Stepbrother Soldier's Baby: The Hero (The Complete Series) (11 page)

12

I sat down on the floor in my cramped closet and listened. Mia wandered around the house, putting items into boxes. Jackson emerged after spending quite a while upstairs. For a second, I thought Nate had quietly taken care of him, but my hopes were quickly dashed when I heard him stomping down the stairs.

“Christ, babe. We’re not bringing everything. Just the essentials. We’ll buy new shit when we get settled.”

“Please,” Mia said. I could imagine her rolling her eyes. She sounded beyond irritated. “Do you have any idea how hard it will be to find nice things in that shit-hole country? If we want luxury we’re going to have to bring it with us.”

I choked back laughter. Mia’s life was far from luxurious. Though I wasn’t surprised to learn she thought of herself as high class. If their plan was to return to the UAE then I wasn’t sure what she was complaining about. From what I’d seen of it, it looked just as nice, if not nicer, than our hometown. Mia’s prejudices about foreign countries were clouding her judgment. Then again, Mia’s sense of judgment had always been questionable.

There was a loud knock at the door.

“Who the fuck is that?” Jackson asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe that little bitch came back. Get ready to grab her.”

“Let me find a place to hide.”

There was a moment of silence before Mia walked to the door and opened it.

“Mia!” my mother said.

My heart sank. What was my mother doing here?

“I have been looking everywhere for Olivia. Have you seen her? She said she was going for a walk, but she’s normally home by now. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but she’s pregnant. In fact, she’s almost due. Anyway, I saw a light on in your house and thought maybe she’d somehow ended up here?”

“No,” Mia said in her sweetest, fakest voice. “I haven’t seen her.” Suddenly, her voice changed. A weak, pathetic affectation filled her words. “I’m not sure if you’ve spoken to Nathan,” she said.

“No,” my mother replied. There was a distinctly annoyed edge to her words. “Where is he? Is he here?”

“No. Nathan won’t be coming back.”

“What? Did something happen?”

“Yes. You see I lost the baby. It was stillborn. Nathan was devastated to lose his son. He couldn’t handle it. The last I saw him, he was getting drunk with some guys he served with. He told me to leave him. He blamed himself for the death of our baby. He said I was too good for him and that I should start over with someone else.”

My mother gasped. “I don’t believe it…”

“I know. I told him he was crazy. I could never do better than him. He’s the greatest guy I’ve ever known, but he wouldn’t listen to me. One day I woke up to find him gone. He left a note saying that I was the love of his life and the only way he knew to make me happy was to let me go.”

Mia’s voice cracked as if she was fighting back tears. It took every fiber of my being not to bust out of the closet and call Mia out on all her lies. The way she could fabricate ridiculous stories so quickly was frightening. The woman was certifiable. The only thing that stopped me from exposing her was the fact that Jackson was lying in wait. I didn’t want my mother in the middle of this. I was their target, not her. I didn’t want her to get hurt.

“Are you leaving?” my mother asked.

“Yes. There are too many painful memories in this house. I can’t live here without Nathan. I’m moving back in with my mother until I can find the strength to continue on without him.”

“Take care of yourself, dear. If you ever need anything…”

“I won’t hesitate to ask,” Mia said with a laugh.

“Goodbye,” my mother said strangely.

The whole scene was bizarre. My mother must have suspected something. Hopefully, she’d leave. I didn’t want her anywhere near this house. The door slammed shut.

“It was Nate’s stepmother,” Mia called to Jackson.

“Yeah, no shit?”

“Why didn’t you grab her?”

“Why would I do something like that? She’s not a part of this.”

“She could become a problem.”

“She’s a concerned mother. Leave her out of it.”

“Don’t raise your voice to me,” Mia said.

“I wouldn’t have to raise my voice if you would think with your head for once. I’m not in the business of leaving a trail of bodies behind everywhere I go. It’s going to be hard enough to keep the heat off of us after we get rid of Olivia. Besides, Nate’s stepmom was always good to me when I was a kid. That might not mean much to you, but it means a lot to me.”

“Fine. Whatever. The packing is finished. Load it up into your truck so we can move on with our plans.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jackson said sarcastically.

