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“You know this for a fact?” my eyes narrowed. “I thought we decided not to learn the—”
“We did,” she interrupted me. “And I don’treallyknow. Not for certain, anyway.” Her belly expanded as she inhaled slowly, then let out a long but happy sigh. “But in a way I think Idoknow. I can just feel it.”
I smiled and squeezed her fingers ever so gently. “Mother’s intuition?”
Her smile mirrored mine. For a split-second though, it faded. I saw a flash of something akin to… well, I couldn’t actually tell. But it troubled me to think thatanythingwas troubling her.
“Evan,” she murmured. “Promise me something?”
I would’ve promised her the moon at the moment. I would’ve died trying to deliver, too.
“Swear that you’ll take me with you,” Quinn said. “That no matter what happens next, you won’t be leaving me alone in this shitty motel in the middle of the desert.”
“Quinn…”
“To be captured by a Colombian cartel boss and his goons, like in some really predictable movie.”
“Quinn, I—”
“Because the girlfriendalwaysgets captured, you know,” she prattled on. “The second they leave her behind to ‘protect her’ she gets a pillowcase slipped over her head and thrown into the trunk of some big car. Or someone claps a rag with chloroform over her face, and—”
“So you’re our girlfriend, huh?”
She made a face at me at first, for not answering her question. But then she shrugged. “Feels like it.”
Her expression was somewhat sorrowful. Guiding her lips to mine, I kissed that look away.
“Feels like it for us, too.”
I knew it was way too early in the pregnancy, and it couldn’t even have been possible, but in that moment I could’ve sworn I felt something. The kick of a tiny foot against my palm. Our baby, trying to tell me something.
Or rather, my subconscious doing the same.
“I’ll promise you this,” I told her pointedly. “You’re not being leftanywhere,much less here in this shithole motel room. And that’s because you’re coming with us.”
Quinn’s whole face lit up at once. It wasn’t at all the answer she was expecting.
“Really?”
“Fuck yes,” I grinned. “Joshua and I are on the same page about this. Might still have to convince Cole, though. But hey, it’s three on one.”
There was a three-on-one joke somewhere I knew, and under normal circumstances I would’ve made it. For now though, I let it go. Quinn nuzzled into me, releasing my hand just long enough to give the biggest, most heartfelt hug. Her relief was palpable. I could feel the tension in her body letting go all at once.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
I squeezed her even tighter against me. She felt good. Right. Undeniably perfect.
“No thanks necessary,” I sighed contentedly. “Because beingthisclose to somethingthisincredible?” My gaze dropped to her belly again. “We’re not letting either one of you out of our sight.”
Forty-Four
QUINN
I found Cole two miles away, perched on a ridge, peering through a set of very expensive-looking binoculars into the valley below. Joshua drove me up to the base of the hill, in a strange type of jeep I’d never seen before. For the ten-minute climb however, I went alone.
He didn’t turn, though I knew he heard me coming. Cole was covered head to toe in dust — his face clean around the eyes only. He wore camos that matched the desert landscape. Even his beard had sand in it.
“Stay at least ten yards behind me.”
