I swallowed and opened my legs when she told me to. I wasn’t sure what to expect when she pushed the wand inside, but it didn’t hurt, and seconds later, the screen lit up. She turned it so I could see it better and moved her fingers on a ball between the two sides of the keyboard, creating lines on the screen.
“There it is,” she announced, a big smile on her face.
I froze, not really sure what I was looking at. “What…”
She chuckled and created a yellow circle around a white blob. “This is baby. From my measurements, I’d say you were around seven weeks along.” She clicked another button, and a thumping echoed from the machine, almost like horse hooves. “And that, Mom, is baby’s heartbeat.”
A lump formed in my throat, tears leaking from my eyes like water from a broken tap, but I did nothing to stop them. “My baby,” I whispered, staring at the screen in awe.
Something happened at that moment.
My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest, and my world seemed to brighten. It didn’t matter what would happen to me from this moment on. It didn’t matter if Hut found me, and it didn’t matter if Brody was only in my life to be a father. All that mattered was that little blob on the screen.
My baby.
Chapter Seven
BRODY
“It’s happening,” I grunted down the line to Jord. “Suit up.”
I ended the call and leaned against the side of the SUV as I waited for Ford, Hut, and Quinn. The last week had been quiet, at least as quiet as it could get with Hut on the rampage. He’d been sending people searching for Jace and Lola, but no one had found either of them. A couple of people had come close to finding Lola, but I thwarted their attempts before they could get too close.
I may have told her she wasn’t enough for me. I may have walked away from her for good. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t protect her. I was doing what was right for all of us. She didn’t know what it meant to have me in her life. She didn’t understand the danger she was already in, never mind what would come her way. It was the best thing for her. That was what I kept telling myself.
I’d lost my head for a second, but now everything was back in its rightful place. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t smiled in days. It didn’t matter that my chest hurt. It didn’t matter that my heart had been shredded to pieces. All that mattered were the people I’d made a commitment to. I was here to do a job—nothing more.
And today, that job would end.
Footsteps pounded and a door slammed as they all piled out of the house, ready for this exchange. Everything we’d been working toward for the last six months had come down to this. Normally, my body would be buzzing with an energy I couldn’t contain, but today it was absent. I just wanted to get it over and done with, and then to go back to my life. I had some rebuilding to do.
Hut didn’t say a word as he sat in the passenger seat and I climbed in behind him. Ford took his usual spot as the driver and Quinn next to me. A dark cloud had resided over Hut and everything he did since Lola had left, and I’d realized she kept him grounded. She’d kept some of his darkness at bay with her light, but he didn’t deserve it. Had we not been so close to ending this case, I’d have taught him a lesson on how to treat the people you cared about most.
I was a hypocrite.
I’d hurt the people I was meant to care about most by getting closer than I should have with Lola, but I hadn’t cared at the time. I’d done what I’d wanted, not a second thought for the consequences ahead. I wasn’t violent, but I’d hurt people just the same.
I ground my teeth together, shuffling on the seat and feeling my gun at my back. It would be drawn today, that much I was sure of.
“You all ready for this?” Hut asked, a hitch in his tone. He was about to deal with some of the biggest players in the States, and his nerves were obvious.
We all grunted our replies as Ford pulled to a stop in front of Jack’s house, the warehouse Hut had brought me to all those months ago. The product never sat there long, maybe a few hours, half a day at most, so this was the ideal time to do this. Capture them in the midst of the deal.
Jack wasn’t sitting on his wraparound porch like last time, he was probably hiding away in the house until the deal was done, but that didn’t mean he’d get off free. He’d be arrested, just like everyone else in this car.
Tires crunched on gravel, and an SUV pulled to a stop next to us. No one moved for a second, and then Hut jumped out. We all followed after him, Eduardo and his guards joining us.
“Welcome!” Hut said, spreading his arms wide as if he was welcoming them to a show about to take place.
My lips twitched. A show was going to take place, he just didn’t know it yet.
“Hutton,” Eduardo greeted and tilted his head to the side. “The product?”
“Ahhh, yes.” He took a step toward the warehouse. “Right this way.”
We all followed him and watched as he put the code into the lock, scrambling the numbers afterward, and I shook my head. He still hadn’t learned that bolt cutters would work.
Ford and Quinn stepped forward and pulled both giant doors open, but it wasn’t until Ford switched the light