He brushed his knuckles down my cheek, his eyes never leaving mine. “Trust me, Florrie. I’ll never hurt you like that again.” His lips closed over mine briefly and then trailed down my neck, caressing the sensitive skin of my throat. “I know it’s taking everything in you to trust me with your heart again. I swear, I won’t abuse that trust. I’ll take care of your heart with everything I have, because I know now what it feels like to lose that love.”
He stared down at me with so much love that I found myself slowly sliding open for him again. Part of me did trust him, and maybe the other part of me would always wonder what was going to happen between us, but I was willing to take that risk, because being with Alec through the good times and the bad was still better than being without him.
He slid inside me and my eyes closed in relief. He’s back, I thought as he slowly moved in and out of me. I gripped him tighter to me, holding him like I would lose him if I let go. He was home, exactly where he should be. All of the pain and the anger fled, leaving me feel free for the first time in so long. It wasn’t perfect, but then nothing in life ever was. But the journey through all of it with him made me appreciate what I had with him so much more. And when he pushed in one last time and I felt his cum dripping out of my body and down my legs, I knew that I would do anything to keep him in my arms for the rest of my life.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Alec
“What is your obsession with knives?” I yelled at Derek as he flung yet another one at the guy rushing us. I pulled my own gun and fired two shots into the guy that appeared to the right.
“It’s my weapon of choice,” he snapped, pulling out his gun. “I was trying not to draw attention to us, but you just blew that out of the water.”
Hunter grabbed the scrawny man that we were protecting by the shirt collar and started pulling him along as he ran for the exit. Derek and I laid down cover fire until he was clear.
“Your turn,” I shouted, firing off a few more rounds as I waited for Derek to reach the doorway. He spun and started firing, covering my ass so I could make it out of there.
We were protecting a man that had made a few enemies as a numbers guy. He was basically a bookie, but he’d pissed off an underground fighting ring when he started skimming off the top. I really didn’t want to be protecting him, but sometimes the money outweighed the moral injustice. Besides, he didn’t know it yet, but we were turning him over to the feds once we were paid. Our job was to get him away from the people that were trying to kill him, and make sure he got to safety.
I ran through the door and booked it to the SUV, full-out sprinting to get my ass inside before Hunter took off. It would be just like him to start driving just to make me run farther. The two of them fucked with me a lot since I joined their team. Derek jumped in the driver’s side just as I jumped in the back. Hunter was already peeling out of the parking lot before I even had my door closed. The bookie was curled up on the floor and the smell of piss filled the SUV.
“Aw, shit,” Derek grumbled. “You know, just once I would like to not have the inside of the vehicle fully detailed after a job.”
My phone rang and I answered immediately, not bothering to see who was on the other end. “Yeah?”
We took a corner hard and the phone slipped from my fingers, falling to the floor and sliding over by the pisser. I had to hold on for dear life so I didn’t get tossed around the back seat as Hunter swerved in and out of traffic to lose the assholes giving chase. I turned around in my seat, counting the vehicles behind us.
“We’ve got three on our tail.”
“That’s not bad,” Derek said, slipping a new magazine into his gun.
“Not the worst odds we’ve ever had,” Hunter agreed.
“You have a plan?” I asked as I watched them swerve in and out of traffic along with us.
“There’s a state park just outside the city,” Derek suggested.
“Why is it that people always end up dead with you two?”
Derek snorted. “Yeah, like you’re one to talk. One wrong look from you and you’re snapping a guy’s neck.”
“Hey, that only happened once, and I was justified.”
“How do you figure?” Hunter asked.
“He looked at Florrie.”
The guys started laughing, like it wasn’t an actual reason.
“Hey, they were bikers and you should have seen the outfit she was wearing. If I hadn’t intervened, someone would have thought she was a whore.”
“I think that was what she was going for,” Hunter grinned.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t agree to that.”
“Alright,” Derek said, “Up ahead, there’s an exit. Take it at the last second and then we’ll wind our way through the outskirts of the city.”
“Wait, you just want to lose them?” I asked, a little let down that I wasn’t going to get to shoot anyone else.
“I thought you just said that we shouldn’t be killing everyone?”
“Well, that was before. Then I got kind of excited about getting to unleash some tension. Now what am I going to do?”
“Go home and fuck Florrie?” Hunter suggested. “Always works well for me. I mean, with Lucy.”
“Yeah, I kinda figured that,” I said, shaking my head.
Hunter drove on for another mile before the sign for the exit appeared. At the last second, he cut across three lanes of traffic, cutting off some drivers, and causing a traffic jam. The other cars couldn’t get over in time and missed the exit.
“Nice,” Derek said in approval. “It should be smooth sailing from here.”
“Don’t say that shit,” I groaned. “That’s just asking for us to get hit by a fucking semi or something.”
I bent down and grabbed my phone, kicking lightly at the guy curled up on the floor. I’d kinda forgotten he was there in all the excitement. “Hey, pisser, you can get off the floor now.”
“No!” Derek shouted. “Leave him on the floor. Then we won’t have to detail the seats.”
