“I can’t help thinking that isn’t something I need to worry about. He’s been such a good guy to me recently that I really do believe he wants to give up the bed hopping. At the same time I can’t be certain. He’s probably very good with words, and has done the same thing before.”
“All you can do is be careful. We know he’s willing to pay towards his child and that really is the only major issue for now. You can sort everything out later.”
“No, I can’t, because I can’t stay here with a baby.”
“Why not? I don’t have a problem with it.” Fiona smiled. “I’m happy to help, if that’s what you need.”
***
Chapter 8
Daniel wasn’t hiding. He was standing right in front of the doors, and Angela stopped when she saw him. When she realised one of her hands was moving to cover her stomach she stopped it, because she didn’t want him to know she was pregnant, as she tried to work out what she was going to do next. Their eyes met. Slowly she shook her head. Dealing with him was the last thing she wanted to do, but it seemed as though she didn’t have any other option. Breathing deeply she stepped out of the door. He smiled at her.
“I said I didn’t want to see you again.”
“Angie, I can’t give up on us.”
“There is no us. There hasn’t been an us for two years. Nothing you do or say is going to change that.”
“You loved me.”
“Yeah, I did, but then you killed that by trying to control everything I did.” She shook her head. “Nothing you do in the future is going to make me forget the way you treated me in the past. If you keep following me around I will get a restraining order.”
“I haven’t done anything to hurt you, so I doubt you’d get one.” He shrugged. “You can try, if you want, because I can understand why you would, but it isn’t going to change anything. I still love you, Angela, and I will do anything to convince you of that.”
“Apart from leave me alone.”
“How would that help?” He reached out to take her hand, and she pulled away. “All I’m asking for is a chance, nothing more. I want to prove myself to you.”
“Is he bothering you?” For a second Angela froze. Hearing Zane’s voice was too much for her to take when she was trying to kick Daniel out of her life, and when Zane put his arm around her she didn’t know what to do or say. The anger in Daniel’s eyes was terrifying. “I take it you’re Daniel.” Zane sounded almost amused. “Angie said she didn’t want you in her life, and I think you need to accept that. If you don’t then I’ll make sure you have no other choice.”
Slowly, Daniel nodded. “I knew I recognised you. I hope you haven’t managed to convince Angie that you’d be willing to give up your sexcapades for her, because we both know someone like you never stops fucking around. She deserves so much better than that.”
“That just goes to show you don’t know me at all. I think the last thing you should do is assume anything about anyone, and I am more than willing to give up my ‘sexcapades’ for Angela, because she is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.” Hearing him say that to someone else made it feel more real. “Having a family is far more important to me than anything else. I will give up anything for that, especially pointless sex.”
***
“Did you mean what you said?”
“I meant it.” Zane pulled her a little closer. “From the moment I met you I knew there was something special about you.” Their eyes met. “I love you, Angela, and I am going to make things word.”
“Zane…” She shook her head. “I know you think you love me, but we barely know each other.”
“You don’t believe in love at first sight?”
“I do, but I don’t believe you should jump in with both feet. When I did that I ended up with Daniel.”
“We all make mistakes, love. That doesn’t mean this is a mistake.” He kissed her cheek. “You’re pregnant with my child. I want to be a part of both your lives, and I don’t mind taking things slow if that makes things easier for you.” Their eyes met. “I’ll be honest with you. I don’t want to take things slowly. I want to sweep you off your feet and show you what it means to be my lover, but I can’t do that with you, especially as Daniel has been trying to convince you to give him another chance. Your worries are understandable. I will give you the time you need, Angie, because I want you to fall in love with me in the same way I fell in love with you.”
Angela though back to the night they’d spent together, and the emotions she’d felt. At the time she hadn’t want to admit it to herself, because there was no reason for her to think she was ever going to see him again, but as he had stepped into her life again she could let herself feel. “Who says I’m not already in love with you?” She nibbled her bottom lip. “That doesn’t mean anything. I was madly in love with Daniel and that relationship went badly wrong.” She sighed. “I’m not going to make the same mistakes twice. I can’t. I have to think about the child I have growing inside me and what’s going to be best for them. You might not be what’s best for them.”
“I’m their dad.” He glanced down at her stomach. “I will be a part of their life, even if you make the decision you don’t want to give me a chance, because I want to be their dad. No matter what happens between us the child is an innocent.”
Relief flooded through Angela. She hadn’t realised how scared she was she might punish their child until he said he wouldn’t. “Good.” She shrugged. “Then I think we need to work out what we’re going to do about said child, because I do still have a chance to have an abortion.”
“We both know that isn’t going to happen. The child is already more than a bundle of cells to both of us, and I don’t think I could let you go through with it. I would do anything I could to stop you.”
“I don’t think I could go through with it, either, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an option.”
