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He could stew in his own juices for a while.
Damn him for getting her pregnant in the first place. She crunched into the cracker and slowly chewed, her thoughts in a jumble. Pregnant…a word she never imagined she’d ever utter from her own lips. Not after what happened to Mindy King.
“You’re pregnant?” Julianna had whispered, eyes widening in shock while her best friend nodded and shooshed her, swearing her to secrecy as the memory from that winter night bloomed in Julianna’s mind. Suddenly she was no longer in the Caribbean but Mrs. Heizen’s English class, senior year. “Do your parents know?”
“Hell no. Not yet. If they found out…I’d be grounded for the rest of my life.”
“I’m no expert but something tells me they’re going to find out eventually. How far along are you?” Mindy shrugged, a small fearful motion that spoke volumes. “Have you been to the doctor yet?”
“No. How am I supposed to see a doctor without my parents finding out?” Mindy whispered back, returning to her book when Mrs. Heizen glanced up to survey the classroom. They were supposed to be reading “Pride and Prejudice” but Mindy and Julianna had bigger problems than whatever was happening in Jane Austen’s world. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know yet. Maybe it’ll just go away,” Mindy said in a hopeful tone but Julianna shook her head. As far as she knew pregnancies didn’t go away on their own.
“You need to tell your parents. This isn’t going to go away,” Julianna told her friend, concerned at how Mindy had paled. She reached across and grasped her hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll be there for you. Maybe it won’t be that bad.”
Mindy graced Julianna with a look that said, yeah right, have you met my parents? and Julianna knew it was going to be a rough conversation.
But as it’d turned out, Mindy hadn’t had that conversation with her parents. Maybe if she had…Julianna closed her eyes, shutting out the memory of how her best friend’s blood had covered the bathroom floor, spreading like a crimson tide, covering the white tile of Mindy’s downstairs bathroom in a wash of red, and her chest tightened with the cries that felt on lock-down since that day. People have babies everyday and they don’t die, she told herself.
But sometimes there are complications, a voice whispered.
Yeah, that’s the part that scared her. Julianna squeezed her eyes shut and tried to calm her fluttering heartrate. She needed to see a doctor. Immediately. Was she going to go through the pregnancy or terminate? Her hand strayed to her belly, trembling as what felt like the biggest life decision she’d ever made, weighed on her shoulders. She wished she had someone to talk to, to help her weigh the pros and cons of her situation but she had no one. Signing on the dotted line had assured her financial security but it had isolated her as well. At this point, she was fairly certain she’d breached her contract but she didn’t care. She was feeling wildly reckless — something she probably should temper before she did something terribly stupid — but she couldn’t bring herself to stop.
One way or the other, her life was about to change…forever.
#
“I don’t understand…how can she just disappear like that?” Boston queried, his tone sharp and unyielding. “It’s been a month and nothing? Not a single peep? Not a single blip on the radar? Either I’ve hired a complete incompetent or Julianna has the skills of a ninja. Somehow I doubt it’s the latter.”
“She’s using cash. Apparently, she had enough in her bank account to move around freely.” Hank Voltsch, the private investigator Boston had hired the moment Julianna had split, shrugged with a cold smile. “Though it’s hard to understand how a waitress managed to amass enough money to disappear like that.”
Boston shot Hank a quelling look. “I didn’t hire you to discern those details. I hired you to find her and thus far, you have failed. Tell me why I shouldn’t have you thrown out of my office?”
“I didn’t say I was completely empty-handed. She accessed an ATM in St. John and took the maximum amount available, which means she’s getting low on disposable cash.”
“St. John? Isn’t that in the Caribbean?”
“Yep. One of the American territories, a ferry ride away from St. Thomas.”
Boston stared. His little bird had flown somewhere warm and beachy. Ironic that he’d been planning to take her somewhere similar when all hell had broken loose. He picked up his cell and texted Richard to buy him a plane ticket to the Caribbean. “Anything else?” he asked Hank.
“That’s all I could uncover. Should I keep a look out for credit or debit card transactions?”
“Yes,” he said. “If she so much as buys a smoothie with her card, I want to know about it.”
