Tough as Steele

by Elizabeth Knox

  I scoffed at that, unable to control that reaction. With as much sex as Logan and I had, there was no telling. So, I just shook my head. I just knew that a condom had to have broken, it’s the only way…or at least it’s the only way I can think of right now.

  "Okay, then, to get the correct age and due date, let's get a sonogram, if you are alright with that?" I nodded, still not having found my voice yet. What had gotten into me? Oh, that’s right, a baby.

  The doctor peeked her head out the door and called for the nurse who rolled in a sonogram machine, something I had only seen on television. They had me lay back on the bed as the lights were switched off, for better viewing, I supposed. Some terrible cold jelly was put all over my stomach, and I tried not to gag. Being pregnant made me sensitive to things like that, apparently. The sensation was not a good one.

  Finally, a wand of sorts, was placed on my stomach, moving around so they could get a picture of the baby. I waited until I heard that strange whooping sound that turned out to be the heartbeat. I looked to the screen and saw the beating heart for myself. That was amazing, how a human life could be so tiny and grow inside of another. It wasn't something people really thought about until they had one inside of them. "Wow," I said, finding my voice again.

  My stomach was cleaned up and the machine taken away as they helped me to sit up. "So, it looks like you are eight weeks along. Everything looks good. We will schedule your 20-week appointment and give you some information about pregnancy and what you should and should not do or eat. Congratulations." The doctor walked out of the room with that same smile she came in with as I did the math in my head. That was the very first night I was with Logan.

  The nurse came in with all the papers, and I tucked them into my pose along with a sample of prenatal vitamins I was instructed to take every day. Then, I was allowed to leave, walking out into the lobby to find Reggie looking a little impatient. It was probably awkward to just be some man, sitting there alone.

  "Finally," he teased as they walked out together, heading for the parking garage attached to the medical center building. "That took a while."

  "Yeah, annuals always do," I told him, ready to keep him off the trail. I wanted to keep it a secret until I could tell Logan that evening. "They make you go over like every medical issue anyone in your family has ever had before they even look at you. And they position you in these stirrup things that force your legs open. It is not pretty or comfortable. Then they..." I trailed off as Reggie gave me a look. He was grossed out, which was my plan.

  He chuckled. "You can stop it now. I don’t need to know so much information. I don’t think if I ever married I would even want to know." I nudged him playfully. We had formed an interesting friendship since he started following me around everywhere. He was a funny guy, and pretty nice for a body guard to a man who was dealing in illegal gun transport.

  Before we made it to the car, a silver car with dark windows came out of nowhere cutting us off. At first, I just thought it was some asshole, not looking where he was going, but the screeching tires were followed by the sounds of gun shots. I took cover behind a pillar, unsure of what to do I was frozen.

  "Run!" Reggie yelled, reaching for his own gun to shot at the vehicle and those inside. As he did, he was shot and taken to the ground. I didn’t know where to run, but then I saw the elevator that would take me to another level of the parking garage. It was my best bet. I took off, hoping to outrun the man who had gotten out of the car and was chasing me, bullets flying everywhere. It didn’t seem like they were trying to hot anything vital, just stop me.

  Reggie was lying there bleeding out as I fled for my life, and I felt a hint of guilt. I was almost to the elevator when I was caught up with, and I felt a sharp stinging, jamming into my neck. That was the last thing I saw.

  ***

  Logan

  I came in the door to the apartment and looked at the clock. I didn't like that Brook wasn't home yet. I knew she had a doctor's appointment earlier that Reggie took her to, just an annual, but that should not have taken so many hours. Even if she had decided to go eat or shop afterwards, it wouldn’t have taken that long.

  I pulled out my cell to see if I had any messages, and there was nothing. That was also unusual. I dialed Reggie's number with a bad feeling setting in. He didn’t answer. Reggie always answered.

  "Fuck!" I cried out, slamming my fist on the kitchen bar so hard I knew I had bruised something. I started dialing Jordan, needing him to find out what the hell had happened to Reggie and Brook.

