Stolen: A Bad Boy Romance (18 page)

Janson

I breathed her in deep, the scent of her filling me up, reminding me of exactly what I wanted in this life. A strong woman in my arms and my child growing in her belly. Under any other moon, it would be perfect.

But I was still existing in a world where my father and James Fitzgerald were free men, walking this earth and inflicting their damage.

If they would kill the heir and legacy to the empire, then there could be no doubt they would also kill my Kat if they knew what she knew. It was a sick, twisted world and I was done living in it.

I wanted to change the world. Make it new for my child.

Even if I had to destroy half of the damn mob for it. I would protect them both. Keep them safe.

“Janson?” Kat asked as she looked up at me.

“What is it?” I looked down at her.

“I need to go to the doctor,” she said as she snuggled into me. “I need to find out about the baby.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” I asked.

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Not now, not the first time. I wanna make sure by myself.”

I wanted to overrule her. Wanted to say no, but I understood. I parted her hair and kissed her on the top of her head.  “Whatever you want, baby girl.”

I meant it, too. I’d give her the entire world if I could. And I’d go through a million men just to do it.

“I need to get up, baby. Need to get make a few calls.”

“Greyson?” she asked.

“Among other people.” Time was coming, those bastards were going to pay, but I needed to make sure we were clear of the fucking blast.

Kathryn shifted against me and grabbed a blanket, pulling it around her. “You call whoever you need to. I’m exhausted.”

She snuggled against my pillow and looked up at me, her eyes dreamy. She was what I really wanted to be doing. Holding her, cuddling her against my skin.

But duty called and I needed to make sure that everything was taken care of.

Chapter Twenty

Kathryn

I swallowed hard and fidgeted in the waiting room. All these women, all of them pregnant, sitting around with their hands on their bellies. It was enough to make me want to cry.

I fought so hard not to get pregnant, but now that I thought I was, I knew it was precious. Something I had to protect at all costs. I thought about Janson, about what he was doing right now. Was his father being taken away? Was there another fight? Would he come home?

These were all questions I was going to have to ask for the rest of my damn life. I knew it was the consequence of loving a man like him, but I didn’t care. I would take it. I’d already known that life. I’d already known the truth of it. At least with Janson he wouldn’t be hiding things from me. He wouldn’t be lying to my face.

It was the only way I’d stay in this forsaken family. I wanted better for us. Better for my children. I didn’t want to be my mother.

I knew that I wanted this baby. Wanted Janson by my side. He promised he would take care of me. He promised that everything would be alright.

“The doctor will see you now,” a nurse said. I stood up numbly and followed her back.

After a couple of tests and a physical exam, the doctor told me what I needed to hear. I sat there on the bench and swallowed hard, my heart drumming inside my chest.

“Between the testing and your general exam, I’d say that you are pregnant and healthy,” she confirmed as she pushed back away from the exam table and took off her gloves. “I’ll leave you to get dressed.”

I did. I was in a hurry to get out of there, in a hurry to tell everyone. Janson, Joanna, Mom, even Greyson.  Tell them the news.

I wanted everything to be perfect. It had to be.

I walked out of that office and dialed Janson. Straight to voicemail. So instead I hit Joanna’s number. “Jo?”

“Hey, hon. What’s up?”

“Guess who gets to be the aunt this time?” I said, a smile on my face as I hopped in the car Janson supplied for me. The driver started back towards our place.

Ours. It was our home now.

“Oh my god. Really?” she asked the excitement in her voice genuine. “Are you sure you are ready to have this little sleep?” She chuckled.

“Yes, I’m sure. It’ll be worth it,” I said.

“It really is.”

“Will you be there to help me?” I asked.

“Every step of the way. Janson will, too, I’m sure of it,” Joanna reassured me.

“I can’t reach him.” I was worried about him. I was always worried about him.

“I was told that probably would happen. For both of them. It’s today,” she said.

I sucked in a breath. He’d said soon, but I didn’t realize soon meant now.

Janson

“So we just go to our jobs, we sit there, and we work like nothing is happening?” I asked. Greyson gave me the exact instructions last night for this morning.

“Yeah. We do that shit just like it’s important. Just like we always do,” Greyson reassured me.

“Well, not always.” I grinned. We spent more time out of the office than in, but it wasn’t abnormal for us to be at work.

Right where we would be when the raid was conducted. It would look like we had no idea about what was happening. Like we had no clue what was going on.

So in the morning, when I checked my phone and I saw a text from my father requesting a meeting, I grinned.

I might just be there to see him get his ass dragged away.

I walked up to his office at noon and sat in my chair, waiting. My father was probably going to chew my ass out, but I didn’t give a shit. Not one.

“I see you’ve already made yourself comfortable,” my father said as he walked into the office. I fought the urge to start immediately with a smug grin. That wouldn’t get me very far, and in fact, it might just cause them to get a whiff of what was coming.

“I apologize, but I figured if you wanted to see me, being early was better than being late.” It was a true enough statement. My father had drilled into my head the need for punctuality from an early age. “What was the purpose of this meeting?”

“Yes. You are correct.” He sat down across from me and looked me over. “You’ve been following a lot of orders lately and I wanted to check in. See how you were. It’s been good work. And I don’t often say this, but it’s been exceptional work.”

He called me in here to compliment him? It felt like the fifth fucking dimension.

“You want to thank me?” I asked, gape-mouthed. “Do you even know what happened at the farm?”

