Meow Or Never: BBW SEAL Shifter Surprise Pregnancy Romance (Chicago Catastrophe)

S
he was so preoccupied
with her thoughts of oncoming relaxation that she almost screamed when a hand gently tapped against her shoulder. She hadn’t even heard any steps behind her, only adding to her panic. She whirled around, ready to use her car keys as a weapon, but froze when she saw who it was.

“Troy?” she asked, incredulous.

What’s he doing here?

Her heart beat faster, but not due to fear any longer. As much as the Crimson Claws had dominated her thoughts that day, Troy had grabbed his fair share of time from her as well, and for good reason. He wasn’t the kind of guy that was easy to forget.

Seeing him again, standing tall and with those delicious lips curved in a way that made her want to kiss the smirk right off his face, only confirmed that.

Troy’s smirk turned into a grin as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Hey. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

He was still just as disarmingly good-looking as before, blue eyes sparkling with something mischievous. But it wasn’t just his looks that drew her in. There was this air of calm confidence and control about him that made her gravitate to him like a ship to a lighthouse on the stormy seas.

“It’s fine. You just caught me off-guard,” she answered, still wondering what the hell he was doing lurking around her place.

Not that she minded. Not entirely, anyway.

“We didn’t really get a chance to talk this morning. You can tell me to take a hike, but I’d really like to take you to dinner. Since I knew nothing about you except for your first name and where you lived, I hung around here to wait until you got back. I swear I’m not a stalker, Hailey!”

He raised his hands, putting on his best show of innocence, batting his lashes. She smiled slightly, appreciating the gesture.

So he does remember my name. Score one for Romeo.

“
P
lease
, don’t hurt them,” Hailey begged, holding back tears.

Melinda and Ellison Molloy, her mother and father, were kneeling on the worn carpet of their small accounting firm, hands tied behind their backs. Two huge men stood before them, tattoos peeking out from under expensive-looking suits, their guns aimed at her parents’ heads. The way the guys carried themselves, she could tell this wasn’t their first rodeo.

As a criminal defense lawyer, she was well acquainted with the type. Their grip on their weapons was practiced and confident as they considered her scared parents with professional disinterest. This was nothing new to them.

“I don’t take orders from you, bitch,” one of the goons hissed, narrowing his eyes at Hailey.

“Shut up, Reaver,” the other one said, throwing his accomplice an annoyed look. “They’ll be here any minute.”

Terror clawed at Hailey’s throat as she tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

There’s more of them coming? Why?

Soft sobs refocused her attention on her parents. Mascara-stained tears streamed down her mother’s face, making her dark-brown curls stick to her wet cheeks, while her father did his best to stay calm, his spine still as straight as ever, even as he was staring down the barrel of a 9mm. Fear twisted in Hailey’s gut as she stared at them, unable to move.

Except for a couple of grey hairs and a few lines around the eyes, her parents still looked remarkably like they did on their wedding day.

She should know, the picture of her mom in a handmade white dress and her dad in a borrowed suit hung proudly in the living room of her childhood home. It had been that way even before she was born, and she didn’t need to visit her parents’ place to know it was still there. Right next to a photo of her graduation.

Hailey gripped the edge of the desk behind her, trying to keep her balance even as her knees shook uncontrollably. Her parents were only ten feet from her, but it seemed like an insurmountable distance. A soft hum filled the room as she knocked into the old computer propped up on the desk behind her back, forcing it to come to life and spill bluish light over her.

She wanted to run to her parents, to hug her mom tightly and squeeze her dad’s hand, anything to reassure them that everything would be okay. But she couldn’t make a move. Any sudden movements could send Reaver and his equally as thuggish buddy here over the edge.

How she handled the situation could very well determine if her parents were going to make it through this alive or not.

If anything happens to them…

She couldn’t even bear the thought.

Hailey’s family was the one constant she could always count on, the rock she used to navigate her way through life. Whenever she needed advice, or a shoulder to cry on, or some tough love, her parents had always been there. There was no way she would have gotten through law school without their support and encouragement, even though whenever she brought that up, her parents vehemently disagreed.

“You can do whatever you set your mind to, honey,” her mother would always say.

Well, right now, it didn’t feel like she could do anything at all. And just when it meant the most.

