Page 14 of The Villain

“How many times have you been pulled over?” Her tone has lowered threateningly but the natural high pitch makes that a lot less effective. We’ll work on it.

“Seven.”

She goes quiet and then whispers, “You’ve been letting people see you?”

“Why not?” I return blandly.

“Return the rental,” her reply is stern.

“Ok,” I frown at her tone.

“The assholes have come back and if they know you’ve been following Shade it will mean trouble. I’ve scrambled your name on everything you’ve done in town so you’re covered there.”

Meh. I’m not interested in playing games with them.

“Why the name scramble?” Tera is in super spy mode. That’s not good. It means this isn’t a game to her.

I’m just not sure why.

Did they get my warm welcome and I’m currently going through paybacks? If so, this is pathetic. I’m only mildly annoyed.

“I thought they’d be mean but this is too far.”

So they’re using their police contacts to harass me. Boo hoo. It seems wasteful when they could just pop my tires. They’re so plastic they can’t be bothered to get their hands dirty. Definitely not worth playing with.

Then Tera sucks in a sharp breath and moans, “Oh no.”

I hear the phone drop as she starts heaving. Before I can say anything, someone picks up the phone.

“Tera is ill. Stop calling.”

The cold, threatening male voice does nothing to me. Must be one of her men.

“What does she need?” I ask, looking for a grocery store to stop at.

There’s a silence where I think the guy has hung up, then he says, “Is this South?”

“Yes. What does she need?”

“It’s a stomach bug.”

I pull over and park in the first lot I can find. Tera has never gotten a stomach virus. Not once in the time I’ve known her. And I’ve known her for over ten years. Yeah, she’s having problems with food but all I can think is fuck that, she’s pregnant.

I trust my instincts too much to let the thought go. My mind latches onto it and gets stuck like it normally does.

“How long has she been throwing up?”

“Over a week.” The guy is starting to sound nervous.

“Doctor?”

“She has an appointment tomorrow,” I get as a cautious reply.

Fuck. What helped my mom when she had her youngest?

I start listing out all the things I can remember from that time in quick succession. “Ginger ale. Lemon drops. Suckers. Saltine crackers. Bread, no butter. Multivitamins. No caffeine.”

There’s silence and then a confused, “I’ll get it?”

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