by Susan Stoker
Blythe mock-complained about those meetings with Penelope, Sophie, Adeline and, more often than not, Quinn, but the truth was that she loved them. She’d never had such close friends as them. The first time Blythe had been paid, she’d done what she’d promised herself she would—she’d bought everyone a round of drinks. Of course, then Sophie decided she wanted to buy a round. And Beth couldn’t be left out. By the time their men had come to pick them up, they’d all been completely trashed at three in the afternoon.
Hope and Billy still hadn’t been found, and Blythe was getting worried and scared about how they were doing and where they were. Calder had been going to the area where Blythe said they used to hang out, but so far he hadn’t had any luck in finding them.
The cops had done an investigation into Dog’s death and, with the help of security cameras at the entrance to the alley, Blue was now wanted for (another) murder, but Blythe figured he probably didn’t care. It gave him more street cred.
Things between her and Sawyer were wonderful. They’d both been getting used to living with another person and, for the most part, had settled into their lives as a couple flawlessly. Sawyer was a bit too overprotective at times and had been way too willing to open his wallet anytime she casually mentioned liking something, but she’d done her best to rein him in.
Blythe loved the way Sawyer texted her when he was leaving the station on his way home. Loved how his eyes lit up the second he saw her when he walked in the door. Loved how he wrapped her in his arms and gave her the longest hug, as if they’d been separated for years rather than hours or days while he was on shift.
But she enjoyed simply lying in his arms most of all. After they made love, he’d turn her to him and she’d rest her ear on his chest and listen to the beating of his heart. She’d been without human contact for so long that feeling his arms around her meant that much more.
Their love life was as amazing as it had been their first time. Sawyer was a very attentive lover, making sure she was satisfied several times over before he saw to his own needs. He was sweet and loving, but Blythe was trying to make him understand that his pleasure was just as important to her as hers was to him.
She’d managed to convince him to let her have her way with him one night. She’d gotten him on his back and kissed every inch of his chest, played with his nipples just like he did with hers, and had been giving him what she’d thought was the most amazing blow job in the history of blow jobs…when without warning, he’d sat up, threw her on her back, entered her, and began to fuck her to within an inch of her life.
It had been awesome.
Of course, he’d been mortified that she hadn’t come before him and had spent the next two hours making up for that oversight. She’d tried to tell him that she’d gotten as much pleasure from making him lose control as anything else they’d done, but he wouldn’t listen.
Blythe smiled as she remembered that night. Far be it from her to complain about a man who made her come multiple times.
There were times when they were both too tired to make love, but she didn’t like those nights any less. He always held her close, and the intimacy of sleeping in his arms was almost as good as their sex life.
But tonight, Blythe had a special present for her man. Tomorrow, they were going over to his parents’ house, and she wanted to give them her news at that time. But first Sawyer needed to know.
She fiddled around in the kitchen for a while, then wandered from room to room in his house impatiently. Finally, her phone vibrated with a text.
Squirrel: Heading out. Be home soon.
Blythe smiled and the butterflies started up in her stomach. She was nervous, but excited.
BC: Drive safe. Love you.
Blythe looked down at the phone in her hand. It was the same one Sawyer had accidentally given to her at that fire so many months ago. She knew eventually she’d have to get a new phone, but she loved this one. It had been her lifeline when she’d been on the streets and had brought Sawyer into her life. How could she not love it?
Ten minutes or so later, she heard a key in the lock at the front door. She waited in the kitchen and within seconds, Sawyer was there. He took her into his arms and gave her a bear hug.
“Hey, baby.”
“Hey.”
“How was your day?”
“Good. How was the rest of your shift?”
“Pretty boring, thankfully.”
Blythe knew a boring shift was a good thing. It meant that no one was hurt or killed and that there hadn’t been any fires.
“Are you all right?” Sawyer asked her.
Blythe grinned. She couldn’t ever hide anything from her man.
“Yeah. I’m great. I have a surprise for you though.”
His eyebrows rose in question.
Blythe decided not to drag it out. She was too excited and couldn’t wait to see his reaction. “You know how I haven’t been feeling that great lately? I went to the pharmacy and got a test today.”
“Are you all right? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” she reassured him, taking hold of his hand and bringing it down to rest on her belly. “In fact, I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think everything’s right.”
It took him a moment, but then his eyes widened so comically, Blythe couldn’t help but giggle.
“Are you…oh my God, baby. You’re pregnant?”
Blythe nodded. “We haven’t been using any condoms and I guess I’m really fertile. Either that, or your sperm are Olympic swimmers.”
“Holy shit,” Sawyer said. Then he ordered, “Wait here,” and rushed away.
Blythe blinked in surprise. That wasn’t the response she thought she’d get when she told him he was going to be a father.
Within moments, Sawyer was back. He took hold of her hand and led her out of the kitchen and into the living area. He turned—and immediately got down on one knee.
