Stepbrother Soldier's Baby: The Hero (The Complete Series) (7 page)

4

Once in the hotel room Nate took Jackson into one of the bedrooms. He attached a second pair of handcuffs to the first and secured them to the bedframe. I watched from the door as Jackson frowned at Nate.

“You think this will hold me?” he asked.

“If it doesn’t, you’ll have me to deal with.”

Jackson laughed. “I’ve put you in your place before, brother. I’ll do it again.”

Nate tightened the handcuffs on Jackson’s wrists and smiled. “You may get your chance soon,” he replied.

“To take you out? I can’t wait,” Jackson said. When he saw me watching, he nodded his head towards me. “And what about your girl? Does she know what you’ve dragged her into the middle of?”

I glared at him. He didn’t seem bothered by my anger.

“Knocked up by some filthy war criminal like you,” he said. “What a mess.”

Nate punched him. Jackson’s head swung back hard, hitting the bedpost. Blood flowed from his mouth, but that didn’t stop him from smirking.

“One of these days, you and I are going to fight this out for good,” Nate said. “But not today.”

“I look forward to it.”

Nate pushed me out of the room and closed the door. In our absence, Mia had raided the minibar. She was a mixing a drink and gulping it down. When she saw us watching her, she said, “What?” with a blank, doe-eyed stare.

Nate shook his head and sighed. “Nothing. Pour me one.”

She returned to the minibar and took out several whiskeys and vodkas. After finishing her drink, she poured herself a second then made one for Nate. She didn’t bother to make a drink for me, or offer me one, which was fine since I’d rather not drink while pregnant. Not that Mia seemed worried about the effects the alcohol might have on her baby.

“I’m surprised,” Mia said.

“I know, this is a disaster, but I’m going to fix it. I promise,” Nate said.

“I was talking about the minibar. I thought alcohol was illegal here.”

Nate laughed. “It is. The hotel goes out of their way to accommodate wealthy Western guests.”

“Are we wealthy Westerners?” I asked.

“As far as they know.”

“It’s called a cover story, sweetheart. Do try and keep up,” Mia said snidely.

“Girls, please don’t fight. We’ve got enough problems as it is.”

Nate rubbed his face and ran his hands through his hair. What had Jackson meant when he called Nate a war criminal? It was probably just more of Jackson’s nonsense, but I couldn’t help thinking Nate had been a part of something bad during the war.

I hoped I was wrong, but clearly something had set him down the path he was on. I had a million questions. I wished Mia would leave. It was easier to talk to Nate alone, besides I wouldn’t have to deal with any of her snide remarks.

“I should call Mom,” I said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. They might be monitoring her phone. They could trace the call back here. We need to stay anonymous for a while.”

I sat down on the couch heavily. A sharp pain shot through the back of my head. I felt like my skull was being squeezed in a vice. The taste of cough syrup was still in the back of my throat.

“Make me a drink,” I said.

Mia raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think a good girl like you drank. Of course, I didn’t think you’d fuck my husband- your stepbrother- either. But here we are.”

“Mia, not now,” Nate said sharply.

She smiled and poured me a vodka and cranberry juice. I sipped it and told myself it wouldn’t hurt the baby to have one drink. I’d been through a lot. I needed something to help me relax so I could organize my thoughts.

“What next?” Mia asked.

“We wait to make contact,” Nate said.

‘Make contact?’ With who, or what? I felt like I’d been dropped into the middle of a movie and had no understanding of the plot.

Mia nodded and stretched. “I’m going to take a nap,” she said. “Care to join me?”

Nate shook his head. “No. Someone’s got to keep an eye on your boyfriend.”

There was acid in his words. It surprised me. He’d never seemed terribly upset over Mia’s affair with Jackson.

“Wake me up when you need someone to keep watch,” she said with a smile.

She poured herself another drink, then walked up to Nate. She leaned in to kiss him, but he turned his head at the last second. Mia ended up kissing his cheek instead of his lips. She looked angry, but in typical Mia fashion she laughed it off like it was one big joke.

The bedroom door slammed shut. I breathed a sigh of relief. We were finally alone.

“Nate…”

I had so many questions I wasn’t sure where to start.

“It’s going to be okay. I’m going to take care of you. I’m going to make sure you get back home and that our…” His eyes drifted down to my stomach. “…that our baby is taken care of.”

Hearing him acknowledge my pregnancy left me with a feeling of cold fear in the pit of my stomach. This was real. I was pregnant. It wasn’t until I heard Nate say it that I understood this was really happening. I finished the rest of my drink quickly. I wanted a second, but thought better of it.

“What did Jackson mean when he said he wasn’t going down for what you did?” I asked.

Of all the questions I had, this was probably the least important, but it had been bothering me. Nate was a war hero, wasn’t he? I didn’t want to think of him as anything less.

Nate shook his head. “Nothing. It’s not important.”

“No. You don’t get to dismiss my questions. Not anymore. He kidnapped me and threatened to kill me. I need to know why.”

“When we were deployed…” He stared into the empty glass as if the answer was written at the bottom. “We ran into some trouble in a village. We split up. Jackson went off with half our guys one way, I went the other. When we heard gunfire, we ran to their position, but it was too late.”

He paused. I waited for him to continue, but he seemed lost.

“Too late for what?” I asked gently.

“They’d killed a car full of civilians. Jackson swore the people had threatened them, that they were carrying weapons. We searched the car and found nothing. They were just innocent kids.”

“Kids…? Christ.”

