Leverage (The Mistaken Series)

by Nancy S Thompson

  Katy squeezed her purple lid tight. Tears leaked out and streamed down her temples and into the shells of her ears. She sniffed in a ragged breath. “They told you?”

  I gave her hand a squeeze. “Katy, why didn’t you tell me? How long have you known?”

  She kept her face averted, refusing to look at me. “Four weeks. That’s why I came back. I thought you should know. But then,” she said and finally turned to look me in the eye. “You were with that girl, Nova, and you were getting your life back on track, a new job, new friends. I didn’t want to screw that up—again.”

  “So, what, you were gonna leave, not tell me? Just disappear?”

  “No! I mean…yes. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m so confused. I don’t know what to do.”

  I didn’t either. “The doc said you were twelve weeks.”

  Katy stared hard, her eyes pinned to mine. “Yeah, sounds about right.”

  “But…that could mean that…maybe it’s not…mine? Maybe it’s Leo’s?”

  She yanked her hand away and peered up at the ceiling. “Are you asking me or telling me?” she said then turned back to glare at me.

  “Katy, I just wanna know the truth, if it’s mine.”

  She huffed and pressed her mangled lips together. “Yes, of course it’s yours.”

  “You seem so sure, but…I just don’t know how you could possibly—”

  “You think I’d lie about my child’s paternity? Really, Conner? Really?”

  I shook my head again. “How can you be sure, Katy? I mean, what about Leo?”

  “What about Leo?” she threw back at me. “He and I hadn’t been…together…for several weeks before he died.” She glanced at her fingers, fidgeting with her IV site. “He was too preoccupied with whatever shit had been bothering him. I had my period the week before he fell, so I wasn’t pregnant when he died.” She turned her head and gazed at me. “It’s yours, Conner. I’m sorry if that ruins all your plans.”

  Katy tried to rotate her body away from me, but the pain was too intense, and she cried out. I climbed up along the edge of her bed, my face above hers, forcing her to look at me.

  “Katy, come on. Don’t be like this. We’ll work it out.”

  “Work it out? What the fuck does that mean? I love you, Conner. I can’t do this without you. If you don’t want this, just tell me. I’ll have it taken care of before I leave the hospital.”

  “The hell you will!” I spat and shook the bed. The idea made me sick.

  “What choice do I have? I won’t do this alone.”

  I softened my voice and cupped my hand to her cheek. “You don’t have to. I’m here.”

  Katy’s arms wound around my neck with remarkable speed, given her injuries. She drew me in tight, then moaned at the pain she caused herself. I took hold of her wrists and pulled them away, taking her hands in mine. She smiled, the way she used to, when she was happy, before Leo died and all that ugliness had consumed us.

  She sniffled. “We’re having a baby.”

  I grinned at her announcement and nodded, surprised at how happy that actually made me, despite the nerves that now settled in my stomach. “We are,” I agreed. “Man, my mom’s gonna shit,” I added, and we both laughed.

  But then she closed her eyes and started to cry again. “I’m sorry.”

  I gathered Katy in my arms, careful of her injuries, but secure enough to show how serious I was. “I know this is scary, K. I’m scared, too, but…everything will be all right. I will take care of you, and our kid, too.”

  I said the words to comfort her, but I had to keep repeating them in my head, over and over, so I’d be convinced, as well.

  Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

  CHAPTER 16

  Hannah

  Tyler had a long day ahead with three back-to-back meetings with various building inspectors. He wouldn’t have time for lunch, so I made what he referred to as a full English breakfast—fried eggs and sausage with mushrooms, baked beans, and tomato, all served with a pot of Twinings Earl Grey tea, just like his mum used to make, except for the black pudding, which I found disgusting and refused to prepare.

  With his eye on the time, he wolfed it down and cleared his plate, dumping it into the sink with all the dirty pots and pans. He started to rinse off the frying pan and prepare to hand wash the dishes, until I swished a dishtowel at his arm.

  “No, no, gimme that. I’ll do it,” I insisted. “You better go or you’ll be late.”

