Sex, Vows & Babies: Wedding with a Baby Bump (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Heather Hiestand

  “Yes. What if she comes after me? She’s got a mind of her own. What if she sees a grenade or a bomb? I can’t risk her, Justice.”

  “I’ll contact Dale Wood,” Justice said. “Don’t worry. She’ll see you safely on the other side.”

  “Thanks, man, I won’t forget this. If her family gave a damn about her I’d feel bad, but her father uses her shamelessly, her brother couldn’t care less about her, and no one is helping her with her grandfather.”

  “It’s too much stress on her pregnancy,” Justice said. “Time for her to focus on her own well-being. She’s living for two now. Consider it done.”

  Elias disconnected and steered his truck with his knees while he removed the phone’s battery. He’d destroy it before he turned into the bar’s parking lot.

  ~

  Angela went to the front door of her grandfather’s house when the knock came.

  “What took you so long?” she asked, reaching down to grab her purse as she opened the door. Her purse was open and she almost flipped it over.

  “Oops.” A hand grabbed for it, helping her to right her purse before a plastic bag fell out.

  “Vicki must have been by,” Angela said, straightening up and closing her purse. Her mouth fell open and she grabbed for the door. “Who are you?”

  “I’m sorry, I guess you don’t remember me.” The man, not much taller than her, with sandy blond hair, wore a suit. He held out a dual-sided wallet to her. “Dale Wood.”

  She stared at the photo id and gold badge. FBI. FBI? When she glanced over the man’s shoulder, she saw a black sedan idling and someone in the driver’s seat.

  “We met at The Stan Pub. I was a customer.”

  “Sorry, I don’t remember.” The rumbling of the sedan engine made her oddly nervous. Where was Elias?

  “I believe it was the day you met Elias Nader,” he continued smoothly.

  “You know Elias?” she gasped. He’d said his government job was boring and obscure, had rattled off his department’s acronym. She hadn’t recognized it. Why would he know an FBI agent?

  He shook his head. “You really don’t remember, do you? Well, he was as floored by you as you were by him, I suppose.”

  “Why was he with an FBI agent? I mean, I know he has a government job, but he never said he worked for the FBI.”

  “He doesn’t,” Dale Wood said. “I’m going to need you to come with us, please.”

  “You have to be joking. I have to be at work. Elias should be here any second. He was supposed to pick me up.”

  “Because you haven’t been feeling well,” Dale said. “He sent me to get you. I was hoping you’d remember me.”

  “Full bottles of beer,” she said slowly. “I remember he wasn’t alone and I was surprised that the beers were still full.”

  “It was a meeting. The drinks were just a cover.”

  Her stomach gave a queasy lurch, as if she’d eaten a super-sized burger and fries, but she hadn’t. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it, Ms. Stan, but not here.”

  “Is Elias in trouble? Am I?”

  “No, ma’am,” Dale said. His rabbit-sized teeth flashed at her when he smiled. “But I do need us to get going.”

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Can I text Elias?”

  “Actually, I’m going to need to take that,” Dale said, plucking it out of her hands and sliding it into his pocket.

  “Am I under arrest?” Her hands started to shake. The dizziness she’d been experiencing off and on for days returned.

  “Consider me a friend. This is protective custody, Miss Stan. Truly, you’ve done nothing wrong.”

  In a daze, she allowed him to take her arm. Two steps out the door, she said, “Wait, I need to close it.”

  Dale Wood stayed next to her as she returned to the door and pulled it closed. She had a feeling if she would have run for it he’d have tackled her. And she couldn’t risk that.

  At the car, he opened the door and gestured her into the back, somehow managing to keep her purse with himself. She found herself in a secured back seat, like in a police car. Not knowing what else to do, she buckled herself in.

  Dale Wood and his female companion didn’t speak as the woman drove them off Angela’s grandfather’s lot and sped toward the freeway. What would her father think when she didn’t show up for work? Had Elias gone there and told him a lie? If he wasn’t FBI, what was he?