  "Lo, what is it?" Jordan asked.

  "Reggie went with Brooklyn to an appointment and never came back. he isn’t answering his phone either. Are you close to the clinic where you could check things out? See if the Tesla is there still?"

  "Yeah, I am pretty close, actually. I will go and call you when I get there."

  I hung up the phone and began pacing the floor, sending out a text to Christian so he knew to come home; that something wasn’t right. We were going to have to circle the wagons. I would do everything I could and more if something had happened to Brook, and the bastards that took her would know never to mess with a Steele again.

  It didn’t take long for Jordan to call back. "Shit, Lo, the Tesla was here in the parking garage, and there are bullets and blood everywhere in here. I think she’s been taken. There are tire marks and everything."

  Rage and fear filled my body at that moment. Someone, whoever the fuck had been messing with me, had taken Brooklyn, the love of my life. If anything happened to her, I was going to make sure their death was long and painful. "Come home. We have to figure out where the hell she is."

  Chapter 19

  Brooklyn

  As I came to, my head was pounding insistently, and I hissed in pain. I looked around, confused as to why I couldn’t make out too much. That was when I realized there was a sac over my head. It was dark, but I began to make out a few things through a small rip in the bag.

  I was in some kind of warehouse, but it had no lights on. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t, and looking down, I saw that my arms and feet were bound to a chair with what looked like it might be electrical tape. Shit…Who did this to me? Was it the same people who tried to break into my house? Was I going to die? Fuck. Logan must be worried sick, I was supposed to meet him at home after my doctor’s appointment.

  I sat in the darkness, my heart beating fast in my chest as I tried to make sense of the whole situation. What kind of person would do this? Surely some crazed serial killer, or something. I thought this only happened in movies.

  That was when I saw light rush in as the door opened. It was definitely a warehouse. I could hear the metal hinges, creaking and sounding like the door might fall apart at any moment. There was someone approaching, but the hole wasn’t being enough for me to make them out. The footsteps sounded clumpy and loud, like they belonged to a woman.

  The footsteps got louder as my heart raced, and finally, the bag was pulled off my head. Of all the people I might have been expecting to see; some low life, some drug trafficker or sex trafficker, but not a woman I had met before looking right at me.

  It was Tara; Logan's ex-wife. She truly was insane, wasn’t she?

  "Hey there, plaything." It rolled off her tongue smoothly, and I remembered when she had called me that before. If she thought this was going to get her Logan, she needed to be committed. That was when I knew I was in a different kind of trouble. At least criminals had plans and things they wanted they could trade her for. But this was someone completely unpredictable with very little to lose. I got the idea that she felt she already lost everything.

  "What the hell?" I asked her, unsure of what else to say, what she might be up to. She clearly had not been working alone. For all I knew she had gotten in touch with those men from my apartment and made some kind of deal. I had no way of knowing, but I had to make it out of there alive. There was a life inside of me to worry about now.

  "You will never be good
enough for Logan. I know you are not going to be able to accept all the horrible things he has done. It’s so early, you may think you can now. But you'll wake up one day and run in a panic, realizing you are with some criminal. then, you’ll go find someone who is boring and ordinary. I am a better fit for that man than you ever could be. You're just a detour, a little slut that caught his eye. You can't have him. You won’t have him."

  I could feel her jealousy and rage from where I was sitting as she paced, telling me these things. I shook my head. "You are just realizing too late that you made a mistake by not hanging onto Logan Steele. That’s not my problem, Tara. Not at all. You fucked up. Move on like normal people do," I scolded her. Maybe something direct would get her to stop this shit and let me go home. Even if she killed me or ran me off, Logan wouldn’t be with her. I could see it. It was why she was so desperate.

  I wanted to know what the hell was going on. "What do you have planned for me anyway? You won’t get away with this."

  Tara chuckled evilly, a smile spreading across her red lips. "Honey bun, c'mon out!" she called. I didn’t know who she was calling, probably whoever had actually kidnapped me.

