Page 188 of Stand: Part One
With him out of the way, Daniel would be easier to get to, and Matt wouldn’t have to worry about retaliation. Or maybe he and Jason were splitting the work to get them both at the same time. Either way, whatever the fuck they were doing, it wasn’t working.
I sighed with frustration. I was going to drive myself insane if I kept going back and forth over it. It was exhausting, and I needed to just take everything one day at a time.
“Okay, everyone,” Carla called as she hustled forward holding a small bowl and spoon in her hands. She stopped in front of the pen and nodded her head at the highchair near the table. “Would you like to feed her?” she asked me.
I blinked up at her. “Uh, sure.”
“Great, just pick her up and put her in the highchair.”
When I looked back down at Ella, she was still playing with the fuzzy cotton on the pages of the book. Reaching out, I picked her up from the floor and placed her on the side of my hip. She squirmed at first, but then giggled as her wide blue eyes focused up at me.
I found myself quickly entranced by the striking coloring of them. Dark blue rimmed her ice-blue irises, the brightness mesmerizing in its contrast.
One thing was certain as I held her. Something took root in the pit of my stomach, and the longer I held her, the faster it grew. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt, if I gave Darren a child, I was fucking doomed. Because I would die before I ever gave that child up to him.
Just like his mother did.
46
Ambitions
I stared down at the old security feed, watching Jaden interact with Ella in the nursery for like the seventh time today. I loved seeing the shift in her eyes the second she picked her up. Those pretty hazels warmed almost immediately, her features hardening with the determination I had hoped for.
She knew what was expected of her, she knew what was coming, and what would not be stopped.
She’d had plenty of time to come to terms with her future, but I hoped the more comfortable I got her with Ella, the better off she would be.
Hopefully, her anger over the expectation would dissipate faster if she secretly wanted a child. It would be better for her if she did. But I doubted her spiteful stubbornness would allow that to manifest so quickly.
Once she was pregnant and could feel our child growing and moving inside her, whatever anger she was feeling would be replaced with the longing for motherhood. She might hate me for a long time over it, but that hate would disappear into the eyes of our firstborn.
Jaden would cope and adapt just like she always did.
The doors to my office opened without a knock, telling me Scott had something to report on. Dropping a manila folder onto my desk, he plopped down into the black leather chair behind him.
“Those are the potentials,” he said with a nod toward the folder. “They’re all overly qualified, so personality is probably going to be the next best factor to consider. My advice would be to pick someone she’ll actually want to listen to, someone she’ll respect.”
I scoffed at his joke.
Now, wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace?
Opening the folder, I took the profiles of Jaden’s new potential bodyguards Scott had gathered and spread them out across my desk. Each one had a photo attached to it so I knew what kind of build they would be using to protect my most precious possession. Studying the profiles, an interesting one caught my attention.
“A woman, huh?” I commented as I glanced up at Scott. He nodded as I opened the profile.
“She’s six foot three and built like a tank. A stone-cold Russian like her might be a good change of pace for Jaden. She certainly wouldn’t be barred from the lady’s restroom like Clive and Owen had been.”
“True,” I replied as I flipped through the pages, reading all her credentials.
“I’ve also worked with her in the past. I’d trust her with even my life.”
I glanced back up at Scott to see that he was serious. But as it turned out, she did have an impressive background. Former SVR, expert marksman, ballistic specialist, speaks five languages, and has guarded over a dozen foreign nationals. She even spent some time with the yakuza a few years back. But given her appearance, she would definitely draw some attention.
“Why did she leave the SVR?”
“Sexism,” Scott answered. “Apparently, her looks just didn’t suit for the roles they wanted women like her to play.”
I chucked a laugh, entirely unsurprised. “It’s Russian intelligence, color me shocked. She looks like the damn female boogeyman,” I commented.