  She thought through a list of acronyms, scattered ideas from movies and TV shows. Was Elias DEA? Drug Enforcement Administration? She thought back about the past troubling few days at the bar. Lots of people were stressed out around the holidays, but it seemed like the crowd around Kenny had been really hyped up, talking up a storm, completely full of themselves and absolutely bashing on women. Considering that Elias treated her like a princess, it had never made any sense to her that he wanted their approval or friendship.

  He seemed much too confident to feel the need to pander to her parents by befriending Kenny either, if such a thing ran counter to his own interests. But she seriously doubted Kenny was a drug dealer. He never had any money.

  Critter, on the other hand, had money. He’d inherited his land and house, but property taxes and repairs weren’t free. Then there was Connor Blake, who did make good money, but who’d had to pay who knew how much to get his wife into the country, and he had a house, too, and a new thirty-thousand dollar truck.

  About half an hour later, they arrived at a small house in a trendy downtown Vancouver neighborhood. Behind them she saw a classic car parked in the driveway across the street and a new BMW was parked in the driveway next to that house. When she turned around, the garage door was open and they drove in.

  A minute later, the garage door squealed down and Dale Wood opened the passenger door. “Here we are. This is what’s called a safe house.”

  “Why do I need to be in a safe house?”

  “Your fiancé is worried about you getting in the way in the next couple of days,” the FBI agent said. “We want to debrief you, see if you know anything about our operation, but primarily, he wanted to make sure you were out of danger.”

  So she was being taken out of harm's way? Why exactly was Elias having her kidnapped? “I have no idea what’s going on,” she said, walking behind him into a small kitchen that opened onto an IKEA-furnished living room. The blinds were closed.

  The garage door closed and the woman came into the room. Like Dale Wood she wore a nondescript suit. She smiled at Angela and held out her own badge.

  “Can I have my phone back?” Angela asked, rubbing her engagement ring.

  “No, we’ve had to disable it,” Dale Wood said. “I’m sorry, but this will all be over soon.”

  “What could I possibly do to cause problems?” Angela asked.

  “Elias is at a tricky phase of his operation, Ms. Stan,” the man explained. “Please, sit down.”

  She sat on a love seat. The woman brought her a water bottle and sat across from her.

  “Is someone selling drugs out of the bar?” Angela asked.

  “There is definitely a drug issue,” Dale Wood confirmed, “But the issue is much greater than that. Have you seen anything to concern you?”

  “What’s always been odd is how Elias tries to be friendly with my brother and his friends,” Angela said. “I know he wants to please my parents, but he’s smart enough to see how impossible they are. He’s not a loser, but his friends are. So what’s going on?”

  “Elias has become aware of a terrorist plot,” the FBI agent said. “There is going to be an attack tomorrow night.”

  Angela leapt to her feet. “At the bar? What about my family?”

  The woman put up her hands. “Please, sit down. Not at the bar. In fact, this attack isn’t meant to cause loss of life, but nonetheless, it’s a very dangerous situation. There are drugs and bombs involved, and as you’ve been increasingly vocal about your distaste for Elias’s associations, he want
ed to make sure you weren’t around.”

  “He was afraid I’d try to put my foot down?”

  “It is New Year’s Eve tomorrow. He has been given a role in the attack and you might have made a scene if he wasn’t around,” Dale Wood explained. “Plus, with the baby.”

  As he lifted his eyebrows suggestively, Angela grabbed her necklace, letting the whorls of the shell pendant dig into her palm. “I don’t know if I’m pregnant.”

  “I saw the test in your purse when it fell out,” he said.

  Like she could forget that embarrassing moment. “My cousin must have put it in there, because I kept forgetting to buy one.”

  “Maybe now is the time to take it,” the woman suggested. “You’ll have privacy here, and some time to think.”

  “I suppose I have nothing better to do. But aren’t people at work going to be worried that I just disappeared?”

  “They’ll be told you’re home sick,” Dale Wood said.

