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MERRICK

TWO MONTHS LATER

Watching her from across the room, I wonder why I even brought her here to work. All I want to do is fuck her. Over and over. Doesn’t matter that I was inside her just hours ago in our own home.

Colette turns her head, looking over her shoulder at me, and I know she’s thinking the same thing. She wants me just as badly as I want her—always. I continue to stare at her as she files some papers. Why we have any actual paperwork in this office is beyond me, but Theron wants to have a paper copy of every single signed contract, just in case. So, we do, and Colette keeps our paperwork—and my dick—in order, if I’m being wholly truthful. I open my mouth to invite her into my office when Grayson appears in front of me.

I haven’t seen much of him lately. Things around the office have been quiet, which I fucking love, but he’s been busy keeping tabs on Nadine, and I’ve stayed out of whatever drama that situation is cooking up—until now.

“You got a minute?” he asks.

“C’mon in.”

Grayson slips into the office, closing the door behind him, which effectively takes my view of Colette. He makes his way over to the sofa that’s pushed against the wall and across from my desk.

“I got a problem.”

I don’t tell him that I figured as much. I wait for him to continue. He’s got things to say, and I’m here to listen. God knows he’s listened to my shit over the past few months, and the fact that he was by my side during most of it, backing me up and protecting Colette, I owe him.

“She’s got a husband.”

My eyes widen.

“A what?” I ask.

He dips his chin, his gaze finding mine and holding it. “A fucking husband.”

“I thought it was her ex-husband?” I ask, recalling the conversation that was had when her brother fucking kidnapped us.

We’ve been protecting her since. Got her in a safe house that is attached to Vaughn’s condo, where Grayson has moved in. So someone is always available and watching her. Nadine isn’t just our employee anymore. She’s now part of our family.

And she hacked the fucking program where both Colette and I were listed as hits for money. She freed me, and I know that I owe her a debt that can never be repaid, but also, what the fuck is going on?

“Well,” Grayson grinds out, “he is not. And now he’s not just looking for her. He’s looking for her.”

I tilt my head to the side, knowing that I can’t hide my confusion at his words. “You wanna explain that shit to me?” I ask.

“He’s part of law enforcement,” Grayson murmurs. “ATF.”

Shit.

I could be blown the fuck over with a feather right about now. I cannot believe the words that this man has just said to me. So I ask him, just for clarification.

“You’re telling me that this man is part of the ATF and her brother is the head of a group doing God knows what on the side? And she’s hiding from him. What the actual fuck is going on here?” I demand.

Grayson opens his mouth, but before he can get a word out, there is a knock on my office door. Our heads whip to the side, and I call out for the person on the other side to come in. I know it’s one of the guys, Lucille, Nadine, or Colette, because those are the only people who have access to this building. This place is more secure than the freaking White House.

I watch as the door opens and Theron makes his way inside. He jerks his chin toward me, then sinks down in the chair that’s in the corner of the room and props his feet on the footrest.

“Can I help you?” I ask when he doesn’t speak immediately.

“I figured this would be the best place to have this discussion, considering it involves…” He trails off before he lifts his hand and extends a couple fingers toward Grayson. “You.”

Shit. I open my mouth to ask, What now? when he continues. “You got a big fucking problem.”

“What?” Grayson asks.

“I was looking at the security footage from the construction company, and you got ATF sniffing around. Do I want to know why?”

Grayson grunts. “I know exactly why,” he says.

“Enlighten me.”

And that’s when Grayson tells Theron about Nadine and the drama surrounding her husband, not ex. There’s more to the story, I’m sure of that, but either he’s not ready to tell us, or he’s not going to unless he has to. Either way, it doesn’t matter because it is what it is, and now it’s in our laps.

“What are we going to do about this?” Theron asks. “Not like I can do anything to ATF agents, whether they’re here for personal shit or not. We’re on the up and up,” he states, then his gaze slides over to me. “For the most part.”

I snort, mainly because he’s talking about the fact that three men died in my presence. Nobody is bitching about the fact that Ravet is dead, although there are millions of rumors surrounding the fact that the secretary of state disappeared without a trace.

Thankfully, all of that has died down and a whole other catastrophe has taken its place in the world, as does the news cycle that never ends. But now we’ve got another issue at hand, and it’s not what I expected, Theron either, apparently.

“We have to keep Nadine safe and all of us out of the shit with the Night Devils MC,” I point out the obvious.

Theron places his hands on the arm of the chair, strumming his fingers a few times. “I’m trying to think of how we can do that. Nadine is the target, but that means this guy is likely going to use as much force as he can to get her.”

