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My eyes went back down to the pregnant belly—the very large pregnant belly.
She followed my gaze. “He doesn’t know,” she said quickly, as if she was reading my face. “Tanner.” She paused. Frowned again. “Things didn’t end well. When I found out, I didn’t want to get my hopes up.” She rubbed it again. “And now, well, I think it’s time he knows.”
I let out a laugh, a real, happy one. “Yeah, I think it’s definitely time he knows.”
Her gaze turned worried. “Do you think he’s going to be mad?”
I stepped back from the door, to welcome her in. “No, honey. I think you’re going to make him the happiest man in the world.”
Leaving her felt wrong.
In his fucking bones wrong.
Not that he thought there was any way Kitsch could find her. No, they had all their resources and the Sons of Templar’s resident hacker on the case. Duke had been assured he’d get a warning if someone was closing in.
But that wasn’t why he was filled with unease.
He knew she’d be safe.
He also knew that the State was wrapping up their investigation and was almost ready to go to trial. That meant that they were ready for Anastasia. That meant leaving here, his family, putting her in danger.
Once she testified, she’d be safe, since Kitsch would have no reason to kill her, and he’d likely be locked away for the rest of his life.
But, then what? Duke knew what he wanted. He wanted her. He wanted this life. But he also knew that neither of them could have it.
She had a fucking mansion to get back to. Movies. The spotlight.
He might’ve been a bit of a romantic, but he was a realist. He knew that shit got tangled in situations like this. He also knew with Anastasia’s past, she was going to be looking for a reason to run, for a reason to convince herself she didn’t deserve this.
He didn’t deserve her.
But he didn’t know how to earn her.
So, yeah, all that shit had been eating him up on the ride. He’d barely acknowledged people he hadn’t seen in years. They probably thought he was an asshole now. They weren’t wrong.
Didn’t matter, since it’d likely be another handful of years before he saw them again.
The ringing of Tanner’s phone jerked him back into focus.
“Anastasia?”
Duke’s stomach dropped when Tanner got the call, when his face turned white and he all but screamed, “I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
Then he’d torn away. Hadn’t offered them any explanation, just galloped off, leaving a bunch of cattle that Duke needed to focus on, especially now he was a man down. He tried calling the house. No answer.
Anastasia would know to answer. She was stubborn, she was infuriating, but she’d never pull a stunt like this.
His dad could sense his tension, his simmering fury and worry.
But there was no room for anything else but work right now. It was how it went. Things on the ranch didn’t stop or change because of tragedies going on in the family. Nothing stopped, no respite. They’d all learned to work through all the shit on the back of a horse.
Duke hadn’t had a problem before—even when he was a teenager with too much anger—and especially not when the war turned him into a man. He could shut shit off and get a job done. Here at the ranch, it was their family’s livelihood. In war, it was his brothers’ lives. Deaths.
So yeah, Duke considered himself focused on the task at hand no matter what was simmering underneath it all.
But finishing with the cattle with Anastasia on his mind, that was the hardest shit he’d ever have to do.
As soon as it was done, his father shouted orders at ranch hands and they both rode hard back to the house.
Duke forgot what it was like to have his father at his side, at his back through shit.
He would’ve noted how it felt if there wasn’t pure fucking fear curdling in his belly.
Both his mom and Harriet were there when they made it to the homestead. Both were slightly pale. Both piled into the car and Dad drove them to the hospital.
It was the only time in recorded memory that his grandmother was dead silent.
And that scared the shit out of him.
Tanner came in first. He sprinted in, with wild eyes and a purpose. They found me quickly, and he was on me in two long strides, clutching my shoulders.
“Where is she?”
I pointed to the doors that they hadn’t let me through. Tanner didn’t say anything else, but tore through those doors and I pitied anyone who tried to stop that man.
Maggie’s water had broken right as I was serving us both sweet tea.
I was proud of myself for how quickly I got my shit together, got her in the car, and to the hospital via navigation system. I knew that I wasn’t meant to leave the ranch, but I also knew I couldn’t deliver a baby, and no way in fuck was I risking this child. No. Tanner and Maggie deserved this, a healthy baby. I wasn’t letting my shit fuck it up.
