Chapter Eleven
Austin
“I’m nervous,” Mia admits as I pull the car into a parking lot in Manhattan for her trial prep with the district attorney. “I mean, not nervous for the prep but for the trial on Friday, which is ridiculous considering I’ve done this before.”
“It’s normal to be worked up. First of all, this guy has been trying to scare you away from testifying. And second, it’s nerve-racking not knowing what the defense is going to ask you. The good news is, it’ll all be over soon.” I place my hand on hers, and to my surprise, she doesn’t pull back.
Her skin is soft and my dick notices. Of course, it does. It is the first time I’ve really touched her since I carried her up to my bed.
Took care of her.
Fell asleep beside her.
Woke up holding her, her lithe, warm body curled back into mine.
Since life felt right and good, if only she hadn’t been sick. And she’s been sick for a while now. A niggling thought suddenly prickles at my brain.
No. We used protection.
But maybe it didn’t work?
One thing I know for sure, if she is pregnant, unlike Kayla, Mia didn’t arrange for it to happen.
How did I not recognize the possibility before? It isn’t the flu, no fever, no cough, chills, congestion. And the longer it goes on, the less likely it is a stomach bug.
Hell, it was right in front of me this whole time, and I was blind. Because Kayla had a textbook perfect pregnancy, no morning sickness at all.
Mia could be pregnant.
Fuck.
But instead of panic, I feel an overwhelming sense of rightness settle over me, making me wonder, what the hell have I been fighting so damned hard against?
She is my perfect complement in all ways. An out-of-the-blue realization? Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s been floating around in the back of my mind for a long time now, but I took my time coming to the right place because she’s been here all along.
I was an ass, letting things go on as they’ve been, Mia always there in my life but not where she should be. In my bed. In my heart.
I love her.
I blink. Glance at her delicate profile, the serious expression on her face an indicator of the way she’d withdrawn from me because I let her.
“Austin? I asked if you’re ready to get out of the car,” she says, concern in her voice.
I blink again. “Yeah.” I’m not. Inside I am trembling.
I want nothing more than to take her into my arms and put her out of her misery.
Whether she knows, suspects, or not, she needs me.
But there is something she has to get through first, and it needs her focus.
However, when this mess that is screwing with her life ends, we are going to have a serious talk about our future.
Because her being around isn’t enough for me. Not when she’s become as essential to me as breathing.
I climb out and stride around to her side, helping her stand. “Are you feeling okay?” I ask. She seems fine this morning, but I have the sense she is hiding as much as she can from him… and now I understand why.
“Yes. Better today,” she says, ducking her head, not meeting my gaze.
She obviously doesn’t want me to know. Because I made it clear I don’t want to start over with marriage, a family. I damn myself for being so clueless.
“You ready to do this?” I ask.
She nods. “I don’t think I’ll be in with Kate for long. An hour, tops.”
“I’ll be waiting when you get out. I’m not leaving you alone.”
“I appreciate that.”
I deal with the parking lot attendant and lead Mia out to the street. On the walk to the office, I keep an eye on everything going on around me. The city is busy, people rushing to work on a normal morning, but I have an arm around Mia, holding her close, ready to protect her if need be.
We approach the building, which has five steps up and a set of double doors through which to enter. Before we reach the first step, Mia looks down and her sunglasses fall from her head to the ground.
She pauses, bending down to retrieve them at the same time that I catch sight of a man with a gun. Everything happens at once. The man fires as I shove her to the ground, doing my best to take the brunt of the fall even as I keep her beneath the protection of my body.
Mia screams. People around them shout, in a panic. And I have to let the shooter go to concentrate on Mia.
He turned her onto her back. “Hey, baby.” He looked into her eyes, his heart pounding with the thought that he could have lost her. “Are you okay?”
She shakes her head, and I glance down, seeing flecks of blood staining through her clothes. Jesus Christ, she’s been shot. Nausea rushes through me.
I pull her into my arms, covering her body with my own. “Fuck.” Anger and fury pulse inside me, both at myself and the bastard who was so brazen as to shoot in a crowd.
I glance around, but we are surrounded by onlookers, and the assailant is long gone. “Someone call 911!” I shout to the people around us, then refocus on Mia. “I’ll get you out of here, just hang on. I’ve got you.”
Tears pool in her eyes. “I’m fine. My shoulder burns but… I’m okay,” she says, as if I am the one who needs reassuring. “But—”
“Give me a second.” I rip off my jacket and press it against the wound, applying pressure.