Grayson lets out a grunt and shakes his head once. “I’ve been saying this since she told me. I’m fucking stumped, to say the least.”

Standing from my desk, I walk over to the window and dip my chin to look down at the sidewalk full of people walking by. Night isn’t a huge city, but it’s big enough that people are constantly walking downtown, up and down the streets, at any given moment of any given day.

Turning to Grayson, I take a page from the shit that we had to do with Colette. “Let him find her,” I say.

“Fucking excuse me?” Grayson barks before he jumps to his feet, his body on edge and ready to fight me. I don’t take it personally, knowing that he isn’t thinking with his brain. Instead, his instincts are taking over, and I know how it feels because my woman was bait at one point as well.

“We can’t get anything to blackmail him with if he doesn’t come into contact with her,” I say.

Grayson narrows his eyes on me but thankfully drops it, mainly because his brain has taken over and he knows that’s what needs to happen. He doesn’t sit down, though. Instead, he walks over to the wall and leans his back against it, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well then,” he says, “what do we do?”

Inhaling a deep breath, I hold it for a moment before I let it out slowly, and that’s when we hash out a rough plan. A plan that will take some doing to be pulled off, but only because it will be hard as fuck not to go in and totally decimate this guy.

He would deserve it if we did, and we will, just not physically, but in every other way possible. Lucille will ensure that he is ruined financially to the point where he will never be able to buy anything on credit again, not even a stick of gum. And if he’s got money hidden somewhere, we will seize it and donate it to a charity somewhere so it can be put to better use.

Any man who does even a quarter of what he has done to Nadine deserves no less than being tortured until his dying breath. But since we typically are not in the habit of killing people, aside from Vaughn, we will make him wish he were dead.

Just desserts will be served.

Now I need to get back to my woman and the task at hand, which is fucking her against my desk. Thankfully, with a plan in place, they leave my office so I can do just that.

“Colette,” I call out, “can you come in here for a moment?”

Theron stops at the doorway and looks over his shoulder with a smirk, then shakes his head and walks away. He knows what’s about to happen, and he’s probably on his way to do the same damn thing with his own wife.

Colette slips into my office, closing and locking the door behind her, then her eyes meet mine, and I know she wants the same thing. Instead of calling her over to me, I jerk my chin and give her a smirk.

“Strip,” I demand.

I watch her entire body tremble as she begins to strip her clothes off, leaving her in just her bra and panties. Then her shaky fingers slip those off as well, leaving her bare for me.

All for me.

Hell yes .

COLETTE

SIX MONTHS LATER

“Have you thought?” Lucille asks.

She doesn’t even have to ask me what I’ve thought because I’ve thought of it all, and this was the first thing to jump into my brain, as would any woman in a relationship not taking birth control would think.

Pregnant.

“Oh, I’ve thought. I even have the test in my purse.”

We’re hanging out in the small break room at the office. Securus is home to me now. I work here every day. Although most days, I don’t have a lot to do, so I end up chatting with Lucille or Nadine. Sometimes, all three of us go out for lunch, then go shopping, but we don’t even come back. Since we’re all sleeping with one of the bosses, nobody cares.

“Well, go pee on it,” Lucille states just as Nadine walks into the room. Her eyes are wide as she flicks her gaze between each of us. She starts to take a step backward, but Lucille lifts her hand and motions for her to come farther into the room.

“Come sit down,” Lucille says. “Colette is going to pee on a stick, and we’re going to find out together if she’s knocked up.”

God.

The idea that I could be pregnant is absolutely wild to me. It should not be because we’ve not used a single ounce of precaution in all the months we’ve been together. And we’ve had a lot of sex.

A lot.

Leaving Lucille and Nadine, I walk into the bathroom and take the test. I set it down on the counter before I wash my hands and dry them, trying as hard as I can not to look at the results until enough time has passed.

There is a knock on the door, and I hear Lucille call out my name, but I can’t move. I’m frozen, staring at my reflection and trying my hardest not to glance down at the countertop. I don’t want to know, but I’m dying to find out all at the same time.

The door handle jiggles, then the door is pushed open and both Lucille and Nadine move into the small space. They don’t come in any farther, just enough to close and lock the door behind them.

“Have you looked?” Lucille asks.

Shaking my head, I pinch my eyes closed and spin around to face them. “I’m dying to know, but I don’t want to.”

Lucille smiles, then steps forward, reaches past me, and picks up the stick. I watch as her eyes scan the little window. She doesn’t give me anything, not a damn thing. Her gaze connects to mine, but she doesn’t say anything one way or the other. Instead, she bites the corner of her bottom lip, then lets out a heavy sigh.