  “Vicki won’t believe that. My cousin.”

  “Elias will tell her that he booked you into a spa hotel and plans to join you tomorrow night,” the woman said. “Don’t worry, we’re good at this.”

  “Is Elias in danger?” Angela fretted.

  “Less so with you safe. He can concentrate,” she said gently.

  They spent the next hour quizzing her on the drug scene around the bar. Angela didn’t know much, but as she talked about behaviors, she realized she could pinpoint when meth came onto the scene.

  Eventually, Dale Wood left and she was shown to an upstairs bedroom with attached bath. The woman went downstairs to prepare a meal for them, and Angela finally opened her purse and took a look at the test Vicki had left her.

  It was the easy kind. No vague pluses or colors, just pregnant or not pregnant in clear English. She did the test and set it on the counter to wait, then paced in the bedroom, wishing Elias was there. She couldn’t even call him with the results.

  A few minutes later, she went back into the bathroom and peeked at it. Pregnant. She picked up the test and stared at it. While in the movies women were always doing multiple tests to make sure, she only had the one and the word was totally clear. Besides, she’d kind of known the truth for a few days now. She dropped the test in the garbage since she couldn’t even take a picture of it with her phone.

  Then she went back into the bedroom, rubbing her stomach in wonder. She stood in front of a long mirror on an armoire and stared at her breasts. Were they larger? Elias hadn’t said anything. They’d certainly been tender for the past couple of weeks, though. Yes, she could believe she was pregnant. What would happen now? Apparently her entire relationship with Elias had been some kind of elaborate anti-terrorism plot. Who was he?

  Would Elias be able to keep her when her family was in this much trouble?

  She sat down on the edge of the bed. One thing she couldn’t doubt was his love. His was as real as hers. But could that be enough, when he’d been undercover? Was he always going to be away from home, pretending to be different people, doing this terribly dangerous job?

  Her stomach roiled. She dashed into the bathroom and was sick. When her stomach stopped heaving, she stayed on the floor in the immaculate space, her overheated face resting on the cool wood cabinet under the sink. Now what?

  ~

  Elias stared down at the sleeping beauty. Her dark hair spread across the white pillowcase, seeming to have a gleam of its very own. In repose, her profile looked soft and innocent, a button nose, high forehead, defined cheekbones, a chin that could be stubborn, as carved as a Greek goddess’s. Her breath whistled softly through her nose.

  He settled down on the bed next to her. If it weren’t for the FBI agent downstairs, he’d take his clothes off and slide under the covers next to her, but the door didn’t have a lock and if he startled Shelly to the point of screaming, the agent would come running, gun drawn.

  Instead, he stroked her hair and admired her hand, her engagement ring slid slightly off to the side of her slim fingers. She must have lost weight in the past week. The baby was costing her. At least the nausea should only last a couple more months, and then she’d have her energy back while she grew round with their child. He couldn’t wait to see how she carried, if she’d be one of those women with a beach ball in front, or if the baby would spread out across her midsection.

  He imagined coming home from that desk job that awaited him in DC, to find Shelly in the kitchen stirring a pot of pasta sauce, their house redolent with aromatic spices. Maybe she’d have a pie in the oven. Funny, because she’d never cooked for him. He knew she could, though, since she prepared her grandfather’s food.

  “I’m looking forward to it,” he said softly.

  Shelly stirred. Her fingers clutched and released, then her eyelids fluttered. She pushed herself into a sitting position, her long-sleeved T-shirt bunched up, exposing her still flat stomach. Her hands went to her face and rubbed, then finally, she opened her lovely dark eyes.

  “Hi, honey,” Elias said.

  She smiled sleepily, then alarm came into her eyes a few seconds later as she realized she was in an unfamiliar room. “Where are we?”

  “The safe house. About twenty miles south of home.”

  “Why, Elias? Why did the FBI bring me here?”

  “It’s time to tell you the truth.”

  Tears sprang into her eyes. He captured her hand and said, “Shhh. It’s okay. I’m not a bad guy.”

