Page 53 of Defiant Devotion

I nodded, handing her my phone. “I agree. And with that Petrov man in his room and that nurse being paid off, I’m not certain this fucking hospital is even that secure anymore. It would be better for you to remain hidden.”

“As Mrs. Ben Warner?” She smiled slyly.

“Are you insinuating I’m not the only one between us who’s daydreaming about my being more than just a sperm donor?”

She barked out a single incredulous laugh, but the following smile was so bright and sexy. “I can’t even think about that right now. I can’t look that far into the future yet.”

My heart expanded, filling with hope and excitement at theyet.

“And my uncle is in a more dangerous state than I am. The doctor doesn’t seem worried—about my health or the baby’s.”

“True, but?—”

“Uncle Oleg can’t claim the same. Help Lev and the others. I’ll be okay here until you’re back.”

“Oh, Iwillbe back. You’re never getting rid of me now.”

Again, she smiled.

“But I won’t be able to relax being away from you. I don’t trust this hospital. I won’t trust anyone with your safety.”

She sobered, losing the grin. “Not until Benson is dead. I will not rest easy until the man that family took me to marry is killed.”

“Like I said, consider it done.”

“I won’t risk our child being taken someday either.”

“I won’t risk you or our baby at all. Ever.” Taking out my phone, I watched her closely and told her the PIN to unlock the screen. “I’ll go, but you keep this. Ifanythinghappens, call Lev. His number is in the contacts. I’ll be with him upstairs until I come back here.”

She nodded, accepting the device. After she licked her lips, she gazed up at me with a careful smile. “Be safe.”

“Always.”

I would—because I had her and our baby to come back to.

21

SONYA

“You sure are a lucky woman, Mrs. Warner.” The ultrasound technician returned after Ben left the room. While she resumed rubbing the wand over my belly and checking my baby, she gave me that praise and winked.

I blinked, stunned by too many things at one. One, that anyone could consider me lucky. I had yet to get over the lag of being in captivity. Iwaslucky—now. Two, that I was Ben’s wife. I guessed that he’d said that to make it easier for me to be registered and receive care. It implied he’d handle my bill. I appreciated that, of course. I also understood he’d blurted that out in the heat of the moment, in the circumstances of getting me seen as soon as possible, without any questions about who I was and why I didn’t have an ID or insurance. His calling me his wife obliterated the need to explain that I had recently been missing for eleven years.

But it was the warmth that enveloped me at the idea that stunned me too.

I wanted him to be my man. I wished he could be my husband. In a bittersweet pang of longing, I wanted Ben to be mine likeKyle was for Jenny. Then Ben would wantmeand welcome our baby.

It felt like such a silly thought to cling to, but with him identifying me as his wife, I dared to hope.

“Yeah, he’s a catch.”

“So attentive,” the tech said, smiling as she continued checking the monitor.

And protective, I wanted to add.

With his phone next to me, I had a lifeline to help until he could return. Impressed that he would stand by me even when he had to go tend to the matters in my uncle’s room, I tried to wrap my head around the fact that things could be falling into place in my life after so much loss and hell.

For the next hour, I was thoroughly checked out. Blood was drawn. Ultrasounds were performed. A urinalysis was completed. Then another ultrasound. A nurse also took a while to clean up the wounds I’d received in that fight with the “nurse” in my uncle’s room. I hadn’t felt the slight scrapes when they happened, too keyed up on adrenaline in the fight to notice, but now that I was being checked out, I realized my skin stung for a reason in those spots.

---