Mistletoe (K19 Security Solutions 3)

Gunner waited for her to finish her sentence, but she didn’t know whether to say what if she was pregnant, or what if she wasn’t.

“Let’s find out and deal with the ‘what ifs’ later.”

He moved and picked up the tray so she could get out of bed.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said, walking out of the bedroom.

Zary studied the plastic stick again. She and the rest of the girls whom the KGB had taken from the orphanage when she was seventeen had been told they couldn’t have children. Sterilized was the word they’d used at the time.

There was only one of the original eight who had been recruited with her whose name Zary even remembered. Orina “Losha” Kuznetsov had been her protector and mentor in those early days, but now was in hiding even though the bounty United Russia had on her head had been lifted.

Even if she weren’t, Zary doubted Losha would welcome her reaching out simply to ask whether she knew if the KGB had really sterilized them.

Zary went into the lavatory, followed the instructions, and waited.

—:—

“How is she feeling?” Ava asked Gunner.

“Better with food in her stomach.”

Ava had something else on her mind, but Gunner didn’t want to ask what it was. If he did, she’d tell him, and what he really wanted to do was get back to Zary and see what the stick showed.

“Hey, man,” said his best friend, Razor, Ava’s husband, who came up and hugged his wife from behind. “What’s shakin’?”

For a guy with the level of intelligence Gunner knew Razor possessed, his friend’s flippant behavior grated on his nerves sometimes.

“Nothing,” he grumbled, walking back into the bedroom. He didn’t see Zary right away, so he peeked into the bathroom. She was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, staring at the pregnancy test.

“Well?” he asked, walking over to her.

Instead of answering, she handed him the stick that she’d wrapped in tissue.

“What does this mean?”

She moved the box closer to him.

“Zary?”

She turned and looked at him for the first time since he came into the room.

“They lied.”

He couldn’t tell whether the positive result made her happy or sad. If it was the latter, Gunner didn’t want to make it worse by telling her that, at that moment, he was the happiest man who’d ever lived.

She stood, walked past him, and sat on the edge of the bed. He watched as she pulled the t-shirt she wore to bed over her head and then stood to take off her panties before reaching her hand out to his.

“I’m sweaty,” he told her, pulling his shirt over his head like she had.

“I don’t care.”

Gunner slid off his shorts and got in bed next to her. “I wish you’d tell me what you’re thinking,” he whispered before nuzzling her neck with kisses.

“I don’t want to talk, Gunner.”

He was all for what she wanted to do instead, but something felt off. Gunner sat up and pulled her into his arms so her head rested on his chest.

“All these years that you didn’t think you could have children, and now you’re pregnant. It’s a lot to take in.”