“I do. And I don’t agree with your decision. You had the perfect opportunity to align yourself with James, but you stood by your man. Loyalty is important. I respect that.” My father hesitated, then said, “But I need you to do me a favor.”

“What?” I asked.

“Hunt down the Butcher, kill him,” my father growled. “I’m still pissed you let that asshole get away.”

“I cannot do that, Father. I don’t know where he has gone.”

“Then you keep an eye on him. Find out where he is. Keep tabs. If he comes for any of us, that’s on the two of you.” He pointed at me and then looked around. “Shit’s been going down lately, not with the other mob, but with the damn little gangs up around Brooklyn. Tired of their shit. Gonna have a new list of names for you.”

I nodded. This was nothing new. I’d been taking out small time gang leaders left and right these past few months.

It was an ugly job, but someone had to do it. Instead of enforcers, they’d been sending me. Me to leave the messages carved into their skin. Me to do all this shit. If they only knew how much I wished I could turn the tables and carve into their faces.

But it would be soon now. It would be soon.

Everything moved in slow motion the moment I saw Michael. He was actually leading up the team that came in, bulletproof vests on, guns in their hands. It was a full swat team.

“Michael Mactavish, you are under arrest,” he said as he came forward.

“You.” My father glared at Michael. “What the fuck? On what charge?”

“Thirteen counts of murder.”

“You can’t prove that,” he said as he stood and struck out his hands.

“We don’t need to prove thirteen. We only need to prove one. But thirteen is the number of bodies we got.”

I swallowed hard. I’d put more than five times that into the ground in the last ten years.  I knew one day they’d be coming for me.

But today wasn’t that day. I just stood there gape-mouthed. “Father, what can I do?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes at Michael. I still had a part to play in all of this. In the family. I would never blow my cover.

“You need to call the family lawyer, son. And take over my duties. You’ve been trained. I’m sure this will all get cleared up soon.” He pushed the hands of the FBI officer away. “I will come willingly. You don't need to touch me.” His composure gained, he started walking down the hall. Then he looked at Michael. “You will pay for this. Don’t fucking forget it.”

“I look forward to it,” Michael said in a sneer. He didn’t even look at me. It was like I didn’t exist in his mind.

But I relished the moment when my father was taken away, the moment I had been fighting for my whole life. It may not be because of all of the things he did to me, but it was still justice.

Now, we just had to make sure that we made it worth it. That we raised our children in a better world than the one we were raised in ourselves.

All I needed now was my woman at my side and I knew everything was going to be all right.

Kathryn

“How do you feel?” Janson asked me. I’d been back in the condo for a week and I still couldn’t get enough of it. The fresh air, the view of the night sky. It was so gorgeous. I loved this part of Baltimore.

I loved anywhere that I could be with him.

“It’s beautiful tonight,” I said as I looked up at him. I’d put some rustic string lights up on the balcony and a few candles blazed in mason jars. It was just the right touch.

“You are beautiful tonight,” he said. We had dinner delivered and were spending what was probably the last viable night outside before the weather turned.

“So it’s all over?” I asked as I looked up at the stars. I could see Orion in the night, the sword blazing through a normally polluted atmosphere. It was the perfect night for stargazing.

“No, not yet. It’s just begun. They have to get lawyers, go through processing, get a trial date, and then we’ll see.”

“Bond?” I asked.

“I’ve been told it won’t be offered under any circumstances.” He grabbed my hand and looked across the table at me. “But I don’t want to talk about that tonight.”

“You don’t?” I asked.

“No, I want to talk about the baby. What did the doctor say?” he asked. I had another appointment today with a new doctor. The best one money could buy, Janson claimed.

“Everything looks great. I’m four weeks along, and they even checked. There is a heartbeat, Janson. A heartbeat.” I smiled.

“Will you let me go now?” he asked.

“Yes. I’m sorry, I was just so scared. I didn’t want it to be false and then have to see your face like that. I wanted to be able to have time to deal with it then tell you.”

“I understand.”

“We’re going to have a baby,” I said as I looked into his eyes. Nothing could be more perfect.

“We are,” he said as he looked me over. “It’s not going to be easy.”

“Oh, I know. Joanna has informed me.”

“How is she doing?” he asked.

“Well! She’s been writing like a mad woman. I’m glad she’s gotten back into the field. Writing textbooks seems like it is exactly what she needed. Greyson offered to provide care if she wanted to go back to school, but that isn’t what she wants. She wants to stay home with Jessica and work on affordable textbooks for college kids.”

“Sounds noble.”

“I think she is going to be all right,” I confirmed. “I think we are all going to be all right.”

“We are going to be just fine.” Janson stood and then got down on one knee. I knew what was coming, but I couldn’t help but gasp.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“We are going to be more than fine,” he amended as he pulled a small box out of his pocket. He opened it to reveal a ring. It was gorgeous. Princess cut with sapphires to accent. Exactly what I’d always dreamed about.

“Janson,” I started, but he interrupted.

“Kat I’ve loved you from the first time I kissed you, I was just too stubborn to admit it. But I know now that I’ll always want you. I’ll always be there for you. But I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?” he asked.

“I will,” I said. I held out my ring finger and bit my lip. I wanted this for us. For our family.

He would always be the one to me. No matter what. I was sure that with him next to me, everything was going to be all right.

“Great, now your brother can take the price tag off my head,” he joked as he stood. “I love you, Kat.”

“I love you, too.” And I always would.