“Why am I not allowed to go to Chance and Morgan’s wedding?”
“Freckles, you’re pregnant with triplets and I really think-”
“I don’t give a shit what you think. I’m not an invalid. I’ve got my anemia under control and I’m feeling fine. So, what’s the real reason I can’t go.”
I panicked. I knew that she was going to question me on this, but I thought I had more time to think it all out. I had planned on telling her this weekend, but obviously someone beat me to it.
“Uh…it’s going to be very icy outside. The weather forecast for this winter is terrible.”
“And I’m sure you’ll wrap me in bubble wrap whenever I leave the house,” she snapped. “And I also hear that none of the other kids are going either. Were you planning on not being home for Christmas?”
“No, the wedding is before Christmas, so I’ll be home.”
“Is Lola going?”
My eyes flashed to Lola’s and she started fucking laughing at me. I looked to Knight for help and he rolled his eyes, walking over to Maggie.
“Do you not get how fucking serious this is? I mean, when you reach twenty-four weeks, you’ll be going to the doctor every week. Preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, placental abruption, and low birth weight are just some of the risks. Do you really want to risk those babies all to go to a wedding? We can fucking record it for you.”
That seemed to piss Maggie off even more, but she didn’t say anything else. Just stormed out of the room. “Don’t forget to drink your shakes,” I called after her. Yeah, I was asking to get my balls chopped off.
⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️
Maggie stormed into our meeting in the conference room with every single wife, girlfriend, or fiancé. This was bad, and I knew exactly why they were here.
“Maggie said that we’re not allowed to go to the wedding,” Claire said accusingly. “Why do we have to miss a wedding when it’s someone in our family getting married?”
Derek stood and walked over to her. “Claire Bear, you’re pregnant. It’s really not safe.”
“Safe to drive to a lodge and then attend a wedding? I didn’t realize I was so fragile.”
“I know, but this is our little peanut. I just want to protect you.”
She snatched her hand from his and glared. “You can’t stop me from going.”
“That goes for me too,” Lucy said, stepping up beside Claire.
“And me,” Lindsey said, shooting Ice a dirty look.
Ice shot up and shook his head. “No. You’re not going.”
“Give me one good reason why.”
“Because…Willow’s only two months old.”
“People travel with babies all the time,” she shot back.
“Right, but…” He looked around frantically, trying to come up with anything to stop her from going to the wedding.
“Morgan?” Chance asked. “Do you want to help him out?”
“Nope,” she said smugly, crossing her arms over her chest in satisfaction.
“Because…she needs your…” I waved at her chest, trying to convey what I wanted to say. “Milk.”
“I can pump,” Lindsey said.
“But…” Ice looked to me again, but I was having trouble coming up with anything to say.
Hunter stood and cleared his throat. “Willow is only two months old. The lodge is at a higher elevation and babies under three months aren’t supposed to have pressure changes. It could mess up their hearing for the rest of their lives.”
“Really?” Ice asked. “I mean, yeah, that’s exactly what I was trying to say. Pressure changes and…bad hearing. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for damaging our child, would you?”
“I can leave her with the caregivers,” Lindsey snapped.
“Yeah,” Ice nodded. “I suppose you could. I mean, if you really trust them with our nearly newborn child. I’m sure they’re plenty qualified and wouldn’t do anything to harm her…on purpose.”
Lindsey glared at him, but didn’t say anything else.
“And Cara,” Sinner stood and gave her a sad look. “Rocco relies on you with Evie. I’m sure he wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving her in anyone else’s care.”
“Yes, I would,” Rocco said, looking at Sinner like he was an idiot. Sinner shot him a glare, clenching his jaw. “I mean…yeah, Evie’s my whole world and she’s only ever known you as her motherly figure. It would be dangerous, even…damaging to leave her in someone else’s care.” He sighed and shook his head sadly. “If I ever find a woman worth marrying, I’m not sure how she’ll ever be able to give Evie what you give her,” he said to Cara. “You’re half of her whole world.”
Cara didn’t look like she believed him. “It’s only for a few days.”
He nodded. “Yeah, a few days where the one woman that she finds comfort in and can be herself around, is gone.”
“She’s not even two,” Maggie said incredulously. “She can’t be anybody but herself at this age!”
“He’s right,” Cara said, seeming to come around. “I think I should stay behind. I mean, he’s right. Evie’s relying on me.”
“Are you serious?” Maggie shouted. “They’re playing you! They have some twisted reason for making us stay behind and you’re falling for it!”
“And Kate needs to stay behind also,” Knight cut in. “After all, Maggie’s pregnant with triplets. She needs constant supervision.”
“And Kate is pregnant also,” Chris joined in. “If something happens to Kate, Ali needs to be here to help in any way she can.”
“I thought you had a doctor on standby?” Kate asked. “You know, in case of an emergency over the holidays,” she smirked.
