Meow Or Never: BBW SEAL Shifter Surprise Pregnancy Romance (Chicago Catastrophe) (15 page)

T
roy strolled
into Chicago Med’s visitor’s lounge with Hailey by his side, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Blade, his handler, had pulled through and found out which hospital Rogers was staying at. Troy had a feeling the man was trying to make up for not getting Hailey under The Firm’s protection. Not that Blade hadn’t always had his back to some extent, but this seemed different.

Guess he’s feeling a little bit guilty,
Troy mused idly, scanning his surroundings.

Troy knew Blade had already found his mate. That meant the man also knew firsthand how strong of a connection Troy had with Hailey. No doubt that had weighed in on his decision to help.

With Morrison out of the picture, there wasn’t anyone left in Chicago Troy really trusted. He wasn’t keen on having Hailey with him when there was a high risk of bumping into a member of the Crimson Claws, but he wasn’t about to leave her behind again, either.

Because that went so well last time.

The image of Hailey, terrified, with a gun barrel shoved in between her ribs, was ingrained into his brain. If he could help it, she would never be out of his sights again. Troy realized the thought was crazy and possessive, but couldn’t bring himself to care.

His protective instincts were working overtime, probably in no small part affected by the fact Hailey was carrying his child. Something he was reminded of every time he breathed in her scent.

It had surprised him at first, how excited he was to be a dad, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. The time he had with his own dad had created some of his most cherished memories and while losing his father had been devastating, he took solace in the fact he had known the man long enough to learn how to be a great father from him.

Knowing he had the tools to offer his own son the same kind of a happy childhood he had overshadowed the sadness he felt when he thought about his father’s untimely passing.

And I’m going to work hard as hell to make sure my kid would never have to grow up without a father present.

He and Hailey sat down on the uncomfortable chairs in the lounge, surrounded by worried faces and tired eyes. Hailey pressed against him, squeezing his arm. She had to be nervous, but her heartbeat was steady.

“Everything’s going to go our way,” she whispered, a shadow of a smile on her lips.

It seemed she meant it, or had at least forced herself into believing it.

“It will,” he confirmed.

Reaching out with his senses, Troy got a feel for their surroundings. The cloying scent of sickness was all around, always repulsive to most shifters who valued strength and health, but he didn’t identify any threats in the vicinity. No cries for help, no smell of tiger in the air.

No one paid them much attention either, everyone being too preoccupied with their own problems. That was good.

They stayed seated there for a while, just to make sure no surprises were about to pop out at them when they finally decided to move.

“How will we know where Rogers is being kept? We can’t search this place floor by floor without attracting too much attention,” Hailey uttered quietly.

“Just keep your eyes open. We’ll figure something out,” Troy answered, giving her forehead a quick kiss.

As a former SEAL and an intelligence officer, he was used to thinking on his feet. Sooner or later, a situation would arise that he could take advantage of.

He kept his gaze on the elevators, looking closely at everyone who got in and out. Time ticked by, another hour according to the huge clock on the wall. The lounge was constantly buzzing with activity and no one seemed to notice the amount of time he and Hailey were spending there.

She fidgeted at his side, looking more uncomfortable on the hard chairs as time went on.

Then, the elevator door dinged open and Troy’s pulse immediately quickened when he laid eyes on the guy who stepped out. The man was dressed in civilian clothes, but everything about him screamed cop to Troy, even before he noticed the holster attached to his belt.

Troy looked at the blinking lights above the elevator, showing which floor the guy came from.

Five.

“I think we just got our break,” he whispered to Hailey.

Her eyes followed his as they glanced at the man, heading in the direction of the cafeteria.

“Him?”

“He has to be one of the cops posted at Rogers’ door. Probably going to get his partner some coffee or food.”

He grabbed hold of Hailey’s hand and they stood, taking the elevator up to the floor the cop had come from. The closer they got, the harder Hailey’s grip on his hand became.

“I am not going to let anything happen to you,” he whispered to her, squeezing back.

That was one promise he intended to keep.

The doors opened and they stepped out into the brightly lit hallway of the fifth floor. Patients’ rooms surrounded them on either side as they walked, eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. Troy immediately noticed a man seated at the door of one of the rooms, with an empty chair next to him. He looked bored and listless.

“That’s got to be it,” Hailey muttered under her breath, her gaze following Troy’s.

They didn’t change their pace as they passed the room and the officer posted outside. The guard only briefly looked up from his phone to measure them with his gaze, before going back to his game of Candy Crush.

The man didn’t seem suspicious of them and Troy wanted to keep it that way. The fact that he hadn’t reacted meant that he wasn’t a shifter or he would have scented Troy immediately. That worked in their favor.

They couldn’t just loiter around, waiting for a Claws goon or two to make an attempt at Snake Roger’s life. But at the same time, they needed to stay as close to the room as possible in case something went down.

