Evie

“C’mon, baby. Open those pretty brown eyes for me. It’s been too long since I’ve seen them.”

There was something wrong with Alex’s voice. It sounded hoarse, like he’d been crying. That couldn’t possibly be right, though. My husband wasn’t a crier. I tried to think of the last time I’d seen tears in his eyes, but my brain didn’t seem to be in working condition at the moment.

I felt the weight of his hand where it rested on my belly. His heat seeped into my skin, warming me, and I realized I was chilled. Goosebumps raced along my arms, and I wanted to pull the blankets up higher but couldn’t seem to make my arms move. There was a short buzzing sound, and I tried to turn my head in the direction from which it came, but couldn’t manage it. I started to panic, but then Alex spoke again and the sound of his voice soothed me.

“Can you bring in a warmed blanket for my wife? She’s cold and it isn’t good for the baby.”

Baby? I knew he liked to call me baby. It wasn’t something I’d ever expected to enjoy, but I loved that Alex had a cute nickname for me. Only, I didn’t think that’s how he’d used it. It was so hard to focus, but I could have sworn he meant it as in an actual baby, a life we’d created together.

Holy crap, how long had I been out of it? I fought against the exhaustion and pain, desperate to make it past the darkness. I tried to open my eyes, but it made the pain worse. It was excruciating, worse than anything I’d ever felt before, but the added pain had one huge benefit—it got my vocal cords working again as a deep moan burst from my lips.

“Evie,” Alex gasped, his hand moving from my stomach to grab my hand and squeeze tightly. “Come back to me. I’m right here waiting for you.”

His voice is filled with hope and rough desperation. I can’t let him down. Not my Alex. I gathered all of my meager strength and directed it towards the hand he was holding, making my fingers wiggle.

“That’s it, baby. You can do it.”

It was as if some of his strength flowed from him to me, coursing through my veins.

“Alex,” I croaked. My throat felt like it was on fire, very dry fire. I swept my tongue over my lips, trying to wet them, but to no avail. My entire mouth felt like I’d been walking in the desert for months without water. The sound of pouring liquid filled the room, and I almost cried in relief.

“Here, baby,” Alex murmured, sliding a straw between my lips. “Just a little sip. The nurses will probably want to kick my ass for giving you water before I tell them you’re awake, but I can’t bear to see you in pain like this when there’s something I can do to help.”

I managed a sip and the cool liquid tasted better than the finest wine as it hit my tongue. I took a second sip, and then a third before he pulled the straw away from me.

“No,” I protested, cracking an eye open and wincing. I left it open, squinting in the direction of Alex’s voice, just in time to see him drop the cup onto the floor as he jumped from the chair beside my bed. He looked so haggard in his rumpled clothes, with dark circles under his eyes and more days’ growth on his face than I’d seen in a long time. “I want more.”

“My greedy girl,” he whispered into my ear. “I’ll give you all the water you want as soon as the doctor clears you for it.”

“Doctor?” I repeated, thinking back to the last thing I remembered. “We were at the warehouse. Heron was going to shoot you.” My other eye popped open, the pain overshadowed by my fear for Alex as I frantically searched his body for any signs of a bullet wound, until a long finger gently lifted my head until our eyes met.

“I’m fine,” he reassured me. “You dove in front of me and took the bullet he meant for me.”

His gaze dropped for a moment to my shoulder, and I was suddenly aware of the throbbing pain there. A pain which was mirrored in Alex’s eyes when they met mine again. “Fuck, Evie. I can’t believe you did that, but it’s something we’ll discuss later when you’re fully recovered.”

The thread of steel in his tone made my lip tug up at one corner. It was as close to a smile as I could manage. I knew what he meant when he said we’d be discussing it though, and the reason why I needed to be better for that talk—one which was sure to take place while I was stark naked and spread eagle on our bed. My thighs tightened together and the slight movement sent a shockwave of pain through my body.

“Hurts,” I whimpered.

Alex’s head swiveled away from me so he could look over his shoulder. “You’re due for more medicine soon.”

“Where are we?”

“Moron.”

His answer shocked me. Martin really had been able to get me on a military base.

“What’s my cover?”

Alex dropped back into the chair, running his fingers through his hair. It was a sure sign I wasn’t going to like what he had to tell me. “You don’t have a cover, Evie. There wasn’t a need for one because you’ve been burned.”

He slumped even farther into his chair and rubbed his palms over his eyes, but we were interrupted before he could tell me anything else.

“Oh, my,” the nurse breathed as she walked into the room. “It looks like our patient finally woke up.”

She flashed me a smile before calling out to someone else in the hallway. Before I knew it, I had a full medical team in the room with us. They hovered, poking me, prodding me, and doing who knows what else. None of it phased me. It didn’t even register. My gaze was locked on Alex. I needed to make it through their examination before I could be alone with him. Before I could find out why I’d been burned. They explained that I’d suffered a skull fracture, but to my relief, it didn’t require surgery. Finally, after what felt like hours, they left us alone.

“Tell me.” I didn’t need to say anything else, Alex knew exactly what I meant.

“Colin put a hit on Scarlett after he got information about your code name off the noc list from Heron.”

“Colin?” I felt like I was in an alternate universe as Alex explained everything that had happened with Colin, Heron, and Leon while I’d been unconscious.

“I’m damn sorry, Evie. Colin was a part of our lives because of me.”

