19. Roman
ROMAN
T he sound of Cassie’s cry cut through me like a blade.
I spun around to find her collapsed on the bedroom floor, knees drawn to her chest, arms wrapped around her stomach like she was trying to hold herself together. The moonlight streaming through the windows painted her face pale as death, and the raw agony in her voice made my blood turn to ice.
"Cassie!" I dropped to my knees beside her, my hands hovering over her trembling form. In my world, I’d seen men take bullets without making a sound. But the broken whimper that escaped her throat was the most terrifying thing I’d ever heard.
"Something’s wrong," she gasped, her voice barely audible. "Roman, something’s really wrong."
Panic seized me—pure, undiluted terror that had nothing to do with bullets or betrayal and everything to do with the woman curled in agony at my feet. This wasn’t a world I could control with violence or intimidation. This was helplessness in its rawest form.
I scooped her into my arms, feeling how small she was, how fragile. Her head fell back against my shoulder, and I could see the pain etched across her features even as she tried to stay conscious.
"Connor!" I roared, my voice echoing through the estate. "Get the cars ready! Now!"
Footsteps thundered through the hallways as my security detail mobilized. I carried Cassie down the marble staircase, her fingers clutching weakly at my shirt. Every step felt like an eternity.
"Stay with me, sweetheart," I murmured against her hair, trying to keep my voice steady when everything inside me was screaming. "I’ve got you. You’re going to be fine."
But I didn’t know that. I didn’t know anything except that the woman who’d somehow become essential to my survival was slipping away from me, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
Connor had three SUVs waiting in the circular drive, engines running, my best men already in position. I slid into the middle vehicle with Cassie still in my arms, Tommy jumping into the passenger seat while Connor took the wheel.
"St. Mary’s Hospital," I barked. "Fast as you can without killing us."
Connor nodded grimly and gunned the engine. The convoy pulled out of the estate gates like a military operation, but all I could focus on was Cassie’s shallow breathing, the way her face had gone gray with pain.
She stirred as we hit the main road, her eyes fluttering open to find mine. "Roman..."
"Don’t talk," I said, brushing damp hair back from her forehead. "Save your strength."
"I’m sorry," she whispered, and the words hit me like a physical blow.
"For what?"
"For not telling you—" Another cramp seized her, cutting off whatever confession she’d been about to make. She bit back a scream, her nails digging into my forearms hard enough to draw blood.
Not telling me what? But there was no time for questions, no time for anything except getting her help before I lost her completely.
The hospital appeared through the windshield like salvation, all glass, and steel against the night sky. Connor pulled right up to the emergency entrance, and I was out of the car before it fully stopped. Cassie cradled against my chest.
"I need a doctor!" I shouted as the automatic doors slid open. "Now!"
The emergency room exploded into controlled chaos. Nurses appeared with a gurney, their hands gentle but efficient as they transferred Cassie from my arms. I tried to follow, but a doctor in scrubs blocked my path.
"Sir, you need to let us work?—"
"I’m not leaving her." The words came out deadly quiet, carrying enough menace to make the man step back.
"Family only in the treatment area."
"I’m her fiancé."
He studied my face, probably taking in the expensive clothes, the barely concealed weapons, the cold authority that marked me as someone not to be crossed. After a moment, he nodded.
"The waiting room is through those doors. We’ll update you as soon as we know something."
I watched them wheel Cassie through double doors that might as well have been prison bars. The last thing I saw was her hand reaching for me before the doors swung shut, cutting us off from each other.
The waiting room was a sterile hell—fluorescent lights, plastic chairs, the smell of disinfectant that couldn’t quite mask the underlying scent of fear and death. I paced like a caged animal while my security detail took positions around the room, their presence violating a dozen hospital policies.
But I didn’t give a fuck about policies. Not when Cassie was behind those doors, fighting a battle I couldn’t help her win.
Time moved like molasses. Every minute felt like an hour, every sound from the treatment area making my pulse spike with hope or terror. I’d built an empire on patience and strategic thinking, but sitting in that waiting room stripped away every defense I’d ever built.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her laugh—the way it transformed her entire face, made her eyes light up like stars.
