15. Stella
Chapter 15
Stella
My eyes cracked open just as the bedroom door did. I’d been listening to Trace clomping around the house for about an hour. He’d been determined for us to come home, to his place, where we could relax. His reasoning was to get the baby settled in.
Truth was, the jerk wanted to be able to sex me up and not have to worry about anyone hearing us. We were adults. What’s a little moaning and grunting? Jesus.
I watched him jostle himself in. I had no clue what he was doing, and I was too tired to get up and see. I knew he’d call out if he needed help, so there was no worry there. I shifted as Trace came fully into view, fighting with his crutches.
Why this man had so much trouble with doorways, I’d never know. At least he was able to put some weight on his injured leg now. Not sure that was a good idea, but he was dead set on it. His leg, his choice. I’d just say ‘I told you so’ when he jacked it up again. He was slowly advancing on the leg, which was helping him balance when he moved around. Right now the idiot was trying to move around in the dark, and his crutch was going to get stuck on the chest. It happened last night too. He’d almost face planted. I didn’t want that again.
I pushed back the covers and slid from the bed, yawning as I said, “Let me help you, crazy. What were you doing out there anyway?” I moved to his side.
If he woke Ethan, I’d have to skin him. The little man had been gassy, which meant he and I had both been crying most of the day. Shelby said it was normal; I’d taken him in just to make sure. I might have been freaking out a little bit. Thankfully, after a few exercises that left him less windy and a lot more stinky, he’d taken a bottle and crashed. Which was why I was trying to sleep. No such luck with this crazy man stomping around.
“You should be asleep,” he grumped at me.
“Well, I was, until an elephant spent the last hour leading the rest of his herd through my house.” Okay, so, I was a lot grumpy tonight. Sue me.
“I’m sorry, love. I was trying to stretch my legs, and things kept getting in my way.” His lips pulled down in a frown. “This house is too damn small. We need to find something bigger. With a better yard.” He meant with a yard. This sad excuse for a yard wasn’t even big enough to call a yard.
“What—” I tried to interject, but he kept right on going.
“Something over by your dad and the others. We’re on this side of town all by ourselves. It’s not a big town, but that’s beside the point. What if you go into labor and I’m not here? It could take them half an hour to get to you and get you to the doc’s office, or longer if you need to go to the hospital.”
I blinked. I was so tired that it took me a few seconds to let his words sink in. Labor? He was worried about something that wouldn’t happen for about seven and a half months; God willing, I was going to carry this baby to term if I had to super glue my vagina shut. I wasn’t going to allow myself to think of anything else.
“You’re being a nutter.” He barked out a laugh, but I was serious. “Don’t laugh this off. I’m not dropping a baby tomorrow. I can drive; the construction yard is just a few miles away. Daddy is mostly always there. You need to calm your shit and?—”
“I’m serious,” he cut me off.
I scowled. Did he think I hadn’t figured that out? It still didn’t change my response. He’d lost his damn mind. Maybe it was all the pain meds. His arm tightened around me, his crutch pressed between us.
“Hey, you’re squishing my tit. Unless you want me to be lopsided, I’d stop that.”
“I love you,” he said, shifting us so my back was to the wall. I grinned as his big body pressed against mine. My fingers, who had a mind of their own, trailed up his body, moving under his T-shirt to run across his very taut abdomen. Damn, he was a fine specimen of a man.
“I love you, too.”
His mouth landed on mine before I knew what was happening. My tiredness vanished. My skin was now covered in a fine dusting of gooseflesh. I blamed that deliciously scratchy beard of his. He knew exactly how to trail his lips down the side of my neck to turn me into a ball of hormones and need.
Now that my hormones were on high alert, it was ten times worse. “Trace…” I whined as my lady bits started to scream at me. Throbbing, wanting him.
“Hmm…” His fingers brushed the strap of my night shirt to the side. My eyes closed as his lips trailed across the exposed skin. A groan pushed past my lips as I squirmed against him. The evidence of his arousal was pressed against my stomach. The feel of him, the feel of what I did to him, turned me into a needy, wanting whore. This man, God, he was the best drug I’d ever get my hands on.
“Don’t tease me…” My words were breathy. He nipped at the skin under my ear, moving my head to the side.
That’s when it happened. The fates put a halt on our lust-filled moment. There was a loud crashing sound, a thump, and then the fucking house alarm blared loudly. It was deafening.
My heart leapt as I pushed back from Trace.
“Call the station.” I was moving before he could stop me. I grabbed my Glock from the dresser drawer and moved out of the room. The baby was screaming, startled awake by the alarm, but I had to make sure the house was clear first.
Why would anyone break into the home of well-known, armed bounty hunters? Were they on something? Was it random? Or was this something more. Retaliation? There could literally be a hundred answers to the reasons rolling around in my head.
