by Aspen Grey
“I’ve got a situation,” I’d told him when he answered the phone. By the sounds of it, he was out to dinner.
“Keiran realize he made a mistake—?”
“Shut up, Dominic,” I had whispered into the phone. “I’m in some serious shit now. That little Jamie fucker’s here. He’s kidnapped Keiran and is trying to extort me for a percentage of the settlement funds.”
“What?” Dominic roared. I heard him get up from the table to find a quiet place to speak.
“I need you to get your private investigator buddy,” I said quickly, making sure the water was on full blast so Jamie couldn’t hear my conversation. “Send him to the office. There’s a bag by my desk from Keiran. It should have his scent all over it. I need him to track it down now so we can find him.”
“Why don’t I just track him down for you?” he replied.
“Because, Dominic,” I said quietly. “I need you to head over here now and watch this son of a bitch while I go get my mate back!”
“Roger,” Dominic replied quickly. “I’m downtown. You’re twenty minutes away. I’ll be there in ten.”
I slid my phone back in my pocket and shut off the water. As I dried my hands, I had to smile to myself. If this little bastard seriously thought he was going to get the best of me, he was sorely mistaken.
All I could think about was my baby in Keiran’s belly. My whole life had changed when I met him, and then changed again through his pregnancy. Watching his body change had changed me. I wasn’t Cole the high-powered lawyer anymore, I was Cole the father-to-be. And that’s all that mattered to me now.
As I came back into the living room, and saw Jamie lounging on the couch like the son of a bitch that he was, I had to smile. The little bastard had no idea what was coming for him.
“Feels nice,” I told him, taking a seat across from him.
“What does?” he replied lazily. The son of a bitch still thought he was holding all the cards.
“Draining the ol’ dragon of course,” I replied, crossing my legs. Jamie shot a funny look at me, obviously noticing my change in attitude since I’d come out of the bathroom.
“That’s why you’re smiling?” he asked me. I leaned back, stretched and did my best job to impersonate his little cocky attitude he’d come in here with.
“No, not just that,” I chuckled, getting to my feet. I could feel his eyes on me as I paced the room, and could smell the fear and nervousness oozing out of his disgusting skin.
“Well, what the fuck then?” he asked, obviously worried.
“Oh, no reason,” I said casually over my shoulder. I heard him get up and step up behind me. He still thought he was in charge.
“Hey, asshole!” he shouted, grabbing my shoulder and spinning me around to face him. “Spill it!”
“You really should have taken my phone,” I replied, readying myself. “I gave my boy Dominic a call. Got a PI friend of his tracking down Mikey and my mate now. Dom will be here any second.”
I saw the utter shock and horror sweep over Jamie’s smug little face, but I didn’t even give him a chance to react or respond. My fist buried itself contently in his stomach and I watched as he collapsed to the floor in a heap. His cell phone hit the floor and I quickly snatched it up and stuffed it into my pocket.
“How’s that feel?” I shouted, kicking him in the side, sending him sprawling. He coughed and gasped for air. “You like that, you son of a bitch? Think you can pull something like this and get away with it?”
Kill him…It was the only thought in my mind. He didn’t deserve to live. Who knows what he did to Keiran to get him out of the house. He could have hurt him, and probably did. But I still needed him. I wasn’t going to do anything until my mate was back in my arms.
Jamie was trying to catch his breath as he squirmed on the floor, his legs kicking aimlessly against the smooth concrete floor.
“You better pray you didn’t hurt him,” I told him, standing tall above him. “Because if you did…”
My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was in my hand instantly.
“Ya?”
Dominic’s voice on the other end. “My boy’s got the scent and is out on the town. I’m pulling onto your road now.
“Good,” I said quickly, moving to the front door and hitting the button to open the front gate. I saw headlights from Dominic’s car and pulled open the door. “That you?”
“Yeah,” he replied as his car pulled in and stopped. I was outside instantly, hanging up my phone.
