Free Hunted by Denise Grover Swank Page B

his body stilled. “Are you telling me that you think you’re pregnant?” His words were deceptively calm.
    She sighed in frustration. When would she learn to censor her words? All the years she spent on the run, she never let anything slip but mere weeks with him and words just tumbled out. “No, I am not. I’m saying I already got pregnant out of wedlock and some people would call me a bitch.”
    “First of all, it’s funny hearing you say something archaic like ‘out of wedlock’ and second anyone who calls you a bitch doesn’t know you very well, which I suspect accounts for every person on the planet with the exception of Jake and myself.”
    His words were true, yet painfully so. A reinforcement of how screwed up her life really was.
    “I’m just saying maybe you shouldn’t wear it until we learn more about it.”
    She stuffed the necklace into the pocket of her skirt. Will was right. They already had enough trouble to deal with. “So what’s our plan for tonight?”
    “I want to sneak into my apartment once it gets dark. I live in Westport so there’ll be crowds of people to get lost in on a Saturday night. But I’m still worried someone could be watching the building. I’m trying to decide whether to bring you inside with me or not.”
    “Of course I’m going with you. You think I’d miss an opportunity to see your man cave?”
    “It might not be safe, not if we’re ambushed.”
    “So you plan to just leave me somewhere while you run off to be ambushed?”
    He scowled. “No. I don’t know. I need to figure out what’s safest for you.”
    “What’s safest for me is to stay with you.”
    He paused then cast a quick glance in her direction. “My gut says to keep you with me.”
    “Well, it’s settled then. We stick together.”
     
    ***
     
    They parked in a lot on the edge of Westport and walked the streets, waiting for night to settle in. Will watched for anyone following them and while he didn’t see anything, his instinct told him they weren’t alone.
    “How do you feel?” he asked Emma. “Any nausea?”
    Her eyes narrowed and he suspected she was about to make a snarky reply, but she gave him a small smile. “No. I don’t feel anything.”
    She’d been quiet since the visit to her grandmother’s. He suspected what she needed was more time to process what they’d learned. Too bad time wasn’t a luxury they could afford.
    Once the sun had set they headed to Will’s apartment. He still scanned the crowd, but it was Saturday night. People were everywhere.
    A couple of blocks from his apartment building, he found a group of teenage boys and he offered them money to fake an argument outside the front entrance of the building. Once they created a disturbance, Emma would go in the door first and Will would follow a minute behind. It was a decent plan, but Will knew it wouldn’t take much for it to fall apart.
    The teens stopped several feet from the door and began shouting, while Will waited with Emma around the corner. He bent down and pulled his handgun out of the holster on his ankle, grateful the darkness helped hide it. Two more teens walked up, adding to the confusion.
    “Time to go,” Will whispered in her ear.
    Emma turned back to him with a tight smile then walked toward the door.
    Will watched her as she made it to the door and slipped inside, disappearing from his sight. He was tempted to go after her but told himself to calm down. She made it in without getting shot or chased. That was the hardest part.
    The teens were beginning to draw a crowd. Will walked to the door, glancing over his shoulder one last time to make sure he wasn’t being followed, and slipped inside.
     
    ***
     
    Emma’s throat tightened and her pulse pounded in her head as she stood in the lobby of the apartment building and listened to the arguing teens outside. What if something happened to Will?
    Her senses were on alert, her nerve endings raw. The feeling that something was off niggled at