Page 83 of Renegade

I stared at the results on the screen. I'd just searched ‘faking a pregnancy’ online. This was all Elizabeth Greene’s fault. If I hadn’t gone to that doctor’s appointment with her, I could’ve remained ignorant. Unfortunately, the gods were not smiling on me and I found myself embroiled in someone else’s drama.

As if I didn't have enough of my own.

I couldn’t believe I’d told Mike that it was just sex.Who did that?Me... apparently.Once he brought it up, the words fell out of my mouth. I guess I thought that if I said it, it was somehow better than if he did.

It was a defense mechanism.

I was still in control.

We were on a collision course, I felt it. He was spending almost all of his time at the station working the missing model’s case and we were growing apart. I thought that my little surprise with the handcuffs would fix things, but it only made me more aware of the ever-widening gap between us. I wanted all of him, but he was still holding back.

Had I really been naïve enough to try and seriously date a male whore?I’d convinced myself that it was just like taming a wild animal. I was going to give him space, while gradually moving closer, until he was eating out of my palm.

God, I was stupid.

He’d been perfectly content to keep me at arm’s length and we’d been in this weird limbo ever since. By saying what I did, I’d accepted terms I never wanted in this—well, whatever it was.Now, I was going to have to live with them. We weren’t exclusive...we were nothing more than fuck buddies.

Nice job, Lauren. Way to respect yourself.

When Elizabeth mentioned her doctor visit, I jumped at the chance to get away from the office. Plus, I’d been hoping that I could get her perspective on my relationship, or sleeping arrangement, as I was fondly calling it now. She’d had David move back in with her and they seemed to be resolving their issues. I mean, she still hadn’t told him she was pregnant or you know, called off the divorce—but they were much better than they’d been in June.

Instead of girl talk, however, we’d run right into Jess and all of my pent-up aggression from Mike came spilling over. She’d been the proverbial straw, so to speak. I unleashed all of my anger on her, even going so far as to say that my boyfriend would get any charges she pressed against me dropped. I cringed just thinking about it.

Elizabeth went on to get an ultrasound, but I’d stayed behind to collect my thoughts and get my blood pressure back into a normal range so that I didn't stroke out inside the obstetrician’s office. And that was how I inadvertently got myself involved in something that had nothing to do with me. I’d just rounded the corner when I heard their voices. Jess was discussing blood tests and money and suddenly, I began to suspect that there was more going on with Jess’s ‘pregnancy’ than she had let on.

For starters, she didn’t look like a woman who was twenty weeks pregnant. She didn't even look like a woman who was six weeks pregnant.

I’d immediately called Mike. I told myself that it was just because he was a cop, but he’d kind of become the person I called anytime anything happened, fuck buddy or not.

“Detective Sullivan,” He’d said tersely into the phone.

“Hey, Mike. It’s Lauren. Do you have a minute?”

I heard him clicking his pen on and off in the background and knew that he was working on something that had him distracted. “Yeah. Are you okay?”

I’d swallowed the lump in my throat that seemed to pop up anytime I talked to him lately. “Um, I’m fine, but there is something. I’m with Elizabeth at her doctor’s visit and Jess is here. I think I just overheard her trying to bribe a nurse. They were talking about blood tests...I don’t know. I just thought you might know what to do in this kind of a situation.”

He exhaled loudly. “Wow. Okay—first, we need to find out what her motivator is. That one’s easy; she wants to keep David. Second, why would she need to bribe a nurse, unless there’s a chance—”

I interrupted, “That she’s not even pregnant.”

He laughed. “Well, I was going to say the baby wasn’t his, but we should definitely keep your suggestion in mind too.”

He promised me that he would look into it and we hung up. It wasn’t until later that I realized we’d only discussed business—as if we were strangers. He hadn’t even called me Red. Now, here I was a week later, still waiting on a phone call. He was probably already sleeping with someone else. The thought left me feeling queasy and I rested my face in my hands.

I needed to be focused on working. David had taken Elizabeth down to Galveston for a long weekend and that meant I was responsible for filling in until she got back. My desk phone rang. “Good Morning,Mulloy Dental. This is Lauren.”

“Laur—” Her voice cut off with a sob and I used my foot to shut my office door.

Instantly on alert, I asked, “What’s wrong, Elizabeth? Is the baby okay?”

She sobbed harder. “It’s his. They’re having a son. The fax machine...shower. I’m in a cab on my way to Houston. I need you to find me a flight home.”

Some of her words were lost in translation, but I got the gist of it. The paternity results had come in and she’d run. “Oh my god, Elizabeth. I’ll see what I can do.”

She ended the call and I sat staring blankly at my computer. I didn’t know what to do anymore. A tear fell onto my keyboard, quickly followed by another one. I didn’t know how I was going to help her. I couldn’t even help myself.

There was a soft knock on my door and I quickly composed myself. “Come in.”

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