“Good thinking. Stay,” I said, flipping over my phone to see who had called me. It was Florrie, so I dialed her back.
“Alec,” she said, her voice sounding strange.
“Sorry about that. We had a little bit of a kerfuffle. Is everything okay?” That’s when I heard her crying and my heart seized in my chest. “Florrie, what’s going on? Talk to me.”
“It can’t happen again,” she cried. “I can’t…not again.”
“Florrie, I don’t know what’s going on. Talk to me!”
But her sobs were too loud and I couldn’t understand anything she was saying. Derek glanced over his shoulder, jerking his head in question.
“Step on it! Get me the fuck home!” Hunter gunned it, getting us out of the city and onto the road home. “Derek, get on the phone with Rocco and tell him to haul ass over to my house. I need to know what the fuck is going on with Florrie.”
“Alec, please hurry,” Florrie whimpered in my ear. I stayed on the phone with her, saying anything I could to keep her calm. I kept leaning over Hunter’s seat, watching the speedometer to see how fast we were going. She was fucking tearing my heart out. She was crying too much and I couldn’t get her to tell me what the fuck was wrong. My heart was in my throat the whole time, scared as fuck that something serious was happening and I was losing my woman. I couldn’t take the mounting pressure. I felt like I was going to fucking snap.
I heard Rocco in the house, moving around and then he took the phone from Florrie. I heard her talking to him, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I was biting my fist, trying to keep from screaming through the fucking phone.
“Alec, it’s Rocco.”
“What’s wrong? Why the fuck is she so upset? Is she hurt?”
“She seems okay, but she won’t stop crying. She just keeps saying that it can’t happen again. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong.”
“Fuck, we should be there soon. Just stay with her.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
We pulled into Reed Security fifteen minutes later. Hunter was just slowing to a stop when I jumped out and ran into my house and up the stairs to find Florrie. She was curled up in a ball on the floor, and flashes of finding her like this before streamed through my head. I knelt down next to her, and without thinking twice, scooped her up into my arms and shot down the stairs as she gripped onto me for dear life. Hunter and Derek were just getting out of the SUV, but when they saw me running for them with Florrie, they got back in and peeled out of the driveway.
“What’s wrong?” Hunter asked, immediately going into medic mode.
“I don’t know.” I brushed the hair out of Florrie’s face and stared into those terrified eyes. “Babe, what’s wrong?”
Her breathing wasn’t quite so erratic, but the tears were still streaming down her face. “P-pregnant,” she mumbled between sobs. “I’m pregnant.”
Reality slammed hard into my chest and I felt all the blood drain from my face. Terror shot through me as I remembered the last time she was pregnant, how she lost the baby, and could have died herself. I pulled her in close and pressed my lips to her forehead.
“Any cramping?” I asked. She shook her head. “Any bleeding?” Again, another shake of her head. “When did you find out?”
“Right before I called you,” she whispered.
I closed my eyes and thanked God that she hadn’t waited to tell me. This could have ended very badly. “It’s okay, babe. We’ll get you checked out right away.”
Now I knew why she was so terrified. After losing our first baby and then losing Reid, I wasn’t sure she could handle losing another baby. It might tear us apart. But there was nothing I could do about it except get her to the hospital and have her looked at.
We pulled in a few minutes later and I rushed her inside, yelling at the nursing staff to get a doctor. One of the ladies rushed over, snapping at a younger man to grab a gurney. I laid her down carefully on it as they started rushing her back, me running alongside her as I held her hand. I caught sight of Derek and Hunter running behind me, the pisser being dragged along too. They stormed right through the ER doors, not bothering to stop when a nurse started yelling at them. I smirked, really liking my new team, even if my woman wasn’t on it.
“What are her symptoms?”
“She’s pregnant.”
“Cramping, bleeding?”
“No, none of that.”
“Any signs of a miscarriage?”
“No,” I snapped. “She’s just pregnant.”
The nurse stopped what she was doing and looked up at me. “I’m sorry, she’s just pregnant. As in, there’s nothing actually wrong with her.”
“That’s what I said. Now go get a fucking doctor to look her over.”
The nurse pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sir, you can’t just come into the ER demanding a doctor. If you need-”
“She’s had a miscarriage before and one of her tubes burst from an ectopic pregnancy.”
“Okay, sir, I understand that, but if she’s not in any kind of distress, not bleeding or-”
“I don’t give a shit if she’s not bleeding. Do you see her fucking face? How terrified she is?” I shouted. “Go get a doctor. Get a fucking doctor. Now!”
The nurse backed away from me, stumbling into a tray of medical tools that was behind her. They tumbled to the ground, but she quickly deserted them, rushing from the room and calling for security. I didn’t give a shit. Let them try and throw me out.
“I think maybe I should have handled this differently,” Florrie finally said, wiping at her face. “I was just so scared.”
“I know, Nightingale, but we’ll get a doctor and get you checked out.”
She nodded, still gripping my hand in terror. “Who’s the guy?” she asked, trying to distract herself.
“That’s the pisser, the guy we were protecting. We didn’t have time to drop him off.”
“Cap’s gonna be pissed at me.”
