Firstborn

by Carrigan Fox

  She grinned at him. “They’ve seen me work, Will. They know that I kick ass.”

  “Modest, too.”

  She took his face between her hands and pulled her in for a kiss. “As long as you love me, you will always be my hero. And this little boy will grow up knowing that his daddy is the greatest man the world has ever seen. He will learn from you and will one day, play the hero to millions, maybe even billions of people around the world, Will. Let that be enough.”

  He made a horrific picture, smiling through his bloodshot, blackened eye and battered face. “Let it be enough? Dr. MaCall, that’s everything.”

  E

  pilogue

  “Let’s take a quick rest.”

  “Tired?”

  “A bit,” she answered, massaging her still flat stomach. She wasn’t showing at all yet, and she hadn’t experienced any morning sickness at all. But the little bugger was definitely sucking all of her energy. Even taking a simple walk in the park required some occasional breaks on the park benches placed beneath large oak trees.

  “I want to take you out for dinner tonight to celebrate the completion of the first trimester.”

  Jac leaned in and kissed him, slipping her hand into his. He squeezed her hand in a quiet show of affection, and she felt her fingers press together around her wedding ring. They had been married for a month and a half, and kissing her husband as the sun went down on the beach had been the most beautiful moment of her life.

  “My mother also wants to take you shopping for maternity clothes and baby clothes.”

  All of a sudden, she felt the flutter kicks of the baby. She gasped and pulled Will’s hands over her belly. “He’s kicking,” she cried out.

  Will leaned over and moved his palm across her belly, following his boy’s kicks as he moved. “He’s protesting about the shopping trip,” he laughed.

  The instant connection between Jac and her men gave her a jolt of overwhelming emotion. And then she was in the delivery room. She screamed in agony, using every ounce of her strength to bear down in an effort to bring that baby into the world. She heard Will speaking in her ear but couldn’t concentrate on his words. She was squeezing his hand so severely that he was fairly certain he would have some broken bones.

  And then she felt the baby sliding from her body, in a fluidly graceful entrance to the world. She heard him cry out in protestation.

  “You did it,” she heard Will whisper, kissing her cheek.

  “He’s here,” she said to him, tears springing to her eyes.

  “Ready to save the world,” Will whispered with tears in his own eyes.

  In the next moment, one of the nurses was cradling the tiny screaming infant. “Congratulations, Mom and Dad.”

  “How does he look?” she asked straining against her restrained feet and her husband’s arms in order to catch a glimpse of her little beloved one.

  Will’s hand was on the back of her neck as he quietly said her name, waiting for her to come back to him. He studied her face with concern and lifted her hand to his lips. “Are you okay?” he asked when her eyes finally began to focus on him.

  She lifted her face to the sun that was filtering through the leaves of the oak over her head. She smiled, but her eyes had tears in them.

  “Jac?” he asked again.

  “I’m fine. I’m great actually.”

  “Was it a vision?”

  She nodded, reaching for the amethyst on the silver chain around her neck. Now she understood her sister’s cryptic smirk. Jac laughed to herself, imagining that Taryn finally felt that she knew something her sister, Dr. Genius, didn’t know.

  “And everything is okay? Was it the baby? He’ll be okay, won’t he?”

  She shook her head and smiled with sympathy for him.

  “No?” A look of panic froze his smile in place. “What do you mean?”

  “He won’t be okay. But she’ll be great.”

  “It’s a girl?” he asked, incredulous.

  She scolded him with a look. “Why so surprised? You think that a woman can’t change the world?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “After seeing you in action, Elektra, I have no doubts about the power of women. It seems a fitting end, doesn’t it?”

  “It seems a fitting beginning,” she corrected.

  ***

  “We have no choice but to lie low for the time being,” John urged. “They are on the defensive and prepared for another attack. I think our best move is to wait and allow them to become complacent.”

  “They wouldn’t be prepared for any attack if it hadn’t been for the incompetence of the men that you sent after them.”

  “I had my reasons for doing that,” John countered confidently.