  He dried his hands and wrapped them around my waist then pulled me in close with a soft kiss pressed to my temple. “Thanks, love. I’m sorry I don’t have more time. I’ll put them away when I get home tonight.”

  “Just go,” I urged.

  Ty pulled on his jacket, grabbed his roll of building plans from the counter, and headed for the door, but before he could make his escape, my cell phone rang from the kitchen table. The familiar ringtone indicated Conner, but I couldn’t answer with my hands a soapy, greasy mess. Ty and I exchanged curious glances. It had been three days since Conner had last called, and Ty knew I was anxious to hear how his new job had gone. He grabbed the phone, swiped his finger across the touchscreen then hit the speaker button.

  “Hey, Conner,” he answered.

  “Ty? I thought I dialed my mom’s number.”

  “You did. She’s elbow deep in dirty dishes at the moment, but she’s right here, and you’re on speaker.”

  “Hey, Conner, it’s Mom,” I called out as I rinsed my hands under hot water.

  “Mom, can you take a break, please? I really need to talk to you about something, to both of you, actually.”

  Tyler walked the phone over as he tried to make his excuses. “Conner, I’m already running late. Can this wait ‘til later?”

  I dried my hands as Ty held the phone out.

  “No, not really,” he replied.

  I snatched the phone from Ty’s hand, but kept it up between us. “Are you okay?”

  A quiet pause was followed by a deep sigh.

  “What is it, Conner?” I repeated. “The job going okay? School?”

  “No. I mean…yeah, the job’s great. I love it. And school’s fine. It’s just…” Another sigh. “I have some news, and I doubt you’ll be pleased.”

  Tyler and I exchanged another glance, this time worried.

  “Whatever it is, Ty and I will do what we can to help.”

  Ty cocked his chin to the side in an arguable challenge. I waved him away.

  “Um, well…it’s…it’s Katy,” Conner admitted, and Ty let out a small huff.

  “Katy?” I asked. “You mean Leo’s girlfriend? That Katy?”

  “Yeah, only…after Leo died, we sorta, you know…hooked up.”

  “Oh, Conner.”

  “Mom, it’s how we got through it. And now…well, she’s…” A third sigh, this one louder than the last two.

  “Spit it out, Conner,” Ty said impatiently.

  “She’s pregnant,” he blurted.

  I gasped, but as shocked as I was, Ty looked even more so, with his fingers pressed to his forehead and his faced screwed up in horror. He shook his head and turned away as he swung a fist backward through the air. “Bloody fucking hell!” he swore under his breath.

  I tried to regain my composure, but found myself stammering, both at what to say and how to interpret Tyler’s reaction. “God, Conner, I…I don’t even know what to say.”

  “I know,” he replied, his voice sad. “I’m so sorry, Mom.”

  “Well…what’re you going to do?” I asked as I watched Tyler pace back and forth. “Is she going through with it, or—”

  “Yes! God, of course!”

  My shoulders sagged, though I couldn’t be sure whether it was from relief or trepidation. “Then what’re your plans?” I paused as my breath hitched momentarily. “Conner, you’re not planning to…get married, are you?”

  “No, Mom, we haven’t even discus
sed that. But she has moved in with me.”

  “What?” Ty exclaimed, his eyes a strange combination of anger and fear. I started to turn around, but Ty grabbed my arm and spun me back to face him. “No,” he whispered as he shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

  Irritated, I pulled free of his grasp, tapping the speaker button and raising the phone to my ear. “Conner? I’m sorry, can I call you back in a minute?”

  “Ty’s freaking out, isn’t he?”

  “Uh, well, yeah, maybe a little. He’s just in a hurry. He has a bunch of meetings, and he’s already late, so—”

  “Yeah, right. Whatever.”

  “Conner, wait—”

  “I’ll talk to you later, Mom. Bye.”

  “Conner!” I cried out, but he’d already disconnected the call. I stared at the phone for a second then placed it on the counter as I took a moment to regroup, but that’s all Ty allowed.

  “No, Hannah, no way. I don’t want her living with him. That girl’s trouble.”

