by Janie Crouch
“If it’s okay with you, I’ll just stay in here. Get a little bit of work done on my tablet.” Roman grinned.
Keira nodded. She didn’t want to fall back into an easy banter with him. Didn’t want to remember how well they got along both in and out of bed. She felt a little dizzy at the thought.
“Are you okay?” He took a step toward her, but she quickly moved toward the door.
“Yeah. I’m fine. The last couple weeks have just been...a little crazy. And now this.”
“Okay. I’ll be here waiting for you,” he said softly, taking a step toward her.
Keira turned and walked out, closing the door sharply behind her. Him waiting for her, with his sexy smile and sparkling blue eyes, was what she was most afraid of.
“Hi, sweetie! Oh my gosh, what happened to your eye?” Summer Worrall rushed over to give her a hug before Keira led her to the salon chair.
Keira lowered her voice to answer the question, not wanting to take a chance that Roman might burst out of the office and start searching the entire place for an unknown assailant.
“Some punk kid vandal broke in last night and I decided it would be a good idea to chase him with a broom.” Keira rolled her eyes at her own absurdity.
“What were you thinking?” Summer exclaimed. “That could’ve been really dangerous.”
Keira began running her fingers through Summer’s auburn locks. “Yeah, just blame it on the fact that it was the middle of the night, I haven’t been getting much sleep and I’ve just been acting crazy for the last couple of weeks.”
Of course the truth was Keira often felt like she had to sleep with one eye open here. The women who came to stay with her at Fresh Starts often brought danger with them. The security system in the upstairs apartments was pretty advanced, but the one she’d put in at the salon was more basic. Maybe she would need to look into changing that.
“Anyway, I ran around the corner with my broom, like some Amazon warrior about to attack, and dude clocked me in the face as he was trying to get out.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay.” Summer still looked worried. “I know Ashton has been thrown for a loop by what happened to Grace Parker.”
“Yeah, I just heard about that. They’ve got to catch this Freihof guy.”
“Believe me, nobody feels that way more strongly than I do.”
Two months ago, Freihof had come after Summer and her toddler daughter. They’d almost been killed in the same explosion that had put Roman in the coma.
“Hey, Keira.” Annabel walked over to the two of them, bringing Summer a cup of coffee. “Can I get your super hunky lawman anything while he’s stuck in your office?”
Both Summer’s eyebrows rose as high as they could go. “You have a super hunky lawman in your office? Anybody I know?”
Seriously, Keira was going to have to fire Annabel. Or get the girl a muzzle.
“Yeah, you can ask him,” she told Annabel. “And be sure to chat with him for a while. He loves to talk to people.”
There. That would keep Annabel out of her hair and give Roman a few gray ones. He could easily afford them, in all his thick brown locks.
“Um, yeah. Roman Weber is in my office. Let’s get you washed so we can get you home before this storm hits.”
She led Summer over to the sink, hoping that would deflect the topic of Roman. But as soon as she was back in the salon chair, Summer pressed for more details.
“Why is Roman here? I mean, it would be fine if he was here to get his hair cut. That would make sense. But I’m assuming, since he’s in your office, it’s not for a style.”
“Evidently, a business card with my name on it was found at the crime scene involving Grace Parker.”
Summer’s eyes grew wide. “Are you serious? A business card from the salon? Is that who you think broke in last night?”
“No, a business card from one of my previous places of employment, not here. And no, I definitely do not think Damien Freihof broke in here last night.”
Because if it had been Freihof, Keira would probably be a lot more dead than she was right now.
“But Omega Sector is concerned that Freihof might have decided to target me, or whatever.” Keira got her scissors out and began to trim Summer’s hair in her usual style. “And Roman volunteered to come babysit me.”
She looked up from the section she was cutting to find Summer watching her face in the mirror.
“He volunteered? Wasn’t assigned?”
Keira laughed, trying to make it seem a little lighter. “Yeah, that’s what I meant. Assigned. Volunteered. Whatever.”
Summer wouldn’t be deterred. “So the rumors about you and Roman at Brandon and Andrea’s wedding are true. That you two were hot and heavy in a corner and then nobody saw you again after that.”
Keira could feel her face start to burn. “Yeah, there may be some truth to that. But it didn’t last.”
“Really?” Summer looked crestfallen. “I would’ve thought you and Roman would hit it off really well. He’s a fun guy. Or at least he was. I guess almost getting blown up can change a person.”
“Actually, it was more like he found out that I used to be an exotic dancer and decided I wasn’t good enough for him.”
Seriously? Now who needed a muzzle? Keira had no idea why she’d just said that. She met Summer’s gaze in the mirror again. Her friend’s eyes were huge, staring back at her.
“He said that?” she gasped. “What a jerk!”
Keira couldn’t allow her to think that about Roman. Although his mother might not have been thrilled about Keira’s past line of work, he hadn’t ever said anything negative about it.
