Chapter 21 Congrats, it’s a…
CONGRATS, IT’S A…
LEXI
We walk hand in hand into the OB’s office.
This is our first appointment together since that day at urgent care more than six months ago.
I’d kept them to myself, not ready to allow him to come with me.
It was too close. Too intimate. But we’re past that now, and I have to admit it feels good having him beside me.
“Ms. Kane, how are you doing today?” my doctor asks, wheeling the machine next to the exam table.
“Excited.” I look up to Pierce, who hasn’t let go of my hand. “We finally felt them kick.”
“That’s great, an active baby is a healthy baby. How about we see if we can finally get them to cooperate for an anatomy scan this time?”
“Yes! I’m so ready to know.”
“How about you, Dad? You ready to find out if you’re having a boy or a girl?”
Pierce is quiet, eyes wide as they lock on me.
The doctor backtracks. “Do you not want to know? We have that happen more often than you’d think. Sometimes one partner likes to keep the excitement of not knowing until they’re born.”
“Pierce? I don’t care either way, but when we talked about it, I thought we were on the same page of wanting to know.”
“No, yeah. I want to know. Sorry, Doc.”
He leans down, dropping a kiss to my forehead, his lips ghosting to my ear. “She called me dad. I’m going to be a dad, Lexi.” Pure excitement and joy radiate from his tone.
My muffled laughter adds to the lighthearted vibe in the room. I finally feel like I can take a full breath. Like, my life isn’t a complete mess and falling into shambles.
I’ve been so dissociated from this pregnancy. From this baby, because of our situation. I haven’t let myself fall in love with them. I didn’t want to start the nursery, and I’ve been in denial that our entire world is about to shift this summer. But now, it’s different.
I think I can let myself be happy now.
“Okay, let’s do this then,” the doctor says, moving the Doppler against my stomach.
I wait anxiously, watching, taking in our baby on the screen. They’ll be the perfect mix of me and the man I never thought would look at me twice with our history, yet here we are.
“Alright, Mom and Dad, right here,” the doctor points to the screen, “is where we can see that little miss is a girl. Congrats, you two.”
“We’re having a girl!” Pierce exclaims, grabbing my face and kissing the life out of me.
The doctor chuckles and finishes up, printing the scan so we can take it home.
“Well, now that we know…” Pierce starts when we make it back to the car, but his phone interrupts.
“Hey, man. Right now isn’t…” He quiets, letting whoever’s on the other line—probably my brother—speak. “Yeah, I got you. Give me twenty.”
“The club calls and you go, huh?” I don’t know why it sours my mood so quickly, but like a flip of a coin, I’m pissed. We were in our bubble, just the two of us, blissfully happy about our daughter.
“Lex, don’t be like that. It’s work. You know the club is more than riding and hanging out with the boys; it’s my job. My way to support you.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that.” I huff. “You know I start at Josephine’s salon next week.”
“That’s not the point.” His head falls back against the headrest. “I want to take care of you, Lexi, fuck. But I can’t do that without being on call for the club when they need me.”
“So, this is how it’ll always be? That’s what you’re telling me? The club over me.”
The fierce look he throws my way, before he’s in my space across the center console, sends my heart rate galloping. He grips the back of my neck, demanding my undivided attention.
“Never, and I’m dead serious right now, Lexi, ever think anything is more important to me than you and our daughter.
But the boys are a huge part of my life.
They’re family, too. When you were off with—” He stops, pinching his eyes closed, like even the thought of me with Evan causes him physical pain.
“When we were apart, they kept me together. Took me in after I had no family left. Gave me a roof over my head, a reason not to call it after the shit hand I’d been dealt in life.
So yeah, baby, they matter and sometimes they’ll get in the way, but you will always be my everything, Princess. ”
Maybe I’m overreacting… Okay, I’m obviously overreacting, and now I don’t know how to dig myself out of the hole I made. I hate feeling so off-kilter and insane because of these damn hormones running rampant through my system.
