11-Donovan

Anger rises in my core.

Shorty isn't answering my calls and I start to freak the fuck out. I should think about putting a tracker in her cell phone and not tell her.

I laugh at the thought of Shorty's reaction if I did something like that. Thankfully, she set up her phone to share her location with me.

When the signal directs me to the prison, I am suffocating from anger and my protective instinct. I am dangerously close to losing my shit.

"What are you doing here, Shorty?" I say in a calm tone with my hands casually in my pockets.

She tucks her phone in her purse and crosses her arms across her chest.

I chuckle to myself—my little spitfire.

"How did you find me?"

"Doesn't matter.""Yes, it does. How. Did. You. Find. Me?"

"There's a tracker on your phone," I say honestly.

"Are you—" she takes a step back and takes a deep breath— "you had no right to invade my privacy, Donnie. Are you out of your mind?" she snaps.

Removing my hands from my pockets, I move closer to her. God, she smells fucking incredible.

"Relax. I didn't do it." My lips twitch in humor. "But I would've. I told you I would do anything to keep you safe."

Her features soften at my declaration.

"Donnie, I'm ok. Javi assigned agents to watch me every time I leave the house."

"It's not enough."

She gives me a warm smile, wraps her arms around my waist, and places her chin on my chest to meet my gaze. Unable to hold back, I wrap my arms around her and pull her close.

"I know it's not, but you need to trust that they can do their job. Javi won't let anything happen to me."

That doesn't make me feel better. When she's not at my side, bad shit happens. I almost lost her more than once and won't risk losing her again. And now that she's pregnant, my anxiety has heightened past the max. I rarely sleep, and it is becoming difficult to concentrate on anything but her safety.

"Come on, let's go." She squeezes me tighter, rises on her tiptoes, and brushes her lips against mine.

Anger wells inside of me as I remember why I followed her here.

"What did you and your ex have to talk about?"

Her body tenses in my arms.

"Shorty," I growl in frustration.

"He asked me to come," she says quickly. "He wanted to explain his behavior and what went down at the warehouse."

I slightly pull away to get a better look at her face. "Are you out of your goddamn mind?"

"I needed to know— "

"To know what?" I interrupt.

"He was warning me to watch my back and said he will keep his ears open for information I need to know."

Keep your shit together,I tell myself.

"What else?" She's hiding something, I can tell by the way she doesn't look directly at me. I grab her face and kiss the side of her mouth. "What else?"

"He wants to see Sophia."

Breathe, damnit. Breathe.

Something in her eyes sends a prickling sensation up my spine.

"Tell me you are not considering it."

Her silence says all I need to know. I push away from her, fighting to control the anger and jealousy trying to break through my walls.

"He's her father— "

I open my mouth, but she holds her hand up to interrupt me.

"I forgave him for what he has done to me, but I understand why he thought he was doing the right thing."

I pace in a circle with my hands on my head, trying to wrap my head around this.

"I know what it's like to see someone you care about struggle with a mental health disorder that can easily overpower them."

I stop and stare at my beautiful, fierce, loving girl. She doesn't even wipe away the tears that sparkle like diamonds when the sun hits her heart-shaped face.

"It doesn't excuse his behavior, but he will be in prison for a long time. He's back on his meds, and I want him to know his daughter. Because everyone deserves a second chance. It doesn't have to be me, but he can have a second chance with his daughter. I know he'll do right by her."

"How can you be so sure?" My voice is nothing but a whisper.

Shorty walks closer to me and interlaces her fingers with mine. "Because he's alone. He's lost all those that mattered to him. But I can give him a chance with his daughter to redeem himself," she says without looking at me, instead focusing on our linked hands.

She's fucking amazing. The fact that she can see the good in the ugly is humbling. No one deserves her heart, not even me. But I'm a selfish bastard who will keep her and do whatever I can to ensure she lives a fulfilling life.

"I love you."

So fucking hard.

She smiles. "I love you too. Now come on, let's go. You can feed me." She drags me further into the parking lot.

Once we reach my car, I scan the area and notice two unmarked black cars at the far end of the lot. Those must be the agents following her.

I pull open Shorty's door and push her in by grabbing her ass. I brought the truck instead of the sports car. I love watching her struggle to get her little legs into the truck. Plus, it gives me a reason to grab her ass.

"Seriously, Donnie? You don't need to grab me there every time." She laughs.

"Yep. I sure do," I sing song, slapping her behind.

I jog to the other side of the car with a stupid grin and slip into the driver's seat.

"Where to?" I ask, turning on the ignition.

"How about Mario's Pit Master on 12th?" she asks, putting on her seatbelt.

Mario's Pit Master was Shorty's favorite little burger joint back in the day. We used to ride there on our bikes when we had enough money to buy a burger and a shake.

"Mario's Pit Master it is." Putting the truck in reverse, we pull out of the spot and onto the road.

A good twenty minutes away from the burger joint, I glance over at Shorty, who is staring out of her window, deep in thought. My eyes travel to her stomach. I can see a little bump, and my heart swells up. She's carrying my baby.

"What?" she asks with her eyebrows furrowed when she catches me staring.

"You're beautiful." I never understood when people said there's a glow to a pregnant woman. I didn't believe it until Shorty. Now all she's missing is her halo.

Her cheeks take on a light pink hue. She smiles. "I wanted to talk to you about my ultrasound appointment."

"What?"

"Do you want to go?"

"Fuck, yeah, I want to go."

