The bedroom door was open finally, the doctor carrying things inside. He looked at me and gave me a nod of acknowledgement.
“Good to see you again, Mr. Moreno,” he said as he began setting everything up. Aurora shifted in bed, her skin still pale. She looked unwell, which sent an unusual wave of worry through me. She looked at me briefly and immediately diverted her eyes away.
“What’s with the audience?” she mumbled when she noticed Brittany’s presence.
“Sorry, I just wanted to see,” Brittany said and looked between me and Aurora. “I mean I can leave if you want.”
Aurora shook her head. “It’s fine,” she murmured. I walked over and stood on the side of the bed, watching the doctor as he plugged in the ultrasound machine. Brittany bounced around on the other side of the bed and I couldn’t help but to grin at how excited she was.
“Is this ultrasound going to tell us the sex of the baby?” I finally asked to break the awkward silence in the room.
The doctor shook his head. “Probably not this time. I think she’s still too early for that, but the ultrasound should officially tell me how far along she is.”
“How long before we’re able to know?” Aurora asked.
“You can know as early as six weeks, but usually around twelve.” He turned the machine on and grabbed a bottle of jelly. “Are you ready, dear?”
She looked at me, something akin to anxiety and fear in her gaze. I gave her a subtle nod but kept my distance, putting my hands in my pockets to keep from going over to her and touching her. She nodded to the doctor and settled back onto the pillows, lifting her nightgown to expose her stomach. The room was silent as the doctor put gel on Aurora’s stomach and moved a wand around. I kept my eyes on her as she watched the screen.
“Why don’t I hear anything?” she asked, panic slightly laced in her voice.
The doctor continued moving the wand and pressing buttons on the machine. “I’m just taking measurements right now, dear,” he said idly as he squinted at the machine. “It looks like you’re eight weeks on the dot. I’d place conception to be around…when I was called here after your Hell week. That was also when I reminded Bennett again that you were overdue for your birth control.”
Aurora cut her eyes at me before turning her attention back to the screen. It was hard to believe that it’d been eight weeks since then. There’d been so much shit going on that it was so easy to lose track of time. It seemed like yesterday when I picked her up, but I was sure it probably felt much longer to her.
The doctor turned a small knob on the machine and then we all heard it. The loud, clear sound of a heartbeat filled the room and my own heart constricted in my chest. I’d never gotten a chance to experience this with Stephanie. She was murdered hours after she’d revealed the news to me. To see the small mass on the screen and hearing its life with my own ears sent an array of emotions through me, reminding me that the baby was real. That it had a chance. And that I needed to do whatever it took in order to protect it.
“Oh wow,” Brittany gushed with tears in her eyes.
The expression on Aurora’s face was unreadable. I wasn’t sure if her eyes were teary because she was happy and excited or upset because she couldn’t escape the reality that she was actually pregnant.
The doctor pointed at things on the screen and explained what he’d pointed at, but I couldn’t hear anything over my baby’s fast heartbeat. Just the sound of it reminded me of how unprepared I was for this. We were in the middle of a deadly war; I couldn’t even celebrate the fact that she was pregnant. Then again, she and I weren’t a traditional couple, nor was her pregnancy planned. Considering the current state of our “relationship,” we weren’t in any kind of position to celebrate.
“Bennett?” Brittany called out, snapping her fingers in front of my face. I blinked to see everyone staring at me, the doctor packing his things up.
“I’m sorry. I’m a bit preoccupied,” I mumbled and looked to the doctor. “Did you say something?”
“I was telling your wife I’d be back in two weeks to check her again. I’ll need to do some bloodwork on her today with her looking a bit peaky.” He looked to Aurora. “How’ve you been feeling lately?”
“Okay, I guess. Just sleepy and nauseous,” she said with a shrug.
“Probably because you’re still not eating enough,” I said with a frown.
The doctor nodded. “Yes, you’ll need to eat more. You’re eating for two now, so you’ll have to eat more times throughout the day to keep your strength up,” the doctor said, which made me smirk at her.
“Sounds a lot like what I’ve been saying lately,” I mused.
She ignored me and turned her attention back to the doctor. “I’ll try to eat more,” she said.
“You’re taking the prenatal vitamins I left during my last visit, correct?” he asked, and Aurora nodded. “Good. Well, I’m going to draw a couple vials of blood really fast and let you get back to resting.”
“She’s had wine at a brunch a few weeks ago,” I said. “Is that going to have an effect on the baby?”
“It wasn’t even a lot,” Aurora interjected. “It was only a glass and I haven’t had any since then.”
“She should be fine—”
“I’m sitting right here,” she ground out. “Don’t talk as if I’m not sitting a few fucking feet from you.”
He looked at me as if he expected me to do or say something, but I shrugged and grinned. “My wife is the one talking to you, not me.”
He adjusted his glasses and shifted uncomfortably. “My apologies, Mrs. Moreno,” he said. “You’ll be fine. Everything looks good with the ultrasound as of now, but I’ll do further testing on the bloodwork and we’ll go from there.”