Keira went back to cutting hair, wishing they were talking about anything else in the world, even Damien Freihof.
“No, he didn’t really say that. I can’t let you think that he did. We just discovered we were from two different worlds. One of those things where it didn’t work out.”
Keira was absolutely aghast to find tears forming in her eyes at her own words.
Summer could hardly believe it, either. “Keira, stop.” She turned in the chair. “Are you okay?”
Keira set the scissors down and rubbed a hand across her face. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m really not sad about Roman. That all happened two months ago. And I haven’t really seen or talked to him since.”
“If it’s hard to be around him, you can ask Omega to send someone else instead,” Summer said. “If you and Roman have a bad history for whatever reason, it’s fine to ask for someone else. You don’t have to be around him all the time.”
Keira nodded and Summer turned back around in the chair.
“It’s not that we have bad history between us. It’s just that, you know...” She trailed off, knowing she wasn’t making much sense.
Fortunately, Summer didn’t press it. Keira finished most of her trim with the two of them talking about every other possible topic. The style Summer wanted was simple, which was good, since the other woman hoped to get home before the storm hit.
When Keira was done, she took off the cape and shook it. Summer stood and gave her a hug.
“I’m sorry I’m such an emotional wreck today,” Keira said. “Honestly, it’s not just today, so you can’t blame Roman. He hasn’t done anything to upset me.”
Summer looked relieved. “Good. I didn’t want to think badly of Roman, but I hate to think of him treating you poorly.”
“He hasn’t. I promise.” Keira stretched her shoulders and her neck, then tilted her head from side to side. “It’s me. I’m just tired, overwhelmed. Don’t feel like myself. Have been that way for the last couple of weeks.”
Summer laughed gently. “Sounds like how I felt right after Tyler died.”
Tyler, Summer’s husband, had been killed in a hostage situation a couple year
s ago.
“Of course, I was pregnant with Chloe at the time, so that just made everything worse,” Summer continued. “But everything will get better, I promise. You’ll find your balance again.”
Keira could feel the blood leaving her face as she walked Summer to the front desk, without actually knowing what she was doing.
Pregnant with Chloe.
Keira did rapid math in her head to try to figure out when her last period had been. She listened while Summer paid for her haircut and chatted with Annabel for a minute, still trying to figure it out.
She hugged Summer again as her friend left, and promised they would get together soon.
When she’d gone, Keira turned to Annabel.
“Can you find Heather and tell her I need to reschedule her training for a little later? I’m not feeling very well and I need to go upstairs for a few minutes.”
Annabel looked concerned. “Are you okay? You look a little pale.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She walked up the back stairs that led to the apartments over the salon. She let herself into her own unit and went straight to the bathroom, reaching under the sink and pulling out a pregnancy test.
They had bought two of the tests for a woman who had come through last month. When her results had proved negative, the woman had left soon after. Keira had no doubt she was going back to her abuser. That sometimes happened.
Now Keira sat on the edge of her bathtub, staring at the unopened pregnancy test package. She never thought she would be using one for herself.
Could she really be pregnant?
She and Roman had used protection during their two days in the hotel. So it was very unlikely. It was much more likely she was just having some sort of nervous breakdown.
Keira ripped open the carton and followed the directions on the package. She set the indicator on the ledge of the sink while she washed her hands.
She let it sit there much longer than the two minutes required to give her a result.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at it.
She heard a knocking on the door.
“Keira?” It was Roman’s voice. “Annabel’s a little worried about you. She said you’re not feeling well. Are you okay?”
Was she okay? Keira could feel hysterical laughter bubbling up in her. She was still afraid to look at the results of the test, but didn’t say anything.
Another minute passed before Roman knocked a little more urgently on the door.
“Keira.” His voice was much more firm this time. “Open the door.”
Keira couldn’t avoid it any longer. She picked up the pregnancy test. A little pink plus sign shone clearly in the indicator window.
She was pregnant.
Roman’s fist banged on the door again. “Keira, I’m going to break the door down if you don’t open it. Or at least talk to me.”
Keira couldn’t stop staring at the pregnancy test.
She was pregnant.
The banging seemed to be blocked out by the ringing in her ears as she reached for the doorknob, to let Roman in before he broke down the door like he swore he would do.
She caught a glimpse of his very concerned face before the entire world spun around her and everything faded to black.
Chapter Nine
Roman was about five seconds from breaking down the bathroom door when the knob turned and it opened.
He wanted to lay into Keira for not answering him, for scaring him to death, when he saw her eyes roll back in her head and she started to slip to the ground.
He wasn’t sure he had ever moved as quickly in his life as he did to catch her.
“Oh my gosh, is she all right?” Annabel said, peering over his shoulder as he lowered Keira gently to the floor outside the bathroom.
She seemed to be breathing fine and color was returning to her cheeks. Much better than the deathly pale she’d been when she’d open the door.
