“It’s okay, Lexi.”
The deep baritone of the male's voice has me on edge before the fog lifts, then I’m calming as I realize that it’s Cal. Confusion washes over me in waves as I try to figure out where I am and what’s going on. Then like the tide, it washes in without any warning and I remember what happened.
Punching.
Kicking.
The sound of my bone as it cracked.
The pain.
Drifting.
Their faces.
The smell of the prison.
My eyes open slowly, but only one opens fully before I slam it back shut against the harsh lights overhead.
“Sweetheart…” I feel Cal’s hand on my arm, rubbing gently. “Let me get the doctor—”
“No,” I groan, reaching for him as he lets go. My heartbeat picks up at the thought of being left on my own. “Don’t leave me.”
I take a stuttering breath and slowly open my eye back up, adjusting to the brightness and taking in Cal where he sits on the side of the bed.
“I won’t go anywhere,” he says, smiling at me reassuringly. “I’m right here.”
I try my best to shove the images out of my head but wince in pain as I move.
“Do you remember—”
“Yes,” I cut him off, already knowing what he’s going to ask. “I remember.” My gaze roves up to his eyes. “Please help me, Cal. Don’t make me go back there.”
He leans forward, his eyes burning with fire as he says, “There’s no way that I’ll let you go back there.” He pauses. “No way in hell.”
I nod my head, relieved that I have him on my side. I know I can trust him, this isn’t like last time: it’s different. This time I have a family—people who care.
My body starts to relax, the tense muscles coming undone before I gasp, my hand flying to my stomach. “The baby.” My gaze flies to his. “Is the baby okay?”
Cal’s eyes widen, his face paling as he stares at me for several seconds before his gaze dips to my stomach and back again.
His mouth opens and closes several times before he shakes his head and finally asks, “You’re… you’re pregnant?” His voice is a mere whisper, and the shock in his eyes soon turns to happiness as everything seems to click into place. “I’m going to be a grandad.”
I nod my head slowly before I place my hand over his, gaining his attention as I wince.
“You can’t tell Evan.”
“What?” His head reels back.
It’s not that I don’t want Evan to know, because I do. He was the first person that I wanted to tell. But I couldn’t, not like this. I haven’t got a clue how he’ll react because I don’t know how he feels about all the recent events.
Does he still want me? Does he believe that I did what the cops are saying?
If I could just hear his voice… just one time; if I could look into his eyes: I’d be able to know what he was thinking.
I grit my teeth at the unknown. I had no way of calling him, no way of contacting him, at least not until Cal came to see me tomorrow. I kept telling myself that a week of me knowing and Evan not wouldn’t hurt, but every time I closed my eyes at night to try and get some sleep, it would tear me apart. Me knowing and him being in the dark.
My eyes connect with Cal’s, trying to show him how I feel. “I only found out when I was taken back to prison, I haven’t had my privileges back yet and I wanted to be the one to tell him.”
He stares at me a beat, the war in his eyes obvious. I only hope that he agrees and doesn’t tell him. It needs to come from me, and under any other circumstances, I would have gone to him right away and told him.
“I’ll bring him with me when they transfer you… it’ll probably be a couple of weeks,” he says, nodding his head and looking off into space.
“A couple of weeks?” I ask, starting to panic all over again. Are they sending me back to the same place? No, Cal said he wouldn’t let me be sent back there. Surely I can tell him before that? The thought of him not knowing is horrible: this is just as much his baby as it is mine, and he’s none the wiser.
“They’re only letting me and your uncle see you—”
“My uncle,” I gasp, a knot forming in my stomach. “You can’t let him in here.” I try to sit up but Cal stops me, telling me to breathe deeply and to calm down.
“He’s your emergency contact.”
My minds spins and then everything comes crashing down. Of course he is, I never took him off. “I want to change it.”
Cal nods, standing up and smirking. “I can arrange that… is there anyone in particular—”
“Evan… I want Evan.”
He grins big and wide before hooking his thumb over his shoulder. “Do you want me to leave to sort it out?”
“Please.” I crack a smile, and even though it hurts, I don’t care because it’s been way too long since I saw Evan, and as they’re only letting me see my emergency contact or lawyer, it means that I get to tell him.
Damn… how do I tell him?
Luke refused to let me drive back to the warehouse in the state that I was in when we left the hospital and to be honest, I didn’t have the fight in me to refuse when he took the keys from me and demanded I get in the passenger side of my own car. So I let him drive us back there while many emotions ran through me at an alarming rate. Sadness. Frustration. Anger. But most of all fear.
Fear of losing Lexi.
The drive went both too fast and too slow, and now, eight hours later, none of us have slept but we have a whole load of research done. Lexi’s uncle—Aaron Deacon—being the main source.
I lean back in my chair, stretching my arms over my head as I shake it to ward off the tiredness before opening my eyes and staring at my cell. I’ve only had messages from him, telling me that he’ll call me when she’s awake.
“She’s going to pull through,” Kay says, coming to stand beside me and placing her hand on my shoulder.
I look up into her eyes, seeing the truth there. “I… I hope so. If she doesn’t…” My voice cracks on the last word and my hands clench into fists.