***
Chapter 9
“Zane Campbell?” Daniel’s voice was loud in the quiet room. “I should have known there was a reason you weren’t giving me a chance, but it never crossed my mind you might have fallen for Mr. Playboy’s lies.”
“Please go away.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you see the truth. He’s using you, like he used all the others, and you deserve so much more than that.”
“You aren’t more than that.” Angela turned to look at him. “If I’m making a mistake it’s my mistake to make.” She sighed. “I appreciate the fact you care enough to try to stop me from doing something I may end up regretting, but I don’t think I will. Zane and I have talked a lot about what we want, so I feel comfortable.”
Shaking his head Daniel stepped towards her. “You’re being an idiot.” He reached out to take her hands. “I can see why you’d want to give him a chance, but you’re just going to end up in a worse place than you were when the two of us split up.” When she tried to pull her hands free his grip on them tightened. “I want you to get back with me. I want you to stop believing someone like Zane is willing to give up on as many women as he wants to be with you. He’s not. What he wants is to have his cake and eat it. He’s going to play happy families with you and then go out with his floozies to have his interesting sex.”
“He’s not.” Angela tried again to pull free. “Let go of me.”
Instead of letting go he pulled her closer to him. They were the closest they’d been since she left him, and she found herself looking up into his face. From the way he was looking at her there was no doubt in her mind was he was about to do. She turned her face away, so he kissed her cheek instead of her lips. Before she could stop him he’d grabbed hold of her chin and turned her face to his. Their lips met, his pressing hard against hers, and soon their bodies were pressing together against the wall. Not responding was easier than she thought it would be. When he did take a step back, to study her, she took her chance. Running from him was the only logical thing she could do. He was faster than her, though, so he soon
caught up with her, and when he did he pressed something to her face.
Even though she tried not to breathe that was impossible. As she breathed in the formaldehyde that he’d put on it the only thing she could think of was her baby. Would it hurt her child? If he’d done anything to her baby she was going to make him regret the choices he’d made, because she loved them already, whoever they were.
***
Angela was staring up at the ceiling. She remembered thinking long and hard about leaving town after she got home from Spain. Getting away from Daniel would have been the best thing she could have done, because she had a feeling he wasn’t going to leave her alone for good, but then she’d had the possible pregnancy to deal with so she hadn’t had a chance to think about it. Breathing deeply, doing her best to ignore how much she wanted to be sick, she sat up. The formaldehyde was probably still in her system as she felt dizzy.
“It won’t hurt the baby.” Daniel’s voice came from behind her. “I checked that before I used it.”
“What baby?”
“Do you really think I don’t know the reason you’re trying to play happy families with Zane, Angie?” He stepped around the bed she was on. “I know all about the baby. I have done for a while now. That’s why I’ve been trying to stop you from making the wrong choices. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to be a single mom, but that doesn’t mean you have to pick him. I’d be more than willing to step in. The two of us could raise the baby, and simply take Zane’s money to help with that.”
She shook her head. “How did you find out?”
“I have friends in the right places.”
“You’ve bugged my apartment.”
He shrugged. “I had to do something. You wouldn’t answer the phone. You wouldn’t reply to my texts. I thought about knocking on the door before, but it wasn’t until I realised you might be doing something you’d regret that I made the decision I had to step in. Zane is not the person you want to be spending the rest of your life with.”
Glaring at him she stood. “You’re not the person I want to be spending the rest of my life with either. When I get out of here I’m going to have you arrested.”
“Who says I’m going to let you leave?”
For the first time Angela looked around. He’d put bars on the window, to make it impossible for her to climb out, and she didn’t doubt the door was locked. “This is stupid.”
Daniel smiled. “No, it’s not. This is what I should have done when you threatened to leave me, but I thought I could show you how much better your life would be with me in charge, only you ran from me.”
“You haven’t been in therapy, have you?”
“No. I’ve been waiting for the right moment to make this happen.”
“Fi’s going to know it was you. You’re going to have the police knocking on your door, and when they do I’m going to scream.”
“They’ve already been and gone. You’re not going to be able to get out of here, Angie, and the time has come for you to accept that.” He gently stroked her stomach. “The three of us are going to be a family.”
***
“Where’s Angela?”
“I’ll tell you exactly what I told the police. She isn’t here. Last time we spoke she said she’d been thinking about leaving town for a while, and I think that’s what happen. You were probably pushing her too hard.”
Even though she felt terrible Angela gathered all her strength to scream. “Zane!” Her voice didn’t seem loud enough for him to be able to hear her. “I’m here!”
Had he heard her? All she could do was hope he had. “Then who’s that?”
“No one.”
“Let me in and prove it.”
“I don’t have to do that.”
Only being able to hear what was going on was horrible. Angela didn’t know what was happening, but she could hear sounds that made her think there was a scuffle happening, and then someone tried to handle of her room. “Zane?”
