“What?” Jimmy exclaimed again, even louder. Jenna merely stared at the doctor in shock that quickly melted into realization. It wasn’t impossible, despite the monthly dose of prevention she’d been taking. Birth control had been known to fail occasionally ever since its creation.
So that’s why she’d been so tired lately. And it explained the nausea that was still plaguing her. She’d thought it was a side effect from the jaunt, but the med techs hadn’t seemed concerned about it at all.
“How far?” she whispered.
“Our tests show fetal development at six weeks, one day. It is such a crucial period of development that we waited to see if you would suffer a spontaneous abortion. At this point your blood levels and scans show that the pregnancy appears to be sustaining. Yet we have no idea what effect, if any, the local jaunt may have had on the baby.”
Jenna swallowed thickly. Pregnant mothers were discouraged from taking interstellar portal jaunts. Usually their babies were just fine, but there were occasional reports of birth defects. It was hard to know how many would have happened anyway and how many might be directly attributed to jaunting. Most mothers expecting a baby avoided it altogether, just to be safe.
“Normally, a first-time mother in good health needs little medical intervention. Yet in your case I recommend weekly monitoring, just to make sure development continues normally.”
“Weekly?” croaked Jenna. Jimmy still hadn’t said anything. She snuck a look at him, wondering if he was upset, but he was still staring at the doctor, looking dumbstruck.
Suddenly they were interrupted by Mr. Quintan. Jenna had completely forgotten he was still in the room. “Considering the confidential nature of the complication, I would prefer that you continued to see Dr. Maclin for your pregnancy care. She is quite experienced, and should there be any unusual developments, our facilities here in the QE are excellent.”
Was that man trying to buy her silence by offering her medical care? Or was this an order? Would she never get the Quintans out of her life?
That was it.
She didn’t care anymore.
Her career could take a flying leap.
“Thank you, Mr. Quintan, but no. I will arrange for my own medical care.”
His eyes hardened. Jimmy stiffened beside her, but then he put his arm around her shoulders. He was standing with her on this.
“If you are worried about my discretion,” Jenna continued, “I can promise you that I have no desire to speak with anyone about the events of that night. Especially since knowledge of the gate seems to lead to nothing but people trying to kill you.” She inclined her head toward Jimmy. “But at this time,” she added, her voice growing stronger, “I think it’s best if I cut ties with Quintan-Forrest Enterprises. As of today I’m resigning as project lead. As soon as I have access to a terminal again, I’ll comm Mr. Carter and inform him that he needs to replace me.”
Mr. Quintan surprised her by chuckling softly.
“My dear Ms. Donnell, you cannot cut ties with Quintan-Forrest Enterprises. You married a Forrest. You are one of us now, my dear.”
“Yes. She is,” Jimmy broke in, his voice grim. “But being part of the Quintan-Forrest family doesn’t seem to amount to much. You nearly fed me and Jax to the wolves!”
“As I said, James, your father agreed with me.”
“Then you are both fools,” Jimmy countered contemptuously. “Jenna and I are walking away, and Jaxon is going with us. You don’t need any of us anymore. You have Jax’s plans for the gate; you can rebuild it without him.”
Mr. Quintan coughed slightly. “Do you know how to live on your own, James? Do you have any idea of how much it costs to support your indolent lifestyle? Most people do not have a generous account balance funded by a wealthy father. Do you honestly think you could provide Jaxon a lab suited to his genius? He cannot secure that kind of funding himself with his social anxieties. Will you do it for him? Or will you let his talents—some of the greatest this generation has seen—go to waste over a childish temper tantrum?”
Jenna held her breath. Could Jimmy break with his father? Mr. Quintan was right; Jimmy had never really lived on his own. Would he be able to walk away from it all? Especially when Jaxon had to be considered too?
“Is it a temper tantrum to insist that the safety of the people you love comes before business?” Jimmy retorted. “If it is, yeah, I’m throwing a fit. And yes, I will scrabble in the dirt as a laborer to support myself and my brother if necessary,” Jimmy finished defiantly. Jenna had never been so proud of him. She knew what he was sacrificing.