  “That girl?” I asked, confused by his tone. It sounded like he knew her. “What do know about that girl? Besides trying to locate her, has Conner talked to you about her?”

  He stopped pacing and stared at me with his mouth open. He snapped it shut and shook his head. “No…of course not, it’s just…”

  “Just what, Ty? What do you know?”

  With his hands on both hips and his head tipped back, he closed his eyes and sighed. Then he straightened and looked at me, his gaze worried and his brow wrenched together in that wrinkled furrow I hadn’t seen since…

  Oh God. Tell me it’s not that bad.

  Ty pulled out one of the kitchen chairs. “Please, Hannah, come sit down.”

  I shook my head, frightened, concerned. “Why? What is it? You’re scaring me.”

  “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you sooner, but…I didn’t want to upset you when I really don’t know all that much.”

  I scurried to the chair and sat along its edge, my hands drawn into a fist I laid upon the table. “But you know something, obviously.”

  He nodded. “Yes.” Ty pulled his own chair out and sat down. He placed a hand over mine. “After I had Aaron search for Katy, he shared a few things that have me...concerned.”

  “About Katy?”

  Another nod. “Yeah, and Leo, too.” He removed his hand and leaned back. “Seems they’re both Russian, if you can believe that, and Aaron doesn’t think it’s coincidence either. He suspects Leo might have been placed at the U-Dub to get close to Conner. And Katy, well, she’s not even registered there. Never was. She lied about that and about living at her residence hall. So maybe they were both planted there. I don’t know.”

  I stared at Ty, horrified at his revelation, furious he’d kept that information from me when he believed my son might be at risk. I dropped my gaze, stood up, and spun away from the table. My anger burned so hot, so close to the surface, I feared I might lash out and strike Tyler. I walked to the sink and focused blindly out the window.

  “Is that what you think, too?” I asked. “That they were planted there?” My voice wavered. I couldn’t control it.

  Tyler blew out a long, heavy breath. “I honestly don’t know what to think. I mean, if Leo and Katy were purposely placed there, wouldn’t they have made some kind of move against Conner in the last fifteen months? Against all of us? Why wait? And who could possibly be behind that anyway? Everyone who ever had a vendetta against me, against my family, is dead. With Dmitri and Alexi gone, their organization disbanded, the Vory scattered among the Bratva in California and Oregon. The FBI has located every single one of them. They aren’t interested in me, Hannah.”

  “And yet, you think Katy is a threat?”

  He shrugged and stood up. “Honestly, no, I don’t believe so, but I can’t disregard what Aaron said, not until I hear back from him and know for sure. We just spoke a few days ago. He’s still looking into it.”

  I took a step toward Ty, my arms crossed over my chest. “And what? You never once thought I had the right to know, for sure or otherwise? To know my son might be at risk? And what about Conner?”

  “He knows, at least about Katy not being a registered student, but I don’t know if she’s a threat or not. I didn’t want to disrupt his life more than it already was.”

  “Oh, I see. It’s just me in the dark then. I’m the only one who doesn’t have the right to know what may or may not be a threat to my family, to my child, to my life?”

  “Hannah, that’s more stress than you need. I didn’t want to risk your pregnancy when we have no real idea—”

  “We?” I snorted a bitter laugh. “There’s no we here, Ty. There’s just you making decisions for all of us, for me.” I held my hand to my chest. “We’re not supposed to have secrets between us. That was rule number one when we got married, remember?”

  “Yes, of course I do, but—”

  “No, there’re no buts, either.” I paced around the kitchen for a moment then stopped. “Is this what’s been bothering you, why you’ve been so moody and distant?”

  He lowered his gaze to the floor. “Yeah, it’s been on my mind a lot lately.”

  “Lately? It’s been weeks, Tyler. Just how long have you known, exactly?”

  A shrug and a shake of his head. “I don’t know, since Conner went into rehab, I guess.”

  My mouth hung open. “That’s almost two months! You’ve been lying to me for two months?”

