Struggling Free (Hidden Secrets Book 5) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty

Jake

“Please
don’t go,” she pleaded as she grabbed my hand in hers.

The
familiar jolt shot through my body and I relished it. Trying not to get my hopes up, I turned slowly and when I saw her, my breath left my lungs as my eyes about popped out of my head.

“You…
You’re pregnant?” I stuttered.

She
rested her hand on her stomach. I refused to let go of her other hand. “Yes,” she said almost cautiously.

“Please
don’t hate me for asking, but is it mine?” I asked almost in a daze.

“Yes.
Will you come inside please?”

All
I could seem to do was nod my head. Still unable to let her hand go she walked into the house. I followed her into the kitchen.

“Would
you like something to drink?”

“No
thank you. Vicky?”

She
sighed. “Yeah?”

“I
know about the other guy. If you’re trying to find a way to break it to me, you don’t have to. I just wanted to come here and tell you how I feel, but after I knocked I realized that it wasn’t fair to you to do that. I just want you happy, that’s all that matters to me,” I kissed her on her forehead and turned to leave.

“If
that is all that matters to you then why are you leaving?” She yelled from behind me.

“What?”
I asked, turning around.

“If
you care about my happiness, then why are you leaving right now?”

“Because
you have someone else. I’m not going to make you choose.”

“Had.
Had someone else. He wanted something I had already given away.”

“What…
what was that?”

She
took my hand in hers and placed it on her chest. “My heart. You already have it.”

Without
being able to resist any longer, I pulled her into me and kissed her. This time she kissed me back. It was an urgent kiss. It was the best way to describe the frenzy that was happening. Different emotions swarmed me, each one wanted to take the lead, but what won out was love. I pulled back from the rough kiss when I felt her belly bump into me.

Resting
my hand on her rounded bump, I swallowed hard. “How far along are you?”

“About
three months. I’m measuring bigger than normal at my stage so I go in for an ultrasound… Shit it was today!”

“What
time?” A moment of panic hit me.

“Six
o’clock. I had them schedule it later because I’ve been so damn tired and sick.”

Looking
at the watch on my wrist, “It’s only four now. If you get dressed we might be able to make it.”

I’d
no more than finished talking when she was already hurrying down the hall. Allowing her the privacy to get ready, although I’ll be honest, if I were to go back there with her right now I’d likely want to pick up where we left off. The doctor was important right now.

Then
just as I paced the room for the fifth time, she comes walking out in a beautiful blue sundress. Her breasts filled out the top of the dress and then some. Her gorgeous baby bump filled out the front of the dress nicely. Before I realized what I was doing, I had already walked to her and had my hand on her belly.

“I
know that you just found out and all, but we really need to go before we’re late,” she said breaking into my thoughts.

“Yes.
You’re right,” I said as I shook my head.

We
hurried out to the car. It was as we were driving to the office that I decided to tell her everything.

“I’m
clean now. It was the reason I hadn’t come by. My family helped me. I talked with everyone and got a lot of the issues dealt with. When I came to you, I wanted to be clean and the man you needed. It was a struggle to stay away. Many times my brothers had to stop me from coming to you. I just want you to know, the man that’s here… well, I just hope he’s worthy enough for you.”

She
placed her hand on mine. “You were worthy before, you just got stuck behind your problems.” Vicky took my hand and placed it on her stomach. “We have a lot of talking to do, but right now let’s check on this little one,” she smiled at me.

I
smiled back at her. A thought occurred to me and my smile fell.

“What’s
wrong, Jake?”

“You
know that when we go in here everyone, and I mean
everyone,
will know about the pregnancy. I can almost bet there will be people waiting by the time we leave,” I said sadly.

“I
understand that this comes along with the territory. I knew who you were going into this. You never tried to tell me otherwise. I’d like to say I’m prepared, but I’m not. As long as I’m safe at home, I’m okay.”

“I
promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure of that,” I practically growled.

She
started laughing. The rest of the ride to the appointment was quiet. We just enjoyed being back around each other. Tonight we’ll talk about our future, but right now, we are both concentrating on the baby.

I waited
in a room filled with women for Vicky to sign in. Everyone in this room was staring at me, even some of the men. There were a few free chairs in this little cubby area away from everyone. When Vicky was finished, I led her in there. Sadly a few of them followed us. I hated this part of my job. Right now some peace and quiet was needed and all they wanted to do was stare at me.

“I’m
calling Danger. He’ll do until my bodyguards can get here,” I whispered in her ear.

“You
really think that’s necessary,” she said as more people are pulling chairs into this little cubby area. “Never mind, call him,” she said with an edge to her voice.

After
I get off the phone with Danger, who should be here in five minutes, I whispered in Vicky’s ear. “You know I won’t let anything happen to you, right?”

She
smiled up at me. “I know that. It’s just…” her eyes advert toward the bigger gathering of people.

“I
know, Vix. I’m so sorry. Let’s go see if we can’t wait somewhere more secure.”

“How
are we going to get out of here?”

The
panic rolled off her like wind through the trees. This had me seriously agitated. It was the reason I’m considering a career change. They all started asking questions. They were all asking them so fast that I couldn’t keep up. As they asked questions, they moved closer and that had Vicky trembling. My irritation was close to an overload when Danger finally showed up.

