Chapter Five
Lifting her head, Olivia stared at Eli. He stood still as stone. His lips parted. His eyes went blank. She didn’t even think he was breathing.
“The specialist was an obstetrician. When carbon monoxide enters the bloodstream, it binds to hemoglobin with a much higher affinity than oxygen. The strong bond makes it difficult for oxygen to be transported to the body’s tissues.
Since CO binds even more easily to fetal hemoglobin than to the mother’s, the baby can be more seriously affected.
All of which is further complicated by the fact that CO is eliminated more slowly from the fetus than from the mother.
This—” she waved her hands at the HBOT unit “—rapidly removes the poison from the body.”
Eli appeared to recover from her bombshell well enough to respond. “Dr. Kelly told me she hoped two hours in there would be enough. What if it’s not?”
“Worst case, I do another stint in here, but the obstetrician seemed confident this would be sufficient. It’s only a precaution.”
Nodding, he gaped at her. “Wow. A baby.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Mine?”
Anger sparked inside her. “Of course it’s yours.”
“But I thought you were seeing another guy.”
“What? Why would you think that?” All this time she assumed they’d been on the same page. “Have you been with other people? When we’re not together?”
She never asked and neither did he. That was deal. Still, the thought of him with someone else, without giving her the courtesy of a heads-up, made her blood boil.
“No. Never,” he said. “I would’ve told you.”
Good. “I haven’t been with anyone else either. I’m certainly not dating anyone.”
Confusion wrinkled his brow. “We usually see each other every three to six weeks. It’s been months,” he said, dragging out the enunciation of the last word, making it sound as though it had been years.
“Only two.” Even though to her, it had felt like forever since she’d seen him, touched him, smelled him.
“You’ve been ghosting me,” he said, far more gently than he probably would’ve if she hadn’t been in the oxygen tube, “letting my calls go to voicemail. Until this job. Why?”
“I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.” She needed to see his reaction, look into his eyes. “And I didn’t want to plan a visit, either, with you thinking it would be our usual arrangement. Not when I had this bombshell news to share. This assignment seemed like the perfect solution.”
“Since I picked you up from the airport, you were so standoffish, and there was the big talk you wanted to have, and then Dr. Kelly told me you needed to call someone important but wanted to talk to me first. I figured you wanted to call your new boyfriend and have him come to the hospital.”
“I need to call my boss. Lauren. I left my secure satellite phone in your truck, and I need you to get it, but I didn’t want to share that with the doctor.”
His mouth moved slightly, but no sound came out at first. “Oh.” He stood there, staring at her. “A baby,” he repeated with a mystified sort of sigh. “My baby. Is it okay?”
“Dr. Kelly did an ultrasound. I heard the heartbeat.” She pressed her palms to her stomach, thinking about the grainy image on the screen of her little peanut. “It was strong. Almost 140 beats per minute.”
“That sounds too fast.”
She thought the same thing. “Apparently, not for a fetus. Fast is healthy.”
“Why did you bury the lede by talking about us?”
She needed to know how he felt about her. If he wanted to make a go of this, have a real relationship because he couldn’t bear the thought of being without her. “You don’t want kids. Attachments.” No strings. “It was complicated.”
Eli nodded again, still looking shell-shocked.
For some reason, it was infuriating.
And utterly disappointing.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” She wasn’t sure what she wanted to hear from him.
“I…um.” He shrugged. “Do you want kids? You never talked about it.”
She had brought up marriage and babies delicately with him over the years, and his stance never changed.
“I’ve talked about it. Whenever I broached the subject, the conversation ended with you telling me unequivocally what you didn’t want.
But you never asked me what I wanted.” She thought if she told him how she felt, he’d take it as an ultimatum.
“Well, I’m asking now.”
Olivia gazed down at her stomach and smiled. Hearing the heartbeat for the first time was the greatest sound in the world. “I want this baby.” His baby. “More than anything.” She glanced over at him, and he looked like he was going to be sick. “Are you upset?”
He shook his head.
But nothing else from him.
Eli needed time to digest the news, which she’d expected, but deep down, she hoped he might be happy about the baby.
“Is your truck here at the hospital?” She wanted to change the subject and there was nothing better or more pressing than work.
“I had to drive. They wouldn’t let me ride in the ambulance with you.”
“As soon as I’m out of this thing, I need to call Lauren.
Update her.” Although Olivia was sure her boss had already heard the news about the fire, either from Whitney or some other source.
“Get her to send me everything about the development of the resort that she withheld from me. Lauren and her secrets.” Olivia inwardly groaned.
“I’ll need my secure laptop, too, which is in my luggage.
” At the hotel that nearly burned down with her inside it.
“Your mission was to stop NDR from sabotaging the opening of the hotel. You failed,” he said, and she bristled. “End of assignment.”
“This is just the beginning. Those zealots messed with the wrong woman. They knew I worked for ASIG and tried to kill me for it. I’m going to hunt them down, one by one, and see to it they end up behind bars, where they belong. Starting with Audrey Carter.”