“It’s not your fault, stud. He managed to fool us all, and from what you uncovered, it sounds like he was after Scarlett without knowing I was her,” I reminded him. “And I’m probably getting off lightly since I made the decision to leave Heron alive against my orders.”

“Why did you do it, Evie?” he sounded tortured.

“Because I love and trust you, Alex,” I answered. “You were so certain you needed the information Heron had. How could I take that opportunity away from you? And look what happened. If I’d killed him, you might never have known about Colin. A fact my boss was apparently unwilling to take into consideration when he burned me, but maybe it’s for the best. I’m clearly not as good at reading people as I thought I was. I didn’t know you were an agent and I never pegged Colin for a bad guy.”

“About that,” he sighed. “We’re lucky the agency doesn’t look at it the same way you do because I didn’t see it either and they offered me a promotion. To a desk.”

“You won’t be in the field anymore?” It was a huge relief to me, knowing he’d be safe in an office. But I’d seen for myself how he thrived in that environment. “Are you sure it’s what you want?”

“Yes.”

His one word answer wasn’t exactly convincing. “Really?”

“I think I’ll make a damn good Controller, and it means I get to come home to you every night,” he replied. “So yeah, I’m more than okay with the promotion.”

“Good,” I sighed.

“That’s not even the best part, though,” he continued. “Special Operations wants you to stay on with the agency as an instructor.”

“They do?” I breathed, afraid to get my hopes up. It was practically unheard of for a burned operative to be allowed anywhere near the agency, let alone to be offered a position. “How did you manage that?”

He grinned sheepishly. “It wasn’t too hard to convince them to make it a condition of my accepting the promotion. My superiors didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to have the infamous Scarlett training the newbies. I think I just gave them the perfect excuse to make it happen.”

A giggle slipped past my lips, surprising me considering the situation. “I guess we’ll start on a new phase of our lives together when they spring me from here then.”

“More than you realize,” he mumbled under his breath. His Adam’s apple shifted as he gulped, making me incredibly nervous.

“What haven’t you told me yet? Are my injuries really bad?” My voice rose, and I wiggled my toes to make sure I wasn’t paralyzed.

“Shhh, baby. You need to calm down.”

“I’ll calm the fuck down when you tell me what the other shoe is that’s about to drop on me!” I shrieked. Ouch! Fuck! I needed to remember there was a crack in my skull.

“Damn, Evie,” he sighed, freaking me out even more until he placed his hand over my belly again, and I remembered what I’d heard when I was struggling to wake up.

“Baby,” I gasped. “Am I imagining things or did you tell the nurse I needed a warm blanket because the cold wasn’t good for me or the baby.”

“You’re not imagining things,” he confirmed arrogantly. “You never stood a chance against my swimmers. I knocked you up that first night, just like I said I did.”

“So damn cocky,” I sputtered.

“I’ve got more reason to be than I ever have before, with you carrying my baby.”

My left arm, the one not attached to the shoulder where I’d been shot, moved down and I rested my hand over his. “I’m really pregnant?” It was almost impossible to believe. I’d thought my entire life had changed when Alex told me I’d been burned, but it paled in comparison to this news.

The shit eating grin on his face was answer enough, but he gave me the words anyway. “You’re really pregnant.”

“And the baby’s okay?”

“The baby is fine. They did an internal sonogram and found the sac holding our baby exactly as it should be this early in the pregnancy.”

I heaved a deep sigh of relief, horrified at what we could have lost because of my actions. “I swear to you, I never would have done it if I thought I was pregnant. I saw the gun aimed your way, knew he was going to shoot, and didn’t even think of anything other than you dying right in front of me.”

“You couldn’t have known, Evie,” he reassured me. “The doctor even told me it was too early for us to have known.”

“I’ll do my best to make it up to our baby,” I promised. “I won’t take the job. I’ll stay home with him instead. Bake cookies. Help with homework. Whatever it is that stay-at-home moms do.”

“No, Evie,” he barked. “There’s been enough pretending in our marriage. No more. You’re going to do whatever makes you happy. If you decide it’s staying home after the baby is born, then I’ll support your decision one hundred percent. But I love you for who you are. All of you, Scarlett and Evie. You don’t need to change for me, and you don’t have anything to make up to our child.”

“I love you, too,” I cried, tears streaming down my cheeks as he carefully cradled me in his arms. “And I want to go home.”

“Not until you’re back to fighting form, baby.”

* * *

It took another three weeks before Alex agreed to take me home. Three long weeks of him watching me like a hawk. The doctors had given me the okay two weeks earlier, but Alex didn’t want to leave anything to chance. I had a simple linear fracture to my skull but was neurologically intact. The second they told him I would need medical attention if I became symptomatic, my hopes for going home flew out the window. That, combined with the gunshot wound to my shoulder and my pregnancy were enough ammunition for him to convince my medical team that they needed to keep me longer.

As the car Alex had hired pulled in front of the private jet which we’d take for our first leg home, I found my thoughts turning to how strange and wonderful the world could be. I’d played many roles in my life, some of them planned and others unexpected blessings or curses.

Genevieve Parker, beloved daughter.

Evie Parker, bereaved college student.

Scarlett, notorious assassin.

Evie Shaw, adored wife.

As I stepped onto the plane with my hand clenched tightly in Alex’s, I found myself filled with excitement for the most important role I’d ever fill—Mommy.