Dylan’s voice wouldn’t be overly familiar, so he placed the call to the number Detective Caraway had given me. In our business, there was never any concern about him having anything other than a disposable cell on his person.
Nicole and I remained silent as he dialed the number. He’d put the phone on speaker so we could hear.
It rang twice and then he answered, “Detective Caraway.”
Dylan made his voice gravely. “Part of the body of Harvey Baglione is hidden under the bushes on the south-east corner of Irvington Park.”
And he hung up.
Chapter Twenty-six
X
I was eating breakfast in the cafeteria, the usual slop of dry bread, gravy, some cereal and a carton of milk.
“Mason?”
The corrections officer called my alias, and I looked around before I got to my feet.
“The warden wants to see you.”
I’d been paranoid since I’d killed Callum Hooper and set up Shawn. There were other members of the gang still behind bars with me, and though they had no proof, they must have suspected I had something to do with what had gone down.
I caught Gil’s eye as I stepped toward the dorm’s exit, and he looked away. Had the older man said something? Panic fired through me, and I did my best to not let it show in my body language.
Shit, they knew, they had to. Was I about to have a new murder charge dropped on my head?
I followed the guards out of the dorm and down the corridors toward the warden’s office. One of the C.O.s pushed the door open and jerked his head to tell me to go first, while they followed behind.
The warden was sitting behind his desk. “Sit down, Mason.”
I looked around awkwardly. Two guards stood at the door, one of which was C.O. Damps, who gave me his usual evil-eyed glare. He looked even more pissed than usual, though I didn’t know why. Was he angry I’d managed to kill someone on his watch?
Sitting on my side of the desk was the lawyer, Joseph Monroe.
Fuck, they obviously thought I was going to need him. His expression was blank, I couldn’t read anything about what was about to happen. Was I about to go down for a very long time? A second thought hit me—what if this wasn’t about me? What if Callum’s death had a domino effect and they were here now to break the news to me that something terrible had happened to either Vee or the baby?
“What’s going on?” I snapped.
“Just sit down,” said the lawyer.
I didn’t want to sit down, but I figured I didn’t have much choice.
“We’ve been told the charges against you have been dropped,” said the warden.
“What?” I looked to Monroe, and he nodded.
“That’s right. New evidence has come to light, and it proves you couldn’t have killed Baglione in the way you’ve been accused.”
“It has?”
“Yes. You’re free to go.”
My mouth dropped. “What? Now?”
His bushy eyebrows lifted. “Unless you’d like to stay a little longer?”
“No, no. Not at all.”
I got to my feet before they could change their minds.
Joseph Monroe shook my hand. “Congratulations. I guess you have someone looking out for you.”
“Yes, I do.”
I signed for the few belongings I had and collected them. Then the guards walked me from the prison. The gates opened to possibly the best sight of my life. Vee, standing beside her car, smiling at me.
I couldn’t hold back. I ran for her and scooped her into my arms, burying my face against her hair. Then I kissed her and kissed her, and we smiled and laughed against each other’s mouths. She grown even bigger since I’d last seen her, the roundness of her belly almost impossible to hide now.
“God, I’ve missed you so much,” I said, my hand cupping her face, looking at her in wonder.
She nodded, her mouth stretched in a wide smile. “Me, too. I can’t believe you’re out of there.”
“I was starting to think it was never going to happen.”
“Don’t say you lost faith in me,” she said, teasing.
“No, never you. I lost faith in myself.”
We kissed again, long and deep and slow. Our tongues met, and I held her as close as I could, never wanting to let her go. But the imposing walls and the barbed wire of the jail still loomed behind us, and I wanted to put some distance between us and the wretched place.
I broke the kiss, and Vee took my hand.
“Come on, let’s get you home,”
I looked to her. “Home?”
“Nickie is there, and so are all our belongings. It’s what we have for the moment.”
“What about your father?”
She shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know. He’s vanished from the hospital, but we still don’t know if he’s alive or dead. Maybe an enemy we didn’t know of found out he was there, and removed him while he was weak. I mean, it was essentially what Nickie and I were planning, so why couldn’t have someone have simply gotten there first? He’s not been to the house, and he hasn’t gotten in touch with any of his men. The doctors and nurses said he was in a fragile condition when he left—that he was suffering from some paralysis down one side of his body. That hardly sounds like someone we need to worry about, does it?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know, Vee. I’d rather we all took off, now that I’m free.”
“We will,” she said. “There are some things I need to put in order first. Besides, the house has security and there are plenty of guns. If he dares step a foot near the place, we’ll finish him off, for good this time.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
V
We drove back through the city.
To have X back again was amazing. To be able to look at him, speak to him, touch him, whenever I wanted, felt like a gift. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other, at least one part of our bodies touching at all times, our fingertips, our knees, our lips. I didn’t want to be apart from him again for a single second.
We arrived back at the house, and I opened the gates and drove through. Nicole came out to meet us, a wide smile across her face.
“Welcome home, X.” She gave him a hug and he hugged her back.
“Thanks. It’s good not to be called Lee Mason anymore.”
