Authors: Rebecca Zanetti
Desire uncoiled throughout her neck to her sex. “I am,” she breathed. “Maybe we could—”
“No. Not until we read the books and know it’s okay.” Nate flattened his palm across her abdomen.
The gentle touch contrasted so completely with the hard-muscled body cradling her that emotion
sparked alive in her. He filled her so completely just by being near. The idea that he might be taken away in
a second by the deadly chip plagued her until she could barely breathe.
Fear had a weight, and she needed to fight that. So she cleared her throat. “We should come up with a
plan we can all three live with.” How odd to say “three” like they were a real family.
“I know.” Nate kissed her gently on the ear. “Now sleep.”
Nate awoke quickly, immediately reaching for his gun and sliding from the bed. Somebody was in the
apartment.
Somebody good enough to get inside without alerting him.
He left Audrey sleeping and crossed the room, gun low and ready to fire.
At the doorway he paused, listened, and stepped into the hallway to shut her door. They’d have to go
through him to get to her.
Two guns cocked simultaneously, one at his left ear, and one at his right.
He froze and his shoulders relaxed. “Damn it,” he muttered.
Ignoring the weapons, he moved forward and into the living room, pivoting around to glare. “What the
holy fuck are you two doing here?”
Matt grinned and slipped his gun into his waist. “I love such a heartwarming welcome, don’t you,
Shane?”
Shane rolled his eyes, eyeing the antique rug covering some of the wood floor. “I think my boots were
dirty. Sorry.”
Nate shook his head, his carefully laid plans dissolving on the dirty rug. “I told you to stay in Montana,
and I’d bring Audrey to you.” What the hell were his brothers thinking? They couldn’t be this close to the
commander—not all three of them at once. It was too risky.
Matt shook out his wet black hair. “Oh. Is that what you meant by telling us to stay the fuck out of
DC?”
“Yes.” Exasperation filled Nate’s head with static.
“Humph.” Shane gingerly stepped back onto the rug. “We must’ve got that wrong. We thought you
were in trouble and needed help.” His lip lifted in a smart-ass grin. “Oops.”
Nate stilled and tried to remain cold. He studied his brothers. Both stood well over six feet and had
taken natural, muscular builds and honed them to deadly efficiency. Matt’s black hair curled over his collar,
while Shane’s shaggy brown hair almost reached his shoulders. A
fuck you
to their military upbringing.
Both men returned his stare with identical gray gazes—full of understanding.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, close to breaking, as rain slashed against the windows.
“
Never alone
,” Matt whispered.
The mantra they’d coined as scared children—a promise to each other. A vow.
Nate shook his head, his heart pumping hard. “You have more important things to think about than
me.” Josie and Laney for a start.
“No.” Shane stood even taller. “We don’t.”
“Shane—”
“No.” Shane lowered his chin. “Do you think we don’t know you? Know what you’ve done to protect
me and Jory? How you sacrificed yourself to give us a childhood?”
“Or fought to keep me from going insane?” Matt asked. “Why would you expect us to be any different
than you? If you’re in trouble, we’re here. Period.”
Nate swallowed. Those were
not
tears pricking the backs of his eyes. He didn’t cry.
Two of the deadliest men in the world stood across from him, offering help. Offering themselves. His
brothers
. He blinked and nodded, both humbled and taken aback. “Thank you.”
“Sure.” Shane shrugged and strode toward the kitchen. “I’m starving. Any good food here?”
“Leftover sandwiches,” Nate said, his gaze remaining on Mattie. “The ranch is secured?”
“Yes.”
“You engaged the outside tracking field?”
“Of course.” Matt sat on the couch. “Is your head on straight?”
Nate sat on a chair, curling his bare toes into the rug. “I don’t know.”
“Well, why don’t we start there?” Matt leaned his massive forearms on his knees. “A baby. You’re
having a baby.”