  I looked up, confronted with my kidnapper. It wasn’t….it wasn’t a serial killer. It was Bryce; my ex-boyfriend.

  He looked more manic than the last time I saw him. Bloodshot eyes, track marked arms. He looked thin and pale, his skin covered in scratches from where he must've clawed at his own skin. He was losing his hair, too. He was the last person I wanted to see. If I had my way, Bryce wouldn’t even exist in the same world, or dimension that I did. But, I was terrified. Here was this man, so strong, so capable of hurting me. And now he had me in his possession, his grasp. To do with as he pleased.

  “Brook, baby…I can’t believe you thought you could stay away from me for so long. I knew you still loved me, I just knew it.” His hands caressed my cheeks, and I flinched away, which made him frown. I couldn’t bring myself to speak. “I know you’ve missed being with me, being my princess… I know you’ve missed the good stuff, too. The drugs,” he laughed manically, and I thought my heart might've stopped in that moment.

  “Bryce, no. I don’t…”

  He shook his head, “I know you do. Don’t worry, baby. I’ve got a present!”

  He pulled a bag out from behind himself. I knew what that was. Cocaine. “No, no…Bryce…” I tried to pull myself out of his grip, struggling against him and he sighed. He pulled me into his arms, caressing my face again.

  “I know you want this. I know how much you love me, Brook. How we’re meant to be together. I knew seeing you again, at your father’s event… I knew it was meant to be.” He was completely out of his mind, and whether it was from the drugs or not, I didn’t know.

  I was scared, for my life. What if he wanted to get me to overdose? What if that was his master plan?

  I shook in his grip, wishing for some kind of distraction to take over so I could get away from him, but no such luck.

  After moments spent brushing his fingers through my hair as I tried to squirm out of his grip, he turned his attention to the coke again. I struggled again, “Bryce, please. No. If you love me, you wouldn’t,” I tried to plead with him, and he paused again at that.

  “I do love you, Brook, so much. That’s why I have to do this. It will bring you back to me. I know it will.” I thought I might've been getting somewhere, but he poured a fair amount of coke into his hand. Tara laughed maniacally, like a cackling witch in the back ground. "Stop struggling because you're either going to be shot and killed, or you're going to coke land with Bryce. There is no other option here."

  I couldn’t let it happen, though. It could kill the baby if I took the coke; I knew that. For the first time, I actually felt like a mother, and I knew I had to do whatever it took to save that baby inside of me; the baby that belonged to Logan and me. I had to protect my child.

  “You need me. You need these drugs. Without them…you’ll be a failure. You can’t get far in life without them.” I couldn’t believe the words that spilled from Bryce’s lips. How did I not see this in him sooner?

  “Please Bryce, believe me…I don’t need this…we don’t need this…”

  I worried for my future. Would Bryce kill me? Force me to overdose in this dark, dingy warehouse? Was this some kind of revenge plot? These were all questions I wished I could ask, but I wouldn’t dare to rile him up further. He was stuck in his little world, where he believed we were in love and meant to be. It sent shivers down my spine, knowing that he had this kind of control over me. That he could decide what he wanted to put into my body.

  I shuddered, completely afraid what this would do to me. I could see it in his eyes that he was high, too—He was frantic, desperate, and utterly disturbing. He could do so much wrong when he was sober, and I was terrified of what he could get away with while he was high. I didn’t want him to drag me back into his world; the world I once knew. I was happy now, and he wanted to ruin it.

  My chest was heaving when Bryce’s attention turned back to my own. “I can’t wait until we’re living happy again. Together. I’m never going to let you go, princess.” His smile made me want to throw up. It was like he felt that what he was doing was completely okay—there was nothing wrong with this, with him. To Bryce, I was his for the taking. Completely and utterly his. “Please, Bryce, if you really love me you won’t…we don’t need this,” my heart was almost beating out of my chest as I tried not to make eye contact with him. I didn’t want him to see the fear in my eyes, the weakness. He just chuckled, his hand running through my hair again.