  “And what were those reasons?” the man at the head of the table on stage spoke up.

  John looked around the room and saw that every face was watching him, waiting to hear his explanation. After so many years of loyalty, he was beginning to resent being the subject of this inquisition. “I knew that MaCall Securities had a long reach. The fact that Dr. Archer lived in the same town where the corporate office is housed made me cautious. And as soon as I learned that Jaclyn MaCall is the mother of the firstborn Archer, I knew that I had made the right choice. I was concerned that with MaCall’s involvement, there was some room for error or even failure. And I would go to any cost to keep The Order from being exposed. And given that Holt’s militia was exposed in his efforts to destroy Archer and his child, I think that I was right to be cautious.”

  “Senator Rundstrom, because of the inept bank manager and former militiaman, a third woman was involved. Ms. Aislin Kearney. And thanks to her, Jaclyn MaCall and Will Archer are now aware of the prophecy and the value of their child.”

  John turned to reply. “Without Ms. Kearney, we would not have discovered the prophecy ourselves.”

  “Can we be sure of that, Senator?”

  “I think we can be fairly certain. And a mother and father will do anything to keep their child safe, regardless of whether that child is prophesied to change the world or not. Isn’t that the nature of parenthood, Representative Hollister?”

  “Perhaps,” he answered simply with a shrug.

  “Ms. Kearney has actually proven invaluable, gentlemen. Just this morning, she called me and indicated that she has had another vision. And it has led me to conclude that there may be another way to change this future and eliminate the threat that will prove disastrous for us.”

  “A way other than going after an unborn child who happens to be in the womb of a woman adept at security and defense?” the mayor asked with sarcasm.

  “That’s an excellent point, Mayor. Personally, I think that we should wait until the child is born. Give it time to let things simmer down.”

  “Simmer down,” a top notch NBA player scoffed. “Is that Hollywood speak?”

  An award-winning actor ignored the testosterone standoff and made a valid point. “Some of us know that toddlers can be precocious. They run away from their mothers, they throw tantrums at the park, they put things in their mouth that have no business being in their mouths. It’ll be easier to eliminate the child at that stage.”

  “But there’s another issue, gentlemen.” Senator John Rundstrom took center stage again. “According to Ms. Kearney, we have a second opportunity. On the off chance that we are unable to eliminate the firstborn Archer, she assures me that eliminating Taryn MaCall might be the next best thing. It appears that the firstborn’s aunt has an undue influence on the child later in life and encourages the child to pursue a political career that leads to the destruction of the U.S. Government as it currently exists. The aunt is the one who pushes the Archer child to remove members of The Order from their various government positions and other positions of power and influence. And once he has done that, he will change legislation to see to it that the American government works together to serve the people, as he feels it was intended in the 18th century. The aunt influences this ch
ild to the point that the U.S. will actually become a true democracy rather than the well-oiled republic that we have established over time. The people will vote on legislation and 247 of us in this room will be disposable and out of a job. And for the other 250 of you in this room who think that these changes will not impact you, I ask you to re-consider. Think of how many times we’ve passed legislation that has directly benefitted you. Think of how much power you will lose when you do not have this network anymore. Consider your life and what it has to offer you once the Archer child destroys The Order.”

  “So we go after the aunt?”

  “Who is she again?” the man at the head of the table piped up again.

  “Taryn MaCall,” the Senator repeated, annoyed that nobody had been listening the first time he had provided her name as a warning. “She is the sister of Jaclyn MaCall and the Vice President of MaCall Securities Consulting.”

  “Another MaCall. Seems like this Archer Prophecy is more about the MaCalls. Perhaps it’s time we refer to it as the MaCall Prophecy.”

  Titters filled the room.

  “So we go after the aunt?” a man repeated.

  Senator Rundstrom looked around the room at the 500 nodding heads. “We go after the aunt,” he agreed.