He took a strip of ultrasound pictures from his portal thermal printer and handed them to me before getting her prepared to draw blood. Brittany skipped over to stand next to me, looking at the pictures as well.
“How exciting is that?” she murmured, as she looped her arm through mine and squeezed. “I’m so damn excited. You won’t even need a nanny or anything. Auntie Brittany will be here!”
“Slow down a bit,” I said with a chuckle. “Let’s worry about that when they’re delivered safely. You should know not to put all your eggs in one basket in this life.”
She gave me a small smile. “Be positive for once, Bennett. The baby’s here right now and that’s what matters. You should be excited no matter what happens in the end.”
“It’s called being realistic, Britt. I’ve been down this road before,” I reminded her as I put the pictures in my pocket.
She frowned up at me. “Can we talk in the hall for a second?”
“We can when the doctor finishes and I have a chance to talk to Aurora,” I said. After being locked out of here for the majority of the time she’d been in here for the past two weeks, the last thing I wanted was to leave and give her the opportunity to lock me out of the bedroom again.
“It’ll only take a few seconds,” she said and pulled me toward the door.
The doctor looked at me with a raised brow. “Is there a problem?” he asked. Aurora looked at me, the expression on her face indifferent.
“Don’t come out of here until I come back in,” I said, just as Brittany pulled me out into the hall and shut the door behind us. “What is it?”
“If you keep living in the past, you’re not going to appreciate the present for what it is,” Brittany said with a frown.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
She narrowed her eyes at me as she put a hand on her hip. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Going back on your word about Wilson, not getting excited about the baby. You’re still stuck in the past.”
“It’s not like it isn’t a relevant concern,” I ground out.
“I’m not saying that it isn’t, but you have to let go, Bennett.” She let out a small sigh. “She’s not Stephanie.”
“I know what the fuck sh
e’s not,” I snapped. “I don’t need you or anyone else reminding me of that. Why the fuck is everyone making me out to be the bad guy because I’m trying to fucking protect her? If my father even gets a hint that she’s pregnant, that’s it. He’ll stop at nothing to hurt her just to get back at me. I’m not going to allow that to happen.”
She grabbed my arms and squeezed. “I know, I know. Look, all I’m saying is that you two need to be working together. I know you’re worried but putting her on the sidelines after you’ve crowned her is going to look suspicious anyway.”
I ground my teeth, pissed off because she was right. If she didn’t come to the event tonight, people would ask questions or make assumptions that could get back to my father. It could also put the house at risk of an attack if they realized she was at home without me.
“Why not let her be involved until she really starts to show? I mean right now it’s not obvious, so I don’t think she’ll be in that much danger, right?”
“Britt—”
“You owe it to her to at least show that she can handle her own. If things go wrong or it proves to be too much for her, you can at least say you gave her a chance and have a legitimate reason to pull her.”
“Her being pregnant is a legitimate enough reason to pull her—”
“That’s a sexist reason to pull her,” Brittany said with a frown. “There’s nothing wrong with her due to her being pregnant. You’re better equipped to protect her this time around. Instead of trying to hide her away, forgive yourself for what happened to Stephanie and let go of your own insecurities.” She gave me a soft smile. “You’re going to be an amazing, overly protective dad to your very beautiful, healthy baby soon and you should enjoy every second of that, not spend time already preparing for everything possible to go wrong.”
I stared at her for a long moment. It didn’t matter what I said or did, people just wouldn’t understand. No one would understand the pain that came with learning your girlfriend was pregnant, only to find her gunned down only a couple of hours later. One minute, I’d been in the car with Saint and Bruce talking about how excited I was about a baby and everything I’d do if it were a boy or how protective I’d be if it were a girl…only to find that future ripped from me before it even had a chance to form. Now Aurora was pregnant and my father was on a rampage, which put her at risk of succumbing to the same fate.
“Are you done?” I finally asked. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“You’re impossible sometimes. I’m just trying to help you out so that you can sleep in the same bed as your ‘wife’ instead of making her push you further away.”
“I can handle my wife, but thank you for your concern,” I said sarcastically and walked away before she could say another word.
The doctor was putting a Band-Aid on Aurora’s arm by the time I walked in, both of them looking to me. “I’ll call you with the results of the bloodwork as soon as I get them and will come back to do another ultrasound in two weeks,” he said as he put the vials of blood in a red biohazard bag with an ice pack in it. I nodded and remained near the door until he finally left, leaving Aurora and I alone.
She sat on the bed staring at me without a word. Her eyes followed me as I walked over to the side of the bed and sat next to her.
“How are you feeling?” I finally asked.
“Fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
“Then why ask?”
I sighed inwardly, my hands tingling to inflict pain on her from the frustration she’d caused me for two weeks and her smart-ass mouth. Even if she wasn’t my wife, I could never bring myself to hurt a pregnant woman no matter if she was pregnant with my kid or not. I was a monster, but even I had my own limits.
“If you’re feeling up to it, there’s an auction event tonight. It’s the first one we’d attend as La Fedeltá. I wanted to see if you felt up to going.”