In the past, Jackson was infatuated with Mia. Now, that the fantasy of living with her every day had become a reality their relationship was strained. With the stress of a new baby added into the mix, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were on the verge of killing each other. The fact that they were unhappy put a smile on my face. Even if they managed to escape, neither of them would get the happy ending they thought they were entitled to.

I watched as Jackson carried two boxes past my closet. I heard the sound of the door opening, then a soft thud.

“Babe?” Mia called. “Is everything alright?”

She was met with silence. Mia opened a drawer and removed a gun. I held my breath as she moved past me and followed the path Jackson had taken.

“Christ, Mia!” Jackson shouted. “What are you doing with that gun?”

I jumped, hitting the wall.

“Didn’t you hear me calling you?” Mia said.

“No. I was outside loading the truck just as
you
ordered.”

“I heard a noise and you didn’t answer when I called you so naturally I thought something was wrong.”

“Well, I’m fine. So why don’t you give me the gun.”

“I think I’ll hold onto it. Did you hear something?”

“I told you, no. I was outside. I bumped into the trashcans on the way out that’s probably what you heard.”

“No. I mean just now. I thought I heard something in the hallway.”

“I think you’re being paranoid.”

Soft footsteps moved closer as Mia attempted to sneak up the hallway towards me. I put my hand over my mouth and tried to stifle the urge to scream. She had a gun and they were planning on kidnapping me. If I was discovered, this would not end well.

What happened next happened quickly. There was a loud thump followed by a crash and a gunshot. A bullet shot through the door of the closet, passing within an inch of my head. This time I was unable to conceal my screams.

I opened the closet door and froze. Mia stood at the far end of the hallway. Between us, Jackson and Nate fought on the floor. Mia was pointing the gun at Nate, but she wasn’t firing. A strained look twisted her face. She was either unable to get a clear shot of Nate because of the way the men were fighting, or she couldn’t shoot him because she still had feelings for him.

When she saw me emerge from the closet the look of conflict disappeared from her face. In its place was a look of anger and determination. She pointed the gun at me. Apparently, Mia did not suffer from any sort of dilemma when it came to my life.

I ran for the front door. A bullet passed by my head. I turned and ran for the living room instead. I heard Mia yell with frustration. Nate was holding her arm and trying to wrestle the gun away from her. Jackson was punching him.

“Olivia, run!” Nate shouted.

I turned around and headed for the front door. I ran as fast as I could, crashing straight into my mother.

“Olivia! What’s going on? I’ve been looking all over for you. Did you hear that popping sound? It sounded like-”

A gunshot sounded form inside the house. The bullet passed through the window and shattered the pot of a hanging plant to my left.

“Get down!” I yelled.

My mother was way ahead of me. We grabbed each other at the same time and dove into the bushes.

“What’s going on?” she shouted. “Is someone attacking Mia?”

“Mia’s the one shooting! Nate’s in there with her. We have to do something before they kill him.”

“They?”

“Jackson’s in there too.”

“Stay here.”

My mother stood quickly and marched off to the front door.

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” I screamed.

“Stay down,” she said sternly.

I crouched behind the bushes, unsure of what to do. My mother opened the front door and shouted: “Jackson!”

I peeked around the bushes to watch. Jackson and Mia froze with a look of shock on their faces. Nate took the opportunity to twist Mia’s arm around her back and take the gun from her. He pointed it straight at Jackson.

I rose from my hiding spot and joined my mother at the door.

“Nate, don’t kill him. I’m calling the police,” my mother said.

“Leave,” Nate said. “Go home.”

“I’m calling the po-”

“No, you’re not. I will handle this.”

“Nate, be sensible. You are not going to kill Jackson. Think about what you’re doing. The two of you are like brothers. Besides, you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.”

I could see the indecision in Nate’s eyes. There was a time when no two people in the world were closer than Nate and Jackson.

“We were brothers,” Nate said. “Not anymore.”

He lowered the gun and shot Jackson in the knee. Jackson screamed. I grabbed my mother’s arm. She pushed me behind her protectively. Mia started punching Nate in the shoulder; the baby was screaming upstairs. I wanted to run into the house, but my mother was holding me back.

Nate pushed Mia back. She fell to her knees and cradled Jackson’s head in her lap. Nate pulled out a cell phone from his pocket.

