“Very exciting news. Congratulations!”
“Yes, definitely, thank you!”
I hung up shortly after, in something of an excited state. I’d literally gotten more than I had bargained for. I had hoped merely to have a child, and now I found myself having twins. Admittedly, there was a brief moment where I wondered if I was biting off more than I could chew, if I was positioning myself to suffer as a single mom, but it felt like a good problem to face.
I had money. I had time. I had resources.
The only thing I didn’t have was a man, but I could take care of that later. For now, I had to share the official good news with Kelly—and no amount of previous phone calls or anything of that nature would stop me from calling her.
I dialed her number immediately, and thankfully, the time zone difference meant she’d be wrapping up her day, not starting it out. I hadn’t spoken to her since Liam had gone off for a spell, so I could only hope that he’d returned. It would be making her life a hell of a lot easier.
“Emily,” Kelly said on the other end of the line. She sounded concerned, but not in a panicked way. Like she was expecting me to call with bad news or something.
“Kelly! I just heard from the doc, and guess what?”
“Oh my god! What?” Kelly said, now sounding very excited.
“I’m going to have twins!”
“Twins?!!”
Kelly sounded excited but also confused. I understood.
“I…yeah, I didn’t want to take the risk of only implanting one and it not taking. I felt like I had to do it.”
“Wow Emily, that’s amazing new. But twins? You’re crazy Momma! I thought you wanted one child.”
“I did, but…well, I went for it. Burke wasn’t very happy about it. He left papers and instructions so I can complete the transaction. It felt very cold and impersonal. I was hoping it could have been more. It felt like we could have… .”
“I…”
“It’s just bullshit. I just want to have him sit down and have a full conversation with me. Not this nonsense about legal docs and addresses and—”
“Emily.”
There was something unusually harsh and strong in Kelly’s words that made me stop dead in my tracks. Something ominous. I got a sinking feeling in my gut.
“Burke got seriously injured on their mission, Liam told me when he said why he wasn’t going to be home yet.”
Seriously injured…
Oh, fuck.
Was Burke going to…die? Was I finally going to have kids, only for their father to die before they even developed hearts?
“Where are they?” I said, almost afraid to know the answer.
“I don’t know,” Kelly said, sounding pained at how honest her answer was. “It’s all just…sort of a blur right now.”
“Seriously injured, like he might die?”
“Liam said ‘we almost lost Burke. He’s seriously injured.’ I wish I could say that meant at one point, he was in danger, but…”
But it was impossible to say.
Burke was still alive, but that could change at any moment. How tragic. How terrible. How gut-wrenching.
I was fully prepared to raise these kids alone, but that was now revealing itself to be a thought as durable as wet paper.
“That breaks my heart for a few different reasons.”
I wanted Burke around. I wanted him in my life. But I didn’t want a man who was in a dangerous job like this.
I just didn’t know. I just didn’t fucking know. I just didn’t want him to die.
“Keep me updated if you can, Kelly.”
“I will.”
We hung up right after. But I couldn’t say I felt any better about everything. If anything, the only thing I knew for certain was I hoped Burke lived.
Everything beyond that was as big a mystery as I had ever encountered.
Chapter 18: Burke
The grim expression on Liam’s face when he entered confirmed what I suspected without anyone having to say a word.
We had not succeeded in killing Snake. And because of that, I had a bad feeling that things were going to get worse before they got better. Far worse.
“When you got shot, we thought you were a goner,” Scott began. “We were left with a choice. Pursue Snake and sacrifice you and likely ourselves, or rescue you and live to fight another day. You saw how dangerous it was. We didn’t think it was a worthwhile gamble. It does no good for us to ‘say’ we fought but failed. We’re only in this to kill Snake, not to die martyrs.”
“So we let him get away,” Liam said. “But we’re all alive. We can still fight.”
“For now,” I grumbled.
We might have escaped Snake’s clutches, but the only thing this guaranteed was that he would come back after us more pissed off than before. He’d hunt us down now one by one. Before Scott and Kaylie had been a thing, there was always a distance, but that distance had closed through the years.
Now, that distance was completely shut down. And now, Snake would be seeing red like a bull in ring. And a wild Snake thrashing about was a threat to anyone and everyone.
“So he’s going to come after us one by one.”
“That’s what I think too,” Scott said. “The most likely outcome of all of this is that Snake tries to hunt us one by one. This is personal for him now. He doesn’t have a tight-knit group by his side, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try and send people after us.”