“He’s inside!” I called out as Dominic hopped out and raced past me toward the house. I was in the car in a flash, in reverse and out of the driveway in seconds. I threw the vehicle into gear, gunned it and was heading for the city.
My mind was racing like the lights that streaked by on either side of me. I was speeding, and wasn’t stopping for anybody. My fox reflexes were light years beyond the humans. There was no way I was crashing.
I was focused.
Intent.
This was a mission I was on – a mission to reclaim my mate, my sweet omega and my future baby. Nothing was going to stop me.
As I came out of the hills and into the city, my phone rang. I answered before the first ring finished.
“Yes?”
“I lost the scent.” It was Pauly. It felt like my mind went blank for a millisecond as I processed his words. I jerked the wheel to avoid a car pulling out of a spot.
“You what?” I roared.
“I tracked them to the industrial district, but they must have pheromone blocked at some point,” he replied. “I – I’m sorry, Cole.”
“Where are you now?” I asked him.
“Down on Water Street by the storage units,” he replied. “There’s a good chance he’s around here.”
“I’ll be right there,” I replied, hanging up and whipping the car into a hard turn. The tires skidded as I slid through the intersection. Horns blared behind me as I floored it.
A storage unit. That’s where they had him. And I was going to find him. I didn’t care if I had to tear the door off every single one of them. I was going to find him.
24
Keiran
Mikey wasn’t talking to me anymore. I’d gotten through to him once, but that was all he was going to allow. I felt for him, I really did, but if he wasn’t going to help me, I had to find my own way out of this.
The cuffs weren’t budging. I’d been trying to break the chain since I’d woken up, and shifting wasn’t going to help either, as the chains were wrapped around my wrists. The steel was just too strong. It was the most helpless I’d ever felt, but I wasn’t going to lose hope.
I knew Cole was coming for me. I didn’t know how I knew, I just did. We’d come too far together for these idiots to get in our way. This was nothing compared to the life I’d lived up until now. Everything I’d gone through would have broken most people, but all it did was help me fully understand just how right Cole and I were for each other. I was pregnant with his child and nothing was going to get in the way of our future together.
Outside, I heard the door to the building open. Mikey heard it too, and was quickly on his feet, the gag in his hand.
“Open!” he told me. I opened my mouth. It was better to listen and obey now and fight back later when Cole came, but that’s when I heard it. Cole’s voice ringing out through the hall.
“Keiran?” he shouted. My heart almost leapt out of my chest, and I tried to shout to him, but Mikey had the gag in my mouth before the worlds could escape my lips. He shoved it hard, gagging me, then wrapped the straps behind my neck and tied them tight.
“Shut the fuck up!” he snarled, pointing a threatening finger in my face. I screamed as hard as I could, but the gag prevented any sound from escaping. A muffled groan was the best I could muster.
I could hear Cole’s footsteps coming down the hallway, and his scent swept under the door and into my nose, hitting me like a bowling ball to the face. I tried to scream. I shouted, but
it was futile.
I knew he wouldn’t be able to smell me either. Mikey had practically bathed me in pheromone blockers once we got into town. He must not have had any at the house for some reason. It was a miracle Cole had even tracked me this far, but if I couldn’t figure out a way to get his attention, it was all going to be for nothing.
Mikey was standing close to the door, listening as Cole made his way up and down the hall.
“Keiran?” he shouted. “Keiran!”
I was about to lose it. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t scream – I couldn’t do anything. The cold steel of the handcuffs cut into my wrists. Spots of blood dripped down to the cold floor beneath me.
“Hey!” Mikey shouted, his voice a whisper. “Cut that out!”
“Keiran?” Cole’s voice was just outside the door. His scent poured in beneath the door and it was more than I could bear. Ignoring the pain in my wrists, I kicked off the ground as hard as I could, hurling my body into the air. The metal ring on the wall held tight as I slammed back down against the floor.
