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I let out a frustrated breath but nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For just explaining what we’re doing instead of giving me one-word answers and expecting me to just do whatever you ask.”
He smiled and ran his fingers over the steering wheel. “You really want to be a team?” he asked. “You gonna help me kill Bennigan when we go in there?”
“No,” I said. “I mean, I just want to be in the loop.”
“Right, I get you,” he said. “You want to push back against my plan without taking on any risk.”
“No,” I said. “What are you—” I stopped myself when I saw him grinning at me. I rolled my eyes. “You’re such a dick.”
“Can’t help it. You’re easy to piss off.”
“I’m on edge, okay? Can you blame me?”
“No, I can’t.” He turned back to the street and leaned his seat back. “Get comfortable. This’ll take a while.”
He wasn’t joking. I was on the edge of my seat for the first two days. I kept thinking something was about to happen, we were going to spot Bennigan and some kind of fight was going to break out and—
But no, nothing.
By the third day, I slept most of the time. He didn’t bother waking me up.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth days were all a blur. We’d get up early, drive around the city, then park near the place where Bennigan was allegedly staying. We’d wait there for a few hours, drive around some more, then park and wait a little longer. Sometimes we couldn’t get a good spot, so we just kept driving and driving, sometimes for hours, until a spot opened up.
My ass got sore. Then it got numb. Then I just didn’t care whether I had an ass or not.
The seventh day started like all the others. Tanner hustled me out of bed at six in the morning, got us coffee and donuts at Wawa, and drove around the city for an hour or two before parking on Bennigan’s block.
Then we sat there for a few hours. I listened to the radio. I read on my phone. He never let me go for a walk, and only gave me a few bathroom breaks.
But he was like a tank. He never complained, never deviated. He sat there and watched the house with a strange feline grace, like he was in his element.
We ate lunch at a diner. I had a Coke and fries. We barely talked anymore.
The afternoon came and went.
Something occurred to me an hour after sundown. It hit me like a stray bullet. I sat up like a shot and stared out the window as my mind raced through my body’s math.
“What’s wrong?” Tanner asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
I couldn’t remember the last time I got my period. I should’ve gotten it by that point. It’d been… five weeks? No, six weeks at least. I haven’t gotten my period in six weeks, and I was never, ever late. My body ran like clockwork. It was one of the few things I could count on.
“You’re pale.” He peered at me then looked around. “Do you see him?”
“No,” I said. “No, that’s not, it’s nothing.”
“You’re freaking me out.”
“I’m fine.” I leaned back in my seat.
He let out a breath. “I know this is boring,” he said.
I made a face. “That’s an understatement.”
“I’m not going to try to explain it to you again. I’ve tried a million times.”
“And I keep telling you that I understand. I just happen to hate this.”
“Nobody likes a stakeout,” he said. “You just do it.”
“It’s fine.” I looked out the window again, mind flipping through possibilities.
Maybe I was doing my math wrong. Maybe I wasn’t remembering right. But deep down I knew that I wasn’t wrong.
It could be trauma. All this crap going on could have me all messed up. The stress could make me late, or maybe skip my period entirely.
There were a hundred other reasons why I hadn’t gotten it yet, and my brain went through all of them like flicking through file cards.
And yet I kept coming back to one reason.
The one reason that scared me more than anything.
More than Bennigan breaking into our hotel room and killing me in my sleep.
I might be pregnant with Tanner’s baby.
It had to be his. I mean, I hadn’t slept with anyone else.
And if I was going to have his baby…
I couldn’t think about it. I didn’t know how he’d react if he knew, and I couldn’t imagine what this baby would even be like. I mean, Tanner was a killer, he was a total psychopath, I couldn’t imagine bringing another living creature into this world that would grow up to be just like him.
And yet I knew that if I was pregnant, it was my baby. My baby, my child. No matter who the father was, I’d love my baby with every single fiber in my being.