Troy kept his eye on the other hospital rooms along the hallway as they kept walking, looking for a patient that wouldn’t be disturbed by sudden visitors. One of the doors on the right was open and he spotted an old man, in bed, with his eyes closed.

He was alone, hooked up to all sorts of machinery and didn’t seem to be breathing on his own.

Perfect.

Troy gently tugged at Hailey’s hand, indicating where they should turn.

They stepped into the old man’s room and Troy left the door just slightly ajar, so they could peek outside if necessary.

“What now?” Hailey asked in a hushed tone, her eyes flickering between Troy and the elderly patient.

“We stay here as long as we can and try to learn the guards’ schedule. Hopefully we can find an opening, a time where Rogers will be alone so we can go in and talk to him. Or maybe someone will make a play on his life, in which case there won’t be much talking at all.”

Troy’s lion roared at that last possibility, having never been a fan of peaceful resolutions. There’d been enough blood lately, though, and if he could spare Hailey from seeing more of it, he’d do everything in his power to make it happen.

Twenty minutes passed as Hailey paced around the room and Troy kept his senses on high alert, listening. Doctors and nurses milled about the floor sporadically, but no one came to check on the patient in the room Troy and Hailey were hiding out in, at least not yet.

The second guard still wasn’t back.

A sudden change in the air, a sense of tension he couldn’t exactly explain, made Troy stick his head out the door. He saw the elevator doors open and a guy in a lab coat step out. A badge with credentials hung from one pocket, the picture on it seeming to match the man wearing it.

But the way he moved was familiar. Troy could always recognize a fellow predator when he saw one.

As he drew in a deep breath, his suspicions were confirmed.

“What?” Hailey whispered from his side, craning her neck to see what he saw.

“That doctor over there is a shifter,” he said firmly

Troy’s eyes scanned the man from top to bottom as he tried to get a beat on him.

“And those combat boots he’s wearing are definitely not hospital issue.”

Every instinct Troy had was screaming at him, warning him that something was off. This doctor wannabe was trouble and he was headed straight towards Rogers’ room.

The guard looked up and checked the man’s ID before letting him go inside with a nod of his head. Not being a shifter himself, the officer had no reason to suspect the doctor wasn’t who he said he was. Cop or not, he didn’t question medical credentials when he saw them, apparently.

“We have to do something,” Hailey whispered urgently.

She was right, but Troy had a feeling the cop at the door might not take their word for it if they told him the doctor he just let in was actually a weretiger assassin.

“Can you distract the officer somehow?” he asked, trying to come up with a plan that would keep Rogers alive but also wouldn’t cause him to take out the guard.

Hailey was already brushing past him and running towards the cop, leaping into action immediately.

The hell is she doing,
Troy wondered, straightening up.

“I think my grandpa is waking up, please, you have to come and see,” she pleaded loudly, tugging at the man’s arm.

Her voice was shrill and breaking, the perfect vision of a shocked family member, looking for help. The cop looked around, uncomfortable and bewildered.

“I think you need a doctor…”

Troy slipped out of the room and hid behind the corner of an adjoining hallway, listening as the show unfolded.

“They don’t believe me, those damn doctors never believe me, if you back me up…” he heard Hailey babble on, before the sound of a chair scraping on the floor reached his ears.

“Lady, I really…” the man started, before getting cut off by Hailey’s sobs.

“I know they’re wrong, all of them, Paw-Paw will make it through. He opened his eyes, I swear,” she blubbered, sniffling for good measure.

She’s good.

“Okay, just a quick look,” the man sighed, and Troy could hear him and Hailey walk to the elderly man’s room, with Hailey rambling on as they went.

As soon as she and the cop stepped inside, Troy took his chance.

He rushed to Rogers’ room, keeping an eye out for any witnesses. The only doctor on the floor was near the opposite end of the hallway, scribbling on a chart in front of him and not paying much attention to his surroundings. No nurses in sight.

Good.

Troy dipped into the room the so-called doctor had gone into just a minute earlier, hoping he wasn’t already too late. He could only assume the patient on the bed was Rogers, as the imposter had a pillow over the man’s face, pressing it down with both hands while straddling him.

Rogers was struggling, thrashing around, but it wasn’t doing him much good. His hands were pinned down by the knees of the assassin on either side of his body, so all his efforts were doing was pissing his murderer off. The assassin looked up, lips curling into a snarl as he no doubt smelled what Troy was.

Time to break up this party.

“Hey, pick on someone your own size,” he hissed.

Troy rushed forward, arm swung back. He clocked Dr. Death straight in the jaw, so hard he could hear bones crack. The man went flying off the bed, landing sprawled on the floor.

Rogers threw the pillow off his face and gasped for air, wide eyes darting between Troy and the guy on the ground.

