Chapter 25
Gemma’s head was pounding and her throat was more sore than it had ever been in her life—one from the concussion she’d sustained, the other from the breathing tube that had kept her alive for the last week.
And then, as if reports of her coma-like state weren’t shocking enough, the doctor dropped a bomb on her she hadn’t seen coming. She was pregnant.
Pregnant!
She couldn’t stop crying. She cried all the way through a visit from the governor’s secretary, who told her she had just lost her job.
And while they were reserving the right to disbar her pending a full investigation, initial indications were that she would get to keep her law license, which she knew damn well she didn’t deserve.
They should’ve taken it all, stripped her of everything.
That would’ve been justice.
But she’d been granted mercy instead.
She had no idea how they’d found out about her conduct on the HERO Force case, and frankly she didn’t care. She didn’t even have the desire to defend her actions. Nothing mattered beyond the new life that had taken hold in her battered, war-torn, forty-four-year-old, cancer-free body.
She was going to have a baby.
It was a miracle.
It wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t even supposed to be a possibility, yet here she was, knocked up.
She laughed through her tears. She was pregnant with Logan’s child. She knew exactly when it happened, desperate for him to make love to her and drunk out of her mind, she’d grabbed the wrong condom from her purse, using her old one instead of the one April had given her.
She rested her hand on her abdomen, laughter and tears turning into emotional sobbing.
“Gemma?”
She jerked her hand away from her stomach and wiped at her eyes. “Logan.”
He looked tired but good, concern clearly ironed into his features, and she wondered how much time he’d spent at the hospital with her. A nurse had rushed to call him when she awoke, and he’d made it here in less than an hour.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She wiped her face. “Yes.”
“God, I’m glad to see you awake.” He leaned down and hugged her, gently kissing the top of her head. “I was worried sick.”
“Good as new.” Her voice was raspy and she put a hand to her throat.
“It’s from the ventilator. It will feel better in a day or two.”
She nodded.
“What did the doctors say?”
“I had a hole in my lung and another in my diaphragm. They stitched me up and I seem to be doing well.”
“Is that it?”
She cocked her head. “And a concussion. My head hurts.”
And I’m carrying your child.
She grinned, the expression feeling absurd on her features, like she was a crazy person trying to keep a secret.
He was looking at her intently.
“They said I should be able to get out of here tomorrow or maybe the next day. How’s Royce?”
Logan nodded. “Good. His wounds were mostly superficial. Twenty-five stitches and an aspirin for the road. He positively identified Stewart Cole.”
“Thank God he’s all right.”
He sat down. “Did you see who shot you?”
“No. I was sitting in the van with Jax. He was trying to use that parabolic listening device to hear inside the building, but it wasn’t working. Some kind of interference, so he decided to get closer.”
“And what did you do?”
She shrugged. “I stayed in the van, I guess.”
“You guess or you remember?”
She furrowed her brow. “I’m not sure. The next thing I really remember is…”
Finding out I was carrying your child.
“…waking up here,” she finished.
“We need to make sure we got everyone. Three of the kidnappers were killed at the scene, including Cole. But no one saw any of them leave the lake house and head toward the van where you were.”
“So you think there might be another one out there.”
“Right.”
A chill ran up her spine.
“You can stay with me, if you’d like,” he said.
That was the last thing she needed. “No. That’s all right. You’ve done enough already.”
She saw the unspoken questions in the depths of his eyes, but she wanted some time to think. It would be difficult to do that with him there.
“I can put a security guard on your doorstep,” he offered.
“That might be nice. Just for a while until I get my sea legs back under me.”
He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “You scared me, Faraday. Made me think about how much I like having you around.”
Her stomach clenched. “I need some time, Logan.”
“Take a few days if you need them, but I want to see you again. Don’t keep me waiting too long.”