The need to flip her off was strong, but the banter of love that Sam and I had was rather fun. The next nine months would certainly be a test of patience and every other emotion. We would either kill each other or fight to protect one another. For the time being, I guessed it wouldn’t hurt to have some alone time with him. Just the thought of screwing his brains out had me hot all over. Regardless, we did need to be on the same page with the baby. And a getaway to sleep and think sounded like heaven.
Jordyn eyed the boxes that littered the floor. “Are you a believer now?” She picked up one and then another. “Yep, you’re definitely preggo.” She tossed them in the trash then sat on the lid of the toilet seat. “I talked to Carly. I fly out in the morning. I also talked to Webb. He’s agreed to have Conrad meet me at the airport in Chicago. He’ll be my bodyguard.”
“That’s great news,” I said, trying to inject as much sisterly excitement as I could into my words, when in truth, my brain was concentrating on the baby and how in the heck I’d been cursed with Vel-negative blood.
“I heard something interesting before I came in here. Jo was talking to Dr. Vieira about women who have gotten knocked up by vampires. He asked her to check out the archives at the library they have here in Boston. Maybe they have records on Mom’s family, the Drakes.”
Excitement stirred. “I’ll talk to Jo.” After all, she was studying genetics and hematology, if memory served me correctly.
A small weight fell off my shoulders, making me feel like I had a sense of purpose rather than just being Sam’s baby mama. What continued to nag at the deep recesses of my being was not knowing what Rianne and the Aberdeen clan were up to.
“Jordyn, please. You cannot say anything about the baby to anyone.”
She huffed. “You told me that already. I won’t.”
There was no question in my mind that if the Aberdeens learned about the pregnancy, a war would erupt.
23
SAM
The next day, Layla and I were speeding up I-95 in my Jeep. I couldn’t get to Maine quickly enough. The medical facility had been suffocating. I hadn’t slept. My mind kept wandering to my screwed-up situation. How to protect Layla. Where Roman was. Who else would come out of the woodwork when they found out I was having a kid? The list was piling up.
I’d kept debating whether to steal Layla away or push forward and help my team find Roman. But I wasn’t going to figure anything out unless I had some space to think, although two days with Layla wouldn’t help me sort anything but where to fuck her. Maybe that was all I needed for the world to right itself on its axis.
I pressed on the gas as I wound around the coastline. Waves crashed along the shore. Light glinted off the Atlantic as the sun rose high in the sky.
I envisioned Layla running naked along the water, and my cock sprang to life and pulsed endlessly to be inside her. If I didn’t get some relief soon, my balls would be blue. Hell, they already were. Closed in a vehicle with her next to me made taming the wild beast who was clawing his way out difficult. I’d almost pulled off the highway for a quickie in the back seat.
Thankfully, we weren’t far from Jo and Webb’s house.
She groaned in frustration as she set her phone in her lap. “Rianne isn’t answering.”
She’d been trying to get ahold of her sister since last night. I understood her irritation. If I’d been in her shoes, and Jo had some notion of jumping to the dark side, I would have been tearing shit up. “Layla.”
She whipped her head my way. “Don’t say it, Sam.”
“Can you read minds now? You don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“Argh!” she practically screamed in frustration. “Maybe not, but I’ve been racking my brain about how I missed the signs with Rianne. I tried to reason with her, but she seemed so far gone. I don’t think she’ll come around. I want to talk to her one more time. If anything, I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
I reached over and placed my hand on her thigh. “Don’t beat yourself up, baby doll. Webb went through something similar with his sister, Kate. She betrayed him and tried to kill him. She went after Jo first.” Jo had gone through hell and back five years ago.
Layla’s big blues bulged. “What happened?”
“Long story and not mine to tell,” I said as I put two hands on the wheel.
“Obviously, Kate didn’t succeed. Webb is alive. Where’s Kate now?” she asked as intrigue washed over her.
I slowed around a curve and wasn’t sure if I should tell her. I didn’t want to sour her mood even more. But she would insist. “No longer here.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “As in dead?”
I nodded.
Her shoulders slumped as she gazed out the passenger window. “Just when I think I have it bad, someone always has it worse.”
“Layla, let’s try and relax for the next two days and not think of your sister trying to annihilate your boyfriend.”