Knight walked toward her slowly, his eyes boring into hers. Tension filled the room and we all felt it. “My baby is in your belly and I won’t take the chance that a doctor can’t get here in time to help you. Ali stays.” He turned to Ali, narrowing his eyes at her, begging her to challenge him. She didn’t.
“Fine,” Maggie said, throwing her hands on her hips. “You’ve managed to get five of us to stay behind. What’s your excuse for the rest of the ladies?”
“Vanessa’s pregnant,” Cazzo said suddenly.
My eyes flew to Vanessa’s, checking to see if he was lying. He wasn’t. He hadn’t told any of us yet.
“She’s about ten weeks pregnant. I didn’t want to say anything yet, but I think now, knowing that we’ll be at a lodge, stuck in the middle of nowhere with no help close, you all deserved to know. I mean, with all that snow and…ice…it could be dangerous. If you slipped and fell, you could lose the baby.”
Damn, he was playing with fire. Using their previous loss against her was harsh, but necessary with what we were facing. If only we could say that for the other ladies. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any other reason to keep them away. But at least it was six ladies less to worry about.
“Anybody else pregnant?” I asked, but when Maggie’s eyes flew accusingly to mine, I amended my question. “I mean, anyone else that we need to worry about? We don’t want to take any risks.”
My shoulders sagged in defeat when I realized that was all we were going to get to stay behind. The ladies filed out of the room, but Maggie shot me one last glare before exiting. I walked up behind Derek and Hunter and smacked them both on the back of the head.
“Nice job telling your ladies to stay behind. You know, that would be two less women to worry about if you had just manned up.”
“Hey, have you seen Lucy when she gets mad?” Hunter asked. “She may be pregnant, but she can still kick my ass.”
“And you?” I asked Derek.
He shrugged, looking at me sheepishly. “Claire would really get a kick out of this. If she found out that I was going to kill someone and she could have been there? No sex for a very long time. I don’t need that kind of trauma in my life.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Becky
I pulled up to the gates of Reed Secu
rity and sat there for a moment, kicking myself for coming back here. I swore I never would. But Coop and Kayla were here, and I missed them. My relationship with Coop was somewhat tenuous at the moment. Well, that wasn’t true. We didn’t really have a relationship. We’d kissed a few times, almost had sex, but he’d stopped it, saying that he had to focus on Adams. That he didn’t have any time for me. Yet here I was, coming to see the man that had the power to make me cry like a schoolgirl.
I took a deep breath and reached through the window to press the button at the gate. It took a minute, but Rob finally answered, grinning at me on the video com.
“Becks! You came back!”
“I’m not back. I’m just visiting.”
“Hey, I have something that I need some help with. You want to swing by the IT room?”
“Sorry,” I said with a grin. “Just a friendly visit today.”
“Who are you visiting?” he asked suspiciously. “It better not be Coop.”
“Can you just open the gate so I can roll up my window?”
He sighed and the gates opened. I waved at him on the screen before I pulled through the gates and parked outside the building. I didn’t have all the necessary entry codes and my handprint would have been wiped from the system as soon as I left here. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait for long before someone was stepping out of the elevator and walking toward me. Unfortunately, it was the boss man, and he didn’t look very welcoming.
“Are you back for your job?”
“No,” I said with a slight shake of my head.
“Then why are you here?”
“I didn’t realize that I was banned from the property,” I shot back. “I still have friends here and I came to visit.”
“Visit them off the property.”
His voice was harsh, and Cap was never harsh to me. But then again, I had left him, and I hadn’t found anyone that I thought could fill my spot. Not that I really had the time to. There was so much to be done before I left, and then everyone kept asking for help with things. I finally just dropped everything and left. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was on the verge of being pulled back in.
“Is that how you’re going to treat me now? I’m nobody to you? Because I gave you years of service, and I went on the road, living in dangerous situations all in the name of helping all of you out. Now I’m not welcome here anymore?”
His body relaxed and his face held a hint of regret. “I’m sorry. We’ve just got something going on and I’m trying to keep people off the property for the time being.”
“And you think I’m a threat?”
“Never, but you know that anyone could use you coming as an opportunity to attack.”
We headed for the elevator and Cap went through all the necessary procedures to let us into the building. “Who is it this time?”
He looked to me with a hard expression and then crossed his arms and looked straight ahead. “Adams.”
“Adams? He’s back?”
“You know he was after Coop. Now he’s coming after all of us. He’ll do whatever’s necessary to get retribution for everything he lost.”
“You’re one hundred percent sure it’s him?”
“No, but there’s no one else.”
I snorted and stepped off the elevator. “Yeah, like you didn’t piss anyone else off recently.”
“Not bad enough to warrant this kind of behavior. So, who are you here to see?”
I didn’t answer for a moment, a little embarrassed that I was even here to see Coop after what happened, or didn’t happen, between us. “Coop.”
“He’s already gone for the day. He’s still over in the panic room. I can take you over there.”