Jenna took a deep breath and gave her ultimatum. “So now you need to decide what you are going to do, Mr. Quintan. Are you willing to lock us up here forever? Or will you show us the respect we deserve and allow us to walk away and make our own lives?”
The silence stretched on for a very uncomfortable couple of minutes. Dr. Maclin was studying the wall blankly, trying very hard to pretend that she wasn’t part of this conversation.
Finally, Mr. Quintan sighed heavily. “I will not stop you if you decide to leave. But consider very carefully. There are still groups out there that will stop at nothing to make sure that the knowledge in Jaxon’s head is never used or used only to their benefit. James, you saw the other night what happens when those interests collide.”
“What do you mean?” Jimmy asked warily. Jenna looked at him curiously. She had no idea what had happened to him and Jax while she had been locked up in the lab.
“We have identified the rival boss who traded nanospeed to Zane for Jaxon. His name is Quartos, and he has a very strong, very entrenched presence in the Red Zone. The original plan was for Grier and the other bodyguards to infiltrate their base while delivering you and Jaxon to Quartos. We had planned a full-scale invasion of their headquarters. However, while the transfer was taking place, our forces, as well as Quartos’s base, were both attacked by a third entity.”
Jimmy sucked in a breath. “Well, I guess that explains the warehouse crossfire. Better than thinking that your strategy was to intentionally shoot through us to get at your rival boss.”
Warehouse crossfire? Where exactly had Grier taken Jimmy and Jax? Jenna could tell that she and Jimmy had a lot of catching up to do.
“This third entity is the same organization that attacked the Tower and destroyed the gate. They are not a known Red Zone presence; my best information ties them to a corporation named Logistitec. We also believe they have made attempts on your life before last week in hopes of preventing the gate from being finished. They clearly had an inside source, or multiple inside sources.”
Jenna pursed her lips. She remembered the attack on Jimmy his first day in Omphalos, and then the strange transport accident that could have killed her and Lilah also. Somebody had been targeting Jimmy personally.
“This group may still see you as a threat that can get the gate rebuilt, and they do not hesitate to act outside of the Red Zone. Can you protect yourself? Or Jaxon? Or Ms. Donnell, for she will be a target as long as she is near you? You must consider that I can best protect you from these enemies.”
Jimmy was silent. Jenna wondered if he was going to back down. Quintan was offering protection and money, security for all three of them. She looked at him, and he turned to her. Obviously, he saw the answer he wanted in her eyes. He turned back to Mr. Quintan.
“We’ll take our chances,” Jimmy rejected. He pushed off the bed onto his good leg, and Jenna jumped up to steady him. Without another word, Jimmy headed for the door. It slid open for him, and Jenna followed him out, her head high and her breath held.
Mr. Quintan didn’t stop them.
Epilogue
“Welcome to the family, officially, Jimmy,” Jenna’s dad proclaimed, clapping him on the back. Jenna’s mom stepped forward and gave him a tight hug. Tears filled her eyes, as usual, but today Jenna was pretty su
re they were the happy kind. When she’d finally broken the news to her parents that she’d secretly married Jimmy while they were in Symphoria, her mother had been ecstatic. She had immediately thrown herself into planning this huge wedding celebration, just like Jenna had known she would. They were now in the last day of the festivities, and Jenna was exhausted. They had been eating and drinking and otherwise socializing with every friend and acquaintance and relative that had come from around the planet. The large banquet room in the rec hall on the Dos Cientos base was filled. They had finally reached the very end, when close family and friends would give advice and welcome to the new couple. Jimmy’s father and sister had not made the trip to Zenith, and Jax would rather set himself on fire than attend a party, so the circle around them was made up of only her parents, her uncle Mark, and Lilah and her two brothers.
“My advice to you two is get your own place to live. As soon as possible,” Uncle Mark advised.