“Hey, sweetie. I’m going to get you out of there. Stay away from the door.”
Angela did as he said, pushing herself as far away from the door as she could. Then she heard him kicking the door. There were voices too, but she couldn’t tell what they were saying, because of the sound of banging. Finally the door flew open. Zane walked into the room. “You okay?”
She shook her head. “I think I just need to have something to eat.”
“I’ll take you to E.R., because we have no way of knowing what he did to you.” Zane glared at Daniel, who glared straight back. “Then I’m going to make sure this nasty piece of work gets arrested.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Apart from bug my apartment so you knew what was happening and kidnap me.” Angela started trying to push herself up. When Zane picked her up she couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief. Of course he hadn’t believed the police when they said she wasn’t at Daniel’s. “I’m going to tell the police everything.”
The glare faded. “I did it for you, Angel. The two of us are meant to be together. The baby you’re carrying should be mine.”
It had been a long time since he’d called her Angel, and she wished she’d never had to hear it again. “We aren’t meant to be together, Daniel, and even if we were that’s no reason for you to kidnap me.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “I will never forgive you for what you’ve done.”
Zane carried her out of the room, and then out of the apartment. There was a time when she’d called it home. At that thought more tears trickled down her cheeks. How could a man who said he loved her treat her the way Daniel had? Being away from him meant she was safe and there was no chance of him doing the same thing again. He would be arrested because of what he’d done, so she’d be unlikely to see him again, especially as his choices meant it would be easy for her to get a restraining order.
***
Chapter 10
Walking into her apartment was a relief. Fiona wrapped her arms around Angela. “How are you?”
“As well as can be expected. The baby is fine, Daniel was arrested, and they said they’d swept the place for bugs.”
Fiona nodded. “There were far more of them than I thought possible. He’d managed to set up a camera in your shower room, to video you when you were naked.” She shuddered. “I can’t believe he’d be willing to do something like that.”
“His belief we were meant to be together led to him making choices he shouldn’t have made. Unfortunately for us I didn’t realise how obsessed with me he truly was. If I had I might have been able to stop this before it happened.”
“What are you going to do next?”
“Sleep in my own bed and then go with Zane to see his place. He wants me to move in before the baby’s born, even though I told him I didn’t want to abandon you.”
“If he wants to be with you then you should jump at the chance. When you went missing it was obvious to anyone how much you meant to him. I wouldn’t have said this if I hadn’t seen him, but he was frantic with worry, and when the police told us you weren’t at Daniel’s he told them they were wrong. I don’t think he was very happy with them.”
“Considering the fact he turned up and smashed his way into the room Daniel had locked me up in I think you’re right. When they turned up to take my statement he made himself scarce. I don’t think he could be around them without ending up saying something he might end up regretting.”
“Good for him.” Fiona shook her head. “We told them that was the only place you could be, because you weren’t going to leave town without telling me. There was no chance of that. We’ve been best friends for too long for you to abandon me, but not even showing them you’d left everything behind convinced them. They seemed to believe what Daniel said when he told them you wanted an entirely new start where no one you cared about could find you.”
“After I first split up with Daniel I did think about leaving everyone and everything behind. I’m guessing he must have had hacked into my
email, because that was where I was keeping my journal, and that’s pretty much the only place I wrote about it. The urge faded pretty quickly. Living with you helped.”
“You should have said something.”
“I just needed to work through it alone. Talking about him hurt. Writing about him didn’t. It was far easier to get everything out there.” Angela sighed. “Even when I got back from Spain I was writing about him, and my conflicted emotions, so I’m guessing he saw his chance and jumped at it. Had he not I never would have known quite how unhinged he was.”
***
The bedroom was huge. “This would be our room.” Zane hadn’t let go of Angela’s hand throughout the tour, as though he was scared she was going to disappear again. “I’ve never had anyone in here before.”
“You always spent nights in hotel rooms?”
He nodded. “This was my sanctuary. With you in my life I’m hoping it will be our sanctuary.” He stroked a hand over her stomach. “I want to be able to look after you, Angie, and I can’t do that if you’re not living here.”
“Daniel’s been arrested. There’s nothing for you to worry about now.”
“After what he did I’m never going to stop worrying.” He pulled her closer. “I love you, and I nearly lost both of you. I’m not going to let it happen again.”
“I love you too, but you can’t do what Daniel did. You can’t control me. You can’t stop me from living my life.”
“I’m not going to.” He kissed her. “I just want to know this is where you’re coming home to. I want to do what I can to stop that from happening again, because I have never been that scared in my life.”
“Neither have I. When Daniel told me the police had already been I was certain I was going to be stuck there. If it hadn’t been for you…” Angela shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You were there and we’re both okay.”
The Alpha Billionaire's Unexpected Baby: A Billionaire BWWM Pregnancy Romance Page 3
