“I’m not pregnant,” I say in Czech. He can’t understand me, but I’ve got to try something. Every second his focus is on anything but me refractures cracks he worked hard to fix.
I hate that he won’t look at me. One of the things I cherish about him the most is that he doesn’t look at me like everyone does. He’s never seen me as a sex slave, a sales docket number, or even Kristina. He sees me as K.His K.And now stupid, out of whack hormones have gone and ruined that.
“Can we use your bathroom?” Trey asks the cashier as he throws a bundle of cash his way. He’s paying way more than the tests are worth because no matter how hard he tries, he can’t hand the pregnancy tests to the cashier. Shame could be behind his motive, but I’m genuinely unsure. I’m having a hard time reading him right now. He gets jittery when he’s both angry and scared, so perhaps tonight he’s being hit with a combination of them.
My heart launches into my throat when the cashier says in broken English, “No bathroom.” I’m not gasping about his lie. I’m stunned at Trey removing his gun from the back of his trousers to aim it at a wrinkle in the cashier’s head.
“Trey…” Although I don’t think he’ll kill the cashier for denying his request, I have to do something. The middle-aged Indian man doesn’t deserve Trey’s wrath because Trey is unhinged about something he has nothing to do with. “Please.”
When Trey’s eyes drop to mine, the world shifts beneath my feet. Something has changed in them. They’re as icy and cold as they are after he’s killed, but they don’t belong to the man who unclicks the safety on his gun and curls his finger around the trigger when its pointed at an innocent person. “Five… Four… Th—”
The cashier tosses a plank of wood across the counter. It has a single key attached to it. “Fourth door on the right out back,” he garbles through the panic clutching his throat.
After staring at me for what feels like two lifetimes, Trey lowers his gun, stuffs it back into his jeans, then uses the same hand to drag me out of the chemist. I really shouldn’t say drag considering how I’ve been treated in the past, but there’s definitely aggression in his guidance.
I don’t know why Trey bothered gathering the key when he kicks out the lock on the bathroom before he gestures with his head for me to enter the dingy room before him. I gag again when I spot the stall Trey wants me to pee in. It’s almost as bad as the bathroom in my room at Vladimir’s compound.
“No.” Even if Trey can’t understand a word I speak, he’ll have no trouble seeing my denial. I’m shaking my head so fiercely, I’m hit with a severe bout of dizziness.
“K…” He drags a hand over his hair that’s almost back to its normal length when his one letter comes out super husky. Once he’s confident he has a better hold of things, he tries again. “I need you to do this for me. I need to know.” He strays his eyes to the filthy bathroom stall. “I’ll hold you above the toilet. You won’t get near the fucking lid, I swear.”
His promise shocks me. He doesn’t usually hand them out unless he intends to commit to them. It reveals how important this is to him, how he won’t look at me again with the eyes I’m used to until I do this for him.
With my teeth gritted, I snatch-up one of the tests out of his hands and enter the first stall. Trey stops shadowing my walk when I close the stall door behind me and fix the latch into place. I’ve been humiliated in more ways than you can imagine, but I’ve never used the washroom with a witness before. I don’t want tonight to change that.
Trey’s forehead rests on the door a mere second before his tattoo hand clutches the top of it. “You need to take the test out of the packet. There’s a cap on the end of the stick. Remove that, then when you’re peeing, dip that part into the stream of your pee.”
I don’t know what upsets me more, his knowledge on how pregnancy tests works, or the fact he knows I’m so naïve I have no clue what I’m doing.
Men like Achim and Vladimir didn’t worry about tests. They just kicked you hard enough you bleed even when you weren’t due for your period, and don’t get me started on the women whose babies held on with everything they had. I can hear their screams now. They’re as heartbreaking as Trey’s breaths rattling the door separating us.
Doing my best not to get my backside anywhere near the grubby toilet seat, I pee on the stick as per Trey’s instruction, recap it, wipe, then flush. The instant the water whizzes around the bowl, Trey knocks on the stall, demanding for me to open it. I don’t understand his eagerness. Even someone with a life as deprived as mine knows these things aren’t instant. They usually take a few minutes to show a response.
Well, so I thought. This one pops up two lines almost immediately.
Jesus Christ. I’m pregnant.
“K…” Trey pushes out in panic when he hears my sharp gasp. “Let me in.” His third word scarcely leaves his mouth when he commences kicking down the door. His size is no match for the flimsy material, much less his strength. He has it hanging on its hinges in seconds, and even quicker than that, his eyes snap down to the positive test I dropped to the floor like it’s capable of undoing all the good things we’ve achieved the past nine months.
“Holy shit,” Trey mumbles under his breath after taking in the result. “Holy fucking shit!” he utters again, louder this time. “Now you’ve got to say yes, K. If you don’t say yes, you’ll fucking gut me. You’ll kill me more than any bullet that’s ripped through my body. Don’t break my heart, Duchess. I like hearing it thud in my ears. It’s only ever done that with you. I don’t want to hear it from anyone else.”
I’m lost to where he’s going with this—even more so when he falls to his knees like he did earlier tonight. Although disgusted about the gunk he’s kneeling on, I’d be lying if I said my heart wasn’t pounding in three distinct places. A violent and dirty world brought us together. No amount of sheen will ever have me forgetting that.
“Say yes, K. Please say yes,” Trey begs as he digs his hand into his pocket to remove a pronged ring that’s missing a diamond. “You can put any gem you want in there, Duchess. A ruby, a diamond, Achim’s nuts.” He smirks during his last comment. “I didn’t want to assume what gem you wanted any more than I didn’t want to assume you’d say yes.” He lifts and locks his eyes with mine. They’re back to the same icy blue pair I’ve adored the past nine months. “You can say no if you want. The choice is yours. I’ll never do anything against your wishes. I just really fucking hope you don’t say no, especially since my kid is in your gut.”
Hearing nothing but unbridled hope in his voice, I dip my chin. Although it weakens the worry in Trey’s eyes by a smidge, he’s not willing to let me off that easy. “It’s not enough, Duchess. I need more. You’re stronger than that. You’re going to give honor to the Corbyn name. Your veins are carrying my DNA. A dip of your chin isn’t enough.”
Smiling like a woman stupid enough to believe in fairytales, I join Trey in kneeling on the floor, cup his chin, then whisper a word I’ve said more often than ‘no’ the past nine months, “Yes.”
Four
Trey
My brothers rally around K and me when Eight screeches out, “Listen up, motherfuckers. The T-man got married!” He’s as high as a fucking kite, doped up both on the good shit the Popov’s have distributed by the truckloads the past year, and the testosterone pumping out of me when I made K my wife at the Chapels of Flowers thirty minutes ago.
She may have said yes only hours earlier, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I wanted her to be my wife more than my cock is dying for a hug of congratulations from her tight, wet cunt.
Nikolai was right, those pompous pricks in white coats don’t know how we operate. They said the odds of K getting pregnant were virtually nonexistent. The sick fucks who brutalized her didn’t stop at her head. They royally fucked her over. Yet, here she is, once again proving she’s stronger than anyone thought possible.
