Page 99 of Lawbreaker

“Yes.” She studied her brother. “I didn’t mention it earlier. I didn’t want to worry you all, especially on the night I debuted at the Met.” She laughed hollowly. “Some debut, huh?” She lifted her eyes. “What now?”

“Now we go on the attack,” he said tautly. “I’m tired of giving him free shots at us. James is more dangerous now than ever before,” he said. “I sent a photograph I’d taken of two of the victims in Iraq to a senator I know, who’s high in the intelligence community. I thought he’d help, but he said he couldn’t be sure the picture wasn’t photoshopped.” He looked absolutely disgusted. “So now I’m looking for somebody else in Congress who doesn’t mind taking risks for a worthy cause.”

Stasia, shamelessly eavesdropping, moved closer to the two of them while the others were talking to Ben.

“Tony said that a lot of people have things they want to hide, things that James knows and uses against them,” she told Tanner. “It’s not that people don’t want to help. It’s that they’re afraid their pasts will come back to haunt them. Probably he’s got something on that senator you know, and made threats.”

Tanner sighed. “I’ve been around DC long enough to know that’s true,” he confessed. He looked at Odalie and then back at Stasia. “You two are my softest targets,” he said gently. “You have to be protected, all the time.”

“I’m almost always with you,” Stasia said, laying her head against his broad shoulder. “And Ben’s got Odalie’s back. We’ll be fine. You go after that salamander and serve him up fried!”

“Exactly!” Odalie seconded, with a little jerk of her head.

Tanner chuckled. “If this was old days in the West, and I had to stand off bandits, you two would be my choice of companions. The bandits would run like hell.”

“Absolutely,” Stasia laughed.

Odalie seconded that opinion.

“So I’ll see how much trouble I can stir up for James,” Tanner said finally.

“With my blessing,” Odalie replied, and kissed his tanned cheek. “You two be safe.”

“We will,” Tanner said.

“You be safe,” Stasia said. She hugged Odalie. “And rethink that career business. There’s no sense putting yourself through that torture for a job, even a dream of a job. You’ll die young. Stress kills.”

Odalie sighed. “Yes.”

The family reunited at the curb, where the limo stood with its doors opened. Heather kissed Odalie. So did Cole and John.

“One day at a time, kid,” Cole said with a grin.

“Yes, Daddy,” Odalie said, and laughed, because it had been his favorite saying since she was a little girl following him around the cattle pens.

He chuckled. “Things work out if you just let them,” he said a minute later, and his face was solemn. “Give it time.”

She grimaced.

“You’ll see,” he added as they all climbed into the car.

Later, with her doors locked, Odalie sat down in her living room, in the warm silence that was like a comforting blanket.

Tony had been here. The room still held his imprint, the sound of his deep voice laughing, the scent of his spicy cologne in her nostrils, the warm, delicious hardness of his mouth grinding insistently into hers as his hands found soft flesh and touched it so very tenderly...

She groaned and got to her feet. And almost fell. She was having dizzy spells, and at night she barely had enough energy to fix food or wash dishes. She went to bed with the chickens. She got sick if she smelled potatoes cooking, and it was her favorite food. Mashed potatoes. Scalloped potatoes. Potato soup. She loved it all. And now it made her sick.

Something had to be wrong with her. She was usually very healthy. Could it be that even the stress of this little part in the Met holiday special had caused her problem? She’d had the dizziness and fatigue for a month or more...six weeks?

Her heart skipped rope. She counted the days since she and Tony had first been intimate. No! It couldn’t be! He’d said he was sterile. He and his wife could never have children.

But was he sterile? They’d assumed he was, so neither had used any precautions. And now...morning sickness?

Her mind stopped working. That would certainly put paid to a career at the Met, if she was pregnant! Plus, it would be the greatest joy of her entire life. Tony’s baby. A little boy, maybe, with wavy black hair. Or a little girl with long blond hair.

She shook herself. She was daydreaming. She just had some stupid virus. She went to bed.

But the next morning, she went to a drugstore and bought a pregnancy kit. They knew her in the store and the female clerk grinned. “A pregnancy kit?” she teased.

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