Page 101 of Theirs to Take

“And I thought that we discussed the fact that your problems are my problems. That’s what being in a committed relationship is, and you and I both agreed that this thing between us is a committed relationship, remember?” he asked. He was right and Millie was already fucking this thing between them all up.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I thought that I was helping but I messed everything up.”

“We’ll fix it,” Ranger promised. “The question is, will you trust me to help you this time?”

“Yes,” she promised. “It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you before, I just didn’t want to drag you into this mess.”

“I’m already in it with you, honey,” he assured. “Let me help.” She nodded and he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “Sorry about your phone. I’ll get you a new one as soon as we get settled.”

“Settled?” she asked.

“Yeah, we’re going to have to move tonight, if we’re going to stay one step ahead of Wan now,” he said. Ranger cuddled in next to her and called Luke, putting him on speaker and then he added Alex McTavish. She was sure that they were going to have a conference call to discuss how she had messed up and Millie felt awful about it.

Ranger

Ranger knew that Millie was up to something when she said that she was out of Tums and needed him to run to the pharmacy to get some more. Of course, he didn’t realize that she was lying to him until he was about halfway to the store when he remembered that she had some in her purse. He ran home to remind her about them when he found her lying in her bed talking to Wan as if they were old friends or something.

Hearing the guy say that he’d never let Millie turn down his job offer made him sick. He was right, Wan would come for her no matter where they were, and with the baby on the way, she couldn’t run forever. Hell, she was supposed to be on bed rest, and hiding away from Wan’s men wasn’t an option. No, he was going to have to come up with one hell of a good plan to keep Millie and the baby safe, and he was pretty sure that he had one.

“Are you guys safe?” Luke asked.

“We are, for now, but we’re going to have to get out of here tonight. Things have changed.”

“What things are we talking about here?” Alex asked. “Someone needs to catch me up.”

“Remember when Luke had to take off for a bit because he knew that someone was watching him?” Ranger asked Alex.

“Yeah, he was gone for a couple of months, and if I remember, you two almost got blown up along with his house,” Alex reminded.

“Right, well, the man who came after me was named Joo Wan,” Luke said.

“Fuck,” Alex spat. “You’re lucky to be alive still.”

“Right, but luck had nothing to do with Luke and me staying alive—that was all Millie’s doing. She hacked into the Korean Central Intelligence computer system and found out what we already suspected. The North Korean government had Wan’s two sons and wife killed when he defected to South Korea. We sent him that information and that seemed to appease him. He agreed to leave Luke alone and he got to come home with Ruby.”

“Okay, so what’s changed?” Alex asked.

“Wan found out that Millie was the one who got him the information that he was after. He also found out who she had to hack to get that information, and now, he wants her to come to work for him,” Ranger said.

“Didn’t Millie quit at McTavish?” Alex asked.

“I did,” Millie said. “Sorry, I’m here too, Alex. I had to quit to move away. You see, I’m pregnant and I didn’t want Ranger to find out.”

“Why wouldn’t you want Ran—” Alex started to ask, “Oh, never mind. Am I all caught up?” he asked.

“Not quite,” Millie said, “you see, I didn’t want to involve any of you in my mess, so I snuck a call to Wan to tell him that I wouldn’t be taking his job offer.”

“Shit,” Luke cursed.

“What the hell, Millie?” Alex asked. “I’m betting that he didn’t take it well.”

“No,” Millie almost whispered, “he told me that he’d never allow me to turn down his offer. That’s when Ranger found me and ended the call.”

“And now, Wan knows where you are,” Luke filled in.

“That’s why we have to take off tonight. But Millie really can’t go on the run. She’s got hypertension and is on mandatory bed rest for the next three months of her pregnancy. I won’t risk her or the baby,” Ranger said. “So, I need some help. At the very least, it will give us some security until after the baby is born.”

“What can we do?” Alex asked.

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