But now, as I waited for Aaron to meet with me here, I had to admitIhad no safe place in this world at all.
He arrived, also wearing a hoodie. Spotting me quickly, he joined me at the table.
“Wow.”
I frowned.
“You really are pregnant,” he observed.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not showing that much.” I wasn’t. With my short height and curves, I figured I’d look like a whale at six months in, but I wasn’t at all. If I wore a loose enough sweatshirt, no one would know.
“I mean…” He shook his head and seemed apologetic. “I mean you’re reallystillpregnant.”
I pressed my lips together, annoyed. I had no desire at all to terminate this pregnancy. I wouldn’t waste my time explainingmy stance on that, either. A family was all I’d ever dreamed of. After losing my parents like I had, then hopping around in the system, I spent my whole life yearning for a family to belong to. The coworkers and colleagues at the agency never gave me that sense of belonging. But this baby would. Even if Emil could discard me and leave me so easily without a look back,Iwould always have this child to love and support. My life was a mess. I was fired, about to be homeless with my savings running out, and considered a traitor. But I was so damn excited to meet this new life.
“Thanks,” I quipped dryly.
“No. No.” He winced. “Sorry. That sounded bad.”
“Yeah, it did.”
“Sorry. It’s just…” He glanced around, as if worried someone was listening in. “There’s so many rumors and all…”
“Yeah. I remember.” In those last couple of days when I tried to stay and fight for my job, when everyone realized I was pregnant due to that nosy HR woman making me take a test, I heard it all.
“So, it’s true? Romanoff is—was—the father?”
“No.” I scowled at him.
“That’s what everyone’s assuming. That you got close to him while spying for clues about the Obsidian Eye and that’s why the Cartel tried to take you out in the jungle.”
What?This was a further development from what I’d heard two months ago. As soon as I was fired, I doubled down in finding whatever I could about these lies that I was a traitor and sold intel.
I’d made up that lie about the Cartel coming after me in the jungle. They had. Emil and I had been chased by the Cartel in the jungle, but it was just because we’d trespassed on their turf.
The possibility that someone knew about anything else for a motive from the Cartel didn’t add up.
“No,” I replied. “Romanoff isn’t the father.”
He held his hands up, almost seeming sorry. “But you’re doing okay?” he asked, acting more like the clueless, naïve young man he was. “With the health stuff and pregnancy and all?”
I nodded. My pregnancy was easy. For the first three months, I hadn’t even known I was pregnant. My cycles were always weird and unpredictable because I worked out so much. When I spotted here and there, I figured they were light periods. But when I wondered why my sense of smell was so strangely acute and heightened, I took a test on a whim.
“What will you do for money, though? And like, how will you raise a baby and—” He cringed. “Sorry. It’s not my business.”
“It isn’t,” I bit out.
“And I bet you’d be worried I’ll tell the others at the office about anything you say.”
I rolled my eyes. He was still so naïve. “Aaron, if they want to know where I am and what I’m doing, they’ll have ways to find out.” I wasn’t staying off the grid, but I was about to. “I appreciate your concern.” If he was concerned and not nosy. I didn’t trust easily. “And I appreciate your coming out here to talk to me.”
He nodded, as if remembering what I secretly asked him to meet me about. “Right.” He cleared his throat and glanced around again. “About that. I think you’re on to something here.”
I waited for more. This young agent wasn’t a friend by any means, but unlike the others, like Davis or Jeffries, he seemed to harbor a healthy sense of belief that the agency could be corrupt. I’d tailed him to ask him to look into what happened to me, and he was here to deliver on it.
“I found a few things that link Hufford with leaders in that Cartel.”
I knew it!
