Free Taken - Before her very Eyes by Wade Faubert

open for a second and a big smile filled his face. “I knew
you could do it.” His eye snapped closed and he took a deep breath. “I knew
you’d get Sabrina.”
    “Dean.” Summer stood, holding his
face in both hands. “Who took her! Who stabbed you!”
    Dean’s eyes snapped open and
wildly searched the room. Although groggy, he seemed to be taking in every
face. “Where’s Sabrina?”
    “She’s gone.” Summer’s hands were
shaking so badly that Dean’s face was vibrating. “Tell me who took her. You saw
his face. He spoke to you. What did he say? What did he say that made you look
at me like that?”
    Dean strained to focus his eyes
and attempted to sit forward—an act that the nurse quickly restrained—but there
was something strange about the way he was looking at her.
    “He… he told me you were
pregnant. That’s why I looked over at you. Then… then he stabbed me.” Dean’s
eyes were boring into her and she could feel him searching for an answer, some
sign that he’d been played a fool.
    He reached out his hand, placing
it on her stomach and Summer felt the stab of guilt rip through her chest as
his fingers touched the wet fabric to her skin. She could feel the way his hand
was cupping her growing belly and it seemed so wrong—so different from the way
he’d touched her belly when Sabrina was inside. That seemed like a different
time. Hell, a whole different universe. There were no tears of happiness this
time. No excited embrace like before. This felt wrong. Felt like a stranger
feeling for a cancerous growth inside.
    Summer pulled his hand away,
unable to stand his touch anymore. She looked from Dean’s questioning eyes and
watched as Nate escorted the nurse away from the bedside.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Dean
grabbed the bed control and raised the head up, grimacing in pain as it rose.
“Unless—”
    “It would’ve only complicated
matters. Do you think I want everybody knowing that I might be carrying that
sick fucker’s child inside me?” Summer stood and wrapped her arms around her
body. “Do you know how it makes me feel every time I see this lump? Every time
I feel it move inside me.” She shook her head. “It sickens me. It actually makes
me violently ill knowing I may give birth to his bastard kid.”
    Dean reached out his hand, but
Summer stood out of reach. “It could be mine? It could be ours?” He forced a
weak smile. “We were trying, remember? Remember how excited we were to have
another baby?”
    Summer did remember, but it felt
so long ago. Like a blurry dream.
    “You wanted a boy to complete the
perfect family, but Sabrina wanted a little sister so she could have tea
parties with someone other than you or me.” Dean leaned forward, fighting the
pain and gripped Summer’s hand, pulling her close. “Why didn’t you run the DNA
and find out for sure?”
    Summer stared down at their
interlocked hands. She remembered the first time he’d held her hand. It was as
they were leaving the restaurant on their first date. Dean insisted the wet
sidewalk may be slippery for her high heels, a ploy by any standards, but it
had worked. There was an instant chemistry when their bodies had touched. A
tiny charge of electricity that had jumped from his body to hers, erupting a
flood of emotions inside. His touch had always given warmth and excitement
every time, but his powers seemed to be gone. Faded away with the passage of
time.
    Unable to take his touch any
longer, Summer pulled free. “Cause if it isn’t that sick bastard’s child, then
it’ll be yours. And look at us, we’ve grown so far apart that I don’t even
recognize us anymore.”
    “We haven’t grown apart, Summer.
I still love you. I’ll always love you no matter what happens. No matter whose
baby you’re carrying. No matter how long it takes for you to get over it.” Dean
paused, drawing a cleansing breath. “I’ve never stopped loving you. I only
agreed to the separation because I thought it