“Oh wow. I get to come off house arrest,” she drawled.
“I could’ve not told you at all and went alone,” I reminded her with a frown.
“What would be the point in going? It’s obvious that even after doing all the bullshit you asked of me, you still don’t see me as your equal. You still see me as weak despite seeing what I’m capable of.”
I ran a frustrated hand down my face. She and I would never see eye to eye about this situation. Every time she brought it up, we’d just go around in circles until one of us got frustrated and walked away from the conversation. I truly understood her frustration, but what was so hard to understand that I’d made the decision to protect her?
“You remember when you had to fight for your life at the safe house?” I asked.
She furrowed her brow as she looked at me. “Of course I do. That’s why it’s fucking frustrating that you think I can’t defend myself.”
“It’s not that I don’t think you can.” I sighed deeply. “As my queen, you’re going to have more than one person coming after you. You did great with one guy, but what’ll happen if you have more than two or three coming after you?”
“Then prepare me for that instead of forcing me to be a sitting duck and relying on someone else to protect me,” she protested. “You keep saying all of this is to keep me safe, but what happens if the person you’ve assigned to protect me is killed? Then what?”
Knowing my father, it was a high possibility. Brittany had a point early. You have to shake your own insecurities about whether or not you can protect her and give her a chance, I reminded myself. Aside from wanting to possess her fully, I knew I didn’t marry a weak queen. I looked up into her determined eyes. I’d crowned her because I knew she was capable of ruling alongside me as the strong, dark princess she was growing to be. She was my wife, the mother of my baby, and the queen of my empire. To be strong as a whole, she and I had to be strong together, and that would require me to allow her to fight alongside me as she pledged to do when joining La Fedeltá.
As I promised her that she could do.
“All right,” I finally said with a sigh.
“All right?” she repeated. “All right what?”
“You’re right.” I held her confused gazed. “It makes more sense to prepare you than to hide you away from everything. Leaving you vulnerable and dependent on me or the guys won’t help you if anything were to happen to any of us.”
She nodded. “Glad you can finally stop being stubborn long enough to agree for once.” She gave me a small smile and it actually felt good to see it instead of her signature scowl she’d given me lately. “I guess you’re learning this whole ‘compromising’ thing when it comes to marriage.”
“I wouldn’t say that too quickly,” I said and stood up. “The first moment you give me a reason to put you back on the sidelines, I will. My priority is keeping you safe and if you do something to endanger that or the threat is too great, I’ll reduce your role.”
“Trust me, I won’t.”
I put my hands in my pockets and nodded. “Well, we have somewhere to be in a couple of hours, so get yourself ready.”
“Is there a specific dress code?”
“No.” I grinned at her as my gaze swept along her body. “But seeing you in my favorite color would be nice.”
She returned my grin and nodded. “I’ll see what I can find,” she said. After a few moments, I finally walked back out to see KC standing in the hallway with his laptop in his hands.
“What’s up?” I asked with a raised brow.
He turned his computer around to show me the screen. “From Wilson’s texts, he’s going to be at the event tonight. I don’t know if he’s aware that you’re also coming, but I wanted to give you a heads up.”
“Shit,” I mumbled. It wasn’t wise to get into a gunfight in such a public place. I also didn’t want Aurora to be that close to him either. I thought about the last time we’d been together in a public place. He definitely didn’t care when we were in a public place then to send his men shooting at us, so there was nothing th
at’d stop him from doing so again. With Aurora being pregnant, I didn’t want to risk her getting caught in the crossfire or us having to run off to another warehouse since it’d be too dangerous to come back here with the children still hiding out in the bunker.
“He doesn’t expect you to come since you don’t usually go to these kinds of things, so I don’t know if he’s coming with a shitload of security or not,” KC continued. “But I’d be careful if you go. It could be the perfect place for Aurora to be snatched up there in the middle of an auction event.”
“Then I guess we’re going to have a little change of plans tonight,” I mumbled. There would be plenty of other events to attend later, but everyone else’s safety was more important. The only good that came out of this was that I now knew that Wilson wasn’t out of the country; he’d probably been here the whole time. Knowing that he was local meant that he only had a few places he could hide and unfortunately for him, I knew them all.
“Since he’s still in the country, you should be able to locate him better, right?” I asked him. He shrugged.
“I can try. It’s still giving me the same bullshit as it did before. But I can narrow the searches down and see if I can find something new.”
“Fine. I guess I’ll deal with Brian tonight instead,” I said and smiled. “Besides, I’m sure Aurora could use a little pick-me-up.”
“How is she, by the way?” he asked. “Everything’s good with the baby?”
I nodded. “Yeah. She’s eight weeks along.”
“That’s crazy.” He grinned. “Kind of hard imagining you being a gentle dad.”
“People couldn’t imagine me as a husband either but yet, here I am,” I said with a chuckle.
“You’re right about that,” he said with a chuckle. “Well, I’m going to go get to work. The faster we can resolve this situation, the sooner you can enjoy your wife and the fact that she’s pregnant.”
You Will Obey (Rules of Bennett Book 4) Page 13