“What happened to her eye?” he asked Annabel. He hadn’t pushed it when Keira had said it was an accident, but maybe this was some sort of head injury, delayed in its response.
“Someone broke in last night and she chased after him. I think he punched her as she came around the corner.”
What the hell? Why hadn’t Keira told him this from the beginning, rather than saying it was an accident?
“Who broke in? What happened?” He fired off the questions at Annabel.
“Some vandal. Keira heard him in the middle of the night and chased after him.”
“We need to call 911.”
“No.” This came from Keira, who was blinking and trying to sit up. “I’m fine. There’s no need to call an ambulance.”
Roman still had an arm under her shoulders. He couldn’t seem to make himself move away.
“Sounds like you took a blow to the head. That should be checked out.”
Keira moved from his grasp. When he saw she was going to sit up whether he wanted her to or not, he helped her.
“No, I’m fine,” she repeated. “We called the police last night. It wasn’t a huge deal.”
“Not a huge deal? It could’ve been Freihof,” Roman pointed out.
Her brown eyes turned to him as she sat up fully. “I think I would’ve gotten more than a pop in the face as I walked around the corner if it had been Freihof.”
Roman couldn’t argue with that logic. Not after what the man had done to Grace Parker.
“Fine, it wasn’t Freihof. But you still just passed out, so maybe you need medical attention.”
“Roman, I’m fine. I don’t need medical attention, I promise.”
He saw her move something grasped in her hand.
“What is that?”
Keira looked a little panicked. She stared at him and then turned to her assistant.
“Annabel, can Roman and I have a few minutes alone?”
The younger woman nodded, although she looked particularly pained at missing whatever was going to happen between the two of them.
“I’ll be downstairs. Just holler if you need me. And I’ll tell Heather about rescheduling for later.”
Annabel left and Keira made her way, a little unsteadily, over to the couch. Roman looked around the small apartment.
The space was cozy, with a kitchen that opened into the living room and a separate bedroom in the corner. The walls were painted a soothing tan color and unique paintings hung on many of the walls.
Keira saw him studying the framed art pieces. “Those paintings are one of the reasons I opened this place. You know, as a shelter. They were done by a woman I knew. She was such an incredible talent.”
“Was?” he asked. “As in past tense?”
Keira nodded, leaning back against the couch. “Her husband, also an artist, beat her all the time. I tried to talk her into leaving him. And she did a few times. But then he always begged her to come back. Said she was his muse. Said they made beautiful art together.” Keira closed her eyes. “Unfortunately, the next time he lost his temper because something wasn’t going right in his world, he had a gun. Decided it would be fittingly artistic to kill her, his beloved muse, and then himself.”
Keira opened her eyes and looked at Roman again. “She must’ve known. Because she mailed those to me the day before she was killed. So I keep them up to remind me of why I am doing this.”
“And what you’re doing is amazing.”
She shrugged. “The women who find the strength to get away, to change their lives. They are the ones who are amazing.”
She looked so small sitting there against the couch. Keira had such a big personality, was so much larger than life, it was easy to forget how tiny she really was.
“What happened in the bathroom, Keira?” He stepped closer to the couch. “Are you hurt worse than you said? You need to tell me if that is true.”
>
“No. I...” She trailed off.
Roman studied her more carefully. “You what? You’re sick? Tired? Running the shelter and the salon is too much?”
“All of those things.” She held out whatever it was that had been grasped in her hand. It looked like some sort of white pen or plastic piece. “All those things and pregnant.”
Roman realized it was a pregnancy test in her hand just as she said the words. Now it was his turn for the world to spin slightly.
“Pregnant?”
“Yeah, about eight weeks, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Okay, now we’re definitely getting you to a hospital. You need to be checked out.”
She looked over at him, a little surprised. “Aren’t you going to ask me if it’s yours?”
“You said eight weeks. I’m pretty sure that makes it mine.”
Her brows furrowed. “Seriously, no questions to the ex-stripper about whether I’ve been sleeping with a bunch of different people, and how I would have to prove the baby was yours, and whether I’m trying to just get your money?”
Roman shook his head. “Whatever you’re projecting right now is not my feelings at all, so just stop.”
She at least had the good grace to look a little remorseful.
“And none of this changes the fact that I’m taking you to the hospital right now.”
“I’m not going to the hospital, Roman. I will make an appointment with my ob-gyn and I’ll get checked out. But I’m not going to the hospital.”
Roman was just about to argue when there was a knock on the door to her apartment. He studied Keira as she walked over to answer it. At least she now seemed steady on her feet.
Pregnant.
Holy hell.
Roman tried to process his feelings, but it was almost impossible to wrap his head around everything: concern for Keira’s health, concern about the future, trying to figure out exactly how this had happened, since they’d used protection.
Surprisingly, panic wasn’t anywhere on his emotional scale.
Annabel was at the door. Another young woman was with her, and had a baby in her arms.