I shrugged. “He’s still under our protection.”
The curtain was flung back and a doctor stepped in, stopping when he saw Hunter and Derek standing with their arms crossed over their chests and the pisser sitting in a chair between them. Then he looked over to me and quirked an eyebrow.
“What seems to be the problem?”
“She’s pregnant.”
His eyebrows shot up and he glanced around the room again. “And that required a trip to the ER with three men and one small gentleman?”
“Oh, he’s no gentleman,” Hunter snorted. “He’s lucky he’s not in the ER right now. Isn’t that right, asshole?”
The guy didn’t say anything. He looked like he was still on the verge of pissing himself.
“Alright, well, I assume that you didn’t bring her in just because she’s pregnant, so why don’t you tell me what’s going on.”
“She has endometriosis. She was pregnant once before, but it was an ectopic pregnancy and one of her tubes burst. We were told it was very unlikely she would ever get pregnant again.”
“Ah. Well, it is more complicated, but not unheard of. Why don’t we go ahead and do an exam and then I can tell you where we stand? Gentleman, if you’ll excuse me.”
“Oh, hell no,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s no fucking way I’m leaving her.”
“Then, how about just the gentlemen over there,” he said, nodding to Hunter and Derek.
Derek nodded. “We’ll stand guard outside the curtain.”
They left and the doctor turned to me.”You know I’m not going to hurt her, right?”
“It’s not for you. We’re on a protection detail. The three of us stay together.”
The man looked like he wanted to say something, but decided against it. He examined Florrie, called for a few tests, and then left us alone in the room while he went to check on a few patients. Florrie was calmer now, but I could tell that she was just barely holding it together. I gripped her hand in mine and bent over to kiss her.
“It’s going to be okay. No matter what happens.”
“I didn’t think I would ever get pregnant,” she cried. “I can’t lose this baby.”
“I know, but if it’s meant to be, we’ll have the baby. If not, we’re pretty damn good on our own. Okay? It’s you and me, babe.”
She nodded, but I felt her tears slipping down her cheeks and rubbing against mine. Outside, I was calm and collected, but inside, I was raging, cursing God for putting us through this again. She was on birth control. Yeah, I knew she’s been late on taking her pills a few times, but it was supposed to be difficult to get pregnant. She was taking the pills mostly for the endometriosis. This was never supposed to happen. We were never supposed to have to deal with this again.
The curtain flung back and the doctor walked in, his face bright when I had expected something entirely different. “Well, the good news is that everything appears fine so far.”
We both stared at him, waiting for him to say that he was just fucking with us or something. When neither of us spoke, he tried again.
“That means that you’re healthy and so is the baby.”
Florrie quirked her head to the side, shaking her head slightly. “What does that mean?”
“It means that for now, you should go home and celebrate. You’re going to have a baby.”
I shook my head, unable to believe it. “Until when?”
The doctor’s face turned kind and he smiled at us both. “There are no guarantees in life, but I’m not seeing anything to suggest that this pregnancy won’t be perfectly normal. I would suggest that you make an appointment with your OB as soon as possible and let her know what’s going on. She’ll probably monitor you more closely due to what you’ve already experienced, but so far, I’m not seeing any reason to believe that you’ll lose this baby.”
Florrie started shaking in my arms. This was everything we had hoped for, but never thought we would have, and now this d
octor was telling us that all our dreams were about to come true. It was just too damn much to take.
“Fuck,” I whispered, kissing Florrie hard. “I love you so much.”
She nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks as she gripped me to her. The curtain swung back again and Hunter stepped in.
“Aw, shit. Don’t tell me-”
“No, we didn’t lose it. We’re gonna have a baby!”
Hunter’s face broke out in a grin and he rushed forward, dragging the pisser with him. Derek was there just moments later, all of them pushing in to wrap us in a group hug.
“This is so fucking awesome, man!”
“What’s going on?” I lifted my head to see who had joined us, grinning when I saw Rocco and Craig standing by the curtain.
“Florrie’s going to have a baby,” I laughed.
“No shit? Aw, that’s so fucking awesome!” Craig and Rocco came over and joined us in this huge group hug. It was really fucking weird, and I was sure that Dr. Sunshine would have a thing or two to say about it, but in that moment, I didn’t give a shit. I had both of my teams with me and my woman was going to have a baby.
Craig sniffed and his head popped up to look at me. “Why does it smell like piss?”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Florrie
I smiled as we walked into Dr. Sunshine’s office. After everything we had been through, things weren’t looking too bad anymore. Alec and I were doing great, in fact. It had been a few weeks since we found out I was pregnant, and I wasn’t going to lie, it had been a rough few weeks. Alec and I were terrified every single day that I was going to miscarry. After the initial joy, it all started to really sink in, all the doubt and heartache started to seep back into our minds. Alec watched my every move, insisting that I stay in bed most days, and I had listened because I was just as terrified. But then we went to the doctor, and she had assured me that everything looked great. She reminded me that living in fear was worse for me than just taking everything one day at a time and learning to enjoy what was up ahead.
Nightingale: A Reed Security Romance Page 32