I followed him down the hallway and over to an elevator on the other side of the building. Stepping in, he pressed in his code again and went through the hand and eye scan before it descended underground. There was a tunnel that led to the panic room and then there was a scanner that would alert someone in the panic room. It could only be opened from the inside when the system was activated. When the door opened, Rocco stood there with a questioning look on his face.
“Take Becky to Coop’s suite,” Cap said stiffly before turning to me with a tight smile. “It’s good to see you again.”
He looked like he wanted to say more, but then shook his head slightly and left. I followed Rocco to Coop’s suite. He didn’t try and say anything, just nodded to the door and moved on.
I took a deep breath, trying to build the courage to do this. I almost talked myself out of it, but then I would look foolish, turning and going back just moments after I arrived. And what would I say to Rocco when I went in search of him? Shaking my head, I knocked on the door before I could lose my nerve.
The door swung open and Coop stood there, all six foot, two inches of him. I took a moment to take in his body, noticing that he looked like he had put on some muscle on his lean frame. His eyes were a bright blue that drew me in and held me captive. I just couldn’t look away, and I think that bothered him. He didn’t like to be looked at. Or, more accurately, he didn’t like to feel like he was being studied. Coop had burn marks over most of his body, from what he told me, and burn marks over three quarters of his face. They weren’t that bad. I mean, they were noticeable, but I didn’t think they took anything away from his looks. In fact, I think they added an element of danger to him, which I happened to like very much.
I cleared my throat when I realized that I had just been staring at him, probably drooling and panting like a dog in heat. “Hey.” He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Um, can I come in?”
“Sure.”
He held the door open and motioned me in. I walked in and took in his suite. Not much had changed since the last time I had been here. He was very minimalistic and the only signs of life were from Kayla. I looked toward the bedroom, the very one that I had almost slept with him in. I spun around and tried to gain some sense of normalcy.
“How have you been?”
He shrugged. “I can’t complain.”
Right. So, not so much a conversationalist today. I was used to that. I just hoped that he wouldn’t shut me out like he tended to do when he was trying to push me away. I had hoped that this time would be different. It looked like the only way I was going to get anything out of him was to be direct.
“Are you going to keep pretending like I don’t exist or are you going to man up and admit that we have something?”
He gave me a confused look, like he didn’t know exactly what I was talking about.
“Don’t play stupid. You kissed me. You almost slept with me! And then you pushed me away, like I didn’t belong with you. And you know that’s not true.”
“I told you that nothing could happen until I got Adams out of my life. I need to end things with him so that Kayla can have a life.”
“Really? And you’re not protected enough here? You can’t multitask and have a relationship and look for Adams?”
I got really angry when he crossed his arms over his chest and clenched his jaw in anger. Like he had any right to be the angry one. I never led him on. I never made him think I was available and then walked away. That was all him. And now he had the nerve to look at me like I was the problem.
I walked slowly toward him, refusing to give in to his death glare. “You want me,” I said as I ran my hand up his chest. “I know you do. I can feel it whenever we’re together.”
I stood on my tiptoes, but I was still way too short. I wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled him toward me. His lips brushed against mine and I was lost in his touch. His hands slid around my waist, drawing me into him. His kisses were bruising and his tongue caressed me, pulling the pleasure from my body. When his hand slid down to my ass, electric shocks zapped through me. God, I wanted this man. I needed him so bad.
He tore his lips from mine and took a step back, refusing to look at me. I laughed derisively. It didn’t matter how much we connected or how much we wanted each other. He just wo
uldn’t give me more of himself. And I just didn’t get why.
“You should go,” he said coldly.
“Yeah,” I laughed. “I wouldn’t want to ask you to actually-”
“What the fuck is your problem?” he all but shouted. “I’ve told you that this isn’t going to happen. But you show up anyway and ask me to give you something I don’t want to. You need to back the fuck off.”
“You kissed me back. Don’t pretend that this is all me making things up in my head. We almost slept together. Don’t tell me there’s nothing there.”
“What do you want from me? I can’t give you what you want! I have nothing left to give!”
“How can you say that? You can give me you!”
“This?” He motioned down his body and laughed. “You think this is what you want?”
He ripped off his shirt, showing me some of the most devastating burn scars I had ever seen. I swallowed hard, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. It was so terrible. And then the tears started and I couldn’t stop them if I wanted to. I couldn’t imagine how painful that had been for him. One particularly bad section of scarring ran along his side and disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans.
“Is that what you so desperately want?”
And now it all made sense. I had been about to pull his shirt off when he tore himself away from me and told me that he wouldn’t lead me on, that he had to end things with Adams first. He didn’t want me to see him naked.
“They’re just scars,” I said quietly.
“Just scars.”
I nodded, but he scowled even harder at me. He pulled his shirt back on and yanked it down his chest. “You need to leave.”
I lifted my head defiantly and stared him down. If he thought he could push me away like this, he was wrong. “Fine, but I’ll see you at the wedding.”
I turned to go and made it about halfway when I was swung around, his hand biting into my arm painfully. “You aren’t going to the wedding.”
A Mad Reed Security Christmas Page 10