  “You’ll feel better after this, princess. I know you will. My precious girl.”

  Bryce covered my mouth with his hand. Good God, I needed to breathe, but I couldn't. If I breathed in, the coke would be in my system. I would be high again, easily slipping back into addiction, and the baby could easily be killed.

  I felt like I was going to pass out as I continued to hold my breath. "Sniff it or die!" Tara called out just as I slumped over in the chair, about to be forced to give in by my own body.

  Then, the door burst open, and I watched as armed men came in shooting. Tara and Bryce both went down, the coke spilling out onto the ground and on my clothes. That was when I saw him; Logan, my saviour walking through the doors in his Armani suit. There was a gun in his hand as well, a silencer over it, and he glared at my two kidnappers before looking to me with an intense softness. He was blaming himself, especially as he saw his ex-wife laying there. I knew it.

  Chapter 20

  Logan

  It had been a longer wait than I would have wanted at the hospital, getting her checked out. I had paid for them to keep it quiet and check her out in a private room. I didn’t need there to be any rumors going around or anything.

  I was finally able to take her home, and I stayed with her, holding her hand as we went inside. I kept waiting for her to have a nervous breakdown. I knew she was shaken up. Bryce being there had done a number on her, and the fact that she was covered in cocaine had told me he tried to force her to take it. I didn’t know if Alfred had been involved at all, but that was a question for another day. Right now, I needed to focus on the woman I loved to make sure she was alright.

  "Maybe you should change into something comfortable," I told her, leading her to the bedroom. She just nodded and shut the door. I knew she would need time, but I needed her to know how sorry I was for everything. I couldn’t believe that my own ex-wife had been a part of trying to kill the woman I was with now. I knew she had problems, but none that big. She didn’t seem evil; just not a good wife.

  I stood up when Brook came back out of the bedroom, looking more comfortable with a shy smile on her face. She looked tired, and I led her to the couch for us to sit down. "I have to apologize to you Brook," I told her form my heart. "I should have seen it, but I had no idea Tara and Bryce were that kind of a threat. I thought it was someone else this whole time; the cartel we cut ties with in
Mexico or something." She had to accept it. I couldn’t live with myself if I lost her over those two low lives.

  Brooklyn looked at me. "I don't completely understand this lifestyle, but what I do know is that Tara and Bryce couldn’t have been behind Christian's car accident. There must be another threat, and maybe that one is the cartel you're talking about. So, I don’t think you failed in that at all. Me getting taken was simply an act of stupidity by two crazy and desperate people who neither of us expected to take things so far." Brooklyn reached out and placed her hand on top of mine. I couldn’t help but be relieved.

  "I should have protected you better, though," I admitted, looking down.

  "Everything turned out alright, though. Everything is okay. I am fine, and the baby is fine."

  I looked back up at her, trying to decipher what she meant. "The baby?' I was puzzled.

  Brooklyn began to nod and smile while I tried to process. "When I went to the doctor, I found out I was pregnant."

  Epilogue

  Brooklyn

  I looked down at the baby in my arms. It had only been two days since I had him, and we were all gathered at the new house. We were in a beautiful home inside a gated community that Logan had insisted on having. He wanted the big yard and white picket fence for his boy, and I was pretty happy about it too.

  We had named our little boy Emmett Reginald Steele, and the Reginald was in honor of Reggie, the man who had given his devotion and who would have given his life in order to protect the Steeles, Emmett included. Reggie kept arguing with us, demanding that we didn’t “curse” our boy by giving him that middle name. I just kept rolling my eyes and telling the man to shut the hell up ‘cause it was happening. "Isn't he just beautiful?" I cooed, letting him play with my pinkie. He had those hazel eyes and dark hair just like Logan but lighter skin like me. He could be one of those models in baby magazines for sure. "I could easily go for another of these. I just can’t stop looking at him."