“Back
up! If you are not out of this area in ten seconds, you will be getting tickets.”

After
a few minutes, many of them left. Danger came in the room and ushered us out and through another door that was opened by a nurse. He then had a heated conversation with a woman behind a desk and we were ushered into a consultation room. Once we were alone, I immediately pulled Vicky into my arms.

“I’m
sorry. I’m so sorry,” I said into her hair as she cried.

She
pulled herself together and wiped her eyes. “It’s okay, Jake. It just scared me was all. Why do you ever go out without your bodyguards?”

“Because
when it’s just me, I can handle it… usually. But you being here with me was different.”

A
knock sounded on the door. When the door opened, Danger walked in. The minute the door shut, he started to rant.

“Jesus
Christ Jake! What the hell were you thinking? She’s pregnant for Christ’s sake!”

“I
called you before it got bad. You took too long!” I growled.

“I’m
not your fucking bodyguard!”

“Okay
boys. Hello? Woo hoo. Over here, pregnant woman,” she points to her belly. When she saw us both look, she started again. “Okay now, first, no one could have predicted it to be that bad. Second, he didn’t know he was coming here or even for sure that I was indeed pregnant. Third, you are a cop Danger. You know, to serve and protect and all that bullshit. Get your head out of your ass and remember your job description.”

“Yeah
whatever. I’ve got shit to do. You have your
bodyguards
on the way or what?”

“Should
be here in about twenty minutes or so. Thank you. I’m sorry if I interrupted anything. You were just the first person that came to my mind. I won’t let it happen again,” I stated.

He
sighed. “No, I’m glad you called. Congratulations by the way. I’ll stay until they show up. What are their names?”

“
Paco and Dean. They have a code they have to give,” I wrote the codes down on a piece of paper and handed it to him. “Don’t let them pass without them giving these to you.”

“Got
it,” he said as he headed out the door.

A
few minutes later, there was another knock. In walked an older gentleman, he smiled at Vicky.

“Well
hello Ms. Lancer. It’s nice to see you again. Today we’ll be doing your ultrasound so let’s head on over to the ultrasound room.”

He
turned and we followed behind him. Vicky gripped my hand tightly in hers. Bringing her hand up to my lips, I kissed it gently and she softly sighed. We walked past four doors, around a corner, past two more doors before he opened a door and ushered us in.

He
walked over to a machine and started pressing buttons. “Considering the security factor we have here, I’ll be doing your ultrasound myself. Oh, forgive me, I’m Dr. Oracle. Nice to meet you, Mr. Williams.”

I
shook the older man’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Sir. You can call me Jake.”

“You
have a good man here, Victorian.” He leaned in and fake whispered, “Not to mention seriously talented and handsome.”

Vicky
laughed. “Don’t I know it. Caused a bit of a scare in the waiting room.”

“I
heard. We have a private entrance, reserved only for staff. You can start using that when you have appointments.”

“Thank
you very much for that. I’ll feel a lot better,” I said graciously.

“Okay,
we are going to start with a belly scan so we can see why you’re so big, but if I can’t see enough detail we will have to go to a vaginal scope.”

Vix
turned to me and smiled. “I told him to keep the medical terms out of it because I got too confused and it scared me.”

“Good.
That helps me understand,” I laughed.

With
help, Vicky climbed up on the bed, raised her dress and lowered her Capri leggings down. The doctor squirted some gel on her stomach and began to move this oddly shaped wand thing around. An ant race began on the screen in front of him and slowly an image started to form. The air left my lungs. Even though I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking at, I knew from all the other pregnancies in the family it was the image of our baby. Her hand grabbed mine, a tear trailed down her temple.

“Well
from the looks of you two, you already know that this is an image of your baby. But I bet you can’t see what I’m looking at?” He teased.

Vicky
glared at him. “Don’t toy with me. I’m hormonal, remember?”

I
laughed at her then kissed her. “Calm down, Vixen.”

“Okay,”
he laughed. “Okay. Do you see this spot here?”

“Yes,”
we answered in unison.

“Well,
you see, that’s another baby,” he grinned.

I
stared at the screen in shock. Taking a closer look at the screen, my mouth was speaking before my head realized what I was saying. “But that spot is there too,” I pointed to the other side.

“You
are very observant Mr. Williams. That is indeed another one.  The reason you are measuring as you are, Victorian, is because you my dear are having triplets.”

He
continued the exam while we stared blankly on. He was talking about measurements. I’m ashamed to say, but I wasn’t really paying attention. The only words that were really registering to me right now was ‘
You’re having triplets
’. Triplets. We’re having triplets.

“Is
it too early to tell the sex?” Vicky’s voice broke into my frantic thoughts.

“We
can get an estimate at this stage, but I would rather wait for that until about twenty weeks,” he smiled tenderly. “Because you’re having triplets, you need to be monitored closely. We’ll do a scan in four weeks, unless problems arise and we need to take a look sooner. You’ll need to schedule an appointment for two weeks from now. As I said, we have to monitor you closely.”