Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Callie jumped a bit at the coldness of the gel, and I felt her fingers bite into me as the doctor passed the probe over her stomach. The baby’s heartbeat immediately sounded, a calm, whooshing noise that made me melt against the bed in relief.
“Lucky for us, Baby is in the perfect position …” Dr. Andrews studied the screen for a second and then she turned to us with a smile. “And Baby is a girl.”
Callie turned to me with a gasp of delight and then promptly burst into tears. I knew her well enough to know they were happy tears. I kissed them from her cheeks, murmuring my love, my chest so full of emotion it was painful. In the best way.
“Happy, mo chridhe?” I whispered against her lips as she pressed her forehead to mine.
“I didn’t think I’d end this night saying so, but aye.” She sobbed through the words. “I’m so happy.” She curled her hand around my nape. “Are you happy?”
“My two best girls are safe and happy so I’m happy.”
She lifted her head to look into my eyes. “Your two best girls. We’re having a girl.”
“We are.”
“Can we get Mum in?” Tears still dripped down her cheeks. “I want to tell Mum.”
“I’ll go get her.” I kissed her lips again, shot the doctor a grateful look, and hurried from the room to fetch Sloane.
I was going to be a father. I was going to have a daughter. That thought went around and around in my head, obliterating all the fear and concern about the attack and what it meant.
For the next ten minutes as Callie shared the news with her parents and Carianne, we let ourselves forget.
However, I watched Callie like a hawk and eventually, her expression fell. “I … I think I know who those men are. I think I know what they’re looking for.”
It was her dad who gruffly asked her to explain.
“Gabriel … my ex … they’re saying his death was suspicious in the French news. That he was working undercover to expose corruption in his police precinct.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?” Walker asked, clearly irritated she’d kept such alarming information to herself.
“I honestly didn’t think it mattered. I was wrong. Gabriel gave me a necklace when he visited. As a parting gift. Said it was a family heirloom.”
“You’re thinking it’s not?”
She shook her head. “I’m thinking it’s unusually shaped and there might be something inside it. They didn’t find it at the cottage or our house because it’s at yours. In my old bedroom.”
“And no one can get past your dad’s security system.” Sloane shot Walker a grateful but slightly horrified look. “Do you think they tried?”
Walker was already pulling out his phone. “I’m sending a team to the house now. Where did you put the necklace, Callie?”
“It’s in a Converse shoebox under my bed.”
I retook her hand. “What are you thinking is in there?”
My smart fiancée contemplated this. “It’s shaped like a USB stick.”
“A flash drive?” her mum asked.
Callie nodded. “I never would’ve thought anything of it … but the men kept asking Where is it? And they were French. In the ambulance on the way here, I thought of Gabriel. He never once introduced me to his work colleagues. I think he might have left evidence where he thought it was safe. Where they wouldn’t think to look.”
“But they did know about you …,” I trailed off, fury toward Gabriel brewing. “He put you in danger, Callie.”
“We don’t know that for sure yet.” Sloane soothed a hand over my back.
“I don’t think he would have meant to.” Callie gave me a pleading look. “He wouldn’t have left it with me if he thought the wrong people would come looking for it.”
“Team is going in,” Walker announced after ending his call. “Good thing Harry is with Regan and Thane.”
“Shit.” I shoved my hand into my pocket for my phone. “I better call them to let them know you’re okay.”
“No signal in here.”
I frowned at Walker. “Then how come you just made a call?”
“I can get past signal blockers.”
“Of course you can. Fancy calling my parents for me?”
“On it.”
I looked at Callie only to find her sharing an amused chuckle with her mum. Despite my fears that Callie might be correct about Gabriel, I let some of the tension drain out of me. My fiancée and baby girl were safe. Not only that, but I was tying my life to a woman whose strength blew me away. There would never not be a time I didn’t worry about her. I loved her too much not to. Yet it did reassure me somewhat to know how strong and brave she was.
She caught me staring. “What’s that look for?”
“Just thinking … what a badass my fiancée is.”
Callie grinned. “I am kind of a badass, aren’t I?” Her eyes flew to Sloane. “I get it from Mum.”