“Who the-…What?!” he stuttered.

“Quiet,” Troy warned.

I’m running out of time. Hailey can only distract that guard for so long and we’re not exactly being low-key.

Troy picked up a bedside lamp and yanked it out of the socket before leaping over Rogers’ bed to the other side, where the would-be killer was just regaining his footing.

He wrapped the lamp’s cord around the man’s neck and yanked backwards. The ligature tightened as the man tried to wheeze in air, his legs scuffling wildly on the floor and his hands clawing at whatever part of Troy he could reach.

Troy just held on, counting down seconds in his head. The carotid arteries, located on each side of the trachea, were responsible for supplying blood to the brain. Cut that supply off, and a person will be unconscious within twenty seconds.

Eighteen…

The assassin stopped struggling, his legs giving out and body slumping against Troy’s chest. He let go, dropping the man on the floor. Rogers was already out of bed, staring at him with a baffled expression.

Not so sick after all, huh.

“Hey, aren’t you…” he started to say.

“No time for that,” Troy interjected, rushing over to the door and creaking it open just a sliver.

The guards still weren’t back. He could hear Hailey sobbing down the hall while a male voice tried to shush her. She was really putting on a show and he made a mental note to compliment her for it later. If it weren’t for her distraction, Snake could be dead right now and their plan with him.

“Come on, unless you want to wait for the Claws to send someone to finish the job,” Troy commanded, pulling Rogers out of the room and towards the elevators.

Now let’s just hope I don’t bump into the other cop on the way down.

T
he guard
whose shoulder Hailey was crying on was now genuinely distressed and thoroughly uncomfortable.

“There, there,” he said, as he awkwardly patter her back. “I’m sure he really did open his eyes,” he added, pulling away to look at his damp shirt.

After all the noise I made, I’m surprise he didn’t. Sorry, pops.

“Thank you, you’re very kind,” Hailey replied, wiping her nose.

She felt bad for using a sick man as a set piece in her performance, but it was the only thing she could come up with on such short notice. The cop was backing out of the room, clearly anxious to get away from the crazy lady and back to his designated post.

Hailey couldn’t come up with a non-suspicious excuse to get the man to stay. She had already taken up a lot of his time. She could only hope it was enough, and that Troy was safe and Rogers was still alive.

Holding her breath, she watched the guard step out into the hallway. Would there be shouting? A call for backup? Sounds of fighting? Seconds ticked by and there was nothing but silence.

Hailey peeked out through the crack in the door. The guard was back in his seat, staring at his phone. The elevator doors opened and his partner came in, holding a cup of coffee and a brown paper bag. The notion of donuts passed through her head way too easily.

There was reason for the stereotype, after all. Whenever she wanted to thank a particular department for a job well done, she’d buy a big box of donuts for them.

It was still quiet, though. If Troy was still in Rogers’ room, fighting off the would-be doctor, she would be able to hear it. Seeing as everything was quiet, whatever happened in that room was over now.

It was just one guy, Troy probably didn’t even break a sweat taking him out.

As reasonable as that sounded, she still wouldn’t be satisfied until she saw him unharmed, smiling that irresistible smile of his.

Hailey slipped out of the room and used the adjoining hallway to get to the staircase. Feeling like her pulse was about to jump out of her neck, she made her way to the parking garage as quickly as she could.

She and Troy had promised to meet back at the car in case they got separated and she prayed she would find him there, waiting and in one piece.

Chest tightening, Hailey bounded down the stairs until she reached the underground area. She pushed through the doors, silent prayers on her lips. Her heart jumped when she saw Troy standing next to his truck, seemingly unscathed. She ran up to him, relieved.

“You missed your calling as an actress,” he chuckled, wrapping his arms around her.

“What happened? Did you stop the guy? Was he an assassin?”

“Can we get going now?” a voice complained from the backseat of Troy’s truck before she could get an answer.

Hailey craned her neck to look around Troy’s shoulder. A burly, bearded man with reddish brown hair and more than a few tattoos sat in the back of the car, clad in nothing but a flimsy hospital gown. Snake Rogers.

“It’s getting a bit chilly in here.”

“You took him with you?”

The plan had been to convince Snake to testify against The Claws, not go on the run with a man who was now a wanted fugitive. But looking on the bright side, he was alive, at least. That had to count for something.

I guess I can’t be picky about a plan coming mostly together.

Troy led her to the passenger door, opening it and urging her to get in.

“I took out the man sent to kill him, but River’s just going to send more. Look how easy it was for that shifter to get inside the hospital and into his room. He’ll be safer with us.”

Hailey wasn’t thrilled that they now had to babysit a guy they didn’t know they could trust, but Troy was right. The D.A. had made a mistake by putting only two guards on Rogers, knowing that there may be shifters out to get him. They couldn’t just leave him at the hospital and hope the cops who already failed to do their jobs once would get it right the next time.

