Page 39 of Pack Baby for the Bratva
“Anyone who wants to.”
I stared at him. “You truly know how to seduce a woman.”
His face didn’t change. “I prefer you alive. Once the threat is over we can reconvene getting to know you on your terms.”
“Very hard to argue with that.” I reached for my fluffy white coat. The one that still smelled faintly of Prague if I buried my face in it, which I absolutely did not do because I had some dignity left.
My hands were shaking badly enough that I got the sleeve twisted inside out. “Will someone try to kill me and the baby?”
Gregor was suddenly there. His hands on my face. “Not on my watch.”
That almost broke me.
He stepped away and took my coat and held it open for me.
“I can do it,” I muttered.
“I know.”
I slid my arms into it.
Fergus came over and nudged my ankle.
“We’ll be grand.” My Irish accent thickened around the lie. I picked Fergus up. “Looks like we’re moving.”
Then the baby moved.
Not the usual roll. Not a lazy elbow. Not one of the internal rearrangements that made me mutter, be careful.
This was different.
It was love, hot and tight.
My breath caught.
Gregor’s head came up instantly. “Maeve?”
“I’m fine.” I lied as another pain tore through me, this one was sharp enough to knock the air out of my lungs. My knees buckled. My hand shot out and caught on the sofa.
Then warmth rushed down my legs.
I dropped Fergus onto the sofa and stared at Gregor. “I need to go to the hospital.”
His eyes took in everything at once. Me. The floor. My face. The fluid. The phone in his hand. The distance to the door. The route to the stairs.
The silence lasted one second too long.
Then he was there, catching me as I folded as the first contraction hit with a force it knocked me over.
“Well,” he said, with horrifying calm. “Change of plans.”
9
Gregor
If a perimeter wasbreached, I had a plan. If Artem needed to leave a meeting through a service corridor while Ivan distracted a room full of armed men with insults and broken glass, I had a plan.
If the Pakhan was assassinated, there were protocols.