“Cut that shit out!” Mikey hissed. But I wasn’t listening. Having Cole’s scent in the room was like having him in the room with me, and I wasn’t going to let him go.
Turning, I braced my feet against the wall. The handcuffs bit into my flesh. Blood poured down my wrists, but the adrenaline was flowing through me and the sound of my mate so close was driving me wild. I bit down as hard as I could on the gag, and kicked off the wall with all my strength.
A metallic sound rang out through the storage unit as the ring on the wall broke. My legs extended fully, propelling me across the ground toward the door.
“Shit!” Mikey gasped, racing toward me. But I was on my feet in a second, my shoulder low and aimed right at his chest. I hit him hard, sending him staggering backwards to slam into the door.
“Keiran?” Cole’s voice shouted from the hallway. I fell back, landing in a heap on the floor, blood pouring from the cuts on my wrist.
“Fuck,” Mikey muttered, trying to get to his feet. The gag was still in my mouth. I couldn’t call out to him, but it didn’t matter. He knew.
“Keiran?” he shouted, his fist banging on the door. “Hang on, I’m going to get you out of there!”
I heard him shift outside, and seconds later watched as a thick dent appeared in the door. Mikey was on his feet. He had a hand on me, as though that was going to do something when my mate came crashing through that door. He was lost, panicked, and didn’t know what to do.
Cole slammed into the door again. The metal bent inwards, and I saw the latch on the floor starting to bend. It was only a matter of time now. I took a deep breath and looked at Mikey as Cole delivered the crushing blow.
“I’m sorry, Keiran…”
The latch snapped and the door buckled inwards. Cole shifted, and I watched as his hands slid beneath the door and pulled it open. It crashed on its rails overhead as he raced into the unit.
“Keiran!” he cried out, wrapping his arms around me. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?
He pulled the gag from my mouth and spun to face Mikey.
“You son of a bitch!”
With a single blow, Cole knocked Mikey off his feet and sent him sprawling to the floor. He hit hard and coughed as the wind was knocked out of him.
“What have they done to you? What happened to your wrists! What did you do to him!?”
“He didn’t do it, Cole,” I replied quickly. “It was me. I pulled against the handcuffs when I heard you. He didn’t hurt me.”
“No, he just kidnapped you!” he shouted, directing his anger toward Mikey. “You’re bleeding!”
“It isn’t bad,” I told him. Honestly, it looked worse than it was, and the pain was subsiding now that I was back in the presence of my mate.
“Where’s the fucking key, you son of a bitch!” Without waiting for an answer, Cole snatched Mikey by the legs and quickly went through his pants and found the key. He unlocked the cuffs, grabbed some of the shredded strands from his clothes and began to wrap them over my wounds.
“This should stop the bleeding until we can get you to a hospital…”
“How did you find me?” I asked him. “The pheromone blockers…”
“Luckily these two morons didn’t block you until they got you downtown,” he told me. “Dom’s private investigator friend tracked you as far as he could. A storage unit made the most sense, so we split up and started searching. This was the third one I checked. If you hadn’t made noise when you did…”
“It’s okay,” I told him, leaning my head on his chest, doing my best to calm down. “You found me. And that’s all that matters.”
“Not for this guy,” Cole replied, kicking Mikey in the shin.
“Ah!”
“Cole, it wasn’t his fault,” I told him quickly.
“What? What are you talking about? He kidnapped you!”
“It was Jamie,” I replied. Now that I was free, I was really feeling bad for Mikey. What he’d done to me was horrible, but I understood why he did it. When I looked down and saw Cole’s hands carefully cradling my belly, I knew he would too. I just had to explain it to him. “Come on. Let’s get out of here and I’ll fill you in on the whole thing.”
I moved toward the door, but Cole grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him.
“Keiran,” he said softly, pressing his lips against mine. “I love you.”
