Page 35

“Anything else?”
“Find him somewhere to go. I want him out of California in the next 48 hours.”
“A place where we have eyes?”
“Yeah.”
“Hunt, I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but this is the right call.”
“Your approval was not needed or asked for, asshole.”
The last thing I hear is Vaughn’s audible laughter as he hangs up.
God, he gets on my nerves.
“Any particular store, Mr. Middleton?” Brian asks from the front. “We’re here.”
I open the location feature on my phone under Megan’s contact to see where she is. It’s something I do several times a day to help me curb the urge to call her. It helps me maintain my sanity since she demanded I take the security detail off of her. While normally I would have ignored that ridiculous request, I’m doing what I can to keep the rest of her pregnancy stress-free.
But once my beloved delivers our little bundle of joy.
All bets are off.
Chapter 12
Life Is Too Short
MEGAN
Iwould laugh if it wasn’t so pitiful.
Every day, there’s a different tragedy. Today, I dropped my fork on the floor, and because of the Frankenstein-sized baby growing inside of me, I couldn’t reach it.
“I’m eating a salmon salad, for God’s sake!” I yell at the universe. “I’m hungry, dammit.”
And now come the tears.
My hormones are raging like a California wildfire, and I’m sure that no one is more sick of me than I am of myself. I’m two seconds away from eating this salad with my fingers when there’s a sudden knock at the door.
“Who is it?” I shout.
“It’s Lena.”
“Why are you knocking on the door? You live here,” I grouse.
“I’m so sorry, Megan, but I think I may have left my key in my bedroom.”
“Well, you’re going to have to wait. It takes me damn near an hour to get on my feet these days.”
“I’m not in a rush,” she chuckles. “I’ll just sit here. I wish all the apartments had an elevator open up into the living room like the penthouse has. Then all we’d have to remember is a code.”
I lean my palms heavily on the breakfast table and push myself to a stand. The moment I get on my feet, the pressure of the baby on my bladder makes me desperately want to pee, but it’s a shorter distance to head to the front door first.
“Almost there.”
“Ooh, I think the baby’s grown since I saw you this morning,” Lena says with a smile as I let her inside our apartment. She rubs my stomach, something that’s become somewhat of a daily ritual now that I’ve moved back in here.
“Were you crying?" She asks, concern etched on her forehead.