“Working on it,” Jimmy agreed. “My mother-in-law is a beast,” he teased. Jenna’s mom rolled her eyes. They had been living with Jenna’s parents for several months. Mr. Carter had fired Jenna on the spot as soon as she had told him she was stepping down from the QE West project. Jimmy’s dad hadn’t reacted much better. When Jimmy had persisted in his “fool leap into madness,” as his father put it, he had declared that Jimmy would learn best from cold, hard experience and cut off his spending account. That had left Jimmy and Jenna no choice but to move in for a while with her parents. Fortunately, they had welcomed her with open arms, even if she did have a strange new husband in tow.
After her uncle, Lilah’s brothers offered a few wisecracks about how to keep the fire alive with your father-in-law sleeping on the other side of your bedroom wall, which left Jenna’s cheeks warm.
Lilah laughed heartlessly at her. “It’s not like everyone doesn’t know what you’ve been up to, Jenna,” she smirked. She slid closer and rubbed Jenna’s burgeoning midsection. “My advice? Take advantage of all the free time you can. In a couple of months, your freedom is over!”
After a few more congratulations, and a few more tears from her mother, the circle opened back up so Jimmy and Jenna could have their traditional first dance as a married couple before escaping to their own room for the night.
Jimmy took her hand and led her to the dance floor. Jenna inhaled deeply as he pulled her close, reveling in his clean warm scent. She had missed him. Jimmy had spent the last several weeks getting their new home arranged on the other side of the world in the small community of Tarentino Bay.
“So, how is Jax settling in?” Jenna asked curiously. Jax was notoriously difficult about getting used to a new place.
“Better than I thought he would. He’s engrossed in a new project, so I’m not sure he really notices that he’s on a whole different continent. It’s a lab, it’s filled with gadgets, no one comes in and bothers him, and he never has to go outside. What more could he want?” Jimmy explained, his tone light as he twirled her in a circle. By Jenna’s request, they played the same music they had danced to during the Gloriana reenactment. It brought back memories of the night she had first realized that she had fallen in love with Jimmy.
“Jax misses you, though,” Jimmy added. Jenna snorted. Jax barely tolerated her presence. He seemed resigned to the fact that Jimmy had inexplicably decided to marry this strange woman, but the last time she had seen him, when she had helped pack up his things in the Quintan Tower suite before Jimmy had moved him to Tarentino, he had hidden in the closet to get away from her. In fact, the only women that Jenna believed he’d ever shown any affection for were his mother and his housekeeper. Luckily, Mrs. Smitz had been willing to accept a serious reduction in her wages and continued caring for Jax on the edge of civilization. She had traveled with him to the new lab in Tarentino Bay. For the first couple of months after the destruction of the gate, Jax had continued living in safe seclusion in Quintan Tower. It hadn’t been feasible to take Jax with them to Dos Cientos (where he would have been crammed into the Donnell suite as well), yet their father had been adamant that Jimmy could not touch Jax’s money to move him to another suitable location. However, when Jax had grown sullen and withdrawn without Jimmy, refusing to work and barely even eating, their father had relented. He had allowed Jimmy to use enough of Jax’s money to buy the place in Tarentino. It was far enough away that there was some hope that ruthless competitors of Quintan-Forrest Enterprises would not try to hunt him down, but even still, Jenna knew that the first thing Jimmy had done was ask Jax to design a serious security system for the new lab. Jax had been intrigued and completed the project quickly; Jenna wondered if she’d even be able to enter the building without being immobilized as an intruder.
Jimmy had started quietly pitching ideas to various engineering companies to see if anyone was interested in acquiring the rights to some of Jax’s inventions. He’d had a few bites so far. Not enough so that he could take a commission for acting as Jax’s agent and provide a living for a family, but he was confident that it would come soon. In the meantime he had taken a job running drones in a distribution warehouse in Tarentino. It didn’t pay fantastically, but it was steady, and with the contract work Jenna was fulfilling drawing plans for new housing blocks in Omphalos, they would at least be able to get by.
That was all that mattered.
Jimmy led her to the right as other couples began to join the dance. “And how was the baby checkup?” Jenna had decided against having weekly doctor visits for the pregnancy, partly to save money, and partly because everything had seemed fine. But while Jimmy was gone, she’d had a full genetic panel done and a general well check for herself.