Blinking away tears, she tried assessing the situation. Keeping her wits about her was the best chance she had at resolving this, whatever
this
was. Having dealt with enough criminals in her time, she at least had an idea of what they responded to and what tended to piss them off.

It had only taken Hailey twenty minutes to get here after she received a text from her mother, telling her she needed to come to the office of the family business as soon as possible.

What could have happened in that time that the sight of her parents’ lives being threatened was what she was greeted by when she rushed through the doors?

Criminals often did stupid things, she knew that, but professionals like these had to know better than to expect to find anything of value here, at an accounting firm of all places. They dealt in receipts, not cash! Even goons like those two should realize that.

The answer became obvious as her initial panic was beginning to dull into a consistent terror.

God damnit, I should have known the moment I read that text that something was off.

Her mother, texting? Melinda was only just getting the hang of using a touch screen after Hailey had finally managed to convince her mom to join her in the 21
^st
century and get rid of her ancient flip phone.

Which had to mean she hadn’t sent the text at all and the message had come from someone else.

Deep breaths, I can handle this. These guys want something from me. I’ll give it to them and everything will be alright. It has to be.

“Take what you want and leave my daughter alone,” Ellison said, calm and authoritative as always, his thoughts evidently in line with hers.

Before anyone could say anything else, the doors to the office swung open and two men stepped inside. One of them was a squat, average-looking guy with an air of self-importance about him. The other was tall and wide, with a hawkish nose and too much gel in his black hair.

They stopped at the edge of the desk she was holding on to, smelling of cigar smoke and looking pale under the fluorescent lighting, like they didn’t get out enough.

Guess blackmailing and torturing people keeps them on a busy schedule,
Hailey thought, caught somewhere between panic and anger.

Hailey squared her shoulders, trying hard keep the paralyzing dread she felt sweeping through her off her expression. Scum like this feasted on weakness, and she wasn’t about to give them the pleasure of watching her shrink under their gaze.

The way the thugs holding her parents at gunpoint nodded at the men, she could tell these were the guys really in charge. The shorter one spoke first.

“Hello, Miss Molloy. My name is Dempsy and this is my associate, Culliver. We’re going to have a little chat.”

Dempsy gave her a toothy grin that sent a shiver down her spine. It was less a smile and more a baring of teeth, a show of dominance. He took a step closer to Hailey, considering her with muted curiosity, while Culliver’s gaze seem to be locked on her. Like she was a lamb sent for slaughter and they were ready to taste the meat.

“Leave my baby girl alone!” Melinda demanded through tears.

Culliver’s head jerked to the side as he glared at her parents in annoyance.

“Silence her or I will,” he barked at his goons.

“No, don’t!” Hailey called out as Reaver flipped the gun he was holding and was preparing to pistol-whip her mother. “Mom, please, just be quiet. It’ll be alright, I promise.”

“Melinda,” her father said softly, putting a hand on his wife’s arm to soothe her.

With a hiccupped nod, Melinda shied back, leaning against Ellison, who wrapped her in his arms.

Dempsy held up a hand. A low, grumbly sound rumbled in Reaver’s throat, but he lowered his weapon. Letting out a relieved breath, Hailey hunched her shoulders, mentally steeling herself for whatever came next. She had no cards to play and whatever Dempsy wanted with her, she was going to have to go along with it.

“What do you want?”

Dempsy looked smug, obviously pleased by her resigned tone.

“I have a proposition for you. I know what you do, Miss Molloy. You’ve put some of my guys behind the bars and I want that to change. This meeting is set up to guarantee you say ‘yes’.”

Turning away from her, Dempsy suddenly decided to address her parents instead.

“Mr. and Mrs. Molloy. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you, but I’ve heard your payments have been a little light these past few months.”

Hailey’s mouth hung open as she absorbed what Dempsy’s words meant. Her gaze flickered to her parents.

“You were being blackmailed and you didn’t tell me?”

It really didn’t matter right now, but the question tumbled out of her mouth anyway. Her parents always told her everything, and she reciprocated with the same. Why had they stayed quiet about this?

She was a criminal lawyer, for God’s sakes, she could have helped them!

Or at least tried to. If she was reading this right, Hailey was starting to have a damn good idea about who it was she was dealing with at the moment. And they weren’t an easy crowd.