“She will. She’s strong—”
The blaring of my cell cuts her off and I feel all eyes swing my way. My breathing picks up, my chest rising and falling as I see Pop’s name on the screen.
I hesitate. What if… what if she hasn’t pulled through? What if it was worse than he said? What if—
“Evan.” Ty’s gruff voice has my head snapping up. “Answer the call.” His eyes search mine, and I know that he can see it there. The fear.
My hand unclenches and I reach forward, gingerly picking it up and swiping the screen to answer the call.
“Pop?”
“Evan.” There’s a rush of air as he lets out a breath. “You need to come back.”
My heart beats harder in my chest, an anchor sinking to the bottom of my stomach. “What?”
“You need to come back, son.” Oh, God, this is it. “She’s awake, she’s asking for you.”
The anchor swings back up, releasing me. “I—what?”
His deep chuckle sounds over the line. “Come to the hospital, son. Lexi made you her emergency contact.”
His words vibrate through me, slowly sinking in as I stand up, my eyes wide and swinging between everyone that is in the warehouse. I see all of the questions in their eyes that are shadowed with tiredness.
“I’m on my way.” I end the call, standing there for several seconds before I finally open my mouth and say, “She’s awake.”
They all seem to expel a breath at the same time and I can’t stop the smile that quirks up the corner of my lips.
They all care about her, she’s part of the family now and she doesn’t even know.
“You heading there now?” Luke asks.
“Yeah.” I nod my head, taking a step away from the table.
“I’ll come with.” At the questioning raised brow that I give him, he says, “I left my car there last night.”
I don’t say another word as I back out of the warehouse and to my car, Luke on my heels before I spin out of there and head toward the hospital.
The drive there is silent, anticipation on my part but agitation on Luke’s. I can feel the tension in the air when his cell vibrates on his leg. He takes one look down at it before swinging his eyes to me and back down again as he hesitates.
I turn to face him quickly, frowning at the way he looks before he shakes his head and picks it up.
“Yeah?” There’s several seconds before his jaw locks. “I told you it’s not your place, Mom.” My eyes stay on the road, but my ears are straining to hear what she says to him. Whatever it is has his entire body tensing and anger vibrating off him. “No… Mom… Fuck! Don’t do that.” His hand slaps off the dash. “No, you’ll make it worse.”
I pull into the hospital lot, finding a space close to his car before he says, “I’m at my car, I’ll be there in twenty.” There’s some talking over the line that I still can’t make out. “I know, Mom.” His body seems to deflate. “I tried to help… I did.” His head bobs as I turn the engine off and wait. “She said she didn’t need help… what am I meant—fuck!” He pushes out of the car and I go scrambling after him. “Keep her there, don’t let her leave until I get there.” He ends the call, his face full of anger, but when he turns back to face me his mask slips back into place.
“Luke?”
“Let me know how Lexi is,” he growls before spinning around and jogging over to his SUV. I stare at it for several seconds, watching him speed out of the lot.
My fingers itch over my jeans pocket, wanting to call Ty and tell him about the phone call with his mom and the way he reacted to whatever she was saying. I have no idea what they were talking about, but my spidey sense is kicking in and I’m just now realizing that there’s something going on with him.
Luke has always been a closed book, much the same as I am. But we all know tidbits of information about his past: about what he did for his mom when he was a teenager. Is something going on with her? Does he need our help? Should I—
“Evan?” The sound of Pop’s voice has my head whipping over to the entrance of the hospital where he stands.
Whatever is going on with Luke will have to wait, because right now all I want is to make sure Lexi is okay.
I jog over to him, not waiting for him before I head back toward the same waiting room we were sitting in last night.
“This way,” he says, placing a hand on my back to slow me down and tilting his head to the side.
I come to a stop outside a closed door, seeing a man in scrubs talking to someone on the bed. He says something and then places a tablet under his arm and spins around, walking toward the door and opening it.
He acknowledges us with a nod of his head before he walks past us.
“Go on,” Pop encourages, waving his hand to the room.
I take a deep breath, closing my eyes briefly before opening them back up and stepping inside.
My eyes find hers right away, the hazel orbs pulling me in like the vortex of a tornado. There’s nothing I can do to stop it. My feet move forward and as soon as I’m close enough, I lean down and press a soft kiss to her lips, leaning the palm of my hand on the side of her bed.
A giant lump makes its way up my throat, blocking out any speech that tries to come out as my other hand slowly works its way up to her cheek, holding it gently as I pull back.
“Lexi.”
She doesn’t answer, caught in my eyes and the tear that leaks from the corner at seeing her like this. Her face is a multi-color of bruises, dried blood caked around a cut above her brow.
My thumb slowly skims above it as my anger runs through me again.
“I’ll never let anyone touch you ever again.” I crouch down at the side of her bed, taking her hand in mine when she lifts it and wipes my tear away as I asses the rest of her body.
Her other arm is covered in plaster, I see bruises over every inch of skin that I can see and I only dread to think about the ones that are covered by the blanket around her.
