Fishing my phone out of my pocket, I scrolled through my contacts before selecting the number I needed. It answered after one ring.
“Dude, long time, no speak,”Zayden said.“What do we owe the pleasure?”
“Are you with Brody?”
“Yeah, I’m here,”the unmistakable voice of Brody echoed down the phone.
While Zayden and Brody Evans weren’t identical twins, they were inseparable, includingwhen it came to fucking women. They were the youngest of our group, and despite Zayden being slightly unhinged and Brody being a brooding bastard, they were good guys.
Well, as good as any kid born to a founding Legion member could be.
“I’ve got a job for my favorite cat burglars.”I stared at a painting hanging on Paul’s wall,trying to figure out what the splodges of paint were meant to be.“You up for it?”
In the public eye, Zayden was known for being undefeated in illegal street races, whileBrody was undefeated in an underground fighting ring. What most didn’t know about them, though, wasthatthey were excellent thieves, and if given the challenge, they’d probably be able to break into Buckingham Palace without getting caught.
“What are we stealing?”Zayden asked, his tone laced with amusement.
“Nothing,”I replied, tearing my gaze away from the ridiculous painting to fix on the door ofthe examination room.“I don’t need you to steal anything from the target house. I need you to put somethinginit.”
Chapter 7
Kiera
Icouldn’t help but question every life choice I’d madethatled me to lying on an examination bed, with my pants and underwear removed, and my legs held in stirrups, while a man I had onlyjustmet moved around his room gathering the equipment he needed to conduct the next test.
My teeth clenched as the faces of those who’d put me on this path flashed before myeyes; Jackson included. But when the image of my beautiful daughter replaced the images of the people I despised, I knewthatif I’d been given the choice, I would have walked the same path if it led me to Billie.
I’d fought so hard to keep her. When my father gave me the ultimatum to either abort her or be ostracized from the family, the decision was easy.
Andthen, when he found out James had been supporting me in the first few years of Billie’s life, and threatened to kill her unless I stopped taking James’ handouts, I did what he asked to protect her. When she was diagnosed with leukemia, I fought by her side.
Every ounce of pain I now carried with me was worth it to have the privilege of being her mom, and no one was going to takethataway from me.Thatmeant sticking to my guns and not telling a soul who her father was, so no matter how hard Jackson pushed to break me, I wouldn’t let him win.
I couldn’t. It wasn’t just Billie’s life that would be at risk.
Tears filled my eyes, and my entire body ached with the need to hold my daughter in myarms and give her the biggest cuddle I could. In a week’s time,she’d be home from private school for a few days, and I was going to make sure I spent every minute of every damn day with her until she had to go back for the next term.
I hated her being away, and I hated Alec for being the one who’d suggested sending heraway to a boarding school. But I knew it would give her an education and a future I could never have afforded on my own, not after my father blocked me from receiving my trust fund when I turned eighteen.
“We’re nearly done, Ms. Carter,”Dr. Andrews said, pulling me from my thoughts as he wheeled across the room on a chair, having taken a sample of my blood.“I’ll take the swab first, andthenI’ll check for the coil.”
“Don’t bother.”Resignation swam through my veins as I dropped my gaze to meet hissurprised one.“I don’t have one.”
“But you told Mr. Rivers-”
“I’ve had a hysterectomy.”
A painful knot of emotion clogged my throat, preventing me from saying anything else.Ten years later, I still had difficulty processingthatI would never have any more children. My father saw tothat.
When I was in labor with Billie, she became distressed. At least,thatwas what thedoctors told me, andthatwas what I believed for the first few months after she was born. I’d come to from the anesthesia to hold my beautiful, healthy baby, only for the doctors to tell methatthey’d had no choice but to carry out a hysterectomy due to complications.
My father later took great pleasure in dropping the bombthathe’d paid the doctors ahefty sum of money to put me under during labor and conduct the procedure, telling methatif I’d done what he’d asked and aborted Billie in the first place, I’d still have the ability to have children in the future.
If it wasn’t for the factthatI was responsible for Billie, I could have killed my father witha smile on my face when he announcedthat.
But in a way, I should have been grateful. He could have had Billie killed while I was knocked out,justas he’d been threatening to do. I suspected the only reasonhe hadn’t was so he could watch with glee as I struggled to raise my daughter without his help.
So, I may not have been able to have any more children, but I had Billie, and she was all I needed.
