Brooke

B rooke watched as Mace walked out of the kitchen to call his father. She was an ass for insisting that he should call his father when calling hers was the last thing she wanted to do.

She took a deep breath and pulled her phone from her pocket and called her dad, thankful that he didn’t pick up on the first ring. “,” he said.

“Hey, Dad,” she breathed. “I’m calling to see if you have any information that can help the case I’m working on. Did you find anything?” she asked.

“What, no asking how I’m doing or any pleasantries at all?” her father chided.

“I’m sorry,” she grumbled. The last thing she wanted was for each of them to have a conversation about things that neither of them were interested in. “How are you, Dad?” she asked.

“I’m well,” he said. “How are you?”

“Do you honestly want to know?” she questioned.

“Of course I do,” he insisted.

“Okay, then I’ll give you the honest truth. Here’s the whole run down, Dad. I’m staying in a safehouse because a crazy woman is after me,” she admitted.

“Is it the same person you have me checking into?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m sure that she’s the killer, not Mace, and I just need to prove it. I know that you don’t want me on his case anymore, but you might change your mind about that once I tell you this next part,” said.

“I doubt that, but what’s the next part, ?” her father asked.

“I’m pregnant with Mace’s baby and now, it’s more important than ever that I prove that he’s innocent. My child needs a father in his or her life,” she said.

“What have you done?” her father shouted into the other end of the phone.

“Well, Dad,” she started, “I’ve fallen in love with a wonderful man and now, we’re going to have a baby together.”

“Over my dead body,” her father growled. She was sure that Mace would be fine with that ultimatum, but she wasn’t.

“I hope that it doesn’t come to that, Dad, but if that’s how you want things, that’s fine with me. My child doesn’t have to ever know about you, even though I was hoping that you’d want the chance to know him or her. But I won’t let you put Mace down and there is no way that I’ll ever let you bad mouth him in front of his own child.”

“Have it your way,” her father breathed. “It will be a cold day in hell before I accept a biker into our family, . When you come to your senses, I’ll accept both you and your child back into my life, but for now, I think that we should part ways. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave the firm.”

barked out her laugh. “I think that you’re forgetting one thing, Dad. I have a majority of the shares. You can’t let me go. But I can let you go, and right now, I think it would be best for us to part ways, Dad. You’re fired and I expect you to have your office cleared out by the end of the month.” wasn’t sure if she’d even be back in the office before the end of the month, but she could hope.

“You have no idea what you’re doing,” her father insisted.

“I’m taking control of my life, Dad. I’m sick of you telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. I might have listened to you when I was younger, but now, I can stand on my own two feet. Mace has made me the confident woman that I always wanted to be, and you can’t stand that, can you?” she asked.

“I doubt that’s true, but you believe what you need to believe, . You’ll be hearing from my lawyer,” her father spat. He ended the call, and she sank to the closest chair at the kitchen table. Mace was right about one thing—the conversation with her father totally stressed her out, but she was stronger for having it. There was no way that she would allow her father to steal her joy. She was going to be a mother and have a baby with a man she had quickly fallen in love with. That was what was focusing on now—and her father’s opinion be damned.

was taking advantage of Mace being in the shower to get some work done. Ever since telling him about the baby two weeks ago, he was in hyper-protective mode. It was cute, really, but needed to kick up her defense for Mace if she wanted to keep her baby’s father out of jail.

She had just sunk onto the couch with her laptop when a soft knock at the back door had her spooked. They definitely weren’t expecting anyone, but she and Mace were having things delivered to the safehouse all the time. She was sure that Mace had probably bought something and had forgotten to tell her.

jumped up from the sofa and dashed to the back door as the knocking got louder. “Hold on, I’m coming,” she shouted. She pulled the door open and immediately tried to close it again when she saw Julie on the other side.

“Don’t fight, honey,” Julie insisted. She pointed her gun at ’s chest, and she knew that Julie would have no problem pulling the trigger. She had already killed Mace’s half-brother, and there would be nothing stopping her from killing .

“I’m assuming that Mace is out,” Julie said. There was no way that would tell the psycho bitch that he was in the shower. There would be no telling what Julie would do to get to him—including killing to get her out of the way.

“He is,” said. “I can tell him that you stopped by.” Julie’s smile was mean, and Julie knew that she had struck a nerve. Pissing off Julie wasn’t her finest idea.

“That’s cute,” Julie drawled, “but, I’m sure that he’ll get the message when you aren’t here. Let’s go.” Julie shoved the barrel of her gun into ’s chest and shoved her to the door. She wasn’t sure what she could do to stop Julie from taking her and alerting Mace wasn’t an option. That would only end up getting them both killed because Mace would do something stupid like try to rescue her.

“Where are you taking me?” asked.

“You’ll see,” Julie taunted. “You’ll be safe until Mace figures out what happened to you. Then, your fate will be up to him.”

“What does that mean?” asked. She was stalling, hoping that Mace would get out of the shower and figure out that they had an uninvited guest, but that was also a risky move.

“It means that Mace will decide what happens to you. I’m going to give him two options—dump you for me, or I kill both of you,” Julie spat. “And that would really be a shame because before you took my place in Mace’s life, he loved me. We had a connection.”

“Like you and Reece had a connection?” asked. Julie turned red with anger and that wasn’t what she needed right now. “I’m sorry,” lied. She meant every word that she had just said to Julie, but taking them back was the only way to keep herself and her baby alive. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“You’re right, you shouldn’t have,” Julie said. “Now, let’s go before I change my mind and kill you right here. Can you imagine poor Mace’s face when he sees you lying on the kitchen floor after bleeding out from a gunshot wound?” could imagine that and the thought of Mace finding her body scared the hell out of her.

Julie grabbed a handful of ’s hair and yanked her back, poking the gun into her back again. “I said, let’s go,” Julie whispered into her ear.

“Okay,” cried. She had no idea where Julie was going to take her and leaving a clue for Mace wasn’t possible, even if she knew where she was going. was just going to have to hope for a miracle and do what Julie told her to do because that might be the only way to keep both her and her baby safe.