“I didn’t do it,” she blurts out, her voice hoarse. My gaze springs back up to hers. “I promise, Evan. They weren’t mine.”
“I know, baby.” I smile up at her. “I know they weren’t. We’ve all been trying to figure out what’s happening. The whole team is on it. We’ll fix this, baby. I promise.”
A noise sounds from her throat, a half sob, half gurgle before she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She whispers something but I can’t make out what.
“What? I can’t—”
“I’m with child!” Her eyes widen. “I mean… I’m pregnant… I’m...” She shakes her head. “With child? Really? What am I? Living in the eighteenth century?” A smile kicks up her mouth as she looks past me. I stand up, my hand slowly slipping for hers as my breaths stutter in and out of me. “I blame all those new English period dramas they keep showing. Although, I don’t think I could wear the kind of—”
“Lex?” My voice is gruff, I don’t sound like me. Did she just say—
“Can you imagine all those corsets?”
What is she talking about?
“Lexi.”
My eyes wander down to her stomach where her hand is sitting protectively. I must have heard her right… this can’t—I don’t—
“I bet they sweat terribly… can you—” She cuts herself off and my eyes lift back up to hers, misting over and making it so that she’s blurry.
“You’re pregnant?” I ask, just to be sure that I have this right.
“Yes.” She pauses for a beat. “It’s yours.”
I never doubted that one bit, but when I think back to the last time we slept together, there’s no way that she could be pregnant from that because it was a week ago… but before that… the night at the community center...
I stand stock still, watching her as my mind pieces it all together. I never wanted to have kids, it was never something that I allowed myself to even imagine. But as I stand here now and stare at the woman that I love, the woman who came into my life and turned my whole world upside down; I know that there isn’t any other person that I would want to be the mother to my child.
Peace washes over me as I realize that this is it; this is what the feeling is like to love someone so completely. My eyes snap back down to her stomach again and back up to her eyes as I watch a tear streak down her swollen cheek.
“I didn’t mean to tell you like that,” she chokes out. “I wanted to lead you into it, but… well…” She smiles. “You know what I’m like.”
I snort, stepping forward before a thought occurs to me. “Is the baby… is it… okay?” She nods and then I’m taking another step and clasping the sides of her face before leaning down. “I love you, Lex. I love you more than anything.”
Her chest deflates at the feel of my hands on her. “I love you, too.”
“Her uncle was the DA He didn’t have grounds to try her as an adult, but from what we can gather, he had all of the judges in his pocket. This guy is dirty… Dirtier than dirt.”
I clench my jaw at what Charlie is saying. The warehouse is packed with everyone who cares about Lexi and trying to help her get out of the prison that she’s been transferred to.
Pop fought hard to get her into a different facility, and as the closest one is four hours away, it means that she’s not as close as she was, but she’s safer there. It’s been four days since she was transferred, and ten since she was admitted to the hospital. For five days, I had sat by her bedside, not moving at all. We talked… about everything. I told her every single thing about my past, about what I do for work, leaving nothing unsaid. All the while she told me all about her. I know her inside out now, the good, the bad, and the ugly; and I love her even more for it.
We’re all flawed, no one is perfect, but it’s those imperfections that make you love harder.
“So we need to get her off on the original
charge: that’s the best way to do this,” Pop says from behind me.
Charlie’s whole team is here along with me, Luke, Ty, Kay, Kitty, Dean, West, Seb, Pop, Dad, and even Livvy. There isn’t a person here who doesn’t want to help Lexi.
“How do we do that?” Dad asks.
“We expose him,” Ty answers, standing up. “That way any case he dealt with gets brought into question.” He widens his stance. “And as soon as that happens, we jump on it and bring Lexi’s case forward.” He stares at me for a beat before flicking his gaze to Pop. “Have everything ready to go.” Pop nods his head at him.
I pull my laptop open, already starting to line up all of my contacts.
“Evan—”
“Already on it,” I say, cutting him off.
“Good. Charlie, do you have enough evidence to bring him down?”
I hear his grunt before he answers. “No… we only have enough to raise suspicion.”
An atmosphere blankets the warehouse at his words. We need to find something solid—even with the connections that we all have, it won’t mean anything unless we can stop him altogether. I type away, already making a list of connections before something pings, an alert coming up on the screen.
I click on it, turning up the audio as I raise my hand to silence everyone. “Shhh.”
All murmuring comes to a stop as I strain to hear what’s being said on the line that I tapped as soon as we figured out what her uncle was doing. I don’t care that it’s illegal, I’ll do whatever the hell I can to help my girl.
“You said this would be easy,” her uncle sneers over the line. “You asked me to arrange this and I did. Alexis was put back in prison and even the hospital. I want my payment.”
“Tsk tsk.” My back straightens at the sound of Darrell’s voice and my head snaps up. My eyes flash as they meet Seb’s and then Ty’s. “You may have distracted them for a little while, but what about when they get her out? Evan will be onto me again.”
I grind my teeth together as I realize what went on. This wasn’t random, her uncle and Darrell were behind it. The subtle warning of the photos when we found out he knew about us wasn’t only a warning—it was a promise.
ReBoot (MAC Security Series Book 4) Page 32