Page 149 of Retribution

Indie

I drop to the floor instantly, tucking myself into the fetal position as all hell breaks loose.

Combat.

Chaos.

Carnage.

I cover my ears from the sounds, my heart drilling into my eardrums with the intensity.

A pair soft hands pull my own hands away from my ears and I open one eye slowly, my body relaxing into an exhausted heap.

“It’s over,” he whispers, the sounds of footsteps shuffling around the room almost overthrow the volume of his voice.

I gaze absentmindedly into his endless ocean of blue, the familiarity caresses my body with a gentle comfort.

I sit myself up and see I’m still shaking uncontrollably, unable to stop my natural reaction of shock.

He pulls me into his arms as he’s kneels down, placing his hand on the back of my head whilst he squeezes me.

“It’s all over, dimples.” He breathes as we sink into each other.

He pulls away from me and kisses me deeply, repeatedly.

“You did so well, I’m so proud of you.” Reed holds my face in his hands as he grins at me.

My heart flutters and I turn my head slightly, seeing the two limp bodies of Allie and Lottie.

“Willow?” I panic.

“She’s waiting at the terminal for us.”

“Lola and Gracie–” I begin, the frantic sounds in my voice.

“They were Devon’s men.”

And once again, my muscles relax.

I had put all of my faith, my trust, God, my life into Reed’s hands, and he saved us.

He saved us all.

I look over to the corner of the room and see Devon fully kitted out in a bullet-proof vest, cargo trousers and combat boots.

When Reed told me their plans, I was apprehensive.

He shared that Devon served in the military as a pilot for the first seven years of his career, and that he wanted to do his part for the world differently. He didn’t want to be on the front line, he wanted to be behind the scenes, in the shadows, defending the innocent as opposed to fighting federal warfare. That’s when he found others like him, others who wanted to live the ‘double agent’ lifestyle. Reed paid for Devon’s entire team to fly out to Dubai commercially, they were more than prepared.

Reed told me everything on the flight here, about the first time he ever saw me at the business conference, the P.I, the hit he put out on Allie, the suspicions he had regarding her autopsy report and Scott.

We were both caught off guard with Lottie’s involvement and their relationship, we didn’t see that one coming.

The miscarriage story was debatable, I think she’d heard about it and tried to use it to her advantage to make it seem like she had more influence on our lives than she actually had.

We had our suspicions, the symptoms never stopped so we called a doctor over on the night of Reed’s accident. Once he’d checked over Reed’s injuries, we told him about what had happened and if everything that I was experiencing was normal. He laid me down on the couch and took my vitals and then he removed the Doppler from his bag. He pushed it into my pelvis and the thumping of a strong heartbeat flooded the room. The doctor suspected that it had been twins, and I had lost one of them which caused the confusion.

It turns out our little baby was hiding on the ultrasound I had in the hospital, waiting to surprise us in their own special way.

---