I smiled at the scene, my heart warming.
Nickie looked between us. “You two probably want some time alone. I’ll be in the family room, binge-watching Netflix, if you need me.”
“Thanks, Nickie,” I said. I hesitated and then asked, “So everything has been quiet since we’ve been gone?” I almost didn’t want to know the answer, constantly waiting for the next big fuck-up to happen in our lives.
“Yep. Everything’s good.”
It was a relief to finally hear those words.
Nickie vanished, and I pulled X into the house by his hand. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you need anything?”
He pulled me in, his mouth crushing on mine. “A shower,” he said, breaking the kiss. “And you.”
I smiled against his mouth, wrapping my arms around his neck. My bump pressed between us, and I could tell he was being gentle with me, not as forceful and commanding as when we’d first met. I kind of missed that side of us, but this was good, too.
“Come on,” I said, taking him by the hand.
I led him up to my bedroom, and the adjoining bathroom. He’d dressed in his own clothes, but there was still a different smell about him, that of too many men forced to live in a confined space.
“You know I’m insanely in love with you,” I told him, peeling off his clothes as I backed away, forcing him to walk with me, “but I’m pregnant and have a nose like a bloodhound, and honestly, you don’t smell too great right now.”
He suppressed a smile. “It’s a good thing I’m not the sensitive type.”
“You won’t give a fuck about being sensitive when I’m soaping you down.”
The smi
le broke into a grin. “Now you’re talking.”
I stripped off his clothes. My palms ran over his shoulders, his chest, my fingers tracing each of his scars. It was as though I was learning his body all over again for the first time. Nerves at removing my own clothes filled me. I was re-learning his body, but he hadn’t changed. I was the one who’d changed, changed to the point where I wasn’t sure I recognized my own shape anymore. My tattoos were still the same, but nothing else was. Gone was the lithe limbed girl he’d first met. I was a pregnant woman now and, during the time he’d been behind bars, I’d definitely started to look it.
He must have sensed my resistance. “What’s wrong? I want to see you.”
Being self-conscious wasn’t something I was used to. “My body is different now from how you left me.”
“I don’t care. It makes no difference what you look like. It’s you I love, Vee.”
His words helped, and I allowed him to undo the buttons over my oversized shirt, starting at the top and popping them open, one by one. The material fell open, exposing my breasts, held in the simple cotton of my bra. Knowing the stretchy waistband of my maternity jeans wasn’t exactly the sexiest thing in the world, I also pushed them down my hips and rolled them down my thighs, kicking them from my feet, together with my sneakers. I stood before X in my underwear, the shirt framing my swollen body.
His gorgeous blue eyes traced down my shape.
“My God, Vee,” he said in wonder. “I can’t believe how much you’ve changed.”
My cheeks flushed. Pregnancy had made me vulnerable in a way I’d never been before. “Do I look ugly to you now?”
“No, never. You’re amazing. You’re beautiful. You’re carrying our baby.”
We went into the bathroom, and he turned on the shower. He pushed my shirt from my shoulders. He was only in his underwear, and I could see how much he wanted me. It had been too long.
He rid me of my bra and panties, kissing me sweetly, gently, at first, but with growing hunger. We stepped beneath the water together. I wanted to rid him of the stink of jail, as well as have my hands all over him. With his tongue pushing into my mouth, I groped blindly for the shower gel. A healthy dollop into my palm, and I started down low, my fingers wrapping around the length of his cock, feeling the hard length of him, his skin silken soft over the top. He groaned as I soaped him, slipping my other hand farther down, massaging the soft sack of his balls. My hand slipped over his hip, running the soap over the hard muscles of his ass, down between his buttocks, all the while stroking his cock, longer and harder.
“Ah, Vee, fuck. Slow down. You’re gonna make me come too fast.”
“Sorry,” I whispered, though I smiled, loving that I still had that power over him.
“My turn,” he said, stepping away from me slightly. His erection jutted into the space between us. If I’d been a little more mobile, I’d have got down on my knees and taken him in my mouth, but the size of my bump didn’t allow me much movement in the confines of the shower.
X took the shower gel and copied my movements, squeezing out a dollop, smearing it between his palms and then applying it to my body.
His hands ran over my stretched skin, my swollen breasts with their big, dark nipples. I’d been so sensitive between my legs since I’d been pregnant, all that extra blood flow, and it had been torture not having him with me to sate my needs.
His fingers met my clit, so sensitive, sending a jolt through me. I gasped and clung to his shoulders.
“Is this okay?” he asked.
“Yes, keep going. That feels so good.”
It had been a long time since I’d had anything but my own hand to keep me company. My clit buzzed with arousal, my large nipples tightening and puckering.
His finger slipped inside me. “Oh, God, Vee. You feel so good. So tight and wet. I need to be inside you.”
“I want you, too.”
His lips twisted, his brow pulled down in a frown. “Is it, okay? You know, the baby?”
“Yes, but let’s go to the bedroom. I’m not as agile as I used to be.”
