Page 61 of Redemption's Inferno

They drove the rest of the way in companionable silence, parking and walking into the building together.

“Let’s just pretend we’re a couple,” he muttered as they entered a waiting room filled with heterosexual couples. He wasn’t embarrassed about being married to a man when he was with Viggo, but when he was alone, the memories of the attack came back and he struggled with it.

“Relax,” she whispered, sliding her arm through his as they checked in.

Ten minutes later the machines were buzzing and they stared at the creepiest-looking image of their child imaginable. The four-dimensional picture was truly disturbing and both of them started to giggle.

“What’s that?” Jamie demanded, staring at the screen and cocking his head. “Is that…?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Emilie groaned. “Is that a penis? Really?”

“Did you just say fuck in front of my son?” Jamie grinned.

“His father is a professional hockey player,” she groused. “You think he won’t hear the word fuck once or twice?”

Jamie grinned and leaned over to press his lips to hers. “We’re having a boy!”

“Great.” She pretended to be upset. “So he can pee on me every time I change him!”

The technician found their banter delightful and laughed along with them as she pointed out his fingers and toes, nose, lips and even the beginning of hair on his head. By the time they left, Jamie was preening like a proud peacock and Emilie shook her head, taking out her phone to call Chains. It went straight to voicemail and she told him to call her before disconnecting.

“Let’s call Viggo,” Jamie said, setting his phone in the hands-free unit and using voice commands to dial home.

“It’s a girl, yeah?!” Viggo said as he answered the phone.

“Should we tell him?” Jamie teased Emilie.

“You’d better!” Viggo grunted. “I’m here in the bathroom dying—give me some good news!”

“It’s a boy!” Jamie yelled, and despite his misery, Viggo whooped with excitement. Then he coughed.

“Shit!” Viggo hissed. “Gotta go!” He hung up abruptly and Emilie grimaced.

“Ugh,” she said. “I hope everyone feels better soon.”

“Yeah, it’s been 24 hours so he should be on the upswing now. I hope.”

“Me too. I miss sleeping next to Chains.” She stared out the window dreamily. Things had been so good, she kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. After the strange incident with the cat in her SUV, Chains and Joe had redoubled their efforts to keep a tight rein on security. They’d added outdoor cameras to both the club and the house, and Chains had put a special tracking device in her phone. It seemed as though the extra efforts had paid off, because things had been blissfully quiet.

Jamie dropped her off at Dante’s and she spent the afternoon on the phone with her mother, Sebastian, Kate and Karl, telling them the news. She helped Becca prepare dinner and called Chains again, but his phone was still going straight to voicemail. When she tried to text him, the message showed it had not been delivered and a strange feeling began to crawl up her spine. After five months together, she knew him almost as well as she knew herself. They didn’t have a regular relationship that gradually grew to a point where they could all but read each other’s minds; they’d skipped right to that part almost from the beginning. Her downward spiral when he’d gone to get her in London had set them on a different path, and after the talk they’d had during their night at the hotel, there had been no slowing down. They talked of marriage and having a child together, where they wanted to live when they bought their own home, and when they would send for Dolores, who was as excited about Jamie’s baby as she would be when Chains had one.

Something was wrong and Emilie felt tears prick her eyelids.

“If anything ever happens,” he’d told her, “trust Joe and Dante only—no one else. I know your family wouldn’t hurt you, but they’re vulnerable to outside sources. In order to protect them, you have to treat them as the enemy. Too much information, no matter how much you trust people, tends to leak out.”

So she waited until Becca, Justin and Simone were asleep before seeking out Dante in his den, where he often stayed up late watching videos of baseball games or live hockey. She knocked softly, though the door was open and he met her gaze with concern.

“What is it, Em?” He got to his feet as she walked towards him.

“Chains is gone,” she whispered, biting her lip so she wouldn’t cry.

“How do you know?”

She just looked at him, willing him to understand it was nothing more than a feeling.

He picked up his phone and tried to call him, putting down the phone slowly after leaving a message. “Has anything happened?”

She shook her head. “No, but…”

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