Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Fortunately, your mouth is the fastest healing part of your body.
“Where are we?” I ask Tyson. He hasn’t offered up the information so I’m not sure if I’m allowed to know or not. I’ve lost count how many days we’ve been here. I feel like I slept through at least a few of them.
“Carnage,” he answers, his eyes meeting mine.
My eyes widen. “Tyson—”
“The Spade brothers are friends of mine, Lake,” he assures me, his eyes going back to his cell as it rings again. He answers it, and I lie back, letting out a long breath.
The Spade brothers—although not blood-related—are Lords. Well, they were once. I’m not sure if they still have a title. I’ve heard talk over the years that Carnage is where you come to die. It’s a prison of sorts. They torture you. It’s equivalent to an animal playing with its food before it eats it.
I guess I can see why Tyson brought us here. No one would have the balls to come here and check. The question is, how long do we have to hide out?
“Tyson?” Gavin asks, entering the room.
My husband looks up and nods once before ending his call. “Give us a second,” he tells Gavin who nods and exits.
I look over at Tyson. “What’s going on?” I ask him.
He sits next to me on the bed and takes my hand.
I sit up straighter. “What’s wrong?” I ask, my heart now racing. His face is a mask, hiding his true thoughts from me. I hate when he does this. “Tyson—”
“You’re pregnant,” he interrupts me.
“I’m sorry,” I say, my throat closing up on me.
“Lake,” he growls, both hands grabbing my face this time. “Why are you apologizing?”
“You don’t want children.” The first tear runs down my cheek, and he wipes it away with his thumb.
“You’re right,” he states, and my chest tightens. “I didn’t want children”—he moves closer to me, his face now inches from mine—“with just anyone.”
I sniff.
“But you? You, Laikyn Grace Crawford, are my wife. And you having our child would be the greatest gift in this world.”
I sniff again and fresh tears fall from my bottom lashes. He leans in, kissing my lips gently, but I don’t kiss him back.
His hands drop from my face to my stomach. “Don’t be sorry, Lake, and don’t doubt that I want this child. I want it just as badly as I want you. Okay?”
I nod my head, unable to speak. My throat closing on me. Luke got his way. But how? Had they been planning this since day one? I want to be excited that I’m pregnant with a man who I love and loves me back, but to be pregnant now? It just proves what I have been trying to avoid. This is supposed to be a special moment in our lives, and once again, someone is trying to take it away from us.
“I’m going to get Gavin,” he tells me. “He’s going to do an ultrasound to check on the baby.”
Getting up, he makes his way over to the door and opens it to see Gavin standing in the hallway waiting. He enters and gives me a soft smile that I can’t force myself to return.
I understand what we’re doing. He’s going to check and see if the baby is okay. I’m shaking. It’s funny, I’ve been so against bringing children into our world that now I’m afraid I won’t be able to give my husband something he wants. What if something is wrong with our child? What if something I did hurt the baby? I chose to go into Blackout and work that night. It’s my fault if something is wrong.
Gavin pulls up the gown that I wear while making sure the blanket stays down around my waist. “Normally, this early into pregnancy, they’d do a transvaginal ultrasound, but we’ll try it this way first,” he tells us. “If there’s no fetal heartbeat, we’ll try vaginally.”
Tyson takes my hand, and I grab it while he places his other one of top of ours. Cold gel is placed on my stomach and on the end of the wand.
I lean back and take in a deep breath as he places the wand on my stomach and the screen on the monitor starts to show a black-looking distorted video. He presses a few buttons on the keyboard, and then I hear it.
The sound of a heartbeat has me tearing up.
“Well, that’s interesting,” Gavin says.
“What is it?” Tyson asks, leaning forward. His pretty baby-blue eyes are glued to the screen. There’s fear in his voice that I’ve never heard before.
Gavin looks over at us. “Hear that?” He turns the sound up louder, and the swishing sound fills the room.
“It’s a heartbeat,” Tyson states, looking at him.
Gavin smiles. “It’s two heartbeats.” He points at two different spots on the monitor. “Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Crawford. You’re having fraternal twins. I’d say you’re about seven weeks along. Maybe eight. Not surprised though. Jackson confessed to giving you pregnancy enhancement hormones. It could result in multiple pregnancies or it could have no effect whatsoever. No way to tell, really. And the fact that you only received one dose…” He trails off watching the monitor.