Page 2 of The Ranger (Black Hawke Security #5)

SCARLETT

Four months later

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“I love the way you brush your teeth while watching my every move. Even when you think I’m not watching.” Marshall preens at Trina.

Vomit.

“Yes, yes, because you’re hot. Hurry up.” I roll my hand around in the air hoping to hurry them along. I’m eight months pregnant, need to pee for the twentieth time in the past hour, and my baby daddy is here.

Cole.

The big giant dickface.

Fine, he’s been amazing, and that just makes it all that much harder. I wish he’d do something horrible to make me hate him. Like fuck some random girl in a hallway where I’d catch him. There would be witnesses who surrounded me and showered me with pity.

Or push an old lady into a puddle.

But oh no, he’s like the perfect father-to-be.

Ugh.

Marshall’s currently proposing to Trina. Or just about to. I’m pretty sure she knows, so I wish he’d hurry the hell up so I can pee.

“Excuse me?” Cole mutters in my ear.

“He is hot. Get over it.” I hiss.

With me being pregnant with his child, Cole now thinks I belong to him. But he’s also hot and cold. One minute I find him looking at me as if I’m the love of his life— huge joke —the next he looks terrified, like he wants to run for his life, seeking the closest exit off the planet.

Good; I hope the world is flat, and he jumps.

“You’re pregnant with my child. Stop saying shit like that,” Cole hisses back.

Exhibit A.

“Yeah, well, I’m going to pee our baby out my va-jay-jay if he doesn’t pop the question and wrap up now.”

He shakes his head.

Cole does that a lot.

Being in the same social circle has been a blessing and a curse. After an admittedly amazing one-night stand, I found out I was pregnant...three months and one week later.

I blame Cassy.

She fell in love with her bodyguard, and they married, which, yes, yes, lovely and romantic, but it’s set off a chain of events that has fucked all up my life.

Sorry, baby, I love you.

I do. In less than a month, our child is going to arrive, and I can’t wait to meet her. Or him. We are at odds about this.

Cole insists it’s a boy.

We lived a carefree life...except that part when Cassy had a stalker. I was on a career path, working as a stylist at Ink he can hear you.”

“She.”

“He.”

“Great, this is how children get confused about their gender.”

I turned and glared at him. “Really? That’s how you think it happens? Not because of alpha bullies like you?”

“Alpha bully? Are you referring to the sex we had? You were the one who tried to swing from your light fixtures, asking me to fuck you in the air?” He hissed back.

I wasn’t.

Referring to that, that is.

But I liked how offended it made him, so I shrugged.

“Ms. Walton?” The nurse interrupted us.

Cole had leaned down as we followed her down the hall and mumbled, “If we’d done it that way, the sperm might have leaked out and saved us all a lot of trouble.”

I ignored him.

Those comments hurt me, but I’d never show it. I pretty much raised myself while Mom worked and slept with tons of men. I can do this.

I just don’t have the finances sorted, and it scares me. I don’t have anyone to fall back on, and while Cole is the father, his responsibility is the baby.

What if something goes wrong and I can’t work?

What if the baby is sick and I can’t work?

I have four weeks planned for maternity leave; then I must return to work. This is one thing I can’t talk to anyone about. Cassy is my best friend but also my boss. So, I carry it privately, and it’s brought me to tears a few times.

Fear, not sadness.

I’m scared.

“I’ll take you to the damn bathroom.” Cole huffs, but suddenly Marshall finally proposes, and the room erupts into celebration.

My reaction surprises me.

Another of my friends is getting married to a man who is loyal and committed to her. Not me though—just like my mom, I’m destined to be single and raise a kid on my own.

I fight back the sadness but fail. A tear leaks down my face, and stupid Cole spots it and frowns.

Wiping it away with the back of my arm, I clap my hands joyfully. “Oh, my god. I’m so happy for you.”

Ignoring his narrowed eyes, I head towards Trina to check out her engagement ring while my bladder threatens to explode. The heavy sadness sticks like a lump in my chest.

Like mother, like daughter.

I’ll never get the happy ever after that Cassy, Savannah, Briar and Trina have with their men. Things like that just don’t happen to me. I’m the strange and outspoken one, eight months pregnant with barely enough cash to keep the baby alive.

Well, at least it won’t be purple.

Or a scaly dragon.

That was last night’s nightmare...which turned into a horny dream with the daddy dragon, so at least these pregnancy hormones are good for something.

What they aren’t good for is reminding me daily what got us into this situation.

My attraction to Cole Zimbardo.

The damn Ranger is insanely way too handsome for someone in my condition to be spending time with. Between our common social circle and the regular medical appointments, it’s too much.

I fantasize about our night together over and over and over. Even my vibrator is sick of me.

I really wish he weren’t so hot.

Even thinking about custody freaks me out. We’ve never talked about it, and the thought of him taking our little alien once it’s born to hang out with one of his million girlfriends has me very fidgety.

Not that I’ve seen him with one woman since our night together. But I’m sure he has. He’s special forces—I’m sure he’s good at hiding things.

I might have screamed blue murder when I learned I was pregnant, but that doesn’t mean I want to hand over my newborn baby to the guy who donated his sperm.

