Still, Win had to admit as she checked the bathroom through the gap in the stall again, sometimes she was afraid, especially after Martin Fulsom, the billionaire funding the sustainable community and the man who owned the ranch upon which Base Camp and the manor were situated, decided to create a reality television show about their lives.
For the past nine months, he’d turned the men’s ambitions into a kind of contest. In order to secure the land and community they were building, they had one year in which to build ten houses that used one-tenth of the energy a normal American house consumed, build a renewable energy grid to power them, raise all the food they’d need to last through the winter, and—to show that their community could outlive them—each of them had to marry before the year was up, and three of their wives needed to be pregnant.
Win thought the whole thing was crazy, but by that time she already knew she wanted to marry Angus, and she’d broken off her engagement to Leif Dunlevy, the fiancé she’d left back home. Being on television, broadcasting her whereabouts all over the world, terrified her, though. So did the makeshift accommodations at Base Camp.
Fulsom had decreed that all the women needed to live the same way the men were doing, which meant Win and the others had to join the men sleeping in tents outside the bunkhouse that formed the headquarters for their new community. Win, who’d never been camping in her life, had lain awake night after night, paralyzed with fear, listening for footsteps outside, the sound of a man coming to get her—
She had no idea how she made it through those months on so little sleep, but she’d have done anything to stay close to Angus, and she was aware that her newfound freedom had a price. She decided she was willing to pay it.
When Nora Pickett, another of the women who lived at Base Camp, was pursued by a stalker and nearly killed last summer, Win’s faith in herself and her circumstances had been shaken to the core, and all of her worst fears came to the surface, kicking off another round of sleepless nights, panic attacks and longing for the safety of her parents’ home.
She was proud to say she’d stuck it out, keeping as close as possible to the others for weeks before daring to venture forth on her own again.
And now here she was. Pregnant. She was going to have a baby—Angus’s baby. Thank goodness she hadn’t succumbed to her fear. Angus and the other men had kept her safe. She didn’t need her parents’ legion of paid bodyguards—
Win quickly checked through the gap again, the same way she’d checked a thousand rooms a thousand times before; people could get past your guard in an instant if you weren’t vigilant.
Catching herself, she closed her eyes. Counted to five. She wasn’t in danger here. This was Chance Creek. In a minute she’d walk out the door, drive back to Base Camp. As soon as she reached the property, she’d be surrounded by ten men who’d served in the Navy SEALs. If she wasn’t safe there, she’d never be safe anywhere.
She needed to calm down.
But when Win looked at the test stick again, another wave of anxiety crashed over her as she realized from now on, she wouldn’t be responsible for just her own safety; she’d have a child to look after. A child who could be stolen—
Reaching out a hand, she braced herself against the side of the stall, suddenly dizzy. She’d have to stay vigilant every moment. Explain to the others why her family’s position could make her child a target for mayhem. She understood the danger to her core. Would they?
What if they didn’t? What if Angus didn’t take her seriously? Sometimes he joked about everything—
Was it reckless of her to bring a child into the world?
She hadn’t planned to—yet.
Her heart thumped loudly as she forced herself to straighten. She should be celebrating, not panicking. Other women didn’t act this way when they got pregnant. They were overjoyed.
She was overjoyed.
It was just—
Win swallowed and braced herself against memories that threatened to breach the defenses she’d erected against them. She never allowed them to intrude, even when they pushed hard. She wasn’t thirteen. She wasn’t back in that nightmare. She was here, and she was fine.
Everything was going to be fine.
Name five colors you see, she told herself. Four sounds you hear. Three things you can feel.
She’d practiced the calming technique countless times since a counselor had taught it to her as a teenager. She forced her breathing to slow, knowing if she let the panic catch up to her, she’d be fighting it the rest of the day.
Pregnant.
She knew she’d forgotten a pill or two over the last month, but she’d caught up again as soon as she’d noticed. Could those small mistakes really add up to a pregnancy? It was true she and Angus McBride had been together almost every night since they’d met. She had to smile a little at the number of inventive ways they’d found to be together, despite the close quarters and how difficult it was to be alone at Base Camp. They’d never actually done it in a bed. Their moments together were short and stolen, so they’d made use of sheds, barns, even the pantry at the manor once. Trucks tucked away in turnouts by the side of the road. The woods down by Pittance Creek.
Angus was insatiable, and with him, so was she. She’d never experienced anything like it before.
There was no denying the results of this test stick, either. It was one of the modern ones that clearly stated “pregnant” or “not pregnant” in its little
