Page 119 of Rebel Hawke

“Are you good, Wren?”

I glance over at Bishop behind the wheel and nod, gulping back the bile threatening to make an appearance like it already did this morning. “Yeah, thanks again for picking me up.”

She laughs. “What else was I going to do? We’re going to the same place and you need a twenty-four-hour bodyguard, right?”

I roll my eyes and immediately regret the motion when it makes me feel even sicker. “Apparently.”

“Did you really think he was going to lighten up on that now that you’re pregnant? Frankly, I’m surprised he doesn’t have one of us stationed outside your condo door every fucking minute of every fucking day, even when he’s with you.”

Honestly, so am I.

Likely the only reason he doesn’t is that he wants his privacy and no one to potentially eavesdrop on anything coming out of our place or Isaac and Jack’s.

“I mean, there is security down in the lobby and the code to get up and everything.”

He’s assured me over and over again that the building is impenetrable—even the glass now.

Too little, too late for Atlas.

But I try not to dwell on it or worry about what might happen when I step outside the supposedly impregnable castle that our tower apparently is. If I thought about all the ways Satriano—or any other Hawke enemy—might get to me and this baby, I wouldn’t ever leave.

Bishop nods, turning at the next corner. “True, it’s pretty damn safe, but I warned you about him.”

“You sure did.” I huff out a little laugh, thinking about how, at the time, I thought she was exaggerating and being a little melodramatic. In reality, her warning paled in comparison to what Atlas is really like with me. “Do you think the dress fitting will take long?” I swallow down another wave of nausea. “I’m not sure how long I can stand in a tight gown when I feel like this.”

She offers a sympathetic look quickly, then shakes her head as she refocuses on the road. “Shouldn’t be too long, I don’t think, and I’m sure Kennedy will understand if you need to get out of there quickly.”

No doubt she would.

Which makes my apprehension about being included today come rushing back.

I force a tight smile. “It was really nice of her to ask me to be a bridesmaid, especially since she made all the plans before I even showed up.”

Bishop’s brows rise above the top of her sunglasses as she turns, and she glances over at me once before going straight again. “Did you really think she wouldn’t? You’re part of the family now, babe, stuck with us forever.”

“I know.” I twist my hands on my lap. “I just feel kind of awkward, I guess, being part of the ceremony when I feel like I haven’t been around much.”

She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter with us, once a Hawke, always a Hawke. She was an officiant at your wedding, after all.”

I bark out a laugh. “That she was.”

“You know, she takes pride in being the one to hook you and Atlas up.”

“We wereeight.”

Bishop takes another turn, nearing the dress shop now, and it can’t come soon enough for me or my stomach. “It doesn’t matter. She thinks it stuck.”

It stuck.

A grin pulls at my lips, running those words over in my head. “I guess it kind of did.”

My phone rings in my purse, and I dig around to find it and pull it out.

An unknown number?

Normally, I’d let it go to voicemail because it’s likely just some stupid telemarketer trying to sell me something, but something tugs deep in my chest, telling me to answer it. “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Wren Mason speaking?”

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