Page 127 of Crossover

“You can’t let them inject me, Grayson.” My voice cracked. “I’m pregnant.”

All the men froze while my lip quivered.

“I took a test this morning, and it was positive.”

Grayson held his palm up to Needle Man, but he didn’t take his now-firm eyes off my face, studying it, as if looking for any sign this was a ruse to get him to come with me. But he must have seen that, based on the sagging in my shoulders and the steadfast look in my features, I was telling the truth.

“Give us a minute,” Grayson commanded the men, who parted away, while Grayson took a step closer.

“You have an IUD.” His tone was soft now, his eyebrows shooting together in confusion.

Tell me about it. That was my reaction when the little line came back positive. Which was why I’d taken a second and third test.

“0.8% of women experience unintended pregnancy with them,” I explained, wiping a fresh stream of tears. “Looks like we’re part of the 0.8%.”

Grayson froze, his body tense as his gaze narrowed in horror. Just what every girl longs to see when the love of her life finds out you’re starting a family. But that horror? It told me everything that I needed to know about what his real expectations were.

“Youbelieveyou’re going to die,” I choked over my swelling throat.

A fresh round of vomit swirled in my stomach, and I had to swallow to keep from launching it onto the asphalt.

This can’t be happening.He can’t die. Someone I love can’t sacrifice themself again just to save me.

“Sir, we have to go!” the agent demanded.

“I knew you were acting different,” I choked out, my voice barely a whisper. “Ever since that penthouse situation, you’ve been…God, Grayson, you’ve been acting like my dad in his final weeks.” That’s what it was. I couldn’t put my finger on it until just this very second.

Every time Grayson had looked at me with love and admiration, I could see deeper into his gaze, and there was something hiding behind that. At first, I chalked it up to the trauma of being ambushed by Vosch. But now, I could see exactly what the shadow lurking in his features meant—he believed our time together was running out.

Just like Dad in those final, precious weeks, when he’d looked at me with a love so fierce that it nearly hurt, when he’d known our time together was coming to an end, too.

And just like my dad, Grayson had kept it from me. Maybe it wasn’t fair of me to feel completely betrayed by that, especially when I knew he was doing it for my own protection, but I couldn’t believe he’d kept a secret like this.

“You should have told me.” My voice broke into a sob. “We should have faced this together.”

“I’m sorry, Ivy.”

“Do you not understand what this will do to me?”

Was this what life was about? Losing everyone you cared about and knowing that they died so that you could live? What kind of an existence was that?

“Please,” I begged. “Get on that plane with me.”

“Sir!” the agent shouted from behind.

Hunter’s warm voice was next, coming from the plane’s door. “Ivy. Come on.”

My shoulders sank with a fresh wave of hurt. “So, everyone knows what’s going on except for me,” I realized.

“Ivy.” Grayson stepped closer and cupped my face. I jerked away from his touch, but he was patient, waiting for me to stopresisting him before he held my face between his two hands. “Listen to me very carefully.”

Those mesmerizing sage-tinted eyes searched mine, and when he spoke, his voice was low and cool. “I have no intention of allowing myself to get killed.”

“But—”

“That being said,” he continued, “I know what I’m about to do is dangerous. But no one else can get close to Vosch, and until someone takes him down, everyone we care about will be in danger. Your mother, your grandmother.” His attention flickered to my lower abdomen, and he released one hand from my cheek, placing it over my belly. “And now, our child.”

His words hit me like a thunderbolt, sending shock waves of emotions through my body.

---