Page 57 of Shielding Aubree

Ruben cringed at her words. "You don't have to. I just wanted to check on you."

Her body stilled against his and his body tensed in response.

"Is something wrong?"

He heard the slight tremor in her voice and rubbed his palm against her belly. "Nothing. Not anything you have to worry about."

Her hand trapped his against her stomach, close enough to her heart that he could feel the tempo of her pulse. "What do you know?"

Her words confused him even more than he'd been when he'd broken into her apartment.

Instead of pressing her for an answer, he told her his own story, hoping to calm her down before he turned the tables on her. "We had a new client come to the Refuge today. I met him while he was on a campus tour with Finn. He told me about his fiancée and how he'd... how he lost her because of his job. How broken he was that he... that he hadn't been able to save her from the danger."

Aubree drew his hand up from her stomach to her lips.

She touched little kisses to his hand. "That's horrible. I can't imagine what..."

Her voice drifted off and he wondered who she was thinking about. What had made her thoughts drift away.

Was it her brother?

Brothers?

She shifted positions in bed, turning slightly onto her back so she could look up at him. "I'm still here, Ruben. I hope you're not worried about me walking away."

He hesitated and she spoke again.

"I know what I want." She smiled up at him, lifting her hand to touch his cheek. "I know who I want and that's not saying that you're stuck with me if you change your mind."

He wrapped his arm tighter around her. "Not going to happen."

"But if it did," she countered, "I want you to know that it's okay."

He opened his mouth to speak again, but she beat him to the pass.

"I had a visit at work today."

Ruben heard the soft hitch of tension in her voice. He hugged her closer, laying his chin on her shoulder so that he felt her hair as a silken layer between his cheek and hers.

"An FBI Agent came by while I was talking to one of the prosecutors today."

He cuddled her closer and brushed his thumb across her chest, gently tugging the fabric of her nightshirt against her skin.

"She's been... chasing a ghost of sorts. Evidence suggests that the same killer has worked his way across three states and he's currently in New Mexico."

Ruben nodded slowly, his mind working over her words. "And this agent wants to work with them?"

Something moved through her. It felt like a strange stuttering tremor that he struggled to decipher.

"Baby?"

He heard her swallow and felt her hand grip his tightly.

"The agent thinks I'm his next target."

Aubree feltthe shift in energy between them.

At first, he was trying to comfort her, but now that she'd put into words what Agent Aparicio had told her, she could feel the tension in his body.

---