Page 17 of Savage

How bad did her situation have to have been for her to go on the run while pregnant? And knowing what he now knew, that her ex, because that was the only way he would consider the bastard, had forced her. That made him want to hunt down the son of a bitch and make him suffer before he killed him. There were few things Savage had no tolerance of, and abusing women and children was on that list.

He fought to keep Donna from seeing how her abuse enraged him. He knew he hadn’t been able to keep from her that it had angered him, but he could only hope she hadn’t seen the extent of his rage. It wouldn’t help her feel like she could trust him, and she could.

Savage didn’t know how, especially in such a short amount of time, but Donna had found her way under his skin, and he found he didn’t mind. In fact, he liked having her close.

When they’d both had a chance to use the facilities, they found there was food ready, so instead of going right back to the tent, they got food, then settled at one of the picnic tables, just the two of them.

“Do you want to talk while we eat, or would you rather wait?”

He would rather talk but he wouldn’t force her to do it now, when they could be overheard. He knew this wouldn’t be an easy conversation for her and didn’t want to make her more uncomfortable than necessary.

Donna looked down at the plate in front of her then back up at him. She blinked, then glanced around before speaking.

“Can we start, then if I decide it’s too much for here and now, call a halt?”

“You can. I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable or hurt you in anyway, babe. I just have some things I need to know, and things you need to know too, alright?”

“Okay.” Her voice was soft as she spoke between bites. But at least she didn’t sound terrified. He could handle that.

“I think the first thing we need to know is how far along are you?”

She frowned. “I don’t know. How would I know that?”

“There are several ways, but we’ll get to that? Aside from the sickness, how do you know you’re pregnant?”

“I’m late. I’m never late.”

“Okay, that’s good. How late?”

“Two weeks.”

“Good. That’s good. It gives us some options. First, does anyone else know? Will the father be coming after you for the baby?”

“No. I didn’t tell anyone. I have been wanting to get out for a while, but when I realized I’m pregnant, I knew it had to be now. If they found out, they’d never let me go. Not that they will let me go now, but I couldn’t let a child of mine be raised in that group.”

“Okay. That leads to the next question. Before I ask it, I want you to know I’m not going to try to push you in either direction, and I’ll help you either way, but do you want to continue the pregnancy?”

Donna looked at him for a moment before dropping her gaze back to her plate. He thought for a moment she might not answer him. Hell, for all he knew she hadn’t even thought about it. He was about to give up and move on to the next topic, planning to come back around to this one, when she spoke.

“It would make things easier, I know. But I can’t. I know it’s an option for a lot of people and I don’t object to it, but I couldn’t live with myself if I did that.” Her voice was soft, and she kept her face turned toward her plate, but he could see her watching him.

It didn’t escape his notice that she’d never said the word abortion, neither had he, and that was deliberate. But he hadn’t lied. He wasn’t going to push her either way, only help with what she wanted.

“Okay. I can understand that. Next question is kind of a follow up, and I totally understand if you don’t have an answer yet. In fact, I don’t expect you to have an answer. I just want you to start thinking about it. Again. I’m not going to push you toward either option. We just need to know what you want so we can move forward, do you understand?” He set his fork down and watched her. He didn’t want to miss any tiny indicators in her expression or reaction.

“Okay.” Her voice was soft, and she never looked up from her plate, where she pushed her food around but hadn’t taken a bite since before his last question.

“Babe,” Savage gentled his voice, “I need you to look at me a minute, okay?”

Slowly, she lifted her head, then after another moment her gaze flicked up to his face then dropped again.

“Babe, I know this isn’t a comfortable conversation, but it’s an important one. I need you to pay attention to me.”

“I’m listening.”

“I know you are. But I want you to see me too. I want you to see that all I’m interested in is what you want. I want to take care of you, but I don’t want to be one of what seems like a long string of people telling you what’s best for you. I want you to have an active participation in all the decisions.”

It took another couple of moments, but she lifted her gaze to his.

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