She winces at the pain.
“I’m sorry, but I have to staunch the bleeding.”
“Ambulance is on its way,” someone yells to him.
I breathe out a harsh breath.
Suddenly Mia grabs my arm with her good hand. “Austin, I’m scared.”
I lean closer, my lips near her cheek. “It’s going to be okay.”
“But…” She draws a shuddering breath, her gaze hesitant. “I’m pregnant. What about the baby?”
The sound of sirens blares, and relief floods me. She says it is her shoulder that burns, but until I know if that bullet exited and didn’t hit anything vital, I won’t breathe easy.
I suck in a shallow breath, possibility suddenly becoming definite. In the chaos of her getting shot, I forgot my earlier thoughts about her potentially having my baby.
“I know you are,” I say with a soft smile. “I figured it out, but right now we’re going to focus on you, and when the ambulance gets here, we’ll fill them in.”
Her eyes open wide at my admission. “You know?”
“I just figured it out as we pulled into the garage.” I push harder on the jacket as the ambulance pulls up to the curb.
Paramedics run out and push me aside. I know the drill, but it still rankles. “She’s pregnant,” I inform them. “Make sure they’re both okay.”
“We’re on it. Just stay back,” a female says.
I can’t see over their backs or shoulders, and I am in a panic of my own. Finally, they put her on a stretcher, and I run up beside her, grasping her hand.
“Sir, you can’t—”
“I’m her fiancé. I’m coming with her,” I say in my sternest, most insistent voice.
Mia’s eyes grow wide in her now pale face.
Ignoring her shock, I push past the paramedics and join her in the back of the ambulance.
* * *
Mia
I lay on a bed in the emergency room, my shoulder burning, the pain agonizing, but I am fortunate the bullet only grazed me.
The amount of blood after the shooting was deceiving as far as the damage done.
They gave me a painkiller, assuring me it is safe for the baby in the early stages of pregnancy, and considering the level of pain I am in, I decide not to argue.
I’ll take it to get over the initial pain and cut back as soon as possible.
Now I have to face Austin. The fact that they didn’t let him back with me while they worked on my shoulder is a blessing because I didn’t want to deal with the baby talk on top of everything else going on.
But now I am alone, it is quiet, and I’ll have to deal with the fact of my pregnancy and my future.
The sweet nurse who was by her side through the worst of the cleaning of the wound went out to get my fiancé, as he called himself to the paramedics. Not that I blame him. The label enabled him to stay by my side, and I appreciated not being alone and afraid at the same time.
“Hello?” Austin pushes aside the curtain. “Is it okay if I come in?”
“Sure.”
He steps into the small cubicle in which I was placed.
One look at him, and I know he isn’t doing well.
He took off his jacket to staunch my blood loss and now wears a rumpled white shirt, sleeves haphazardly rolled up.
His hair stands on end as if he was running his fingers through it over and over again.
He is pale, his eyes glazed, and my heart squeezes tight in my chest.
I didn’t mean to put him through something so traumatic, and though I understand this is his job, even I have to admit he’s been affected by today’s events.
“Hey.” He comes up to my bed and grips the metal side rail.
“Hey.”
Unable to help myself, I reach out and place my hand over his. “I’m okay,” I reassure him. “The bullet grazed my shoulder. It didn’t penetrate or do any major damage.”
“Because you dropped your glasses. Otherwise, you would have taken a direct hit somewhere more vital. I wish I’d been on your other side,” he says, teeth clenched, his frustration and anger with himself obvious.
“You couldn’t have guessed where he’d be.”
Austin nods, his jaw tight, as if he really does know that, he just hates the fact that I was hurt.
Silence follows for a few minutes, and he finally speaks. “Are we going to talk about it?” he asks.
I glance down at my still-flat stomach. “We should.” I run my tongue over my dry lips. “I was going to tell you right after the trial.”
He inclines his head. “I believe you. I just can’t really wrap my head around the fact that you’re pregnant. I mean, we used protection, no holes in the condoms,” he says wryly.
“It happens.” I still look down, needing to gather myself as I say what I planned to say next. “Austin…”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t expect anything from you.”
“Mia,” he says, a definite warning in his tone.
I shake my head. “No. Let me finish.”
He waves a dismissive hand. “Go ahead.”
I swallow hard. “I know this happened to you before.”