Page 25 of Centurion

“I don’t want to talk about sex with you. Is that weird?”

“No. Not at all.” Her mom laughed. “If you did, I’d have to stop you because itisweird.”

“Oh. Okay.” Jewell looked at the clock. “Mom, I have to go. I have a conference I need to hook up.”

“I’m going to call Zane, okay?” her mom asked again.

“Yeah, I guess. If I’m pregnant, what will I do about work?”

“You and Zane will figure everything out. I promise. And I can come out any time you want me to. Will you let me know as soon as you know?”

“I will. Thanks for calling, Mom. Although, I’m not sure I’m happy with the idea of being pregnant.” Jewell wasn’t sure how she was feeling. She and Zane had talked about children, but that had been ages ago.

“Getting used to the idea won’t take long, and then you’ll be over the moon excited. I promise.” Her mom seemed so confident, but right then, she wasn’t too sure if she was excited or terrified at the prospect of being pregnant.

“Okay. If you say so, I have to get this conference online.” She glanced at the clock again. “I’ll call you back as soon as I know.”

“I love you, Button.”

“I love you, too, Mom.” Jewell hung up the phone and stared at it for a minute, letting all the words swirl in her head. She couldn’t be pregnant. She took her pills religiously. She had an alarm set to remind her when she was working nights, and it was her bedtime ritual to brush her teeth and take that pill. She pulled the computer closer to her and did a search on the efficiency of the pill she was taking for birth control. If taken correctly, it was up to ninety-nine-point-nine percent effective. Jewell let out a relieved, long breath. Itwasthe flu or food poisoning. The likelihood of a point-one chance of her getting pregnant was astronomical.

Jewell went through the motions of setting up the conference and checked the security of each connection before she connected it to the meeting. Tori was first on the line. “Hey, I hear you’re not feeling well.”

“News travels fast.” Jewell tried to smile, but she wasn’t sure she managed it.

“Yeah, well, you throwing up during a mission isn’t exactly standard operating procedures.”

Her sister-in-law had a point. “I’m positive it’s food poisoning. Things can go bad in storage, and we have a massive pantry in case we get snowed in.”

Tori’s eyebrows lifted. “It could be something else.”

“No, it couldn’t be.” Jewell looked at her sister-in-law. “I’ve done the equations. Statistically, the chances of that happening are astronomical.”

Tori chuckled. “Oh, honey, believe me, I know about astronomical chances when on the pill. Your nephews are proof of that.”

Jewell shook her head as Joseph popped up on the screen. “Hey, Button, feeling better?”

Jewell closed her eyes. “I was.”

Tori chuckled as Jacob came online next. “Hey, I thought you were coming to my office?”

“Oh, I wanted to talk to Jewell for a little bit before the conference. I’ll come over afterward.”

“Or I can come there now.” He was out of his seat, and his connection was down. Jewell watched as he pulled up a chair next to his wife. “There. Better,” Jacob said, putting his arm around Tori.

Her brother Jason was the last to enter the conference call. “All right. Jewell, you good to go?”

“Yep.” She wasn’t feeling sick to her stomach at the moment; although Tori’s words made her more anxious about the possibility of being pregnant.

“So, give me the rundown.” Jason leaned back and tapped the end of his pen against his desk.

“I’ll start.” Jacob leaned forward. “We’ve been in contact with the British authorities. The men were released on their own recognizance because they were all British citizens.”

“Are they? Really?” Joseph asked.

“As far as we know now, yes. Brando has photocopies of the passports, and he’s running them to see if there are any anomalies that would key us to believe they aren’t.”

“How would he know?” Joseph asked.

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