Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A fter Rabie put away the game, he grabbed the Uno cards, and the three of them sat at the coffee table in front of the fire and played. Derrick tried to make conversation, and he could tell Jasmine was working at it as well, but it wasn't easy. Fortunately, the kid seemed oblivious to the tension.

Jasmine played a card, and Derrick glanced at his hand, grabbed the first yellow one he saw, and dropped it on the discard pile.

He still couldn't believe it.

She was pregnant .

She'd been pregnant when she'd left Iraq in October, two months before. As long as Derrick had known her. But she had to be more than two months along. Didn't morning sickness end after the first three? Not that Derrick had that much experience, but people talked about this kind of thing. Had her morning sickness ended, or had Dad given her something to make it stop?

Was morning sickness curable?

If it were, why would any woman have it?

And there'd been that tiny belly. When did a woman start showing a pregnancy? Summer was five months pregnant, maybe six, and she barely had a belly. So was Jasmine farther along? Or was it not that simple? He had no idea.

He itched to get on the laptop and do some research, but he'd agreed to play a few games of Uno. He could wait.

Besides, the answers he most needed wouldn't be found on the internet.

"Your turn," Rabie said.

Derrick saw the blue card on the pile. His only blue card was a reverse-direction, so he plopped that down, earning a scowl from the kid.

Jasmine said, "To me, yes? Yay!" She sounded overly chipper, faking it, just like he was. She played a card.

Rabie did next, and then Derrick had to draw from the pile. He'd lost count by the time he grabbed the right number, changing the color back to yellow.

He was replaying Jasmine's reaction when he'd asked if she loved the baby's father. Her lip had curled. Had that been…disgust?

Why would she be with a man who?—?

"Uno!" Rabie announced.

Jasmine groaned. "Oh, no."

Derrick fanned out his cards and gave her a look. "We're in trouble."

"We must work together to defeat him."

Work together? He liked the sound of that. Would that they could work together on more than just a stupid card game.

His mind circled back to the question. Why would she be with a man who disgusted her, unless…?

Oh.

Oh, man.

Had she been…?

That had to be it. There was no other explanation that made sense, not with a woman like Jasmine. Hadn't she told him she was the obedient one? She would never have disobeyed her father by sneaking off with some guy. She would never have dishonored him that way. Which meant some man had forced himself on her.

Cold fury stole over Derrick. What kind of man would take advantage of a woman like Jasmine—tiny, defenseless, afraid.

What had Michael said back at the house a couple days before, that Derrick's feelings for her might change once he knew the truth?

If Michael thought that, then he didn't know Derrick at all.

"I win!"

Whoops. Derrick had played that all wrong. Not that he'd been paying a whit of attention. He smiled and high-fived him. "Nice going, kiddo. Good game."

Rabie beamed.

Jasmine gathered the cards and started shuffling them. It was a huge deck, and Derrick held his hand out. "Let me help."

But a phone rang. Had to be Michael.

Derrick sprang to his feet and hurried to the cordless handset he'd left in the kitchen. "Hello?"

"It's me," Michael said.

If anything, Derrick's fury only ramped up. "Hold on." He hurried into his jacket and zipped it up. He didn't need Jasmine or Rabie overhearing this conversation.

"Can you put Jasmine on?" Michael asked.

"First, you and I are going to talk." He stepped outside and slammed the door behind him. The air was aggressively cold, dry and brittle. A stiff breeze carried away the vapor of his breath as he marched across the small yard to the line of trees and stepped beneath them. They blocked most of the wind, at least. "She's pregnant."

"She finally told you."

" You should have told me!"

"It wasn't?—"

"I'm in love with her." Derrick was shouting, but he couldn't seem to stop. All the frustration and anger and worry and…all of it, everything he couldn't unload on Jasmine burst out. "You knew, and you said nothing."

"I told her to tell?—"

"What about loyalty, huh? What about brotherhood? What about?—?"

"I'm loyal." Michael sounded…hurt.

Derrick didn't care. "You and your"—he swallowed a word he was shocked even came to mind—"secrets. You just love knowing things nobody else does. Does it make you feel superior?" He needed to stop. He was being irrational, throwing a temper tantrum just like Rabie had.

If he didn't stop, he'd shred their relationship. He'd say something he couldn't take back. Maybe already had.

He clamped his lips shut, swallowing the rest of the vitriol like poison.

"Are you done?" Michael's voice was even.

Derrick's fury faded. It wasn't Michael he was angry with. Not only Michael, anyway. "You should have told me."

"She's Leila's sister, Derrick." His words were even, holding none of the emotion Derrick had just unloaded. "She's going to be my sister. I'm loyal to you, but I have to be loyal to her too. I hated not being able to tell you."

Derrick stared at the ground beneath his sneakers. Dirt, dead leaves, fallen pine needles. The scent of earth and forest reminded him of home and his childhood. He leaned back against a thick oak. "You told Dad." He sounded like a pouty child.

"She needed a doctor."

"Does Mom know?"

"Not unless Jasmine told her, and I don't think she did. "

So it wasn't as if they all knew. Bad enough they all knew Derrick was in love with her. How horrifying to think they'd all been waiting for him to learn this secret, watching like it was some melodrama playing out in real time.

"Leila knows, obviously," Michael added. "Sophie might know, but she lives with them, so it would make sense they'd talked about it. And I should tell you…" If Derrick didn't know his brother better, he'd say Michael sounded nervous.

Which made Derrick nervous.

"I told Bryan, a couple weeks ago."

Bryan knew? Derrick's best friend? Even he hadn't said anything?

He lowered his head and massaged the back of his neck with frigid fingers. This was humiliating on so many fronts.

"He was going to Europe to do that thing for me," Michael said, "and… I felt like he needed to understand how important it was to keep their whereabouts secret."

Derrick snapped his gaze up, wishing he could look Michael in the eyes, not that he ever gave away information he didn't intend to share. "What does that have to do with her being pregnant?"

"Did she tell you… How much did she tell you?"

"She hasn't told me anything. I figured it out about the pregnancy. Is that who's after her? The father? I thought the people who followed her and Leila were all killed on that boat. Well, except her dad and uncle, but you're saying?—"

"Jasmine can explain."

"Just tell me!" He winced at his demanding tone. He was the brother who held everyone together, not the one who made demands and shouted accusations.

But…but this was too much.

"It's still not my place to tell her story. Put her on the phone." Michael tagged on a "please," but it wasn't a request .

"Fine." Derrick turned and headed back to the house, still angry but also…worried. "I'm sorry I said all those things." He ground out his apology, knowing he owed it, even if he didn't feel it. "I shouldn't have, and?—"

"Why are you sorry?" Michael sounded genuinely confused. "You have every right to be ticked. I did what I had to do, but if I were you, I'd want to punch me. Not that you should try it, 'cause, you know, I'd throttle you."

"You wish." Derrick tried to match his brother's joking tone. "I didn't mean what I said, you know, about the secrets. I was just…" What? What was he? Hurt, but he wasn't going to say that. "Are we good?"

"I'm good if you are."

"I…will be. I'm just… I'll get there."

"Fair enough," Michael said.

Just like that, it was over.

Huh.

Derrick returned to the house, where Jasmine stood in the living room, waiting for him. Rabie wasn't in sight.

"I asked him to play in the bedroom for a few minutes," Jasmine said.

"Good." Derrick held out the phone. "You should probably go into the kitchen."

She took the handset and walked away, perhaps hoping for privacy.

But Derrick wasn't going to make it easy for her to keep secrets. He'd had enough of those, both from his brothers and from the woman he loved.