Though Rogers wasn’t exactly helpless – he was a shifter himself – it was clear enough that his judgment wasn’t the soundest. Otherwise he wouldn’t have put himself in a situation where he was chased by both the Claws as well as barely protected by the D.A.-s office.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she said, climbing in. “I’m Hailey Molloy, by the way. I wish we’d met under more pleasant circumstances.”

Hailey twisted in her seat as Troy got in as well and started the truck. Rogers quirked a brow at her.

“Molloy, as in the lawyer Molloy?”

“That’s the one.”

Rogers glanced between her and the back of Troy’s head, before shaking his head.

“Now I’ve seen everything.”

Rogers was getting impatient, tugging at his gown and shivering in the breeze coming in through Troy’s open window.

“Hey, not that I’m not grateful you saved my life and all, but what exactly going on here?”

“Why don’t we discuss that when we’re off the streets?” Troy answered, merging into traffic.

* * *

S
nake Rogers sat
on the couch in the safehouse, drumming his fingers on the armrest. He was dressed in some of the clothes Hailey had scavenged from the apartment and it was all too clear they were at least a size too small for him.

“So,” he drew out, eyeing her and Troy.

Hailey sat in one of the chairs, not sure what to make of the man. By appearance alone, she would describe him as scary. Which is why she was very surprised when all Rogers spoke about on the way to the safehouse was how good his son was at soccer and how Taylor Swift was an underappreciated genius.

Talk about looks being deceiving.

He didn’t strike her as a shifter criminal in anything other than appearance, really.

“I’ll just cut straight to the chase. Do you have a deal with the D.A. to turn evidence against the Crimson Claws?” Troy asked, crossing his arms in front of him.

“Not really sure how I should answer that one,
lieutenant
,“ Rogers replied, scratching his beard and narrowing his eyes.

The last thing we need is another shifter fight breaking out,
Hailey thought.

“I’m not a lieutenant anymore. I’d wager River wants me dead even more than you.”

Rogers seemed to consider that as his gaze moved to Hailey.

“And the lawyer lady over here?”

Hailey opened her mouth but Troy answered for her.

“We’re working together against the Claws. Now answer the question,” he said curtly.

“I told them I needed to know my family would be safe. They promised they would take care of it once they knew I had something. I said I’ll talk once it’s done. We came to a bit of a standstill, you see.

“So they put me in the hospital to delay the hearing and make sure no one at the Claws got suspicious. I guess they got suspicious anyway.”

Hailey was having trouble keeping still, anxious to learn if Rogers was on their side or not. She had reasonable hope that he was, but nothing was ever certain when the Claws were involved. Fear was a powerful motivator.

“Are you still ready to give testimony against the Claws?”

She waited with bated breath for Rogers’ answer. With her data and his insights, they could do some real damage, not to mention they would have enough valuable information to guarantee protection for them both.

“They already sent a guy to kill me. I don’t see having an awful lot to lose.”

Exactly what I wanted to hear.

Rogers continued to lounge on the couch, looking around the apartment idly. He didn’t seem all that affected by having someone try and kill him. Guess he was used to a life where murder could solve pretty much any problem.

“You got something to eat around here? Hospital food sucks.”

Troy rolled his eyes.

“Sure, why don’t I prepare you a five course meal?”

“Help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge,” Hailey quickly interjected with a smile, knowing it was fully stocked from checking it before.

Sundries, canned food and nonperishables were carefully squared away in the kitchen. Hailey was pretty sure they’d be good for a month if they had to lay low, which was probably the whole concept of the safehouses.

“Let’s be nice to our guest,” she added while giving Troy a pointed look.

Rogers got up and made himself at home in the kitchen, not the least bit interested in the excited conversation that erupted in his wake. Troy scooted his chair closer, until his knees touched Hailey’s. She leaned in, studying Troy’s gaze.

“Okay, we have Rogers. He’s a bargaining chip. How do we go about setting up a deal to get you into protective custody and away from Chicago?”

“We can’t just waltz into the D.A.’s office. River could have it under surveillance or he could have someone under his thumb there. I’m not feeling particularly trusting as of late,” Hailey replied, wracking her brain for a solution.

If she could be forced to work for the Crimson Claws, so could anyone. Everyone had a vulnerability that could be exploited and the Claws had a real knack of finding what people loved and holding it over their heads. Troy mulled her words over, tapping his fingers on his chin.

“But you trust the district attorney?”

“I wouldn’t exactly say ‘trust’, but since she
is
investigating the Claws, I think she’s on our side.”

We have to be able to trust
someone
other than each other.

After the last couple of days, Hailey didn’t think she was capable of being surprised anymore, but Troy’s reply proved her wrong.

“Then I think a home visit is in order.”