His forehead meets mine, breath fanning across my face from the deep sigh he lets loose. “Please, tell me you understand, Lexi. I won’t go until we’re good.”
“Won’t you get in trouble?” I choke out, not ready to eat my humble pie quite yet.
“Let’s just say, they can’t really get started without me.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, collapsing into his solid chest. “We had a good day, and I ruined it with my crazy.”
“I love your crazy, baby.” He laughs.
Instead of heading out with Pierce to finally start on the baby shopping now that we know we’re having a girl, he drops me at the house and heads out to do whatever it is he does.
Maybe Harlow would be up for a little retail therapy?
I balance my phone, waiting for the call to connect, while entering the passcode for the front door. As soon as the door shuts and locks behind me, my phone crashes to the floor.
A hooded figure stands down the hall, cloaked in shadows. My stomach flips, a cold sweat instantly beading down my spine.
It’s him, he’s finally come back to finish what he started before he disappeared.
Shuffling back, I reach for the door lock, not wanting to turn my back on the man who left me for dead. Instead of the cool touch of metal that should mean my salvation, my shoulder bounces off a firm chest.
Slowly, I scan my eyes from the intruder who still hasn’t moved in front of me to the threat breathing down my neck.
“Where do you think you’re going?” His saccharine smile has bile clawing up the back of my throat, and my hand dropping protectively over my stomach.
“I don’t know who you are, but you need to leave. My boyfriend will be in any minute,” I lie through my teeth, somehow managing to find the strength to speak.
“No, I don’t think he will.”
Comes a voice from behind me, one I know all too well.
My hands are ripped behind me, throwing off my balance. I lose my footing, tripping into the wall with a forceful thud against my head.
“Fucking let me go,” I seethe, kicking out behind me, but it’s no use.
The man in front of me flips open a knife out of nowhere, dropping it to my stomach—threat and intention obvious.
“Shut the fuck up, you stupid whore, or I’ll slice you open like a fat hog.” His dank breath invades my nostrils, but his words are the bucket of ice water on the fire inside me.
I can’t let anything happen to us. I have to protect us at all costs. I stop fighting my captor as I’m hauled into the living room. One of my dining room chairs is placed awkwardly in the center of the room where my coffee table usually sits.
Not only did they break into my house, but they also rearranged my furniture. That’s so not the point right now, Lex, I chide myself.
“Tie her hands and feet to the chair. I think it’s time I get my answers.”
The lights in the living room spring on, shocking my system, but I don’t need to see his face to know who I’m dealing with. I’m shoved into the chair, the man with the threatening tone making quick work to secure me.
Robert Montgomery sits perched across from me in the fifteen-dollar thrift-store chair that Harlow and I found. He’d probably stand if he knew where it came from—pretentious prick.
“You are a hard woman to get alone these days, Ms. Kane. Seems your bodyguard boyfriend likes to keep you close.”
I hope he’s right, and whatever chore the club has Pierce working on will have him hauling ass back home in no time.
But I know better than to get my hopes up.
Sometimes he’s gone for an hour, other times he sneaks away late after I’ve fallen asleep and is still gone in the morning.
The only reason I realize this is because our baby uses my bladder as a personal trampoline park.
“What do you want?” I spit.
“Don’t play dumb. I’d say it doesn’t suit you, but I think you fit the stereotype quite well. You know why I’m here.”
“You say I’m the dumb one, but how many times do I have to tell the cops, tell your wife, I don’t know where your piece of shit son is.”
His boisterous laughter fills the small room, bouncing off the walls, with its haunting taunts. Unfolding from his relaxed position, he closes the space between us, leaning down to meet my gaze.
If I weren’t terrified of the man with the knife behind me, I might do something stupid like head butt him and try to break myself out of this chair. But that’s not an option.
“Oh, my son is long gone. Your boyfriend made sure of that. But that’s not why I’m here. Where are the files?” he seethes, and my blood runs cold.