“These services are costly…”
Boston waved away Hank’s next statement with a hard look. “You will be paid commiserate with what you provide. As I said previously, thus far, your services have much to be desired. Understand?” Hank didn’t appear happy to be shut down like that but he knew better than to press when he clearly didn’t have an advantage. Boston flicked his wrist, dismissing the man. “That will be all. Call when you have word.”
A frisson of excitement jangled his nerves at having something to go on, even if it was a small tip that could ultimately leave him searching for a needle in a haystack. When he found her he was going to make her pay for daring to leave him the way she had. Even if she weren’t carrying his child, there would be hell to pay but now that the stakes were higher? A part of him wanted to crush her. But then that murderous rage warred with the side of him that just wanted to hold her close and pamper her with a lifestyle only he could provide her.
Why Julianna? Why did you run?
Was she eating properly? Was she getting enough rest? Maybe this was all for naught. She might’ve already gotten rid of his baby. God no. His knees threatened to give out on him and he stumbled against his desk.
His cell phone dinged. Richard had procured a plane ticket and it was waiting for him at the terminal. He shoved his cell into his pocket and bolted for the door. With quick, terse instructions to his staff, he left without looking back.
He was going to find Julianna.
And heaven help her when he did.
-3-
Julianna’s eyes widened as the quick whomp-whomp-whomp from the Doppler magnified the sound and filled the small, private room. “Is that?” She couldn’t even say the words but her eyes filled with tears. Dr. Miles Lassiter, a handsome man with deep blue eyes and sandy hair with surfer blond streaks, smiled and nodded and she couldn’t speak. That was her child’s heartbeat. “Is it…healthy?”
“Sounds healthy to me, nice and strong. Is this your first baby?” Dr. Lassiter asked in a polite manner and Julianna nodded, biting her lip when the urge to bawl overwhelmed her. She’d never felt so alone in her life and it was all Boston’s fault. Noting the sudden sheen in her eyes, Dr. Lassiter gentled his voice as he pulled the Doppler from her belly and returned it to its cradle
to ask, “Are you okay? I take it this was an unplanned pregnancy?” At her watery nod, he smiled in understanding and she realized she must look like a weepy frump, nose running and red, and bloated to boot. “Do you need someone to talk to?”
God yes. “No, I wouldn’t want to overstep.”
“Not possible. Being a good listener is part of my skill set. Besides, I’m a sucker for a woman’s tears…particularly those of a beautiful woman. Gets me every time.”
She smiled, grateful for his kindness and his willingness to indulge a weepy, hormonal woman. She couldn’t really tell the sweet, good-looking doctor specifics about Boston but she supposed she could be vague. “I don’t know where to start. I’m…not quite sure what I’m doing. I never saw myself as having kids and now here I am, pregnant and alone. Not exactly what I had in mind when I envisioned my life.”
“So the father isn’t in the picture?” Dr. Lassiter asked carefully and while she should’ve been honest that she’d run away from the father, she shook her head in answer. “Ah,” Dr. Thomas said quietly. “Well, it’s not the end of the world. A single mother raised me and I turned out pretty well. A good mother is worth twice that of an absent father. You’re going to do fine.”
“I wish I had your confidence.” She wiped at her eyes and ignored the wash of guilt that followed for lying about Boston. But to be fair, this was all Boston’s fault. If he hadn’t lied to her about being able to father children, they wouldn’t be in this situation. But then if she hadn’t bolted she knew in her heart, Boston would be by her side right now. He’d seemed truly shocked by the news — of course, then he’d accused her of cheating on him. As if that were possible! The man hadn’t given her a moment’s peace in the weeks that she’d been pinned to his side. Oh, and now you’re complaining? I seem to recall a lot of moaning and gasping “Oh God! Yes, yes!” The voice in her head sounded distinctly like that of Boston Kincaid and that just wasn’t cool. The voices in her head were not allowed to sound like him. “You know when you imagine how your life is going to unfold? Well, I just never imagined I’d ever be in this position,” she said with a tiny sniff. “I was in college. I was going places.”
