To Professor, with Love (Forbidden Men #2)(103)

Fuck, I should definitely call and check in on them.

“Here we are.” Pick pulled to the curb of a split-level apartment complex behind a vintage jeep.

Rubbing my face, I followed him from the car and toward the opened bay door of a garage. As we approached, voices filtered out from inside.

“Oh my God. Alec? What’re you doing here? How did you even find me?”

Pick caught my arm before I could step inside. After pulling me back a foot, he peeked around the corner to spy on whoever was talking. Curiosity getting the best of me, I crowded up beside him to look as well. The pregnant, blond cousin of Lowe’s girlfriend stood there, her arms wrapped around her baby bump as some rich-looking douche hovered over her. He looked pissed, while she appeared to be shocked senseless.

“Mason told me you were here,” her visitor answered her.

“You think he’s her baby daddy?” Pick whispered to me. I began to shrug when she spat, “Well, he shouldn’t have bothered. Because I haven’t changed my mind. I’m not getting rid of this baby.”

“I talked to your parents, Eva—”

“Oh, well, you know what? I talked to my parents too. And I know exactly what their position is. I wouldn’t be here in BFE Illinois, sponging off my cousin if they hadn’t kicked me out because I refused to get an abortion. And since I’m still here, Alec, I guess that means I haven’t changed my mind. So, sorry for your wasted trip, but you came for nothing. You can turn around and go right back to Florida.”

Alec gave a low chuckle and stepped ominously close to her. When Pick tensed beside me as if he wanted to intervene, I glanced sharply at him and grabbed his arm.

“Don’t. This is their fight, man. They obviously have issues to work out. If you get involved and break your parole, you’ll land right back in jail.”

Pick wouldn’t take his steely glare off Eva’s baby daddy, but he didn’t move away from me either. He just popped his neck, probably to relieve some tension and kept watching the scene unfold with narrowed eyes.

“You’re really going to play this all out, aren’t you?” Alec hissed and caught Eva’s arm, making me tighten my grip on Pick to restrain him. “Fine, I’m willing to play. What do you want, E?”

“This isn’t a power play for me to get a pretty toy, Alec. The only thing I want is my child.”

“Bullshit! What happened to the girl I met who said kids gave her the willies?”

“You knocked her up. So I guess I’m just going to have to learn to adjust.”

“Good for you, Tink,” Pick whispered, nodding his head in approval and smiling at the pregnant chick. “Good for you.”

“Jesus Christ,” Alec shouted inside the garage. “Why can’t you just take care of this?”

“I am! I’m going to stay here and take care of my baby, like a mother should.”

“A mother? Oh, my God.” The douche let out a belly laugh. “Are you even listening to yourself? This is not you. You’re not mother material, Eva. You’re a f*cking spoiled, rich cunt.”

When Pick bristled, I tugged him closer to me, keeping him reined in. “Don’t do it.”

“Just because I didn’t plan on this ever happening, doesn’t mean I’m going to brush it aside like a minor inconvenience. I’m keeping my child.”

“Well, I can’t allow you to do that.”

Fuck. That didn’t sound good. From the muscles in Pick’s arm tensing under my grip, he didn’t think so either.

“Why not?” Eva shot back, glaring up at him, and clearly not alarmed by his threat. “I’m not asking you to do anything. In fact, I don’t even want you involved.”

Alec jerked her closer to him, and this time, I had to use both hands to keep Pick from charging. “How stupid do you think I am? Of course, you’ll ask. You’ll get the law on your side, too, and you’ll f*cking bleed everything from me. You could hold this over me for the rest of my life, suck me dry with some bullshit child support, make me pay for all kinds of shit I want nothing to do with. And I refuse to let you get away with it.”

She gave a long, tired sigh. “Alec, believe me, I will not do that to you. I don’t want anything from you. Actually, if I never saw you again, I would be overwhelmed with joy. I’ll even sign a piece of paper, saying so.”

“See, now.” Alec shook his head and laughed softly. “I’m having trouble believing that. I know you, remember? I know what a conniving, manipulative bitch you are. And I refuse to let you continue this.”

“Well, I’ve changed.” Eva huffed out a sound of aggravation and tugged at the grip he had on her arm. “People can change, you know. Now...let me go.”

“Not until you agree to get rid of it.”

“Never!”

“Then you leave me no other choice.”

Everything happened at once. Alec shoved her against a wall with enough force that I lurched forward right along with Pick to help her out. Eva’s pained gasp haunted my ears as her douchebag baby daddy braced one forearm across her throat to choke her into place while he reared back his other fist and punched her in the stomach. Repeatedly.

She screamed, and screamed, and screamed. It echoed through my ears, telling me I’d remember that scream in my dreams for years to come.