“The subject is down,” he said and hung up.

Tires squealed and screeched behind me. I turned to find two SUVs stopped in front of the house. Men quickly exited the vehicles and walked up to us. My mother held me back and out of the way. They barely glanced at us as they walked inside.

“The subject is still alive,” one of the men said with distaste. I recognized his voice as the man who’d spoken to me at the black ops site.

“This is not what it looks like,” Jackson said. He sounded like a man who’d just been caught cheating by his wife. “I can fix this.”

The men ignored him.

“Take him into custody.”

“Wait!” Jackson protested. “I can make this right. I was only trying to clean up loose ends. This is all her fault.” He looked at Mia accusingly. “She insisted on getting rid of the girl before-”

One of the men put a gag around Jackson’s mouth then secured his hands with cuffs.

“You knew the deal and you violated our agreement anyway. Why? For some girl?”

The man laughed then motioned to his partner to take Jackson away. He led him out of the house, limping and swearing even through his gag. His eyes fell on me wildly. At first I thought he would try and attack me, then I realized the look in his eye wasn’t anger, it was fear.

“Wait!” I heard Nate say. One of the men had taken Mia into custody. “Are you going to honor our agreement?”

“Yes,” the man said, sounding unhappy. “Along with her child she will be relocated.”

“Good.”

A wave of nausea rocked me back on my heels. I clutched my stomach and sat down on porch swing. Everything was happening so fast. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Olivia, what’s wrong?” my mother asked. She was trying to stay calm, but I could hear the fear in her voice. “Your water broke,” she said.

I looked down to see that this was in fact the case. A wave of pain cut through me. Suddenly Nate was there lifting me up into his arms. The sudden movement gave me vertigo. I had trouble thinking clearly. A blood trail led out of the house to one of the SUVs. I stared at the blood drops as Nate raced me to one of the waiting vehicles.

Red colors swirled in front of me; my vision narrowed. In my confusion, I started to fight Nate. I became convinced he would take me away along with Mia.

“You’re going to the hospital, sweetheart,” he said calmly.

I didn’t understand, or believe him. My confusion deepened.

“Something’s not right,” Nate said. It was the last thing I remember before blacking out.

13

I woke feeling strangely empty. I placed my hand on my stomach; it was flat. I tried to sit up, but I was too sore.

“Don’t do that,” my mother said. “You need to rest.”

“Where’s my baby?”

I sounded drugged even to my own ears. It was like my tongue was having trouble cooperating with my mouth.

“He’s fine. He’s sleeping in the nursery.”

“Where’s Nate?”

My mother sat down beside my hospital bed; she looked quietly furious.

“What is it? Where is he?” I asked.

She didn’t respond. She knew it upset me when she criticized Nate’s absence so she bit her tongue, but I could see her anger in her actions. She rose to her feet quickly and started to rearrange my bed sheets.

I was used to this sort of behavior. When my mother became angry about Nate, she hardly talked to me, and when she did it was always in clipped, short exchanges. It had been over a month since we’d had an in depth conversation about anything. Nate was always the sticking point. I trusted him to return; my mother had lost faith in him.

“You almost died,” my mother said matter-of-factly. “Your blood pressure skyrocketed. They had to perform an emergency C-section. I wasn’t sure you were going to make it.”

Her voice broke. I reached out and took her hand.

“I’m okay and the baby’s okay.”

She nodded and wiped a tear from her eye.

“Did Nate leave?” I asked.

“No,” a voice said from the doorway.

I turned to find Nate leaning against the doorframe. He’d been listening to our exchange. My mother glared at him from the corner of her eye.

“He’s here- for now,” she said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Nate responded.

“We’ll see,” my mother said skeptically.

“Please don’t fight.”

“I’m sorry, baby. I’ll wait outside.”

My mother walked out of my room, closing the door behind her. Nate sat down on the edge of my bed. He looked tired. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was pale.

“You look worse than I feel,” I said.

Nate laughed. “How are you?”

“I’m fine. Has my mom been giving you a hard time?”

He smiled weakly. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“She’s been pretty angry at you. She was starting to worry that you’d never come back.”

“Were you worried?”

“No. You told me you’d come back and I believed you.”

