by Abby Blake
“Jet,” the woman said proudly, “Jet Killarney. He’s so wonderful. He…”
The woman’s words stopped when she saw Mikayla’s face. Lachlan had stiffened beside her also.
“I–Is he h–here?” Mikayla managed to force out. Her stomach felt like it had climbed into her throat.
The woman looked a little freaked out at Mikayla’s reaction, but she smiled as she looked at someone in the distance. “Oh, here he is now. Jet,” she called and waved her hand high so the man could locate her in the crowded waiting lounge.
Before he could greet the woman, Mikayla stepped into his path. The slimy worm gave her a charming smile, not even recognizing her face.
She’d often wondered how she would react if she ever saw Jet again, but the million scenarios she’d imagined didn’t even come close to what she actually felt. Bile rose up her throat at the thought that he may be planning to do to this woman what he’d done to her.
Her fist belted into his nose, the satisfying crack under her knuckles making her bolder. She advanced on him as he stepped back and would’ve landed a solid kick in the man’s groin if Lachlan hadn’t wrapped his arms around her middle and held her back. She growled when he laughed quietly at her frustration.
“Little one, you have seven husbands. Please let us handle this.”
Gleefully, she thought of the damage seven men could do to this sleazy little asshole. But she knew it wasn’t the way to handle it. Truly, violence wasn’t the answer here, but surprisingly it did make her feel better to imagine her husbands defending her honor. How archaic. She was still trying to reconcile the self-contained woman she believed herself to be with the damsel in distress attitude she seemed to be experiencing when Jet finally recognized her.
“Mikayla? Fuck!” He glanced over his shoulder, looking nervous as hell when he spotted the security officer heading toward them.
Instead of reporting her actions and trying to have her arrested for assault, he turned and ran in the opposite direction.
Unfortunately for him, he ran straight into three of Mikayla’s husbands, all of whom had seen her attack the man. They wouldn’t let him pass, and Brock literally dragged Jet back to the security officer and Mikayla.
“Jet, what’s going on?” his fiancée asked, sounding truly bewildered.
Jet ignored the woman, his eyes on the police officers now heading toward their rapidly growing group. Other passengers stood around, watching curiously as the drama continued to unfold.
After a brief discussion, the police officers asked for all of them to come down to the station so they could figure out the situation. Jet paled even more, argued loudly, and ended up traveling to the station in handcuffs.
Hours later, while waiting to be interviewed, Mikayla sat beside Jet’s newest fiancée, Tracey, and quietly explained the reason for her actions and everything that had happened as a consequence of trusting Jet. The terrifying realization that Tracey had no family, no close friends, and had just given up her job to travel with Jet had both women shaking with reaction. It seemed that Jet was looking for a specific type of woman—one who wouldn’t be missed.
Once Mikayla explained what had happened with Jet just over a year ago, the police became very interested and started asking more and more questions. By the time they let her go to her in-laws’ home, she was feeling completely wrung out.
She invited Tracey to stay with them also, at least until she could make alternate arrangements, and Peter, John, and Brock stayed at the police station in the hopes of finding out what would happen now. It seemed the authorities were more interested in Jet’s pattern of behavior than her assault on him, so she managed to meet her parents-in-law without a criminal record—well, so far anyway.
Hours later, she sat sprawled on the lounge enjoying a few minutes alone. She’d managed to find a room for Tracey, and the poor woman had gratefully fallen into bed.
Lachlan came into the lounge room and knelt beside her to kiss her lips possessively. He pulled back and frowned. “You look tired,” he said, smoothing his thumbs gently along the dark smudges she knew were under her eyes. He sat next to her, pulled her feet into his lap, and began to massage the aches away.
“I’m fine,” she said with a smile but frowned in irritation when Matt came in and said the same thing. She was trying to sit up when Ryan and Ty arrived. They took over Lachlan’s foot rub but had her giggling when they started licking and sucking her toes. Breathless with laughter, she finally managed to disengage them and pull her feet underneath her.
But all feelings of levity dissolved when Peter, John, and Brock entered the room looking grim.
“What happened?” she asked urgently.
“Mikayla, it turns out that you and Tracey aren’t the only women to fall for Jet’s charms. The police are still investigating, but it looks like that asshole was involved in human trafficking. He was probably getting paid big money to dump women at the mining colony where we found you.”
“But he just abandoned me. He didn’t exactly sell me or anything.”
“That’s part of the ongoing investigation, but they think he was getting payments from a number of different pimps. Whoring is the only way for women to survive on that planet so they all knew you’d end up in one of their clubs eventually.”
“Tracey?” she asked, and Peter knew exactly what she meant without her needing to go into detail.
“She would’ve been his next victim. They’re looking into at least thirteen missing persons reports, but it’s going to be hard to identify them all because Jet preyed on women with no family, so there may be more that weren’t reported.”
“God,” she said, realizing that nobody would’ve reported Tracey missing because she’d told everyone she was getting married and moving away. If Mikayla hadn’t sat down, if Tracey hadn’t taken the seat next to her, if Mikayla hadn’t seen Jet and punched the scumbag in the nose…She leaned forward suddenly feeling very, very sick.
Damn.
She tried to take deep breaths without everyone noticing but of course they all noticed and looked at her worriedly.
“I’m okay,” she reassured them. “Just,” she swallowed, “feeling a little ill.”
Surrounded by all seven men whom she loved more than life itself, she realized that keeping her secret from them was going to be impossible. Yes, she felt ill thinking about what Jet had done to so many trusting women, but it wasn’t the only reason she was feeling off. She’d wanted to get their parents’ visit over with before she added more drama to their lives—so much for that theory—and she knew her husbands loving concerns would probably lead to a doctor’s appointment, and she really didn’t need one.
“There’s something I need to tell you all,” she said biting her lip nervously. “I’m…uhm…well, I did a te…” Seven men bristled with tension, and she realized that she was hurting them with her dithering, and so she blurted out her news instead. “I’m pregnant.”
Stunned silence.
She glanced around the room nervously as all seven men absorbed her poorly delivered announcement. She was starting to worry when they all began talking at once. She was handed from one brother to the next, hugged and cuddled and congratulated and thanked, but not one of them voiced any question on who may have fathered her child. Very obviously the one thing that had worried her was the least important to her men.
They were all going to be fathers in an emotional sense, and that’s all they needed to know. She truly was where she belonged, and she vowed to spend the rest of her days making the most of it.
THE END
www.abbyblake.webs.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abby Blake prefers to read or write romance over just about everything else—except maybe chocolate. Most days she can be found hurrying to do what needs to be done so that she can curl up with her laptop and her latest bunch of heroes.
Also by Abby Blake
Ménage Everlasting: Fire
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