Page 75 of Merciless Protector

I didn’t think luck was involved. Griffin or Shawn had intervened after my confrontation with Ruin. He’d made threats about my family, and all of a sudden, they were headed on a two-week cruise somewhere on the other side of the world in a week.

“Cell reception may be spotty, though they say it won’t be. But just in case you don’t hear from us,” she said.

“You guys have fun and make sure to tell everyone I love them.”

Instead, she passed the phone around and I quickly spoke to my dad and sister before we ended the call. It was for the best, I knew, but I hadn’t been away from my family this long except for my training at Quantico. I didn’t like it then or now. Mom still didn’t know I was pregnant. I didn’t want to tell her over the phone. Plus, I wanted to be sure everything was okay. I had an appointment scheduled for later in the week, and I wondered if Shawn would make it. Though I had no way of telling him myself, I could relay a message. I hadn’t yet.

Bureaucracy moved slowly. Time itself felt like it was moving slower. With my family gone, Shawn MIA, and Kelsey in California, I had no company but myself. Thankfully, I’d been cleared of any charges for the shooting at my door. However, after my pronouncement to my boss that I was pregnant, I’d been put on desk duty and told to meet with my therapist.

I was in tears when I arrived home from my doctor’s appointment later that week. Though everything was fine, and the baby measured out where it should be, my hormones got the best of me.

Likely because I had some romantic notion that Shawn would have magically arrived in time for my first ultrasound. Because I was further along than a normal first baby visit, I’d gotten the works. And I’d seen and heard my baby’s heartbeat—all alone.

I wiped the tears before I opened my mail. I left the package for last. It was always fun getting a package, even when you knew something was coming. In this case, I hadn’t ordered anything that I remembered. It was possible I had a while ago and whatever it was had been on back order. Anyway, once I got past the junk mail, I tore open the bag and was surprised to find what appeared to be a white T-shirt. I unfolded it to find a red heart on one sleeve and nothing else.

There was no note or even a receipt inside. But I just knew it came from Shawn. He would do something like that. I wondered at the meaning. If he was saying my heart, or his, was on the sleeve. I tucked it to my chest regardless and thought of how Lizzy said he shuts himself off not to be secretive but to keep others safe. No doubt he thought he was doing what was best for me. I held on to the shirt like it was my lifeline.

Then my thoughts turned to the bureau. I hated the pace my office worked. My intruder had given up solid information about Ruin’s organization. He hadn’t been able to say it was the senator’s son who ran the business, but he had given the date for the next auction in exchange for full immunity. Unfortunately, the auction couldn’t come soon enough. I wanted to see Shawn again and share the ultrasound picture of our child.

Instead, the landline rang, reminding me of a visitor I expected. I buzzed him through and waited by the door.

My half-brother, David, breezed in like he owned the place.

“Why did you want to see me?” I asked. I’d agreed to the meeting during a late-night call where I’d been too tired to argue.

“Is he living here with you?”

“Not this again,” I said and rubbed at my forehead. I could feel a headache coming on.

“Does the FBI sanction this relationship between you and a criminal?”

I shook my head. “He’s not a criminal.”

His eyes closed to slits. “He hasn’t told you, has he?”

“What are you talking about? They freed him after what happened to me.”

“He hasn’t,” David said, ignoring my statement. “You don’t know who he is, do you?”

For a second, I wondered if he knew Shawn’s real name.

“He’s Shawn Stanton. A former Chicago PD officer who worked off duty for the crime lord Nicolas Cortez.”

I’d heard something about that in the news. I’d been back from training when it came out. My focus had been on my sister that day. The day I’d been taken.

Shawn Stanton, Shawn Rook, Matthew Moore. All the names circled in my head, and I was dizzy from it. I almost blurted out Shawn’s real name.

“You don’t know him,” I said instead.

David got in my face and put his hands on my shoulders as if he wanted to shake some sense into me. But he didn’t. He pulled me into a hug. “I don’t blame you for falling for him. He had me fooled, too.”

I stepped out of the embrace. “We’ve been down this road before. He’s a good guy who paid two million dollars to free me as a favor to you, I might add. He didn’t ask you to repay him, yet you tarnish his name.”

David looked like he had swallowed his tongue. “He what?”

“Exactly. You asked him to find me. I was at an auction. You know, the human kind. Which meant I had to be bought. Shawn paid two million, and you heard me correctly. I’ll say it again in case you didn’t. Two million dollars to free me. Did he tell you that?”

David stuttered. “It was probably drug money from Cortez.”

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