Warmth that might be joy welled up through Nathan. Followed by terror. The bittersweet moment
caught him hard in the chest. He wanted to be ecstatic, but the kill chip in his spine counted down the end
of his days too quickly. “Yes. I’m going to be a father.” Putting aside the fear that he didn’t know how to be
a father seemed appropriate since he needed to find a way to stay alive first. One challenge at a time.
“Congrats, bro.” Mattie smiled, delight in those deadly eyes. Hardness and determination filtered
through. “So. I guess we’d better start planning how to survive.”
* * *
stopped short.
“Hi, Audrey,” Matt said gently.
Shane waved, his mouth full of food.
Nate smiled.
She gulped. The Gray brothers. In her living room—three of them. And here she stood in tiny shorts
and a see-through shirt. Slowly, she slid a foot backward. “I, ah, need to get dressed.”
Matt surveyed her. “You’re supposed to wear loose clothing during the second trimester. It helps with
circulation and nausea.”
Shane swallowed and nodded. “And nonslip socks. You could easily fall on that wood floor.”
Nate leaned forward. “You read up on pregnancies?”
“Yep,” the other two Gray—make that Dean—brothers said in unison.
“What did you read about cow’s milk?” Nate asked, reaching for a pen and notepad.
Twilight Zone. Crazy Town. Alternate universe. There was no way Audrey stood, half dressed in her
own living room where the Dean brothers currently discussed cow’s milk, magnesium, and something
called a breast pump. No freakin’ way.
She turned. “I need a shower.”
“Make it under a hundred degrees,” Matt called after her.
Where had reality escaped to?
She nodded and kept walking, her mind fuzzing.
Under a hundred degrees?
Mathew Dean, the deadly
soldier who’d furiously and sometimes cruelly trained his brothers to kill,
to survive
, under impossible
odds, was giving her pregnancy advice? In a cheerful voice?
No, no, no.
She shook her head, trudging into the bathroom to drop her clothing as she made her way
to the shower to turn the knob to warm. This had to be another dream. No way were three Dean brothers,
the commander’s
most wanted
on earth, hanging out researching pregnancy in her living room. Impossible.
It was more likely she’d been transported to an alternate universe. One where up was down and grass was
pink. Or purple.
Warm spray cascaded over her as she stepped inside the roomy shower, allowing the heat to soothe her
tight shoulders.
One tiny groan escaped her when she pressed a palm against the dark tile to lean into the water, inviting
warmth to wash down her back. Heaven—and possibly a bit more than a hundred degrees.
Apparently she’d need to get caught up on pregnancy before Nate knew more than she did. The man
would be a steamroller at that point—making sure she followed all the rules.
She took her time shampooing her hair, breathing in steam and calming her lungs. Finally, the water
began to cool as she finished shaving her legs. She lifted her head… and the world spun.
Crazy, wild, and hazy, the tiles spun around her. She pushed out of the shower and cried out, going
down. A thick rug cushioned her fall.
Boot steps echoed, and the door flew wide open.
“Aud?” Nate skidded to his knees in front of her.
“Is she breathing?” Matt asked, grunting as he was pushed aside.
“Make sure she’s breathing,” Shane said urgently, dropping to his haunches.
Audrey blinked, trying to clear her head. She was buck-ass naked. “G-get out,” she croaked.
Matt knelt down, his eyes dark with concern. “What did she say?”
Nate ran a hand down her arms, obviously looking for broken bones. He quickly moved on to her legs.
Her very bare legs.
Audrey sucked in air. “Get the fuck out—now!”
Shane chuckled. “Honey, it’s not like we haven’t seen—” He lurched back, alarm on his face, as she
lunged at him.
She could kill them all. Scrambling on the carpet, she sprung, only to have Nate catch her and take her
back down.
“Towel,” he ordered, holding out a hand.
A towel suddenly appeared, and he covered her from neck to knees. “Hold still, Audrey,” he said, his
face giving no quarter as he felt for the pulse under her neck. Counting, he waited, his gaze staying on hers.
“What happened?”
