear the call with the others. Renee ran after her while Briggy stayed behind to watch the twins.
    More in control of his feelings, at least on the outside, Dmitry looked over at his men and cupped the phone tighter to his ear. “She’s off the phone. Now talk,” he said, refusing to give the man an ounce of respect.
    “ Got your affairs in order over there?” The man asked with a grin in his voice.
    “ Just waiting on a call from you to tell me what you want to get my daughter back,” Dmitry said, taking a notepad to write down anything that he could hear in the background.
    “ Here are the rules. You answer the phone by the second ring every time that we call or you cost your daughter a digit, a limb, an eye, whatever we