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I walk to the sink on shaky legs and wash my hands, splashing my face. I can’t believe I’m pregnant. A baby hasn’t been something on my mind, and now I’m frightened to bring it into this world. My arms wrap around my stomach, unable to stop another dry retch into the sink.
I could put the baby up for adoption, and no one would need to know. Oh goodness, what if it’s twins? My stomach fills with piles of dread that keep landing on top of each other.
I need to save my mother. That’s what is pressing right now.
Splashing my face with water again, I take a slow cleansing breath, then dry off with a paper towel. “Pull yourself together, Aelina. We’ll get through this. Everything will work out how it’s supposed to.”
When I step back into the shop, everything feels different. Even my body feels different. It has a little person growing inside it. I need to protect him or her at all costs. This is my baby. My blood. It won’t get taken away from me. It won’t have the life I’ve had.
Things are the same on the street—people walk past me as though they don’t have a care in the world. It’s me who is not the same.
A loud shot rings through the night. I scream, dropping my body low to the ground as do others around me. Another shot soon follows. Something hits the brick wall near me, and I scream again.
Suddenly, there’s a man by my side. I look up and nearly die. “Landon?”
He looks at me with sadness in his eyes, but there’s also anger. At that second, I know. He knew I was planning to leave and has been watching me ever since.
Which means ...
“Does Hunter know?”
He nods.
Another shot, and I scream again.
Landon takes my arm and pulls me into the back seat of a nearby black SUV—Hunter’s car. I half expect Hunter to be there waiting for me, ready to chew me out.
Landon leaps into the car and tears out and down the street. “Keep your head down until I tell you it’s safe,” he grumbles.
After a short moment of lots of turning and swerving away from that place, he says, “You can sit up now.” And when I do, I know where we are heading—back to May’s. Only this time, there’s a plus one that only I know about.
“What was the outcome?” Landon asks once we are clear of the city.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“The test. I went in after you to see if you’d left it there.”
Wow, he is really good at being stealthy. I should take a few of those lessons with him.
I’m silent for a moment, then look up into the rearview mirror. “It was positive.”
I watch as his eyes shut for a brief second, then meet mine again. “It’ll be okay. We’ll tell Hunter, and he’ll take care of it.”
Take care of it? “Excuse me? I’m not getting rid of this baby.” My voice rises with each word, my hand falling to my stomach.
“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant.” He sighs. “I’m terrible at this soft stuff. Give me running from bullets any day. Soft, mushy, lovey-dovey crap isn’t for me.” The words come out in a rush.
This is the most uncomfortable I’ve seen him. And he’s right. I have never seen him with gentle eyes, the kind he’s looking at me with right now.
I can’t help but laugh, and Landon finally cracks a decent smile. I probably shouldn’t be laughing, considering I’ve just been shot at three times, but it’s somehow therapeutic.
“Congratulations,” he finally offers.
“Thanks. How do you think Hunter is going to take this?” I chew my lip, waiting for his response.
“Any news on you makes him the happiest.”
“Landon, I don’t want to tell him right now.”
