Page 30 of Five Fingers of Death

“If you get me out of this, I’ll buy you a popsicle.”

“Yeah, like that’ll make up for the years of therapy I’d have to go through to get that job out of my mind.”

“It’s not my fault you did the tango with Fox.”

“We swore we’d never speak of that again!”

“You might have,” I shot back. “Just get your ass out here.”

6

HOLLY

Asher hung up and looked my way, taking my hand in his. Oh, God. I was going to throw up. This was really bad. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through the nausea. I would not puke. I really would not puke under any circumstance.

Okay, I might puke.

“Keep pressure on that wound, Noelle.”

“Really?” Noelle snapped. “Because I was going to let him bleed out.”

Her sarcasm was a welcome reprieve from the growing tension around me, giving me something else to concentrate on. What the heck was going on? Since I met Asher, my life had been flipped upside down. I thought it was bad when his dead wife came back into the picture. I had been going along without a care in the world, perfectly happy and content.

Then bam! Dead wife and secrets came out of the woodwork. A life of spies and arms dealers and all kinds of crap that I never really thought of came to light. I was a little shop owner. That world was miles from mine. Heck, I was the woman who rolled around on the floor to measure for a rug. Then he entered the picture and everything was thrown off kilter.

And now…

“You okay over there, Holly bear?”

Was I okay? Sure, it was nothing I couldn’t handle. Car chases, guns, explosions. Just another Tuesday.

“Holly?”

“Huh?” I asked, looking over at my stud muffin boyfriend.

“Baby, are you okay?”

God, I loved it when he called me cute nicknames. He was so handsome. Not that this was the time to daydream about how handsome he was. I already had him. I didn’t need to think about how perfect he was.

“Sure,” I nodded. “You know, you’re shooting at people and our house exploded and Wyatt was shot. It’s just another Tuesday.”

“It’s actually Thursday, but that’s okay,” he grinned, showing me his pearly whites. Swoon. Even in a shootout or car chase, he was still the most handsome man I’d ever met.

Car chase…Maybe I should come clean about my little secret. Would now be a good time to tell him? He might freak out. Then again, holding it back any longer seemed like a bad thing. He’d probably want to know. Then again, it might make things worse.

Oh, what the hell.

“I guess this would be a bad time to tell you I’m pregnant.”

His eyes snapped to mine and all the color leached from his face as his eyes zeroed in on my belly. “You’re what?”

Yep, bad time to tell him. “You’ve been mounting me every chance you get. Is it really a surprise?”

Noelle snorted in the back seat. “Not exactly a Hallmark moment.”

“No, but— Christ, the explosion…did I hurt you?”

“Did you hurt me when you protected me from smacking into the ground?”

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