Close To Danger (Westen #4)(68)
“And while I know that’s bad, I’m not sure why this is such a bad thing for you to do? From what you told me your oldest sister is one tough lady.”
“Normally, I’d think Bobby was capable of handling any news. But she’s thirty-eight years old and in the first trimester of her first ever pregnancy. She’s already high-risk. I don’t want to add undue stress to her. She’ll be relieved that Chloe is fine and with one of her co-workers, but the news that a stalker is after her…” She let the thought dangle and shrugged.
Bulldog nodded and focused on his food. What could he say? One sister might be in danger and telling the other sister could put her in a whole different kind of jeopardy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Chloe glanced at the digital clock next to her bed.
Six-thirty.
Bobby was probably already up and dressed, having breakfast with her new husband, preparing for a quiet day in Westen. Dylan was calling her in half an hour. For the first time in their lives, her little sister was tackling a problem for her, protecting her.
The idea ate at Chloe’s mind and made her chest hurt. Bobby had always been the one to guide them, keep them together, provide the safe home life for them. Chloe’s job was to protect them out in the world. Prevent bullies from picking on her brilliant little sister and her loyal, hard-working big sister. Now, because some dick in her life decided she was a possession they wanted to have or destroy, Dylan was going to tell their older, pregnant sister something that could put her and her child into danger.
Sometimes, life sucked.
The bed creaked and dipped behind Chloe as Wes turned on his side. A moment later his heavy masculine arm draped over her hip and came to rest on her abdomen.
“I can hear your brain working, counselor,” he mumbled into the curve of her neck, his warm breath sending tingling throughout her body.
Despite the need to get up and pace, she snuggled back against his body. Damn, the man was like her own personal heating blanket.
“It’s going to be okay, Chloe,” he murmured before latching his lips onto that special spot on her neck for a moment. “Bulldog has Dylan with him. I wouldn’t trust her with anyone else. He’ll keep her safe. Gage is with Bobby. He’d sooner die than let anything happen to her. You know that, don’t you?”
Laying her arm over his, she let some of his strength seep through the fear rolling around inside her. “I know they would protect them from any physical threat.”
“But?”
“Dylan’s about to tell the sister that raised us like a mother that someone is stalking me, and from the condition of my apartment, means to hurt me. I’m afraid it might make her lose the baby. The child she put on hold to raise two orphaned sisters.”
His arm tightened around her. “You didn’t see your sister last spring crawl into that hole to take the air tank down to Gage. She’s a lot tougher than you’re giving her credit.”
With a wiggle, she moved onto her back to stare at him in the shifting light as dawn approached. “I know Bobby is tough. She wouldn’t have lasted nearly two decades in the education system and raise two sisters on her own if she weren’t tough. It’s just, this situation is different.”
“How?”
“It’s the baby. If we tell her this news and something happens…something that makes her lose this baby. I’d never forgive myself.”
He reached up and smoothed some strands of hair off her face. “This isn’t your fault. You didn’t ask someone to go crazy and start stalking you. Besides, you don’t know that telling her will have any effect on her pregnancy.”
“See, that’s the problem. Dylan told me something she heard a nurse say when she was in medical school. It stuck with her and me.”
“What was that?” he asked, sounding truly interested.
“The nurse said pregnancy is a natural state, not a normal one. Pregnancy and all the hormones that go with it aren’t something women do daily. It’s a unique set of circumstances and stresses on the body. No two women’s bodies react the same. No two pregnancies are the same. Some sail through it, no problems, not even morning sickness. Some get high blood pressure, some develop diabetes. If the doctors remember the natural vs normal rule, it would explain all the weird ways women’s bodies reacted to each pregnancy.”
“And you’re afraid Bobby’s body might react poorly to the news that you’re in danger?”
“Normal stress? Bobby can handle it. A threat to Dylan or me? I’m just afraid at her age, it might be too much for her this early in the pregnancy.”
He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. “I predict you sister and her baby are going to be just fine. In fact, we have something worse to worry about.”
“What?” she asked seeing the lift of his brow. “My stalker finding us here?”
“No. Worse.”
She scrunched her brows together. “What could be worse than that asshole showing up here?”
“Gage finding out not only that you’ve been with me the whole time, but alone in my cabin for two days.”
Before she could pin him down as to why he thought that was the worst thing about this whole situation a whining came from the other room. She sat up on her elbows to see W?den sitting by the backdoor.