Page 31 of Violent Reign (Violent Kingdom)

“Because of the gestational age of your baby, we’ll need to do a transvaginal ultrasound to get a look.” Claudia goes on smoothly, explaining the details, but all I can think about is that Dr. Hollis is going to come into the room and stick something inside of me.

“Of course. I understand,” I hear myself say. And then she’s gone, leaving me in the room with Nathan.

“Need help getting undressed?” I want help wiping the self-satisfied smile right off his face. No snarky comeback comes to mind with fear barreling through my veins and knocking against my bones. Nathan stands and suddenly he’s right in front of me, his fingers skimming my waist as he looks hungrily at me. “Jesus, the doctor’s coming back!” I protest, as he tries to cop a feel. He bats my hands away, lifting my dress hem, sliding my panties down my thighs slowly.

“Okay, okay,” he laughs, stepping away. “I’ll behave.”

The nurse will be back any second, with the doctor. I’ll only be exposed for a minute.Hurry, hurry.I slip off my panties—thank god I wore a dress—and climb quickly back up onto the table with the sheet. It feels like putting on armor to slide the cloth over my lap. But it’s just not enough. It’ll never be enough, not with Nathan in the room.

Dr. Hollis sweeps in, his face a blank mask, and I sink into the usual doctor’s office banter. He brushes over topics like my dad—still in the ICU—and the rest of my family, congratulates us on our marriage, and dims the lights.

My lungs constrict when Dr. Hollis lifts the wand from its spot on the ultrasound setup. Fuck. I just attacked him, threatened his family, and now he’s going to put that thing inside of me. It’s nothing I can’t handle. It’s an ultrasound wand, not a rapist’s dick, but my whole body revolts. I find myself gripping the sides of the table. Dr. Hollis doesn’t notice. He snaps a condom onto the wand and adds lube.

I’m not going to make it. I’m breathing through a straw, smaller than a straw, and there’s nobody for miles who knows how to help me.

A hand slips into mine and holds tight.

Nathan. Fuck you, asshole. Justfuck you.

I can’t throw him off, not in front of Dr. Hollis. So I squeeze back until my nails are gouging his flesh and close my eyes. My toes curl tight on the stirrups, my thighs as tense as they’ve ever been, andI can’t do this. I just can’t do this.

“She might need a minute, Doc. This year has been tough.”

“No,” I wheeze. “I’m fine. Just do it. I want to see the baby.”

“You’re so brave,” murmurs Nathan. “Just breathe through it.” How could he have sat next to me at the hospital that day while the doctor processed a rape kit? How fucking could he? And why do I have to keep suffering, over and over and over? Why is it Nathan who strokes my hair while Dr. Hollis pushes the wand inside of me and works it around to get a view of my battered fucking uterus?

A new panic grips me. If the doctor doesn’t lie, then I’m fucked. I might be fucked already, because I can’t breathe. I want to get away from Nathan so badly that I can hardly swallow. My heartbeat crashes through my ears, cymbals gone crazy. Dr. Hollis clicks at the machine. Click, click, click. I don’t know how these ultrasounds work. I don’t know what he’ll have to do to make the timeline fit. If the machine automatically calculates the size—

He types something in. “You’re about two weeks along, Avery. We call that four weeks, but it’s really two weeks since conception. Too early for the heartbeat, but the baby’s there and doing everything it should. Congratulations, mom and dad. Everything looks perfect so far.”

Chapter Nineteen

ELLIOT MCRAE

It’sa long wait until the next Wednesday to get ahold of Avery Capulet. She’s finally back at work, but she’s in wall-to-wall meetings all morning and barely emerges from the meeting room or her office, which is weird, considering that she’s pregnant. A fact I learned when I had our IT guy hack into her medical records after Isobel and I tailed her and Nathan to an OBGYN appointment.

Honestly, I thought the bathroom at work would be an easy get. But she puts it off. Must be too early in the pregnancy for her to have to pee all the time. Honestly, I’m still reeling from the news that she’s knocked up. Maybe that’s what the shotgun wedding was for, then. But still. It doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense.

Finally, she goes in when there’s nobody else in there and I seize the opportunity, dashing out from the dimmed meeting room next to the bathroom, where I’ve been lurking the better part of the morning.

I hover inside the door until she’s done and wait for the rush of water in the sink before I make my move. Avery’s chosen the sink closest to the door, so I only have to take one step to get my hand over her mouth.

She makes a strangled scream into my palm, but I’m already dragging her backward into the accessible stall. Damn, she’s got fire. It’s hard to get her small body to move. Finally I stop with the stall door still open so she can see both of us in the mirror. Her struggle falls away and is replaced with a pair of wide eyes.

I get us both into the stall and close the door, locking it behind me.

“What are you doing here?” she hisses. “You’re going to get us both killed.”

“Here in the women’s bathroom? I thought it would be pretty safe in here.”

Her eyes dart all around but finally settle back on me. “You have to back off. You are seriously putting my life at risk. If Nathan finds out you’ve talked to me, he’s going to lose his shit.”

I’ve never heard Avery so deadly serious about anything. She doesn’t just mean that Nathan will be angry, or that Nathan might shout—the whites of her eyes tell me she’s afraid he’ll do something more. To me? To her? I don’t know who it’s going to be worse for.

“Avery, what the hell’s going on?” I mutter. “You can square with me. I’m not on the company payroll, I swear.”

She swallows, her eyes darting around the stall. I realize she’s trying to stop herself from crying. “If I tell you, we’re both dead,” she whispers. “What do you want?”

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