Nate squeezed my hand.

“Where’s Jackson?” I asked, suddenly feeling panicked. “I overheard them talking about kidnapping me.”

Nate’s jaw tensed. He looked angry. “They let him go.”

“What? He’s free again?”

“No. Now he’s in custody. He broke his agreement. They offered him full immunity if he confessed everything he knew about the security firm we were working for. He also agreed to work undercover and report back to the CIA. The company we were working for was involved in shady business in the Middle East. Their agenda conflicted with our government’s. Apparently, several important missions were ruined because of the security firms meddling. Anyway, they wanted Jackson to go undercover at the company, but Mia convinced him that you were a problem.”

Nate looked away as if he was ashamed. I’d tried to convince him for months that Mia was a liar. It was obvious he didn’t believe me until now.

“When the CIA got word that Jackson and Mia returned home, they sent me to follow them,” Nate continued. “It didn’t take long to figure out they were planning on killing you.”

“Why?” I asked, interrupting him. “Why were they so determined to get rid of me?”

“Mia…” A distant look clouded Nate’s expression. “She doesn’t like to lose.”

“I’ll say…”

“You ruined her plans and humiliated her. Something inside her snapped. It didn’t really hit me until the paternity tests came in, but you were right about her. She was stringing me along, trying to convince me that Jackson’s baby was my own.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I have a real family now.”

He smiled and kissed my hand.

“What about Mia? What happens to her now?”

“Jackson was taken into custody. He broke his agreement. He lost his immunity. Mia’s on her own now. I reached an agreement with the agency. I’d continued to work for them if I was allowed to prove Jackson had broken his agreement with them. In exchange, I get to keep you in my life and Mia gets relocated somewhere far away. She’s on her own now. We’ll never hear from her again.”

My earlier prediction had come true; Mia would spend the rest of her life bitter and alone.

“Will Jackson stand trial for war crimes?” I asked.

“Probably not. The military doesn’t like it when stories about dead children make the news. Besides, Jackson knows a lot about our country’s black ops program. I suspect he’ll quietly disappear along with Mia.”

“They won’t kill them, will they?” I whispered.

“Jackson… maybe. Mia, no. She’ll be sent away with the baby. A new identity will be given to both of them and hopefully we’ll never hear from them again.”

“Good.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

“No. It’s not good enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re leaving.”

“What? Where are we going?” I asked.

Excitement and alarm twisted in my stomach leaving me jittery. I wasn’t sure I wanted to flee but I trusted Nate to make the right decision.

“As soon as you’re able and the baby’s big enough to travel, we’re moving overseas.”

“Where?”

“Germany. I’ve been working there for the last few months. It’s safe. There’s a lot to do, good schools, good food. You’ll love it. I promise.”

Everything was happening so quickly.

“Just like that? We’re leaving?”

“We have to. It’s the only way we can be together and I can guarantee your safety.”

I’d never lived away from home before, or spent significant amount of time away from my mother.

“Your mom can come and visit us,” Nate said as if reading my mind. “It’s only a plane ride away.”

“She’s not going to be happy about this.”

“Her biggest fear is that you’ll be forced to raise our baby alone. I would never let that happen. I told her I was committed to you and the baby. Once we move, she’ll see that I’m serious. She’ll be relieved.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“We’re going to make this work, Liv. I promise. I’ve asked a lot of you. You were patient with me when I wasn’t right in the head. You trusted me when we were in danger. And you waited for me when I had to go away.”

I felt something slide onto my ring finger. I looked down to see a gold band

“It’s my turn to repay the love you’ve given me,” he said.

I twisted the ring around my finger. It had been a long journey, but we were finally here. It wasn’t easy, or painless, but love never is. Now that we were at the end it felt bittersweet. I was stronger, a bit wiser and maybe a bit more cynical. I’m not sure I’ll ever be a ruthless survivor like Mia. But maybe that’s a good thing.

“Will you leave with me, Liv?”

I smiled. No matter how long I had to wait for him, or who I had to fight, I would always be Nate’s.

“You know I can’t say no to you. I love you. And I’ll always wait for you no matter how long you’re gone.”

“That’s good because I love you and I’m counting on proving it to you forever.”

The End