“What is it?” I ask.

My whole body jerks as I think about the possibility that it’s negative when all I’ve been able to do is consider it being positive and nothing else. If it is negative, I probably need to go to a doctor because I’ve got something wrong with me, maybe an ulcer or something.

“What do you want it to be?” she asks.

Shaking my head, I pinch my eyes closed, then open them again and find hers. “Positive. I want it to be positive.”

That’s when Lucille’s lips curve up into a grin. “Then you’re getting what you want, babe.”

She turns the test around, showing me the little screen that reads Pregnant . Sucking in a breath, I lift my hands to my lips. I try not to cry. But the tears, they come. They slide down my cheeks almost instantly.

I don’t know what to do. Standing in the bathroom, tears streaming down my face, I feel like I need to do something, say something, go somewhere, but I can’t. It’s literally all I can do to stand here.

Lucille shoves the test into my chest. “Go tell your man,” Nadine whispers.

I grip the test in my hand before I nod. Instead of walking out of the bathroom immediately, I wrap my arms around each of them. I embrace them, hug them, and cry a little more.

“Go and tell Merrick,” Nadine whispers. “He’s going to be so happy.”

I hope she’s right. We haven’t talked about children. Sure, I’ve told him that I wasn’t on birth control when we were married the first time, and he said it didn’t matter, but that was as far as things got.

We didn’t go into any more details and haven’t since getting back together the second time. I don’t know why I didn’t go to the doctor or why we didn’t have this critical conversation. Now I’m pregnant and scared that he’s not going to be happy about it.

“Wish me luck,” I whisper.

Reaching for the handle of the bathroom door, I gently tug it open before I make my way toward his office. I almost feel as if I’m floating on air. I don’t even feel my feet touching the ground.

I knock on the closed door. Pressing my lips together, I roll them a few times, clearing my throat as I wait. Merrick’s voice calls out for me to enter. I should have waited and gathered myself before I came here.

I take a step backward, my fingers still curled around the handle as I contemplate running. I don’t know where I would go, but it doesn’t stop me from thinking about it. When he calls out for the person on the other side of the door to come in again, I force myself to open the door and step into the office.

Merrick is sitting behind his desk, the same desk that we likely conceived this baby on, his head tipped as he punches his index fingers against the screen of an iPad. I don’t say anything. I’m not sure what to say. I’m gripping that stick I just peed on a few minutes ago like it’s a lifeline.

I stand stock-still waiting for his eyes to lift to mine, and eventually, they do. He tilts his head to the side, his eyes finding and connecting to mine. I watch as he jumps to his feet and hurries toward me.

I’m not sure what I expect, but it isn’t for him to rush over to me. His arms wrap around me before he tugs me against his chest. Tilting my head back, I look up into his eyes, my gaze searching his.

“What’s wrong?” he demands.

I’m still not sure what to say or how to say it. My lips press together, and when he asks me for a second time, I blurt it out. The words just explode from my mouth. “I’m pregnant.”

His eyes widen for a fraction of a moment, then his entire expression changes. It goes from concern to something that I can’t quite place… maybe pride? I open my mouth to ask him, but he doesn’t let me.

Merrick tilts his head and touches his lips to the side of my throat. My eyes slide closed as I take in the sensation. I love it. Almost as much as I love him. Goose bumps break out over my entire body as he lifts his head from my throat.

His gaze finds mine, a smile playing on his lips before he chuckles. “This is not a laughing matter,” I snap.

I watch as his eyes dance, as they search mine, then he speaks. “It is. Because I’m happy, Colette.”

“How?” I ask. “We aren’t even married.”

“Fuck marriage. I don’t need a goddamn piece of paper or the government to tell me who my woman is. I know exactly who you are, baby.”

My cheeks heat at his words, then I shake my head a couple of times. “Okay, but what are we going to do?” I know I sound pleading. Because I am.

“We’re going to live our beautiful life.”

How is this man so sexy? How does he know exactly what to say? How is he mine? And how does he want me? I’m no prize. I know I’m not, but Merrick looks at me like I’m the ultimate reward.

“But…” He shakes his head once.

“No buts,” he says. “Not a single but. This is a good thing. The best thing.”

And it is.

The absolute best thing. His lips touch mine, and then he wraps his arms around me, holding me against him as his mouth shifts to my lips, down my jaw, and up to my earlobe. He hums, then lifts his head slightly, his gaze searching mine before he speaks.

“Now take your clothes off and let me show you just how fucking happy I am about this.”

And I do.

Gladly and with extreme enthusiasm.