Truth was, the criminal element in Chicago was growing more powerful and bold by the second and the cops were scrambling to keep up. The number of missing persons was at an all-time high and bodies were piling up as smaller street crews were getting exterminated by the big player in town, a shifter mob organization known as the Crimson Claws.

Culliver and Dempsy here looked exactly like the kind of guys who would be on the Crimson Claws list of valued members. Which meant they were shapeshifters. Shifters with more money, power and criminal connections than Hailey could even imagine…

A simple extortion case would have never gotten the police’s attention, even if her parents had told her about what was going on.

Goddammit,
Hailey cursed, feeling tears want to choke her throat.

She was
not
about to cry. As much as she was already beginning to feel helpless, she wasn’t going to let these guys see that they’d backed her into a corner. She knew what they were capable of – like they’d said, she’d put a couple of Crimson Claws guys in prison already – and she didn’t need to give them any more power by showing it.

“We didn’t want to worry you,” Melinda sighed.

Hailey turned to Dempsy, finding it too hard to look at her mom, with her red, puffy eyes and tear-streaked face. What she wouldn’t give to never see her so afraid ever again…

Anger flared inside her, not only at what her parents were going through right now, but what they must have endured in the months before.

“You people are despicable. My parents should be getting ready to retire, instead they are being robbed and threatened by cowardly pieces of shit like you who can’t even pick on someone their own size.”

Dempsy chuckled to himself, unperturbed by her insults. But Culliver didn’t find her so amusing.

He leaned in, filling her nostrils with his shitty cologne as his fingers dug into her jaw, holding her face in place so she had no option than to stare at him.

For a moment, she thought he was going to hit her, the way his features tightened and his dark eyes bore angrily into hers.

“You should watch your mouth,” he said, tracing her lower lip with his thumb in a way that filled her with revulsion. “Dempsy, I think a demonstration is in order.”

“I agree,” the man said. “Reaver, you’re up.”

Oh, no. What’s he going to do?

“No! Don’t hurt them!” she choked, but they wouldn’t listen.

A pained grunt prompted her to turn her head, but Culliver’s grip still kept her face to face with him. Her mother cried out as the sickening sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed through the room, followed by coughing and spluttering.

For a moment, Hailey’s vision swam and she felt bile rise up. Culliver’s cold eyes bore into hers, a wry smirk on his face, like he was enjoying the way she was suffering. He probably did.

“Awfully feisty for someone so pretty,” he mused lightly.

Culliver finally let go, taking great pleasure in the horrified gasp she let out when she turned and saw her father, face bloody, lying on the floor with her mother weeping beside him. He was balled up, coughing blood, while Melinda tried to stop the blood from the open wound on his arm, the jagged white of a broken bone peeking out through his cardigan.

Reaver pulled out a handkerchief, running it across his red-stained knuckles.

Hailey started to run towards her parents, but Culliver’s hand on her shoulder shoved her back against the desk. All she could think about was how she needed to get her father to a hospital. Who knew how serious his injuries could be.

“Is that enough for you to pick your words more carefully, or should the show go on?”

Ellison groaned, struggling to get back upright. He was conscious, at least, but that did little to relieve Hailey’s worry. She knew what she had to say if she wanted this nightmare to end.

“No more demonstrations. You have my full cooperation, as long as my parents are free to go. You’ve made your point.”

“Hailey!” her mother gasped.

“Hailey, honey, you don’t need to d-“

“Shut up,” Dempsy snarled at her parents, Reaver taking another step closer to them as well.

Both of them shut their mouths, though Melinda’s pleading eyes spoke louder than any words could.

Sorry, mom. I can’t let them do this to you. Not if there’s a way I could stop them.

Smirking, Dempsy grabbed a nearby office chair and sat down, folding his hands in front of him. Culliver moved to stand at his side, looking at her in a way that made her distinctly uncomfortable. Hailey held her breath, waiting for a response.

“Reaver, Kellan,” Dempsy said, snapping his fingers. “Make sure mom and pop get home safely. Miss Molloy and I have a lot to discuss.”

“I’m looking forward to working with you,” Culliver added, smiling.

The way he was eyeing her made Hailey’s skin pimple with goosebumps.

What in the world have I gotten into?