Page 118 of Kyle

Chapter 36

“You’re really staying?” Emerson asked.

“Yeah.” I smiled at my friend. “We talked about it last night.”

“Thank God. Tatiana and I were worried.”

God, that felt good. So good in fact, I felt wetness hit my eyes. I’d never had this, not ever. Though it was my fault because I knew Evie and Kalee had tried to give it to me but I’d just pushed it away. And that sucked. What was worse, I’d never get to make it right with Kalee. But I could and needed to with Evie. She had to know how sorry I was.

“So, I guess we’ll be roommates for a while.”

“Guess what?” Emmy greeted Tatiana as she came into the kitchen.

“What?” Tatiana grumbled, looking a little pale.

“What’s the matter? You look sick,” I asked.

Tatiana looked between Emerson and me and shook her head. “You first. Why do you both look so excited?”

“Anaya’s staying. She’s moving in.” Emerson completed her announcement with a fist bump in the air and her silliness made me giggle. I’d never seen Emerson so excited.

“That is good news. I figured with the way the guys were behaving last night you’d both be grumpy this morning.”

“Yeah, Thaddeus was a little bent outta shape. But, you know… I have ways to turn his frown upside down.” Emerson smiled and winked.

“Yeah, I bet you do.” Tatiana smiled. “Happy you’re staying.”

“Thanks. Now why do you look like you’re gonna be sick?”

“Are we alone?” Tatiana whispered.

“Yeah. All the guys went into the office. The Emilio guy went into witness protection and he spilled his guts. Thaddeus told me they probably wouldn’t be back until dinner.”

Kyle had told me the same thing. He also told me this was good news and possibly the break they needed to move things along. Everyone wanted Omni dismantled. I’d shared my skepticism with Kyle that I didn’t see how it would be possible with all the fingers branching out. It seemed like there were so many people involved it would be impossible. But he assured me that when the top players were taken out the rest would crumble.

If Kyle said the team could do it, I believed him. I was learning there was nothing these men couldn’t do. Especially when those they loved were in the mix. He’d also explained Monica’s tattoo to me, the peacock feather on her back that had sent Emerson over the edge. All the top players in the group had the same tattoo. It was kind of freaky and left me with more questions about Monica, ones that I’d never get the answers to because she was gone.

Garrett was positive the Tremblays had sold their daughter. If not directly, then they’d received compensation after the kidnapping. Something that wouldn’t be answered either, considering all of them were now dead. I had to admit the double suicide made them look guilty as sin but I couldn’t wrap my head around parents selling their child. And it was something I hoped I never could.

The mysterious computer genius John “Tex” Keegan, a man whom I’d never met and Kyle had said I likely never would, had agreed with Garrett. Which was totally sad because that meant Monica had been a victim and had spent ten years in hell doing whatever she had to do to survive. I still didn’t harbor any guilt. Sadness, yes. But seeing the bruising around Emerson’s throat reminded me I’d done the right thing.

“Okay, so…” Tatiana stopped and licked her lips. “I’m not sure. I mean, I think I know, I’m late, I don’t feel—”

“Ohmigod!” Emerson’s eyes were round in shock. “Are you pregnant?”

“I think so,” Tatiana whispered.

“Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy…shit,” Emmy chanted. “Brooks is gonna flip his shit.”

“Ya’ think?” Tatiana deadpanned.

“Shut up, you know he’ll be over the moon,” Emmy returned.

“Will he? We weren’t exactly trying.”

Holy cow, Tatiana was pregnant. It didn’t take long for my excitement to turn into envy. What the hell was wrong with me? I’d gone from never thinking about wanting kids to twice now thinking about wanting a family. Something I had no business wondering about for a variety of reasons, the first being I didn’t think I’d be a good mother considering I’d never had one of those. Never even had a good female role model for any length of time.

The other, arguably just as big of a reason, was I’d known Kyle a hot minute and while I was certain how I felt about him, and where we were going. That was in a healthy direction and we were doing it together. We’d never talked about kids or marriage. Now was not the time with everything so new to bring it up, so I wouldn’t—even though I was now very curious about his thoughts on the subject.