Every time I think about that, I want to shoot him. Unfortunately, Cole is better with a gun than me.

Or so he tells me.

I’m willing to test it.

“Thinking about killing me again, Scarlett? Give it your best shot,” he’d said last week.

“You’ll fall asleep one day, Cole Zimbardo. Even you can’t sleep with one eye open.”

“Try me.”

As a key member of BHS, he has a lot of skills and tools at his disposal. Trust me, I go over and over and over this when I start freaking out.

That was earlier on.

Now I’ve resigned myself to this fate.

Which includes desiring the father of my child and not being able to have him.

Cole has made no attempt to have a relationship with me. Which is confusing because the little things he does are...for the baby, not me.

Therein lies my problem.

I keep confusing his love for the baby with an interest in me. Then I swing the other way and just get grumpy with him.

So we are co-parenting, and that’s that.

In contrast, Ryder and Savannah are expecting their first child, and the world is celebrating. She’s a high-profile celebrity, so her baby bump is all over the internet and on the front cover of magazines. The picture of a happy, perfect American family.

Something I’ve never had.

Or ever will.

Briar has had twins, so at least I have friends with babies, and we’re all doing it together. It’s Cassy’s turn next. I think she wants a baby, but it will happen when they are ready.

I’ll be the only one without a husband.

It would have been easier if I didn’t like the guy I was knocked up by. Lying awake after Cole and I spent the night together and made this little alien, I wondered if he would call.

He never did.

I get it. I’m outspoken, a little wild, and not the stunning type that a thirst trap like Cole would normally attract.

I’m no wallflower. I know I’m pretty, but between the nose ring (which is now out), black everything and band T-shirts, I’m more goth than glamour. Plus, there’s a little more meat on my hips than my friends, even if I am a size four.

So yeah, I harbored some hope that something would happen between us.

Now I’m trying to hate him.

Although all his questions during medical appointments and telling me what I can and can’t eat because it’s his child is helping considerably.

“Fine, you take it and push it out the end of your cock!” I said during our last OB/GYN appointment.

The doctor had left the room, shaking her head.

“Really, Scar? Fucking hell.” Cole groans.

“That is not my name. You can call me Ms. Walton.”

If he raises his brows at me one more time, I am going to shave the damn things off.

An hour later, the party starts to wind down, and Cole downs his beer and glances my way. In that way.

Nope.

I turn and dart towards the table where my bag and jacket are, scooping them up. By the time I straighten, I come face to face with a wall of muscle.

“I’m taking you home,” Cole rasps.

I try to get around him, but I’m slow because I’m carrying his huge baby, and he’s fast.

“Scarlett,” he growls.

“I’m quite capable of getting myself home,” I snap, shaking him off. “I’m pregnant, not having a cardiac arrest.”

“Pregnant with my child. Let’s go.”

“You do not own my body.”

“So you’ve said twenty million times in the past four months,” he mumbles and leads me towards the exit.

Dick.

Fine. It saves me Uber money, and I’m tired. My feet are aching, and I think I’m having some preliminary Braxton Hicks.

Or it’s the Mexican I had for lunch.

Hard to know.

Cassy catches us before we disappear and gives me a hug. “See you at work on Monday. Unless you need me to take you to get that baby duvet.”

“What?” Cole asks.

I shake my head. “No, I’ll head out myself. You enjoy a quiet day with hubby.”

“Okay, love you.”

“Love you back.” We hug again, and Trina dances over. “Congratulations and happy birthday, honey.”

“Thank you for coming. I know you must be feeling tired this far into your pregnancy.” She kisses my cheek and then the girls disappear after giving Cole a brief hug.

I pad over to the elevator, Cole at my side.

“What duvet?”

I ignore him and step into the elevator, pushing the button.

“Scarlett.”

I spin. “Jesus, Cole. Just stop. You don’t need to know everything.”

“Yes. I do,” he says firmly, crossing his arms.

“Fine. Then let’s start with the vaginal discharge I’ve been having.”

He pales.

“I plucked three hairs from my belly last month but can no longer see that part of my body so there could be a new bush above my pubic hair. I have no idea. Probably a forest.”

“Stop. That’s not what I mean.”

“Oh really? So, you just want to pick and choose?”

He uncrosses his arms and pushes the elevator button about twenty times.

I know he’s not interested in me. It’s our baby he cares about. Which is good. Some men don’t bother doing that. I should be grateful, and I am to some degree. It just hurts.

I’ve become the one thing I said I never would be. A single mother who can’t pursue her dream with a baby daddy who doesn’t want her.

I won’t be able to start my salon because finances will now be limited, and any time I would have put towards winning awards and growing a name for myself will be now given to this child.

It has to be that way.

I might be a single mom but that doesn’t mean I’ll be a shit mom. I love this baby with all I am.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t grieve my dreams.

She or he will know they’re adored.

But the universe seems to have a sick sense of humor because he’s strapped me to a man I’m insanely attracted to and can never be with.

I go from raging mad with him to visualizing his gorgeous body and thick cock whenever I orgasm.

I would die if Cole knew.