As my feet hit the bottom of the staircase, something moved. A hulking shadow was darting out of the back slider. I snarled a curse and took off after it. My eyes saw the broken glass door, but I didn’t stop. I jumped over it and landed on the patio. The intruder went over the fence, and I followed him. My bare feet pushed me faster through the neighbor’s backyard. He was right there, but before I could get to him, I saw a streak of something moving toward me.
I heard a familiar voice call out, “Police!” I knew the drill. I stopped, gun hanging from my finger as my hands went up.
“My name’s Stella Malone. I’m chasing a perp who was inside my house.”
“Stella, dammit, get back,” Kruger growled as he and Hulk, his K9 partner, passed me. The asshole had taken off as soon as my attention was turned from him. Fuuuck!
I heard Trace call for me, then curse and snarl something I couldn’t hear. Silence fell around us; someone must have shut off the alarm. It was deafening. All I could hear now was my heart slamming into my chest wall. The loud cadence was hard to ignore. The baby was still screaming; I could hear him all the way out here. I cursed to myself and moved toward the fence, pushing through the gate and running back to the house. Poor Ethan. He was probably scared out of his little mind.
I found Trace in the baby’s room—aka our very small spare room. He was cradling Ethan protectively as his whole upper body hung out the window, hollering for me.
“I’m here, stop your hollering. Give him to me,” I said, putting my Glock on the dresser. I heard the bump as he tried to bring his big body back through the window. I winced in sympathy. Once I had Ethan in my arms, I started to shake, the adrenaline spike hitting me hard. I felt my knees buckle, but Trace grabbed me and held us close.
“I swear to God—if you ever do something so stupid again, I will blister your ass and not in a way you like. Don’t do that to me. I mean it, Stella. Don’t fucking do that again!” His face was pinched in anger, his eyes boring into my soul.
I tried to pull away, but with my arms full of crying baby, I couldn’t. “I knew what I was doing. Don’t try to order me around, Tracey Daniels.”
“You ran out in the fucking dark with a gun and no idea what in the fuck or who in the fuck you were chasing. You can’t do that kind of shit! Use your fucking head, woman.”
“I’m a bounty hunter. I can handle myself. That bastard was in our house! You couldn’t go after him! I did what I had to.” I shoved back, snarling, “I’m not a fucking child. You don’t get to boss me around.”
“You put yourself and our baby in danger!” He was shaking with rage. I heard it in his voice. Our tempers rose the longer we stared at each other.
“Stella. Tracey.” Drew was calling from downstairs, but I didn’t move. My gaze was hard on Trace. He’d called me stupid! Okay, so it was a little stupid, but that wasn’t what had my hackles up. He thought he was going to tell me what I could and couldn’t do here. Pregnant or not, I had a mind, and I was going to use it how I saw fit.
“You two...okay?” Drew stopped in the doorway.
I took a step back from Trace and turned.
“Fucking peachy.” I went to the dresser and pulled out a few onesies and some pants for the baby. I set to dressing him. He was only mildly fussy now. That could be due to hunger. He was dry, so I knew it wasn’t a wet tooshie. The room was silent as I moved from the bed to the closet. I pulled out the diaper bag Dani Lynn had given me, quickly filling it with diapers, wipes, his travel necessities, and a few more changes of clothing.
“Stella, Trace, I need to know what happened here.”
I looked up to meet Drew’s assessing gaze. I shrugged. “Someone busted out the sliding door. I chased after them, which according to my fiancé was stupid. The ass got away when Kruger and Hulk snuck up on me. They went after him. I came back in. I’m going to get Ethan and me a bag packed, and I’m going to go somewhere else for the night since the door is broken. Y’all figure this shit out, since apparently women can’t think or do things on their own without a man’s permission.”
I was being a bitch. Yes, I knew that, but his words stung more than I wanted to admit. He was partially right, and that just chapped my ass. I hadn’t thought about any of it; I’d just reacted. I should have stayed upstairs and calmed Ethan down. Let the police handle this shit, that’s what they got paid to do. I knew no more now than I did when it all went down, so really, it was a waste of energy. I’d made Trace worry for nothing. It was a cluster of fucks that I wanted to drop kick into oblivion.
I glanced at Trace as I left the baby’s room. His scowl was still in place. “I love you,” I said and left. The atmosphere in our bedroom had gone from a warm and loving place to a feeling of cold dread. My stomach hurt from all of the intense emotions.
He didn’t try to stop me. He was just going to let me leave?
I sighed. I yanked on my jeans, but they hugged me a little too tight. Grumbling, I pulled them off and exchanged them for sweats, a T-shirt, and slid on a pair of flip flops. No time for much more. With regret churning in my stomach, I pulled the diaper bag around me, shoved my Glock in its side pocket, and grabbed my keys.
My gaze went to the room down the hall. Long ago we’d made a promise to never go to bed angry—that was already flying out the door. My heart was thrumming with painful beats as the tears started to slide down my cheeks. It wasn’t fair. I’d known we—our relationship—would change when he found out I was pregnant. With that sour thought, I left the house.