Her mind fuzzed again. Good thing she was lying on her back. “I got a little dizzy.”
Matt leaned around Nate. “You have to take it easy.”
Shane nodded, peering around Nate’s other side. “You should’ve sat down.”
Fire raged through Audrey, and she stretched to jab his nose.
“Whoa.” Nate captured her hand and pressed it on the carpet. “Guys? Do you mind giving us a second?”
Matt ducked his head to get a better look at her face. “You sure she’s okay? We should take her to a
doctor.”
“I’m fine,” Audrey said through gritted teeth. “Except there’s way too much testosterone in my
bathroom all of a sudden with three of you here.”
“Four. The baby makes four guys.” Shane grinned quick dimples and stood back. “She’s okay.” He
disappeared, whistling down the hallway. The tune was horribly off-key but sounded familiar.
Mission:
Impossible
?
Matt patted Nate on the shoulder. “Call me if you need me.” The door closed quietly behind him.
Audrey struggled to get up, only to have Nate press both her shoulders to the ground.
“Stay still for a moment.” He remained on his knees, caressing her shoulder as if he couldn’t quite stop
touching her. “I want you to take inventory from head to toe, right now. Slowly.”
“Nate—”
“Now.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.” Taking stock, she mentally checked on every bone, every muscle, and all
her skin. “I’m okay.”
“So what happened?” His huge hand smoothed back her hair as if she were something infinitely fragile
and breakable.
For some reason, his kindness pissed her off. “Don’t worry, your baby is fine.” No way would he be so
nice if she wasn’t carrying his child. At the thought, her eyes filled. All her life she’d been an experiment,
cared for because of something having nothing to do with who she was or wanted to be. Her mother had
wanted a daughter to carry on her own brilliance, and the commander had wanted to use her as a pawn.
Even the senator needed her for intel.
And now Nate wanted her because she happened to be pregnant with his child.
Part of her knew she was being unreasonable, but the emotions wouldn’t stop bombarding her. Darn
hormones.
“Okay,” he said slowly, his brow furrowing. “How are you?”
“You don’t care.” She sniffed, trying to turn away.
He bit his lip. “Is this hormones?”
“Yes.” She sniffed again. “I’m suddenly having a lot of them.”
“That’s normal, Audrey.”
“Oh, shut up, Nate.” She pushed him away to sit. What did he know about normal? “You’re only being
nice to me because I’m knocked up with your kid.”
He cupped her jaw, his smile sweet. “Do you really believe that?”
“No.” She sat with her back against the wall and picked at a nub on the towel still covering her. “I feel
weird.”
Nate sat back. “Weird how?”
She shrugged. “All of a sudden, things are popping out of my mouth I don’t mean. And I really,
really
wanted to punch your brother in the nose a few seconds ago.”
“Sweetheart, don’t worry about words—you can say whatever you want. As for Shane, we all want to
punch him on a regular basis. That’s normal.”
Audrey huffed out a laugh. “Your brothers saw me naked.”
“I’ll kill them if you want.” He managed to keep his lips tight as he offered.
“Funny.” Embarrassment hunched her shoulders.
Nate leaned forward and glanced down the front of the towel. “First of all, they were worried about you
and didn’t have time to appreciate your marvelous assets.” His lips wandered along her collarbone. “Unlike
me.”
A quiver wandered down her back.
He tugged the towel down to kiss along the tops of her breasts. “My brothers should be the least of your
worries.”
Warmth flooded her veins. “What should I be worried about?” she murmured, leaning back and
allowing the towel to slip.
“I just read that having sex during the second trimester is fine,” he murmured, licking along her skin.
She blinked while desire awakened inside her. He was trying to calm her, to distract her, and it was
working. Wait a minute. She threaded her fingers through his hair and clenched. The scowl across his
features made her smile as she held him off of her. “Your brothers both can hear as well as you do.”
“So?” Nate’s frown deepened.
“So?” She pushed him away and shoved herself to her feet. “No way, buddy.” She couldn’t be quiet, no