Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 154728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
I’d considered the risk to be nonexistent.
I hadn’t thought about how powerful Kane was, how equally powerful his sperm must’ve been. Not just to circumvent birth control but then to survive the stress of the past few months.
I had gone through the motions of my life as best as I could. Except I didn’t do anything very well. Cooking was a shitshow. Pregnancy jacked up your tastebuds, it seemed. And then there was the almost round-the-clock vomiting. Luckily, my staff was the best in the world and able to run the kitchen without me. None had blinked an eye at my ‘stomach virus’ making it so I couldn’t run point on dishes.
My team wasn’t easily ruffled.
Still, I had no idea what I was going to do about the kitchen. If my sickness continued—which my reading told me it would, until the second trimester, at least—I couldn’t work. I couldn’t cook the quality food I was known for.
The mere prospect sent me into a cold sweat.
But I’d deal with that when it came. First, I needed to talk to Kane.
Brax had been lying. He’d caught me when I was vulnerable, had sniffed that out. But no way could he ruin everything Kane and I had in one conversation.
I’d been sure of that when he let me into his offices again, the same fake smile, same slimy demeanor.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, gesturing for me to sit.
I ignored that, staying standing. “I’m feeling like I don’t need small talk. I need you to tell me I’m on the approved list to visit Kane.” I had my ice queen persona firmly in place.
Brax’s face softened into what was surely faux pity, but his beady eyes looked calculated.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”
“What the fuck do you mean?” I demanded. “You said you would speak to him.”
He nodded. “I did. I spoke, told him about you, showed him this.” He took the crumpled and ripped ultrasound photo out from inside of his jacket.
He’d ruined it on purpose, I was certain. Brax was the kind of person who wanted to ruin pure and wonderful things just because he could.
I let the rage burn my throat, but I kept my expression cool.
“And he gave me this, to give to you.” He took out another piece of paper, this one smooth. Pristine.
Instead of handing it to me, he pushed it across his desk in my direction.
I gritted my teeth at his assholery. I took slow, measured steps to snatch up the piece of paper with steady hands, unfolding it and reading it.
Get rid of it.
I stared at those four words, a viscous sludge rippling through my gut.
My hands began to shake, gripping the paper hard enough to almost tear it in half.
Get rid of it.
Written in Kane’s handwriting. I knew the messy, bold scrawl backward and forward. Had notes from him carefully preserved in a drawer beside my bed at home.
His handwriting. His words.
Get rid of it.
As if it were nothing. As if I were nothing.
My hand went to my stomach, and the paper fluttered to the floor. It didn’t make a sound. I expected it to boom at the impact due to how heavy it had felt mere moments ago.
“I can arrange an appointment at a discreet clinic. I’ve been authorized to give funds to pay for the procedure.” Brax’s words seemed to be coming from a vacuum.
My head snapped up to meet his sniveling face. I was now released from any and all obligation to be polite to him.
“Go to hell,” I said evenly. “You and your small, small mind and your gigantic ego can go to hell.”
Then I turned and left, knowing I had nowhere to go, nothing left, but that I also had to protect the one thing in this world that was mine.
KANE
I clenched and unclenched my fists, willing my body to relax. I knew that she would assess every part of me in that sharp gaze of hers. She wouldn’t miss a thing. Avery made it her job to become an expert at whatever she was interested in. And lucky son of a bitch that I was, she was interested in me.
Therefore, she’d seen me wired, she’d noted my lack of sleep and the energy of a caged animal I’d worked my ass off to shake. Thankfully, I hadn’t been in any fistfights to establish dominance or some such shit. I’d been ready and willing to fight for a spot needed, but apparently, Knox had made arrangements since no one fucked with me. And I knew that was not because they were all motocross fans. Another way my brother protected me.
I was glad about it for many reasons, most because it would mean Avery wouldn’t have something else to worry about.
I might not have made it my business to become an expert in everything I did, but I had made it my business to become an expert in her. Part of the reason I couldn’t sleep— in addition to the paper-thin mattress, the stifling heat and the narrowness of the cell—was because I was haunted by images of her.