He held her hand in his and looked up at her as he spoke.
“I love you, Blythe Coopman. When I realized that I’d accidentally left my phone in the pocket of that sweatshirt, I was pissed. I mean, it was my phone. But then I thought about how useful it could be to you. You should’ve seen me that first time you texted me back. I was ecstatic. I had worked so hard to get you to use it that, when you finally texted me, it seemed like I’d just accomplished something amazing.
“And it was. From that day on, you burrowed further and further into my heart. I love you, baby. You see me, the real me.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. He flipped it open, and Blythe gasped at the ring nestled in the velvet. It wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either. She looked at Sawyer with tears in her eyes. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Will you marry me? Give me the chance to spoil you for the rest of our lives? I can’t promise to never make a mistake or be a jerk, but I’ll work extra hard to make sure you know that you’re the most important person in my life. Always. I’ll try to—”
“Yes!” Blythe said, interrupting him. “Yes, Sawyer. I’ll marry you.”
He smiled up at her. He picked up the ring and dropped the box, not even looking where it landed. He kissed the finger on her left hand before sliding the ring onto it. He gazed at the diamond for a long moment before saying, “My sisters helped me find a ring we thought you’d like. I wanted to get a huge one that would make it clear you were taken, but they talked me out of it.” Sawyer looked up at her then. “I know you want to work with the homeless, and buying a huge-ass ring probably wouldn’t be the smartest thing I could do for you.”
She loved that he had such confidence in her. It would be a long time before she could earn her degree, and even then, there was no guarantee she’d get a job where she wanted.
Blythe got down on her knees and pushed him back so he was sitting on his butt. She straddled his legs and clung to him. His arms went around her and they sat on the floor in their home for a long moment. Fina
lly, Blythe pulled back and smiled.
“I love you, Sawyer. You were there for me when I had no one else. You kept me sane when I was on the streets. You were the reason I didn’t give up. You’re going to be an amazing dad because you’re already an amazing brother, son, and friend. I can’t wait to meet our child.”
“Pregnant,” he said in awe. “I can’t believe it.”
She raised her eyebrows at him. “Really? I mean, it’s not like we’ve done much to prevent this from happening.”
“True.” He grinned. “My plan has obviously worked. Give my phone to the beautiful woman, get her to trust me, rescue her from the streets, make her fall in love with me, get her pregnant, and then convince her to marry me.”
Blythe smiled. “How many do you want?” she asked quietly.
“Three or four,” Sawyer said without even pausing to think about it.
“Really?”
“Yeah. And as close together as possible. I loved having sisters but was sad that we weren’t closer in ages. I want a brother who can be there to protect his sisters. I want girls who can pester their brothers. I want sisters who will drive each other crazy, but later in life will be each other’s best friends.”
Blythe swallowed hard, trying to control her emotions. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah, Sawyer. I’m okay with that. I want a big family. With you.”
“God, I love you,” Sawyer said, hugging her to him, then falling backward, holding her on top of him.
“I think we conceived that first day. Remember? When you tackled me in that room upstairs? The baby’s room? Maybe the spirit of that miscarried child was there, and helped.”
“I like that thought,” Sawyer told her. Then one hand pressed her against his growing erection and the other wandered up and under her shirt, brushing against her spine as he went. “I think we should celebrate.”
“Yeah? How so? I know—we could call your parents,” Blythe teased.
He shook his head. “I think tomorrow is soon enough for them to know. I have other plans for my fiancée.”
She smiled even as she lowered her head. They kissed, and she could feel his smile against her lips. Blythe ground herself down on his cock as she pulled away. “We have a perfectly good bed upstairs…we should use it.”
“No,” Sawyer said immediately. “As soon as our first kid is born, it’ll be harder and harder to make love whenever and wherever we want.”
“True,” Blythe said, even as she arched her back. Sawyer’s hands had both snaked under her shirt and had undone her bra. “Here’s good.”
“I love you,” Sawyer said reverently as he helped her take off her shirt.
“And I love you,” Blythe responded.
Neither spoke anymore as they made love and celebrated their blessings right there on the floor of the living room.
Hours later, when Blythe was held tight in her future husband’s arms, sated and content, she couldn’t help but think she was the luckiest woman in the world, and that she wouldn’t change one second of her life if it meant she’d end up right where she was. Pregnant, engaged, and wonderfully happy.
Calder jerked as the pager next to him began to vibrate. He sprang out of bed and reached for his jeans. He was used to being woken up at odd hours of the day and night. Dead bodies didn’t have regular hours, and it was his job as medical examiner to study those bodies to figure out their cause of death. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was interesting.
He worked with detectives across all agencies to investigate and help figure out how and when a person died.
Calder shoved his feet into his shoes and made a quick stop in the bathroom before heading out of his house. He checked his messages to see where he needed to go and saw an address downtown.