  “No, Hannah, not lying. I was protect—”

  “That’s bullshit! This is about you, about your issues with control. Goddamn you, Tyler. Goddamn you!”

  He stepped closer, palms up. “Hannah, please, the baby.”

  Moving in reverse, I slapped his hands away. “Get away! Don’t touch me!”

  Ty dropped his arms and froze, his eyes tormented, probably remembering the last time I’d screamed those exact words at him, the very day we met.

  He nodded, his lips a tight line. “Right. Okay then.”

  His gaze dropped to the floor. Then he turned, grabbed his keys from the table, and walked out the door.

  CHAPTER 17

  Hannah

  I heard Tyler’s truck rev up and pull from the driveway. Frustrated and way beyond angry, I screamed at the top of my lungs and, with a wide sweep of both arms, scattered the dirty dishes from the counter to the floor, then slumped down among the broken pieces in a wailing heap of tears.

  Waffling between cursing and shrieks, I indulged my anger and fear for several minutes, trying hard to ignore the loud banging at my front door. At first, I thought—or hoped rather—that it might be Ty, that he’d returned to apologize. But he would’ve just come in the way he’d left. And who was I kidding, anyway? He didn’t seem to believe he’d done anything wrong in the first place, that keeping things from me—news regarding my son’s welfare—was fine as long as he was doing it to protect me, to protect my pregnancy. Did he not understand? Hadn’t he learned anything from his first wife’s death?

  The banging grew louder and more intense, and yells of concern muffled against the wood of the front door, my name called over and over. I pulled myself up and dragged a sleeve across my face as I trudged to the entry. I swung the door open, fast and wide.

  “What?” I barked.

  It was Roman, his fist raised mid-knock and his brow two opposing diagonal slashes striped across his creased forehead. He eyes swept first over me, then over my shoulder as he peered into my house.

  “Hannah, estás bien? Qué es el mal? Estaba muy preocupado! Yo podría oír todo el camino dentro de mi casa!”

  I shook my head, my hands in the air. “Whoa, English, please.”

  He took a deep breath. “I say…I hear you all the way inside my house,” he explained, his arm stretched toward his front yard. “What happened? I was so worried. Are you okay?”

  “No. I’m not.” I dropped my face to my hands.

 
Roman grasped my shoulders gently and pulled me through the doorway. “Come. Sit,” he urged, guiding me to the porch swing. He held it steady and lowered me to the cushioned seat, then pulled a neatly folded handkerchief from his pocket and brushed it across my cheek.

  I pulled back and took the linen from his hand. “Thank you, Roman. It’s fine. I’m just frustrated.”

  Roman sat down next to me, his leg bent beneath him and his body turned my direction. “I am a good listener if you would like someone to talk to.”

  I dabbed my eyes dry and looked at him with a sigh. “It’s nothing really.”

  “Dios mio, cariña! All that screaming, and it was nothing? No creo que!”

  “An overreaction, that’s all. I apologize if I worried you.”

  “You frightened me, that scream, the breaking dishes. And when I knock, you no answer, though I hear you crying and… swearing. ‘Maldita sea, hijo de pu—’” he mimicked.

  “Okay, okay, I know, and yes…I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you at first. I apologize for scaring you, but I’m fine. Really.”

  “And your husband?”

  My shoulders slumped and my gaze dropped to my hands in my lap. “He left.”

  Roman let out a loud breath and slid an inch closer. “I see.”

  I glanced back up. “We argued over my son. We don’t always agree on how to handle him and his…problems.”

  “Ah, yes, I understand. But the boy, he is your son, no? Not your husband’s?”

  “No, but Ty loves Conner very much.”

  “But you are his mother. You know what is best for your own flesh and blood. A mother’s instinct is usually right. It will not lead you astray. As much as you love your husband, he does not understand what it means to be a parent. Not yet, anyway.” Roman’s fingertips grazed my rounded belly. “Soon, though.” He relaxed into a knowing smile.

  I sat and stared at him, more than a little unnerved by his familiar touch. I shook it off, though. Many people thought it acceptable to pat a pregnant woman’s belly. I rested both hands over my bulge.