Brea’s heart stopped. She reached for his hand, gripping it desperately. “Stop this. Stop it now. Forget him. Don’t go back. We’ll leave here and—”
“I can’t.” Pierce scanned the mostly empty roads and made a right. “He’s not going to give up until he finds us. So I’ve got to find him first.”
“But if something happens to you…” Pain wracked her chest just thinking about it.
“Then he won’t come after you. You’ll be safe because if I’m gone, he’ll have won. The only reason he wants you now is to hurt me. But I’m going to end him. I’m not going to put you in that fucking position.”
Brea wanted to scream that she didn’t understand…but she did. She wanted to rail at the horror and unfairness. But that wouldn’t change anything.
“So how long are you here?”
“I’ve got a flight back at oh-five-hundred on Monday.”
Her breath froze. She tried to swallow down her tears, because he needed her to be strong, but her fear fused with her hormones. She started to sob.
“Baby, no. Don’t waste tears on me.”
“Stop saying that! I love you. For a month, I didn’t know if you were alive. I didn’t know if you were coming back. In barely thirty hours, you’re leaving again and—”
“Shh.” He stroked her crown with his big hand. “We have the rest of the weekend. I’m sorry I’ll miss your doctor’s appointment on Monday.”
Appointment? It took Brea a moment to remember… “How did you know I have an appointment with my ob-gyn?”
He hesitated, as if he was looking for the best spin on the truth. “I might have found the paperwork when I was searching your room the night I realized you were pregnant and made a note about the date and time.”
Brea wasn’t even surprised. In fact, she was almost touched.
“I’d planned to be home for that. Of course, I’d planned for Montilla to be decomposing by now, too.” He sounded bitter that the drug lord wasn’t.
“The baby’s gender reveal is Monday.”
He frowned as he took her hand. “Damn it. I’m so fucking sorry I won’t be there, but your safety is more important.”
She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t disappointed. “I’m sorry, too.”
“I need you to put your head in my lap now.”
Was he suggesting… “Pierce, I’ve missed you, but I’m not doing that to you while you’re driving.”
Despite the heavy pall of angst and sadness, he laughed as he approached the red light outside his neighborhood. “I’m not asking you to suck my cock, pretty girl. At least not yet.” He sent her an unexpected grin. “But you should hide so that if any of Montilla’s goons are watching my house, they see me, not you.”
“Isn’t that dangerous, too? Won’t they kill you now that they know you’re hunting him?”
“Not here. Not in secret. Montilla is arrogant. The way he deals with his enemies is mostly for show. When he had me captive, he only beat me in front of people. As I observed him over the last few weeks, he only raped and murdered with an audience. It doesn’t suit him to sneak here and snuff me in the dead of night. I’ve become an official thorn in his side, and he’d want to make a public example of me. Since he can’t, what he really wants is to get his hands on you because then I’ll either tell him where to find Valeria and his son to save you or suffer horribly as you die.”
Brea didn’t understand these violent people and their twisted games, but she grasped that Pierce knew far better how to keep her and their baby safe.
Trembling, she scooted to her right and settled her head on his thigh. She felt his heat, smelled his male musk. Took in more of the danger dripping off him into her nostrils. Despite everything, it stirred her.
Then again, Pierce always did.
Instantly, he laid a protective hand on her head. “Just until we pull into my garage.”
“Okay.”
“Thanks for trusting me.”
“Always.” She breathed him in again.
“But if you’re motivated to make me feel good while you’re down there, I won’t object.”
“Pierce…” Her body ran hot at the thought. The notion might be reckless, but it was tempting. And they had so little time together before he had to leave…
“What? It’s been a long month without you.”
She craned her head to look up at him in the dark. “No pretty señoritas?”
He shook his head. “Like it or not, I’m all yours. And in less than five minutes, I’m going to strip you bare and prove it.”
Her body tightened. Her womb clenched. She pressed her thighs together in longing.
Brea got bold and cupped the obvious bulge through his jeans.
He let out something between a curse and a groan as he got harder under her palm. “Baby… Fuck, I’ve missed you.”
She’d missed him so, so much.
Finally, his thigh below her cheek tensed, and the Jeep shot forward. He drove like a madman through his neighborhood, slinging left, then right, then left again before coming to an abrupt halt. He reached up, and the mechanical purr of the garage door opener resounded above them. He pulled into the garage and hit the button again. She lifted her head.
Matt stood in the door between the garage and the house, weapon drawn, wearing a mean scowl. When he caught sight of them, he lowered the gun with a sigh and tucked it away. “Hey! I didn’t expect to see you, man. When did you get back to the States?”
“Earlier today,” Pierce said as he hopped out of the Jeep and shook Matt’s hand.
As Brea eased out on the other side and inched around the front of the truck, Matt whipped off his cowboy hat and shared a bro hug with Pierce. She approached, and the man’s angular face softened as he wrapped an arm around her, giving her a friendly squeeze.
“Hey, little thing. How you doing? Who was at Cutter’s door, this one?” Matt thumbed in Pierce’s direction.
“No. You wouldn’t believe me