“Jackson and the other guys were in serious trouble. We agreed to cover it up. We made a pact to keep it quiet.”

It was horrible. Innocent kids killed because of miscommunication. Or was there a more sinister reason? I hoped not. Surely Jackson hadn’t fallen that far. Had he? I glanced at the bedroom where he lay tied to the bed.

“It was a horrible mistake, right?”

Nate looked up at me as if he’d broken free of some trance. “Yeah,” he said with little conviction.

“You don’t seem convinced.”

“I have to believe it was a mistake. I can’t accept that he would snap and do something like that. I mean, a bunch of innocent kids? It’s fucked up enough as it is, but to think he may have done it on purpose I can’t accept that.”

Jackson and Nate had been best friends since childhood. I understood why he didn’t want to believe this man who had been like a brother to him was capable of evil. Jackson had kidnapped me and threatened my life and even I didn’t want to believe it.

“But why does he blame you? He said he wasn’t going to go down for what you did.”

Nate sighed and rubbed his face. “He’s fucked in the head. He’s convinced everyone’s out to get him. He doesn’t think it was his fault. He thinks we’re all trying to frame him. A lot of guys know the truth and he’s scared one of them is going to take him down. He could spend the rest of his life is prison.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” I said sarcastically.

I wanted Jackson out of our lives. He was dangerous and crazy. Why Nate felt the need to protect him even after everything he’d done was beyond me.

“You have to protect your brothers,” he said sadly.

I decided to let it go. In a perfect world, Jackson would take responsibility for his actions and face the consequences. But that’s not the world we live in. Terrible things happen in war and there’s rarely justice.

“What about all this?” I asked looking out the window.

We had views of a large construction site. Men in hardhats were operating heavy machinery and building what looked like another skyscraper.

“I can’t be honest about this,” he said. “It would put your life in danger.”

“My life’s already in danger. You’re too late.”

Nate’s jaw tensed. He rose and went to the window, then pulled the drapes shut.

“Where are we?” I asked. “The UAE, the United Arab Emirates.”

“Why are we here?”

“It’s safe, for now. I have contacts here that can help us.”

“Who were those people at the airport?”

“We work for the same company. Or, I should say, we used to work for the same company. I’m pretty sure my job has been terminated after all this,” he said with a weak smile.

I didn’t find it funny. “What did you do for them?”

“I can’t talk about it.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and gave him a severe look.

He sighed. “It’s security work on black ops sites. The clients are very sensitive about their identities being revealed. The less you know the better.”

“And now these people are mad at you?”

“Well, they’re not happy,” he said drily. “We stole their private jet among other things.”

“Will they come after us?”

“Yes. But I’m going to stop them.”

“How?”

“I still have friends in powerful places. Once I can guarantee your safety, then you and Mia can return home.”

“What about you?”

Nate sat down on the couch beside me. Our legs touched. The warmth of his body took the edge off of my fears. I was still afraid, but with Nate by my side life didn’t feel hopeless.

“I can’t go home.”

“They won’t let you?”

“Eventually, they will, but I can’t. There were things I saw in the war… things I had to do to survive… those images will haunt me for the rest of my life. You don’t want me in your life, sweetheart. I would just ruin everything innocent and good in you.”

He brushed a loose strand of hair out of my face and behind my ear. I took his hand, seizing him by the wrist. I squeezed hard.

“You’re the only thing good in my life. You’re all I think about, all I have to look forward to. Maybe this baby is a sign, maybe it’s meant to be.”

He shook his head sadly. “Mia’s pregnant with my child too. Is that a sign that I’m supposed to be with her?”

I still wasn’t convinced it was his baby. Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part, but she’d been sleeping with Jackson for far longer than she’d been sleeping with Nate. Granted, it only takes once to make a baby. That was a lesson I learned the hard way. Still, it was not beneath Mia to pass off Jackson’s child as Nate’s.

“Nothing happens for a reason,” he said. “Life is chaotic and random.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“That’s why I love you,” he said.

I froze. I never expected to hear the ‘L’ word from Nate. I looked away shyly.

“You want to believe the best about people. Maybe there’s a part of me that still does too.”

“I just don’t understand why you put up with Mia,” I replied. “How can you trust her? She’s been sleeping with Jackson for… I’m not even sure how long. The baby has to be his.”

“It’s still my responsibility.”

“Why? Why is any of this your responsibility? Why can’t you just leave the past behind you and move on with your life? You could be happy.
We
could be happy together.”

“Sweetheart, it’s not that simple.”

I hated it when he took that tone with me, like he was trying to explain a complicated issue to a child.

“If you can’t be honest with me, then I’d prefer it if you said nothing at all.”

“I’m trying to be honest with you. There’s a lot I can’t talk about without putting you in even more danger. Right now, I can get you and Mia out of this. If you learn more, it could be too late.”

“Too late?”

“These men work in the intelligence field, in national security. They don’t take kindly to the idea of strangers learning their secrets. That clusterfuck at the airport is going to take a lot of explaining. I’m asking a huge favor of them to hush it up. In return, they’re going to want my services. That’s the most I can tell you.”

I nodded my head, but I was only half listening. Conversations with Nate could be exhausting sometimes. He couldn’t tell me anything, but it was all for my own good. Sure.

“Look,” he said, “we’re all stressed out and tired. Why don’t you go lie down with Mia and take a nap?”

“I’m not going to share a bed with her.”

I couldn’t hide my disgust with the idea. I didn’t want to be anywhere near her.