The Banker (Banker 1)

Cato stared at the pregnancy test again, like he needed to check it once more.

Bates looked like he wanted to strangle me. “Check to make sure it’s yours.”

“I will. But I already know it is.” Cato slipped the stick into his pocket.

Bates shook his head and walked off.

Cato stared me down, his expression impossible to read. He used to let me read his soul, decipher the emotions he worked so hard to hide from the world. But now he treated me like an enemy. “You’ll live here with me until the baby comes. It’s not safe for you to live alone. Once people find out, you’ll be a target. I’ll provide for you and protect you.”

There was the man I knew. The compassionate and caring man. “Okay.” I didn’t want to live there with him full time, but I was so grateful I wouldn’t be dying that I didn’t dare argue.

“But once the baby is here, I’ll finish this.” He raised the empty gun so I could see it. “Enjoy the last nine months of your life. They’ll go by quick.”

“What…?” He was going to take my child and then kill me? “You can’t be serious—”

“I’m dead serious.” He stepped closer to me, his face nearly touching mine. “My son or daughter is living inside you. They’re the only thing I care about. You’re just a surrogate, and once your job is fulfilled, you will serve your punishment.”

“Cato, they can’t not have a mother—”

“Shut up.”

It was the only time in my life when I obeyed.

“I grew up with a single parent, and I turned out fine. We don’t need you.”

Tears flew out of my eyes and streaked down my cheeks. The migraine behind my eyes didn’t affect my tears. The pain from being thrown around in the car and onto the concrete had nothing to do with it either. But the idea of never knowing my baby, spending nine months carrying it, only to have it taken away…was unbearable. “Please…Cato. No. Don’t do that to me. You can’t…please. Mercy.”

He kept up his cold expression, immune to my emotional plea. “I’ll let you hold the baby once. That’s the most mercy you’ll get from me.”