His words poured into me like a comforting warmth that let me know that no matter what happened, everything was going to be okay.
“I love you too, Cole.”
25
Cole
“Wow, I guess I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” I laughed as we stepped off the private plane onto the tarmac of the Bangor, Maine, airport. “It’s chilly here!”
“This is nothing,” Keiran laughed. I took his hand as he came down the stairs behind me. “You should have been here a couple months ago!”
Behind us, the flight attendants brought our bags down and carried them over to the car I’d asked to be waiting for us when we arrived. Keiran was ready to pop and I didn’t want him lifting anything or straining himself in any way. We’d thought hard about whether or not it was even a good choice to take a flight here at all, but after what had happened in Los Angeles, we both needed a break from the city.
After rescuing him at the storage unit, I took Keiran to the hospital, then back to the house where Dominic had Jamie waiting for us. I’d wanted to kill him, and it had taken every ounce of willpower not to. We’d called the police and filed every charge in the book. We were still waiting for him to go to trial, but there was no way he wasn’t going to jail.
Keiran explained to me everything that had happened. How Jamie had blackmailed Mikey into working with him, and the leverage he had over him. And when Jamie saw us coming through the door, and realized that his plan had failed, he spilled the beans.
It turns out, he’d been stalking me for a while. He’d seen me with Keiran and everything that had gone down at the motel with Mikey. He was a legit psychopath, and had started snooping into our lives, looking for some way to get leverage over me. As it turned out, Mikey’s daughter had been living close by and working at a diner Jamie liked to frequent. He’d caught her scent and put two and two together. After a little bit of friendly chatter, he was able to confirm who she was and that’s how he got leverage over Mikey. But after his plan went to absolute shit, he told Mikey where to find her.
“Chilly? This is freezing! Where are we? Canada?”
I turned around to see her coming down the steps, followed by Mikey, who was standing behind her, looking more like a protective older brother than a dad. It was understandable. He hadn’t seen her in three years. It was going to take some time for them to figure out their relationship.
“You’ve got thin blood, Daphne,” I laughed. “Growing up in Southern California will do that to you.”
“I agree with my daughter,” Mikey excl
aimed, ducking out of the plane behind her.
“Of course you do, you big pansy,” I laughed. We made our way to the car, and as I opened the door for Keiran, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Dominic, of course.
“Yo.”
“Aye, Cole baby!” he roared, sounding tipsy. Dominic had turned down our offer of a nice trip to Maine in favor of a vacation to the Caribbean with a horde of escorts from Los Angeles to keep him company. “Your balls frozen off yet up there?”
“Your dick covered in warts yet?” I retorted. Mikey pretended to throw up behind me.
“Listen, man. I’m having the time of my life! Thank God for screwball food companies, am I right?”
“You’re right about that one!” I laughed.
“Talk to you later, pal!”
“See ya, Dominic,” I laughed, hanging up.
The settlement had come through and everyone in the firm was celebrating. It was a huge chunk of change for us, but beyond that, it was another huge feather in our cap. We were still the big boys, and we were bigger than ever.
The flight attendants slid our luggage into the trunk and we all piled into the car. I was traveling light, as I always did. It was just easier to buy a bunch of stuff when I got to wherever I was going than to go through my closet and actually pack. Just another perk of being me.
“Oof,” Keiran groaned as he slid into the passenger seat, both hands on his belly. He was absolutely enormous and I was loving every second of it. My baby was in there, and it wouldn’t be long before I met him – or her.
We’d gone and gotten an ultrasound two weeks ago, but told the nurse we didn’t want to know the sex. All we wanted to know was that Keiran and our child were okay.
“So,” I said, putting the car into gear. “You wanna head for the house, or should we get some dinner first?”
“Well, as amazing as the food on board the plane was,” Keiran grinned. “I’m famished.”
“Eating for two,” I laughed, pulling the car off the tarmac and out the side gate.