He turned off the shower, and we wrapped ourselves in fluffy towels. Hand in hand, we moved to the bedroom and laid the towels on the bed. We fell together, our skin damp and scented with soap. Kissing, we lay face-to-face, our legs tangled together. I reached for him again, masturbating his cock with firm, tender strokes. X’s hands slipped down over my bump and between my thighs, his fingers pushing inside me. I groaned and bucked my hips, wanting more, but with my belly between us, this position would never work. I released him and pushed on his shoulder with both hands, shoving him back onto the bed. Then I straddled him, trapping his cock between his stomach and my pussy. I ground down on him, nudging my hips back and forth, slicking his length with my cream.
“Oh, fuck, Vee,” he said, looking up at me. His eyes were dark with lust, and he bit his lower lip as he watched me grind on him. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
His hands caught my hips and lifted me slightly. The movement freed his cock, so it sprang up before me. X lifted me higher, and this time his erection met with my entrance. When I sank back down again, he impaled me fully and I couldn’t stop the moan bursting from my lips. It was such an amazing feeling, this sensation of him filling me, of us becoming one joined body.
With his hands still on my hips, X helped me move up and down on him. He leaned forward, watching his cock slip between my swollen labia. His hands slid from my hips around to my ass, cupping the rounded flesh. His hands were all over me. It was as though he couldn’t get enough of me. But I tired quickly, my extra weight making the position harder, though I loved how deep he was.
He must have noticed me growing tired and eased me off, his cock slipping out of me.
“Come here,” he said, moving onto his side, his arm over my hips, pulling me against him so we were in a spooning position. Still so wet, he nudged his cock into me from behind and slid deep again. He reached around my body to touch my clit, rubbing in little circles as he shunted in and out of me.
He kissed the back of my neck, my shoulders. “I’m going to come soon, Vee. I can’t hold off.”
“Come,” I encouraged him with a gasp. “I’m close, too.”
His movements grew faster until he was slamming hard into me from behind, one hand between my thighs, the other under my body and wrapped around to clutch my breast.
With his fingers on me, I came hard and fast. My body was wound taut as a spring as pleasure trembled through me, striking me again and again in toe-curling jolts. I clung to his strong forearm, my nails digging in, as my orgasm slowly began to loosen its grip.
“Oh, fuck,” he groaned from behind me, and I felt him jerk as he came, too.
We lay together, neither of us making any move to pull apart. X nuzzled into the back of my neck. “I’ve missed that,” he said, when he’d caught his breath. “I’ve missed you.”
I smiled, happy and sated. “I missed you, too. Let’s not ever be a part again, got it?”
“Got it.”
His hands moved to my bump, holding me from behind. His fingers spanned my skin, and beneath his hands, the baby wiggled.
“I think we woke someone up,” he said, and we both laughed.
Warmth spread from the center of my chest, out through my limbs. Happiness. For the first time in months, I was happy.
Chapter Twenty-eight
V
A band of agony wrapped around my bump, catapulting me from sleep with a cry of fear.
Instantly, X was awake beside me, sitting up. “Vee, what’s wrong? What’s happening.”
I couldn’t even speak, just sat there with my eyes squeezed shut against the pain, breath held, my arms wrapped around my belly. The grip the pain had on me finally started to loosen its hold, and I snatched in a breath and gasped, “The baby. Something’s wrong.”
He jumped from the bed. “What do I do?”
“Hospital. We need to go to the hospital.”
My sister came running, her eyes wide. She took in the sight of my pain-stricken face. I could feel all the blood had run from it. I must have been white as snow.
“Oh, God, Vee. It’s too early.”
“I know,” I cried.
“You have a bag packed, right?”
“No, I don’t have anything. I’m not ready. The baby’s not ready.”
Terror clutched at me. This couldn’t be happening.
X helped me up off the bed. Another contraction caught me and I doubled over again, clutching his arm and biting my pain between my teeth. I was unable to even move until it released its grasp on me. A thousand panicked thoughts flitted through my head—could they stop the labor, did babies survive if they were born at this date? But one voice shouted the loudest—was I going to lose our child?
Between X and Nicole, they managed to get me to the car. X drove at a breakneck speed, but I barely registered what was happening around me. I’d completely internalized, focusing on what was going on in my body. I put my hand against my stomach, praying I could feel the baby move beneath, just as I had a thousand times before, but my bump was rock hard and I couldn’t feel anything. What had I done wrong? Was it the walk through the forest? Had I lifted something I shouldn’t have? Had having sex with X the previous night caused the early labor? I would never forgive myself if something terrible happened and the baby didn’t make it.
We reached the hospital, and X grabbed a wheelchair from the entrance hall. Both he and Nicole shouted for someone to come and help, but another contraction took hold of me and I was barely aware of the nurses who hurried forward to help. I was rushed up to the maternity unit, and helped onto a bed.
I saw my own fears reflected in X’s eyes as he held my hand and watched me in pain.
The doctor arrived. “How close are the contractions?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” said Nicole. “We forgot to time them.”
“Every few minutes,” I managed to say between gasps as another one hit. “They’re coming faster now.”
Judged (The Mercenary Series Book 4) Page 16