“The doctor says I’m a perfect incubator and that we should pop out ten more,” Jenna recounted with a sniff. “But she’s not the one swollen and unable to find a comfortable position to sleep.”
“Umm, yeah. Let’s take that one at a time,” Jimmy chuckled. “Maybe get moved out of your parents’ suite or something first.”
“As for the baby, she looks fine so far. The full genetic results should be in next week.”
“Did you say ‘she’?” Jimmy repeated with enthusiasm. “It’s a girl?”
“You are going to have a daughter,” confirmed Jenna with a smile.
“My name wins!” he crowed. They had debated names for weeks, finally deciding that Jimmy could name her if she was a girl, while Jenna could choose a boy’s name.
“Andrea Giovanna Kendra Forrest,” Jimmy gloated. “She’ll get your sister’s name, my mom’s name, and that name you like tacked on at the end.” Jenna refrained from groaning at the length. In Jimmy’s family, everyone had at least four names. She already pitied her poor little girl’s learning how to write her own name.
“Still can’t believe I’m going to be a father,” Jimmy said incredulously. “Me. Well, at least I’m proving I can hold a job for longer than a week without getting fired. That’s a step toward decent fatherhood. Maybe by the time she arrives, I’ll be ready to step up to diaper changing.”
Jenna shook her head ruefully.
“Zane sent us a card for the celebration,” Jimmy mentioned nonchalantly. “He wished us joy.”
“Really,” Jenna said drily. She still hadn’t forgiven Zane for nearly strangling her and then sending her to Marah by gate. Last she’d heard, Lev Quintan had made good on his threat to ship his son off-planet to Kirtuth. Zane’s next oldest sister was now the favorite being groomed as next in line to run the QE.
“Yep, he was man enough to give up at last. He called me a lucky bastard.”
“I really think it was just a contest to Zane,” Jenna mused thoughtfully. “I was a prize he wanted to win, and when the nanospeed took over it fueled the ‘win at all costs’ attitude toward me.”
Jimmy laughed. “Probably. It probably made it worse that the competition was me, of all people. The lazy spendthrift screwup. What did I hav
e to offer that he didn’t?”
“Your heart,” Jenna answered seriously. “Thank you for giving it to me.”
“It was always yours,” Jimmy murmured back, kissing her gently. “From the day we met.”
The dance came to an end, and Jenna wrapped her arms around Jimmy tightly. She had taken a risk and given her heart to this man, and she knew she would never regret it.
The family curse could do its worst. Fear had no power over Jenna any longer. Love had given her courage, and she would go forward and meet her fate head on. Since she had Jimmy by her side, she would do it with a smile.
About the Author
Heidi J. Leavitt is a book addict who cannot live without the written word. She has loved science fiction and fantasy since she was young, and eventually, being unable to find enough of the type of stories she loved to read to satisfy her cravings, she decided to write her own. She is the author of the Roran Curse novels.
Heidi lives in Arizona with her family, where she practices juggling life with a husband, five destructive children and two very wiggly dogs. She trains for road races and triathlons to keep her sanity and squeezes more reading into every spare nook of her day.
Visit her blog at www.heidijleavitt.blogspot.com.
The Roran Curse Novels:
The Legend of Sirra Bruche
Corizen Rising
The Quintan Edge
Rift
special preview of
RIFT
the next Roran Curse novel
A missing family. An old enemy. A conspiracy stretching across the planet.
Seven years ago Jimmy and Jenna Forrest narrowly escaped death when a shadowy team attacked Quintan Tower. Desperate to escape their ties to Quintan-Forrest Enterprises, they walked away from Jenna’s job and Jimmy’s father, never looking back. They created a sanctuary for themselves and their children on the other side of the world, far from the dangerous Red Zone and the scheming Quintan family. However, their peaceful haven shatters when Jenna and the children mysteriously vanish. Time is running out—and for Jimmy to find them, he may have to turn to the Quintans for help. But can he trust them?
The Quintan Edge (Roran Curse Book 2) Page 27