The fire in her voice when she stood up to me, the steel in her spine that let her survive in my world without losing herself.
The way she felt in my arms, perfect and precious and mine.
When had she become so important? When had protecting her become more vital than protecting the business?
"Boss." Tommy appeared at my elbow, phone in hand. "Declan’s calling. Wants to know if you need backup."
"Tell him to handle things at the estate. I’m not leaving until?—"
The double doors opened, and a doctor emerged. Older man, steady hands, the calm competence that came from years of delivering life-changing news. I was on my feet before he’d taken three steps.
"Mr...?"
"Creed. How is she?"
His expression gave nothing away as he approached. "Ms. James is stable. The acute pain has subsided, and her vital signs are improving."
Relief hit me like a freight train, nearly buckling my knees. "She’s okay?"
"She’s going to be fine. However, there are some things we need to discuss." He gestured toward a quieter corner of the waiting room. "Privately."
I followed him, every nerve ending on high alert. Doctors who wanted private conversations rarely brought good news.
"Mr. Creed, I need to ask—were you aware that Ms. James is pregnant?"
The word hit me like a physical blow. "What?"
"Approximately five to six weeks along, based on our initial assessment. The stress and physical trauma she’s experienced recently nearly caused a miscarriage, but we were able to stabilize both mother and baby."
Pregnant. Cassie was carrying my child.
The sterile hallway seemed to tilt around me, fluorescent lights blurring into streaks of white. Everything I thought I knew about our situation, about what was at stake, just shifted fundamentally.
A baby. My baby. Growing inside the woman who’d already turned my controlled world upside down.
"Is she...?" I couldn’t finish the question, couldn’t voice the fear that was clawing at my chest.
"Both mother and child are stable for now," the doctor continued.
"But Mr. Creed, I need you to understand—the stress Ms. James has been under could have resulted in a complete loss. Her body is telling us she needs rest, peace, and minimal stress. Whatever’s been happening in her life recently, it needs to stop. "
Peace. Minimal stress. In my world, those were fairy-tale concepts. I was at war with enemies I couldn’t see, surrounded by betrayal, fighting to keep an empire from crumbling around me. And now Cassie was caught in the middle of it, carrying something precious that made her even more vulnerable.
"Can I see her?" My voice came out rougher than I’d intended.
"In a few minutes. She’s been asking for you."
The doctor walked away, leaving me standing alone in the hallway with the weight of fatherhood settling on my shoulders like armor. Cassie was pregnant. With my child. The heir to everything I’d built, everything I’d fought to protect.
And she’d kept it from me.
The betrayal cut deeper than any bullet I’d ever taken. While I’d been laying my life on the line to protect her, she’d been hiding the most important secret of all. How long had she known? How long had she been planning to keep me in the dark?
My phone buzzed. Declan’s name flashed on the screen.
"Roman? How is she?"
"She’s..." I stopped, staring at the closed doors that separated me from Cassie. From the mother of my child. "She’s going to be fine."
"Thank God. When can you come home? We need to discuss security arrangements, especially after tonight. If someone was watching the estate?—"
"Later, Declan." I ended the call without explanation, my mind racing through implications I wasn’t ready to process.
A baby changed everything. Made Cassie not just my woman, but the mother of my heir. Made her the most valuable target in the city. Every enemy I’d ever made would see her as the perfect way to destroy me.
But it also made her family in a way that couldn’t be negotiated or dissolved. Blood of my blood. The future of the Creed name growing inside her body.
"Mr. Creed?" A nurse appeared beside me. "She’s awake now. Room 205."
I followed her down sterile corridors that smelled of disinfectant and fear, my footsteps echoing off polished floors. Outside room 205, I paused, hand on the door handle.
Inside was the woman who’d hidden her pregnancy from me. The woman is carrying my child. The woman whose safety had just become the most important thing in my world.
Everything had changed in the space of a doctor’s diagnosis.
And I had no idea what the hell I was going to say to her.