Her smile widens, and it makes me happy that I put it there.

"Do you think they'll tell us the gender?" I ask as I turn right off the highway, stealing glances at her.

"Not until fourteen weeks."

There's a brief pause before she speaks again.

"God. Can you believe it? We're having a baby." Shorty turns her head to the side to face me.

"Yeah, I can believe it. We've been planning this since we were kids." I grin at her.

She lifts her head with an adorable puzzled look on her face. "What?"

Turning back to the road, I lightly chuckle at a memory from when I was seven, and Shorty was six.

Shorty and I were sitting on the floor of my bedroom playing Connect Four.

"I win again!" she squealed and clapped her hands.

I'd been letting her win the past two games because I liked seeing her happy. She spent the night after her dad locked her out of the house as punishment. Her mom was working overnight, and Jo was staying over at his friend's house. I hated it when she was left all alone, especially at nighttime.

I wished I could keep her forever.

Maybe one day when we were older, I could.

"What do you want to do now?" Shory asked, holding her doll close to her chest.

"What's her name?" I asked, tugging on the doll's hair that was curly like Shorty's.

Shorty's smile brightened and she waved the doll in the air. "Her name is Star."

"Star?"

She nodded several times. "Yup." She popped the P.

"That's a pretty name, Shorty." I gave her a smile.

"Donnie?"

"Yeah, Shorty?"

"When we get old, can we have babies?"

My eyes bugged out of my head. "You want to have babies with me?"

"Yeah." Shorty smiled as twinkling stars danced in her eyes.

Was it weird that I liked the idea of having babies with Shorty?

Shorty got up from the floor and skipped toward my bed. She dropped her little butt on top of the covers, swinging her legs over the edge.

I spun on the floor to face her. "How many babies do you want?"

Shorty raised her finger to her chin and titled her head toward the ceiling. "Mm…I want four!" She held up four fingers.

"Four?" My mouth hung open in shock. That was a lot of babies.

"Yup. Two boys and two girls. I'm going to take good care of them." She hummed, rocking the doll in her arms.

"I'm going to tell them how much I love them and I'll hug them every day. I'm never going to hit them or say mean things that will make them cry." Shorty squeezed the doll against her body and placed a kiss on its forehead.

Her words made me angry because it reminded me of how her father treated her. I hated it. I hated him. I didn't want him to hurt her anymore.

I got back on my feet and sat next to Shorty on the bed. "You're going to be a good mommy," I told her.

Shorty lifted her head and smiled at me. "You're going to be a good daddy."

When I grew up, I was going to marry Shorty and have four babies with her. Then, I would get to keep Shorty forever.

"Let's pinky swear," Shorty said, holding out her pinky.

"Ok." I curled my pinkie around hers. "I swear to give you lots of babies."

Shorty giggled and threw her arms around my neck. "I love you, Doni."

My heart melted.

"I love you too, Shorty."

Turning back to the road, I notice a black sedan speeding up from behind in the rearview mirror and begin to ride my ass.

"Shorty, hang on," I warn before I press my foot on the gas to increase my speed.

"What's going on?" Shorty twists her body around in her seat and notices the car.

"Shorty, turn around and keep your seatbelt on," I demand.

She complies with a whisper.

I keep my eyes on the driver, trying to remain calm to not freak the fuck out with my pregnant girl in the car.

Suddenly, the car drives around me and, in a flash, swerves into me, but I dodge it, and the car speeds up in front of me.

"What the hell?" Shorty screeches, righting herself after smacking into the door panel.

"Fuck. Are you ok?" I glance between her and the road.

"Yeah, shit. What the hell is this guy's problem? And why am I always being chased?" She breathes heavily, trying to control the racing of her heart when she places her hand on her chest.

I look behind to see if the unmarked cars are following, but I don't see them.

Where the hell are they?

I'm about to tell Shorty to call Javi when she screams watch out when the car heads in the opposite direction, coming right for us.

"FUCK!" I yell, swerving to avoid getting hit head-on, but I'm not quick enough. The car hits the rear tire causing the truck to spin out from the impact.

Shorty screams.

I watch in horror as Shorty is thrown from side to side.

"Shorty! Are you ok?" I ask with urgency, trying to grab her.

"Yeah," she cries, holding her hands on the roof of the truck.

The truck finally stops spinning, and I gain control of the wheel.

I don't hesitate and gun it.

"Shorty, I need you to call Javi."

"Ok," she says in a trembling voice while her hands shake, trying to grip the phone.

I keep my eyes on the driver, but he's nowhere nearby. Where did he go?

"Javi?" Shorty cries through the phone. She's unable to get the words out while in complete panic mode.

"Baby, I need you to put him on speaker."

When she does what I ask, Javi's voice reverberates in the air. "What the hell is going on?"

I explained to Javi in detail what was happening and gave him our location.

"If the agents are not nearby, we have a mole. Fuck!" He bellows.

His words haven't hit me yet as my eyes stay trained on the road and keeping a lookout for the car.

"What do you mean a mole?" Shorty asks with fear.

We hear Javi giving orders in the background, along with the sound of a police siren. "Don't worry about that right now. Donnie, I need you to get somewhere safe. Do you know the old brewery off of Waukee Ave?"

"Yeah."

"I'll have— "

He doesn't get to finish when a black SUV comes out of nowhere and smashes into us, sending my truck into a wild spin and crashing through the bridge. Shorty screams, and we are thrown into the water.