  She rubbed at her eyes again with her free hand. “I know that. I’m just scared. And what about Grandpa?”

  “Vicki is going to bring him food.”

  “If I’m in danger, isn’t she in danger too?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I was afraid you’d make a scene because you were so concerned with me hanging out with Kenny and his friends. Vicki’s not so close to my operation.”

  Her forehead scrunched, making lines that usually weren’t there. “Operation?”

  “I’m with the CIA. I came here as a liaison to the FBI while I recovered from a gunshot wound, to work on a database for domestic terrorists with international ties.”

  She shuddered. CIA? “What do you normally do?”

  He pressed her shoulder lightly, knowing she was spooked by his revelation. “Undercover work.”

  She pulled her knees to her chest and folded her arms around them. “At least I know the truth now.”

  He smiled at her, his relaxed expression reflected in the mirror behind them. If only he felt as calm as he looked. What if she rejected him now? “Don’t worry, honey. I’ve got a desk job coming. I know I can’t continue to do that kind of work with a wife. I’d miss you too much.”

  “Really?” She swallowed hard.

  “Of course.” He stroked her arm.

  She shook her head, still processing. “So what’s the deal with Kenny?”

  “I’m afraid after I came here the local chatter, as we say, was on the rise. It turns out that your meth head brother and his loser friends have been taught how to make bombs by jihadists online and Fatima Blake. They are planning to bomb a power substation tomorrow night and they decided to make me a part of the operation, the part that gets caught.”

  “What?” Her mouth dropped open.

  “Yes, honey. I can totally understand why you’ve never wanted me around them, given they have absolutely no regard for you.”

  She put her hand to her forehead. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “You don’t need to say anything. Suffice it to say that the FBI will arrest all of them tomorrow night. I couldn’t risk you attempting to put your foot down about me hanging around with them at the last minute.”

  She licked her lips, her expression changing from confused shock to outrage. “So on New Year’s Eve, they were expecting my new fiancé to help them bomb something and get caught instead of spending the holiday with me?”

  He nodded. “Yes. Meth heads don’t think too clearly.”

  “Did you have to
do drugs?” She ground her lower lip between her teeth.

  He smiled. “No. In fact, today was the first day they pulled out their stash in front of me. Getting really careless.”

  She relaxed her hand against his leg, her fingers brushing his jeans. “I feel like I should feel bad about Kenny, but I have to admit I don’t. He needs help.”

  The fact that she’d touched him meant she still considered them a team. Elated, he said, “If you consider help to be federal prison, then he’ll get it.”

  She shook her head. “I feel bad for my parents. They are going to lose both of their kids, basically.”

  “Good parents know that their children have to make their own lives. Kenny has to pay for his mistakes and you deserve to be happy.”

  She considered him carefully for a moment, then spoke in a lower, almost timid voice. “So you’ll be fine if someday your child moves across the country?”

  Elias grinned. “By then we’ll probably have such advanced communication and travel that it will be like they live down the street.”

  Shelly smiled shyly. “All that in eighteen years or so?”

  He put his hand over hers. “Are you trying to tell me something?”

  She nodded and squeezed his hand. “I took a pregnancy test today. It was positive!”

  He laughed aloud and hugged her. “I knew it.”

  “I don’t know how, but you did,” she said. “I don’t know how far along I am. Could be anything from ten days to a month.”

  “You’ll find out at your first doctor’s appointment,” he said. “In the new year.”

  “Will you have to go to DC as soon as you finish up here?”

  “I don’t know, but I already have leave scheduled for our wedding, so you don’t need to worry about that. Whenever I have to go, I hope you’ll come with me right away.”

  She worried at her lip again. “I have to plan the wedding.”

  “You can do that from anywhere, honey.” He wrapped his arm around her, reaching under her rucked-up shirt to stroke her smooth skin. “I’m never going to get tired of touching you, Shelly.”

  She turned to him, her breast rubbing against the side of his torso. “You’d better not.”