Page 41 of Wicked Ambition

She paled further. “You pulled out before you came.”

He eyed her untouched coffee, thought about helping himself, and decided against it. He couldn’t believe he had to teach sex education in a hotel room in Puerto Jardin. “I was seeping pre-come. Sperm can leak into that fluid.”

“Usually not many. The odds?—”

“All it takes is one finding an egg. The odds don’t mean shit then.” Ayla went so white, Oz thought she was going to pass out. He got up and crouched beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Breathe, Pollita.” When she had some color back, he said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so blunt.”

She nodded but stayed quiet.

Confident she wouldn’t check out on him, Oz released her, and still crouching beside her, showed Ayla his phone. “You have most of the symptoms.” He scrolled down to show her the checkmarks he’d made on the interactive page. “So Pollita, when was your last period?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice came out choked, and she cleared her throat. “I keep track in my planner, and that’s in my apartment in LA. But those symptoms don’t have to mean I’m pregnant.”

Yeah, he was aware of that, but the other possibilities were falling into line behind the most obvious reason. “Before or after our night together? Your last period,” he added when Ayla seemed confused.

She considered the question for a moment and then her expression turned stubborn. “I’m not pregnant. I would know if I was.”

Oz had his doubts about that. Ayla was in major denial about it being a possibility. And there definitely was a chance. Judging by her reaction, her last period was before they’d spent the night enjoying each other. “If you are pregnant, I’ll be with you all the way. You can count on that.”

“How? You’ll be in Puerto Jardin or some other place mercenaries work and I’ll be in Los Angeles.” Her blue eyes turned watery, but before Oz could decide what to do about the tears, his message app started sending notifications. If he’d locked his phone again, this wouldn’t have happened, but he was still holding it for Ayla to read.

She read it all right.

“That’s your friend. What did Baggs say? Did he find out anything about Io?”

Great. Fucking fabulous. In the middle of an important conversation, he had to check messages because there was no way Ayla would discuss anything else until she knew what Baggs said. He knew what she was doing. She was using the interruption to delay things. It was likely she thought this would end the topic entirely. She was mistaken.

“Well?” Ayla prompted him.

“He said he didn’t hear anything concrete about Fuentes, and that the few things he did come across were whispers. Rumors heard from someone who heard from someone else who picked it up from another person. What he did learn ties the man to the Treasure of Trujillo and not any kind of arms dealing. That’s a plus for your sister if Fuentes is involved in her disappearance. Arms dealers have to be worse than treasure hunters.”

“Maybe,” she conceded, “but greed is a powerful motivator, and people kill over money.”

Oz nodded and stood but didn’t comment. Arms dealers were the scum of humanity.

“What else did Baggs say?”

“Not much.”

“Oz.” There was a growl in his Pollita’s voice.

“He told me which hotel he checked into and that he’d be back out searching after he caught some sleep.”

“And?”

“That’s it. That’s all he said.”

“Really?”

He put his irritation aside. This wasn’t about her not trusting him. Ayla had shown over and over that she had faith in him. It had more to do with her worrying about her sister and needing more intel.

Since he cleared out messages after reading them, the only ones on his phone were from now. Crouching again, Oz showed her the text stream. It said exactly what he’d told her.

“Oh.” Ayla’s disappointment was obvious. “Why is Baggs staying at a different hotel? Why isn’t he staying here?”

“Because it risks you.” Oz got to his feet and rounded the table to take his seat. “Baggs will be on his own going forward. He’ll update me via messages, not in person.”

“How does it risk me?”

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