  A

  BOUT THE AUTHOR

  Carrigan Fox began developing her passion for writing during her gruesome middle school years, where the prospect of escaping into a world of her own making was infinitely more satisfying than that of the petty pre-teen dramas that baffled her. When she was nineteen, someone had the audacity to suggest that she consider writing romance.

  Instead, her writing took a backseat to her budding teaching career, where she spent twelve years struggling to comprehend how someone couldn't love Dickens, Twain, and Wilde. And with the ongoing shifts in education and her young child's constant reminders of the joys that life has to offer, Carrigan felt compelled to finally more aggressively pursue her passion for writing. After all, she could hardly encourage her own child and her students to pursue their dreams unless she was doing the same.

  And fifteen years after she snorted at the preposterous suggestion of writing romance, she decided to do exactly that…and she is loving it!

  To contact Carrigan Fox, visit her website at http://www.carriganfox.com

  B

  ONDS OF MATRIMONY

  Carrigan Fox

  Lady Chastity Fairfax is a young noble woman who finds the restrictions of her life in England nearly impossible to stomach. It is 1908, and she both envies the freedom that the men around her enjoy and resents them for the control they hold over her own life. Desperate to become independent and free from the loathsome betrothal her father has arranged for her, Chastity boards the Mauritania to start fresh on the ranch of her brother in Texas.

  Aboard the Mauritania, and in the guise of a young man, Chase meets the handsome Colton Webb. Her initial attraction to his raw masculinity turns to disgust when she becomes privy to his chauvinistic philosophy of relationships between men and women. And when she learns that he is both her brother's neighbor and rival, she shrewdly vows to punish Webb...by making him fall in love with her.

  For all her schemes, Lady Chastity hadn't planned on the passion she'd feel for Webb. And she is devastated to realize that if she follows her own heart, she must give up her independence and succumb to the repugnant institution of marriage.

  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BO0E772

  INNER MOONLIGHT

  Carrigan Fox

  Elena Mazur is the perfect wife. Having met and fallen in love with her husband when they were only fourteen, she has dedicated nearly sixteen years to trying to be the woman she felt he deserved. As she approaches thirty, she gradually began to realize that she has cultivated a fairly miserable life for herself. But before she can finally muster the courage to live her own life, a devastating accident takes the life of her husband.

  Struggling with the relief she finds in her newfound freedom and the guilt she feels over the loss of her perfect husband, he flees to a lakeside cottage. And her mixed feelings become even more complicated when she learns that her husband’s cousin and childhood friend lives across the lake.

  While she cannot deny the attraction she has felt toward this man since they shared a passionate kiss as teenagers, she knows that her husband would never forgive her for acting on that attraction. Falling into bed with the one man she cannot have is the ultimate way to punish herself for her role in her husband’s death. Falling in love with him was never part of the deal.

  http://www.amazon.com/kindle-store/dp/B00CKIFEHO

  C

  OMING IN THE FALL OF 2013

  The MaCall Prophecy Trilogy

  The MaCall women have always been blessed--or cursed--with the gift of sight. In Firstborn, Second Sight, and Triple Threat, three women must fight to defend their loved ones and their family legacy against a secret society of powerful men who are determined to eliminate those who threaten their power and authority. When these men discover the MaCall Prophecy, they will go to any lengths to destroy the prophetic child who is predicted to unite the nation and bring about a change of power.

  SECOND SIGHT - Taryn MaCall is Vice President of MaCall Securities Consulting, and she can kick ass with the best of them. But she is also the influential godmother of the prophesied firstborn of Will Archer. She must learn to trust former Special Forces Operations Sergeant, Gray Campbell, if she intends to keep herself and the child safe. She must also learn to control the feelings that the rough-around-the-edges man stirs inside of her.

  TRIPLE THREAT - Teddie Archer, like all of the women in her family, possesses a rare gift. She also--under the protection and shelter of her family--has developed and maintained strong idealistic values and vision. But now, under the threat of powerful elitists, she will witness firsthand the strength, intelligence, and loyalty of the MaCall women as well as the two men who have fallen in love with her.