“And what if she is pregnant, and the baby in her isn’t even your father’s?” I asked, bringing up another possibility, one I thought of during my drive here.
Fang weighed the option. “It is possible. It does seem awfully fishy she’d make her return five months later. The dayyou confronted her and forced her out, she could’ve met with someone and gotten pregnant.”
“Isn’t there a test they could do?” she asked, glancing at each of us.
With a slight frown, Mike was the one who answered, “I think a doctor could only do it if she agreed to it—and I don’t think she’d ever agree to getting a paternity test done, not if abstaining means she keeps the upper hand.”
Her reply came swiftly: “I could make my dad ask for one. If he’s smart, he will.” Then she wavered. “Although, I don’t know. The moment he found out, he spiraled. He… he said he wanted to be a part of this kid’s life, no matter what.”
Fang mused, “Admirable, I suppose.”
“Sure,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s totally admirable to want to co-parent with the woman who tried to have your daughter killed and is psycho enough to try to have her own brother assassinated on television.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Do we even know for a fact she’s pregnant? It might be one big lie just to get herself reinserted in this city.”
“No,” Laina told me. “Either she’s forwarding the papers or her doctor is going to contact my dad. I figure, once that happens, we’ll snoop and find out what we can. If it turns out to be legitimate, then… then I don’t know. Then we’re fucked, and not in the fun way.” When she said that, Mike grabbed her hand and squeezed it, the gesture comforting.
And, what would you know? I was so worked up about my sister that the jealousy in me didn’t even register the action.
“But if she’s not,” I said, “if it’s some lie, then…”
Laina had a retort ready, and even though I half expected her to come swinging with something violent, hearing her say it aloud did do something to me: “Then I’ll use my claws on her.”
The idea that she’d be the one to take vengeance was something I should’ve thought about, but I was so hardwired to want to fix the problem immediately I didn’t give the thought the chance to form.
But Laina using her claws on Tessa? Yeah, you know what? I’d be down for that. I’d be in the front row with fucking popcorn and those little boxes of candy they sold at the movie theater for ridiculous prices.
Tessa deserved it. She fucking deserved it. The things she tried to have done were unforgivable. Vance might have been able to overlook her wrongdoings in the name of his future child with her, but no baby born from my sister’s womb would make me feel anything other than pure rage toward her.
“Sylvester probably knows someone in the hospital,” Mike said. “He could probably pull some strings. We need to find out who her doctor is.”
Laina leaned back and stared at the ceiling, a cute frown tugging at her lips. “Right now it’s a waiting game, then. Sucks. I hate not being able to do something about this.”
“Five months is a long time,” I said, stopping my pacing as the others looked toward me. “A pregnancy, real or not, can’t be the only thing. If I know her—and I like to think I do, since I was her attack dog for damn near my whole life—she has something else planned. Something big. Something we’re not going to expect.”
“Like what?” Fang asked as he cocked his head.
“I don’t know,” I shot back. “That’s why we’re not going to expect it.”
“Oh, right.” The silver-toothed weirdo glanced at Laina. “Well, if you do use your claws on her, I could always encase her skull in silver like I do for my brother and his kills. You could start your own trophy room.”
Wow. That’s even weirder. I was glad I had no idea who the hell his brother was. He sounded like an intense guy, and knowing Laina, she’d probably fall head over heels for him the moment she landed those pretty pink eyes on him.
If there was one thing I didn’t need, other than my sister coming back, it was a fourth guy in the picture. Yeah, I think I’d lose my mind if Laina wanted yet another boyfriend.
I moved around the coffee table and sat on it, facing Laina. Once she met my stare, I told her, “We’re going to figure this out together. I won’t let Tessa hurt you.” Seeing Mike and Fang, and the looks of concern on their faces when it came to her, made me correct that statement. “We won’t let Tessa hurt you.”
She gave me a gentle smile, and then she glanced at Mike and Fang, who nodded along with me. “I know. I just… I wish she never came back, but it’s kind of nice having you three in the same room again.”
I pretended not to notice the way Fang sent a pointed look in my direction, as if reminding me of what he said earlier: she’d love to have us together. She’d love to fuck us together. As much as I was dying to have her again—because don’t get me wrong, I wasdyingfor her—I didn’t want our first time in this long to be a shared experience with the others.
No, I’d have her all to myself. Maybe with my mask, in the middle of nowhere, just like she said.
As for sharing? Well, maybe I could wrangle my jealousy in, for her. I wouldn’t say whether or not I’d actually enjoy the experience, but if she turned those big, entrancing eyes my way and asked me to bend her over while one of the others made use of other parts of her body…
Maybe I could handle it. Maybe.
Chapter Eight – Laina
