Page 22 of Midnight Danger

My numb fingers took the piece of paper from the doctor. Cassandra was finally sleeping, and I was stretching my legs. Jordan had that twisted fucker locked down in our bunker, far from prying eyes and listening ears. He always came across as being a pleasant, quiet man. I’d heard every word he said to Cassandra and saw every bruise on her body when they were changing her into a hospital gown.

“We suspect she has a fractured rib, but since her pregnancy test is positive, we’d prefer not to x-ray…” The doctor prattled on, but my mind didn’t move past one word.

A few inches lower and his kick could have had different results.

“Yeah, no worries. I’ll get her home to rest.”

Jordan had been a busy boy in the twenty-four hours I’d been stuck here. He’d been through Cassandra’s house and removed everything with any of her names on it. She’d stashed it under her wardrobe as she had in her apartment. All the bodies of the security guards had already been incinerated and the grounds cleaned. Her family home once again looked like no one had been near it. Ash discovered a hidden camera in the graveyard trained on her parents’ grave. Malcolm must have arrived when they saw her visiting it. We still didn’t know how a Council member had died and none of the rest of us knew. It smelt like a ten-day-old corpse sitting in the room.

Jordan had even found the keys they were talking about in a bible with small slots carved into the pages.

“Zee?” Cassandra tried to push herself up when I came into the room.

“No moving. Looks like you have broken ribs on top of the shoulder injury.”

She slumped back on the bed. “I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus.”

I tucked her hair behind her ear and watched her.

Cassandra took a deep breath and met my eyes. “I need to tell you who I really am.”

“Already know. You left a letter with your name on it in the secret compartment at the bottom of your wardrobe. We’d worked out that your family home was the only one not rented out and I was going to head in that direction yesterday morning only you phoned me a few hours before I got on the road.”

“You’re not angry?”

I shrugged. “We all have secrets. You would have told me when you were ready.”

“How did you know that man?” She chewed the inside of her mouth.

“I’m guessing the same way your father did. Through an organisation known as the Council. He was on it before he died in the car accident.”

A huge tear formed at the corner of her eye before rolling down her cheek.

Climbing onto the bed, I tucked her in beside me, her head on my chest. “We’ll talk about all this another day. Right now, you need to get better.”

She nodded, her hand opening and closing on my T-shirt. “You told him I was your fiancée.”

A smile curved my lips. “Did I?”

“Hmmm.” She snuggled closer, pressing her head against my heartbeat. “And your future wife and mother of your children.”

A faint laugh escaped me. “About that. We seemed to have already been working on that prediction.”

Cassandra tried to look up but moaned in pain. I tugged her against me. “You need to stay still and heal. Broken ribs are an absolute bitch because you have to breathe. Doctor got your test results back and I guess all our practice paid off. You’re about five weeks pregnant.”

Her body froze before she slowly moved to look at me. “I’m what?” If it was possible, she got even paler. “Oh, God, now you’re going to think that I tried to trap you. I take my pill every day.”

“Cassandra.” I grabbed her head between my hands. “Calm down. I don’t give a fuck if you’re pregnant now or five years from now. I told you in your office when I saw you in the light for the first time that you were mine. I meant it.”

“But I ran away.” Another tear escaped.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen again. When you get out of here, Jay will fit you with a tracker.” She opened her mouth to complain. “We all have them. If I had been taken, they would have located me in seconds. We had to try and track you via that burner phone and hope they didn’t find it and turn it off.”

“I never thought anyone would still be looking for me after all these years. When Dad’s business partner found us at the accident site, he took me to hospital. He arranged for the funeral and everyone believed him that I was dead. He put me into care, he just never realised when he told me to take one toy with me that I knew to lift the books Mum told me to if anything ever happened to her or Dad. I think that’s what that man was looking for.”

“Cassandra, I’ll take a look at the documents if you want me to since I know about the workings of the Council. That’s your choice. All I want is you safe in my home where I can protect you.”

She groaned. “All the stuff is in my safe house.”

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