Page 103 of Theirs to Take

She had started working from home for McTavish and she had to admit, she loved her new job. Her old one was a nice fit but working for McTavish again felt like coming home. Alex had been true to his word, letting her work from home while she waited for their daughter to arrive. He also called Wan and explained her situation to him. Alex said that Wan didn’t seem happy about having to give up his pursuit of hiring Millie. She was hoping that they wouldn’t hear from Wan again, but Luke and Ranger assured her that wasn’t going to be the case. They said that he was persistent and would wait for her if she was who he really wanted. If Ranger had his way, he would have kept Millie under lock and key for the rest of her life, but as she explained to him, she couldn’t stay locked away forever. Sooner or later, she’d be allowed to leave the house—to which Ranger would grumble something about her being unreasonable.

Every morning before he left for work, Ranger would get Millie all set up in her bed or on the sofa, for work. He’d make sure that she had her laptop, pens, phone, paper—everything that she’d need for her day. He’d also make her promise to take it easy and to get a couple of naps in during the day. She’d tell him that it was almost impossible for her to get comfortable to sleep anymore, and he would make her promise to try. It was their little morning routine, and she had to admit, she liked it. She felt domesticated as if they were becoming a little family, and she loved that.

Millie planned on taking about four months off after the baby was born. They were still negotiating girl names, but when she told Ranger about her plans to take off for a while, he told herthat he’d consider her top two choices. After all of the fighting that they had done over their daughter’s name, if she had known that all it would take to get Ranger to agree to one of her picks was agreeing to some time off, she would have told him about her maternity leave sooner. It would have saved them both a lot of time and anger.

Negotiating was still one of the things that they were working on. It wasn’t easy for either of them since they were both so stubborn. Millie hoped that sooner or later, they would get it together and agree on something, but so far that wasn’t happening, and Millie was sure that after the baby got there, things might only get worse. They couldn’t even seem to agree on which brand of diapers to use. How were they supposed to agree on the important stuff, like her name, or where she’d go to preschool?

Millie was in bed, working on security upgrades for the top floor at McTavish when she heard a noise in the kitchen. She got up and pulled on her robe. It was cold today, and the fire that Ranger had built her was going out. He had made her promise not to put logs on the fire, and by the time he usually got home, it was completely out and needed to be rebuilt. Most days, it didn’t bother her, but on colder days like today, it did.

“Are you home early today or what?” she asked, walking down to the kitchen. She stopped dead when she found a man standing by the back door. “Who the hell are you?” she asked. Millie wrapped her robe around her belly as if trying to protect her baby.

“I’m sorry to intrude,” the man said. She knew from his accent exactly who he was.

“Joo Wan,” she breathed.

“Yes,” he said, “I told you that I have issues with taking no for an answer, Miss Jenkins. I’ve come to get you to reconsider.”

“My employer won’t like this,” she challenged.

“Ah, yes,” Wan said, “I’ve spoken with Mr. McTavish, and he told me that he didn’t like me making you an offer to come work for me, but I’ve never really cared what others thought of me, Miss Jenkins.”

She tried to look around him, to see if he’d brought his army along with him. If it was just him alone, she might have a chance to get out of there before Wan could move her. “I’m assuming that you brought your men along with you,” she said. “That way if I don’t cooperate, you’ll force me to go with you.”

“I was hoping that it wouldn’t come to that, so it’s just me and my driver here today. I’m assuming that for the safety of your unborn child, you’ll come with me willingly and won’t make me force you, Miss Jenkins. I remember when my wife was pregnant, she would have done anything to protect our unborn sons. Do you feel the same way about your daughter?”

“How do you know that I’m having a girl?” she asked.

“Because I’ve made it my business to know everything about you, Miss Jenkins. I’ve been watching you since you came back here with your child’s father. I’ve also been watching him for a very long time.”

“I see,” she said. Millie noticed the shadow that ran past the kitchen window, her eyes quickly darting back to Wan. She didn’t want to give whoever was out there away in case it was Ranger. If someone was trespassing on their property, he would get notification of it. Hell, the mailman couldn’t ring their doorbell without him knowing about it. She was hoping that their security system had alerted Ranger that Wan was on their property, and he was there to deal with him.

“What’s it going to be, Miss Jenkins?” he asked. “Will you be coming with me willingly or do I need to use force?” Millie felt a pool of wetness between her legs that had trickled down to the floor.

“Um, I hate to tell you this, Wan, but my water broke. Looks like I’ll be heading to the hospital,” Millie said, trying to stay calm when all she felt was panic. She was four and a half weeks early and that couldn’t be good—right? She wouldn’t know until she got to the hospital and there was no way that she was going to let Wan or his driver stand in her way.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the same shadow in the window of the back door, and this time, she knew that it was Ranger. He and Luke were standing behind Wan, their guns pointed at his side.

“She’s not going anywhere with you, asshole,” Ranger said. “You all right, honey?” he asked.

A small sob escaped her chest and she nodded. “My water broke. I think that I need to go to the hospital. It’s too early.”

“You’re going to be fine,” Ranger assured. “Let me help Luke get this guy out of our house and then I’ll take you to the hospital.”

“What about his driver?” Millie asked.

“We’ve already got him secured in the back of Luke’s truck. The cops are on their way. Wan here will be going away for a while. I’m betting that attempted kidnapping will earn you at least a few years behind bars in America.”

Wan shrugged, “And when I get out, I’ll be back to continue our conversation, Miss Jenkins,” he assured.

“You come near me again, Wan,” Millie said, doubling over in pain, “and, I’ll fucking kill you.”

“That’s my girl,” Ranger said. “Let’s go.”

“Hurry,” Millie shouted, “I’m having contractions.” Luke cuffed Wan and assured Ranger that he had him.

“Go take care of your girl,” Luke said. “Good luck, Millie. I’ll let Ruby know that you’re in labor. Boy, is my wife going to be pissed.” He chuckled and took Wan out to his truck.

“Can you walk to the driveway?” Ranger asked.

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