“You can’t be serious,” he said in a slow, careful way.
“Why not?”
Folding one arm across his chest, he tipped his head to the side. “For starters, you’re pregnant.”
“It’s a condition. Not a debilitating disease.”
“But it isn’t safe.”
“This is my job, Eli. There are inherent risks with every assignment. This one isn’t any different. Do you think I’m going to resign after how hard I’ve worked to climb the ladder?” She was no quitter, literally or figuratively.
“Well, um, I—”
“I’m a fully qualified field operative. I do this all the time and have for years.”
“Stop,” he said, his tone so soft it was strained. “Who are you fighting? Me or yourself? I’m not some Neanderthal, but this is different.”
“Is it?”
“Look around. You’re in a hyperbaric oxygen unit because of fetal hemoglobin levels.” He took a deep breath. “It’s different.”
Okay, maybe it was a little different. Still… “Do you expect me to simply sit behind a desk for seven months when I’m capable of doing so much more?” Not that she had considered the specifics regarding work, yet. Of course, she’d make changes at some point and slow down a bit, but not for a while.
“You’re two months along?”
His question caught her by surprise since she assumed the answer was obvious, but they’d been together in February and March, too. Technically, she could’ve been farther along. “Yes. The baby is due in late January.”
Another nod from him. Stoic expression and ramrod posture returned. “It happened the last time we were together. During the one week we got sloppy when we’re usually so careful.”
In April, he flew to Colorado Springs. They went to an Imagine Dragons concert, hiked Pikes Peak, hit the new exhibit, The Tangled Self, at the Denver Art Museum, visited the Raptor Refuge where they rescue and rehabilitate injured birds, and ate every meal—he cooked them all—in bed after they made love.
Three times without any protection since they ran out, daring to take the chance.
No thought of the consequences. Like foolish teenagers.
She figured either his little swimmers or her eggs were probably duds anyway. A serious miscalculation. Who would’ve guessed they were both so fertile?
Especially her, at her age.
But that’s what they did, lived every moment they were together to the fullest. She’d never been happier than during his last visit.
“I started this assignment,” she said, “and I intend to finish it. With or without you. But I’d like it if you’d continue to have my back on this.”
His gaze dropped and his shoulders tensed.
Any other time, under any other circumstances, he wouldn’t have hesitated to say yes.
Instead of proposing or offering to assist, he was pulling away from her. None of this was going the way she expected.
Olivia clasped her hands over her stomach to keep from wringing them. “I thought you would be eager to go after NDR.”
“I am, but…” His voice trailed off, his eyes still averted.
“But not with me.”
Eli didn’t deny it. She supposed he didn’t even want to work with her now.
She took a moment to absorb the situation.
It was as though everything that had once been solid had turned to sand and was shifting around her and beneath her, and she didn’t like it.
“I can have Aegis send backup.” But it wasn’t what she wanted.
He was right. She failed to prevent an attack by NDR. Her reputation was at stake, not to mention her impeccable track record.
She didn’t want any glory-seeking operatives, who might be as likely to help her as they were to toss her under the bus, to steal credit for her work.
“But I’d prefer to have you,” she said, and he met her gaze.
This time she could read his face clearly.
Uncertainty was written all over him. “Did you mean it when you said you could do whatever is necessary, give me anything I need?”
His Adam’s apple moved with a hard swallow. “Yes.”
“I need you on this case. Help me see it through to the end.” She hated backing him into a corner, especially after putting his life in jeopardy, and springing a surprise pregnancy on him, but there was no one in the world she trusted more than Eli Easton.
“There’s nothing I can say to persuade you to drop this?”
She tilted her head to the side and gave him a pointed look.
“I didn’t think so.” He sighed. “I’ll do it, but under one condition.”
“Name it.”
“I get to call in the rest of my team at Ironside on this.”
She knew everyone who worked at IPS. A capable bunch and she liked them all. She didn’t see any problem with that. “Okay.”
“And if I tell you something is too dangerous,” he added, “you’ll listen to me and do as I say.”
What part of field-trained operative did he not understand? “That’s two conditions. Not one.”
He shrugged. “I was always bad at math.”
She couldn’t help but smile. He was an engineer, for goodness’ sake. If he was cracking a joke, maybe they would be okay. At least as friends.
“That’s the deal,” he said.
E and his deals. “I’m good with the first condition. The second I’ll have to assess on a case-by-case basis.”
“I need both, Liv. You take too many risks. Big ones. And you don’t know when to cut your losses and move on, even when you’ve been given an out and it’s for your own good,” he said in a steely tone that grabbed her full attention.
Was he talking about work or something else? “For the record, I’ve never lied to you either.” She put her hand back up to the glass. “Don’t make me start now. If there’s a promise I can’t keep, I’d rather not make it. This is the best I can do.”
Holding her gaze, he considered it for a moment.
“Your best has always been enough for me before. I guess it’ll do now.
” He placed his palm up to hers over the glass, and she wished she could feel the warmth of his skin against her hand.
“If this is really what you need, then I’m with you. Until the end.”