Page 1 of Saving Their Forever

CHAPTER ONE

Wren

“Stop. I can stand up on my own.” I glare at Ryker, then brace my hand on the back of the couch for leverage. With only ten days until I’m officially overdue, simple things like getting up from the sofa aren’t so easy anymore.

“Prove it,” he mutters. Then almost immediately shakes his head. “Never mind. Don’t.” Before I can stop him, he snags me under the arms and gently lifts me to my feet. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”

I roll my eyes. “You’re bouncing off the walls, Ry. No missions, only one training session a week…” I link my small, swollen fingers with his thick, massive ones, and squeeze gently. “I know you think you can walk away from it all, but that’s never going to happen, soldier. Hidden Agenda is your home. Your family. You can’t go on every mission anymore. But you can’t ignore them either.”

Ryker sobers, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. “I don’t know how to do this, little bird. Be there for you and the baby, but still save people. Because if I can’t…”

“You won’t be Ryker McCabe. The man I fell in love with. The man who saved me.” I tip my head back to peer up at him. “You can do both, Ry. Maybe not for the first month, but after that… You think I’ll suddenly ignore my computers the moment the doctor puts the baby in my arms? Horsepucky. I’ll work less, but hacking is who I am. What I do. Hidden Agenda and Second Sight need me, and I need them too. Plus, how else am I going to teach our daughter the importance of tech skills?”

He chuckles, then bends down to press a kiss to my belly. The baby chooses that exact moment to punch—or kick—hard enough she hits Ry in the nose.

His eyes widen, and he rubs his hand over the green fleece sweatshirt with “Loading…” emblazoned across the front. “She’s going to be a fighter.”

“Or she just really wants out.” I rub my lower back. “If the doctor called and offered to induce me tomorrow, I would be so there for it.”

“Ten days, little bird.” He wraps his arms around me from behind, cradling my belly in such a way, I feel safe and protected. And loved. Always loved. This giant of a man can be so tender—almost delicate—with me. When we first met, it was hard to imagine he could be anything but big and loud and brutish. He’s none of those things, though. The hard, gruff exterior is who he thinks he has to be. But it’s not who he is. Not at all.

I rest my head against his chest. “Don’t you mean Big Bird? I’m the size of your truck. Or…you.”

“You are not?—”

“I can’t see my toes. I can’t put on my own socks or tie my shoes. And the peeing. Spitsnacks. I have to go. Again.”

I waddle off toward the bathroom. You’d think somewhere along the evolutionary journey, someone would have thought, “Oh, once the baby’s born, the mother isn’t going to sleep for six months or more. So maybe…let’s let her sleep up until birth.” No. I’m up every hour just to pee. And then again whenever baby girl decides she wants to go dancing.

A cramp steals my breath as I dry my hands. They’ve been happening more and more the past week. Normal—according to my doctor—but the first one was terrifying. Thank goodness Ryker wasn’t home that day. The man didn’t flinch when we were being chased by armed thugs in Russia, but if I so much as wince, he’s ready to break every traffic law in the world to get me to the hospital in record time.

“You’re pale,” he says when I return to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. “What’s wrong?”

Ignoring him, I offer a dismissive wave of my hand as I brush by, hoping he won’t press the issue. I should know better by now.

“Wren.” He takes me by the shoulders, turning me toward him. “What’s. Wrong?”

Reaching up, I trail my fingers along his jaw. “Nothing, Ry. Just a cramp. Situation Normal.”

The look in his eyes is anything but normal. “I’m canceling training. And calling off the shower.”

“No, you’re not.” I take a step back and glare up at him. “Braxton Hicks contractions are totally normal. They don’t mean anything. They’re my body getting ready for labor. But they can happen for weeks before birth.”

“How long has this been going on?” he growls. I see so much emotion in his eyes. Fear. Concern. Love.

“Stand down, soldier. Dr. Robin said there’s nothing to worry about unless my water breaks or I start bleeding.”

“You’re my entire world, Wren,” Ry says, his voice rougher than I’ve heard it in months. “If anything happens to you…”

“The only thing that’s going to happen to me this afternoon is that I’m going to eat so much cake that I fall asleep in the recliner the moment everyone leaves.”

“I should still stay.”

I laugh at the idea of my bald, scarred, mountain of a husband standing guard over me at my flippin’ baby shower. “You want to spend the afternoon with a bunch of women talking about childbirth and breastfeeding and periods? You wouldn’t last an hour.”

“Little bird, I spent fifteen months in Hell. I think I can handle a single afternoon with seven women.”

As if the Universe is out to prove him wrong, the doorbell rings at that exact moment. Ryker presses his palm to the scanner to unlock the door and gapes.

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