Chained (Caged #2)(27)

I gathered Terry had seen all the media coverage when the Dawson’s had committed suicide and I had been brought out of the basement, and then that led to Kloe being the therapist who had been assigned to me. I imagined Terry’s shock had been as great as mine.

But then he’d have realised exactly what this could mean for him. His fake death could be uncovered, the heinous act of selling his own child would have come out into the open, and the imprisonment and abuse of his step-daughter exposed. All because fate had brought two broken souls together.

So, of course, he had to bring Kloe near, make her trust his son, Robert, just to see what she knew, what she disclosed to him, and whether I was in her life.

And then, when Robert had found me at Kloe’s, Terry knew he had to act quickly. But he wouldn’t have banked on me taking Kloe and hiding her out at mine. I presumed he knew exactly who I was and what I did to earn cash, so just trying to take me out had suddenly become harder than he initially thought, but he knew he needed to silence both me and Kloe before we revealed exactly what kind of man he really was.

I watched in silence as Mike set up the scanner. My heart was already in my stomach, my nerves frayed. There was a part deep down inside me that knew after what Kloe had gone through there was no way a baby had survived that. But, and this was a big but, my soul told me to trust, to hang on for just that moment longer before I accepted what my head was telling me.

My jaw ached as I watched Mike part Kloe’s legs. I wanted to punch the f*cker for touching her, and I bit down my anger, blowing out a breath to calm my possessiveness.

Keeping my gaze on the small screen, refusing to torture myself any more with the face of another man between my woman’s legs, I gritted my teeth and prayed.

A phone rang somewhere in the house. The rain that had been beating down hard since the early hours tapped on the window. The wind howled, whistling through the trees and creating eerie silhouettes on the walls inside the room.

I didn’t see anything other than the flicker of the monitor. I didn’t hear anything, only the thud of my pulse in my ears.

Blurry images showed nothing but static, and my pulse, which I’d heard raging in my ears for the last few minutes, ceased. No baby appeared on the grainy image. There was nothing but white lines and grey mass and black vastness.

Mike seemed lost in his procedure, continuing to shift the probe around as my soul crumbled within me. I grew angry with him, the emotionlessness way he carried on regardless building the rage in me to a dangerous level.

My eyes narrowed on him. Was he taking the piss? There was obviously nothing but an empty womb yet he carried on prodding and poking like he couldn’t get enough of Kloe’s cunt.

He finally turned to look at me. Ignorant of the storm building around him, he smiled at me. “Your lady is one strong fortress, Anderson.”

I blinked at him, his words not making it through the humming in my head. “What?”

He tipped his chin to the screen.

Slowly moving my eyes, my breath shunted when the outline of a small, but perfect, jelly bean wriggled against the reservoir of black emptiness on the screen. A blinking dot flashed rapidly and Mike pointed to it. “He has a strong heartbeat.”

“What?”

He smiled again then his expression saddened. “There are remnants, fibres, in the amniotic fluid. I assume this little guy here had company.”

“What?” I couldn’t seem to form any other word.

“Twins, Anderson. I’m so very sorry but one didn’t make it.”

“But…”

When I couldn’t finish, Mike grabbed my forearm gently and nodded. “You’re going to be a father in roughly thirty-two weeks.”

Of course I wouldn’t be here that long, but the overwhelming happiness for Kloe that engulfed me was astounding. “She’s still pregnant?”

“She’s still pregnant,” Mike verified with a larger smile. “Congratulations.”

My legs shook and I dropped heavily onto the edge of Kloe’s bed.

Mike quickly packed up his stuff. “I’ll be back in a couple of days. Caroline will remain here for the near future, just until Kloe is back to her usual self.”

Lifting my eyes to him, I sighed. “And you think that’s a possibility? That she’ll get over this?”

He looked anxious for a second. “There’s always a possibility of anything, Anderson. Kloe is strong health wise, but her psychological strength I can’t determine quite yet. Time is on our side here, and all we can do is wait.”

Giving him a short nod, he returned one of his own and left, quietly shutting the bedroom door shut behind him.

Sliding my hand into Kloe’s, I couldn’t hold back the grin, even if my gut didn’t dare to hope. “Did you hear that, my little wolf? You kept our baby safe. You’re already such a good mother.”

She didn’t respond. She continued to sleep in the realms of peace where she belonged, for a short while longer, anyway.

And I would be right here, beside her, chasing away the demons in her nightmares until her mind would accept that everything was going to be okay. For her, anyway.





I WAS COLD. SO VERY cold. A shiver raced over me and I gritted my teeth at the ice that seemed to weld my jaw together.

Everything was dark.

I felt his hand in mine but the soft way he was breathing told me he was asleep. I didn’t want to wake him, but I needed to.