He’d been spending a lot of his time downtown recently. After hearing about Blythe’s friend’s plight, he’d wanted to help find her. Something about Hope and Billy’s story tugged at his heartstrings. He wasn’t normally one to be overly sentimental or sympathetic. Examining dead bodies for a living did that to him, he knew, but hearing that Hope was on the run from an abusive ex, who was also in law enforcement, pissed him off.
Protecting others was what he and his friends did. Abusing their power wasn’t something any of them would ever consider, and the thought of someone else hiding behind a badge irked him.
But he’d been searching for weeks now, with no luck. He’d begun to think Hope and her son had left the area for good. And he couldn’t blame them. Calder just hoped they’d found a safe place to go.
He drove to the area where the dead body had been found and, as he neared, saw the lights from the cop cars. He pulled up as close as he could, flashing his badge to the officers. He parked and picked up his medical bag and was escorted behind the yellow crime scene tape.
It was dark, and the few streetlights in the area didn’t do much to penetrate the murky shadows of the night. His eyes immediately went to the body on the ground, which hadn’t been covered. He was glad; it was important to leave the scene completely untouched.
The crime scene techs would come and collect evidence soon, but all Calder was concerned about was the body. He could tell a lot about what happened simply by “listening” to what the deceased told him.
He took a step toward the body, his mind already whirring with possibilities of what had happened and how the man had died. Before he could get too close, an officer from the San Antonio Police Department stopped him.
“Hey, Doc. Good to see you again, sorry it has to be like this.”
Calder didn’t know the officer, but he wasn’t surprised the man knew him. There weren’t nearly as many MEs in the county as there were officers. “Yeah,” he replied, wanting to get on with it. Dead bodies were a puzzle. A gruesome one, but a puzzle nonetheless. And he liked mysteries. Liked solving them. It was why he was such a good ME.
“I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything, I’ll be over there interviewing the witnesses,” the officer said.
Calder’s head jerked up at that, and his attention strayed from the dead body for the first time. “Witnesses?”
“Yeah. I guess a woman and her kid were the ones who reported the DB. Called it in.”
Having a witness could make his life easier, or it could make it more difficult. Many times, witness statements were incongruent with what the evidence was telling him. He didn’t usually even read the statements until after he’d already examined the body and come to his own conclusions, but he always double checked what he believed happened, based on his examination, against the witness statements.
Although, the officer hadn’t said the woman had witnessed anything, just that she’d notified the police of the location of the body.
“She doesn’t look like she’ll be much use though. I’ve found the waitresses at the diners downtown usually aren’t all that bright.”
Calder turned to look in the direction of where the cop indicated—and froze.
Standing off to the side, with a blanket around her shoulders, was a woman. And not just any woman. Hope Drayden. The person he’d been seeking for weeks.
The second he saw her, Calder knew it was Hope. Red hair, a backpack sitting on the ground at her feet, and a look of terror in her eyes. She was wearing a polyester uniform that he recognized from a chain of diners in and around San Antonio.
Standing next to her, with his head buried in her stomach, was a little boy. It had to be Billy. Calder knew it.
For the first time in his career, his focus wasn’t on the body lying on the pavement in front of him. He needed to get to Hope and find out what the hell had happened. More importantly, he needed to get her and her son to Blythe. To safety.
He didn’t know their story, but from the exhausted looks on both their faces, it was obvious they were at the end of their rope. He didn’t know where they’d been living, but he was pleased that at least it seemed like Hope had a job, even though he had his doubts bei
ng a waitress would give her enough money to live off of long-term. He didn’t think they’d been living on the streets recently, as he’d searched each and every shelter thoroughly and repeatedly over the last couple of weeks.
Without a word to the officer, Calder headed for the duo. He wasn’t going to let them out of his sight. No way in hell. From this point on, he was going to be glued to their sides. It was obvious Hope needed a champion in the worst way, and she just got one.
Look for the next book in the series…Justice for Hope. Find out where Hope and her son, Billy, have been and what Calder is going to do about their situation.
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Also by Susan Stoker
Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Series
Justice for Mackenzie
Justice for Mickie
Justice for Corrie
Justice for Laine (novella)
Shelter for Elizabeth
Justice for Boone
Shelter for Adeline
Shelter for Sophie
Justice for Erin
Justice for Milena
Shelter for Blythe
Justice for Hope (Sept 2018)
Shelter for Quinn (TBA)
Shelter for Koren (TBA)
Shelter for Penelope (TBA)
Delta Force Heroes Series
Rescuing Rayne
Assisting Aimee - Loosely related to DF
Rescuing Emily
Rescuing Harley
Marrying Emily
Rescuing Kassie
Rescuing Bryn
Rescuing Casey
Rescuing Sadie
Rescuing Wendy
Rescuing Mary (Oct 2018)
Ace Security Series