Rox was getting paranoid. She felt like someone was following her. Outside of The Bramble, Liam’s house, and the grocery store every so often, she could feel eyes watching her. The fact that Jon hadn’t been caught yet ratcheted up her anxiety, but she was determined to live her life.

Trying to brush it off as Jon paranoia, she kept things on schedule as usual. The only difference was how tired she was lately. Attributing it to the increased stress around, a small voice reminded her of the first night together with Liam and a few others after. They hadn’t always been the most careful. She was on the pill, but mistakes did happen. Popping out of the bar during the day, she headed to a pharmacy around the corner. Wandering through the store, she found the aisle she was looking for and picked up a test. Two tests…might as well get three just to be sure.

The store, which had been empty when she walked in, had a few more customers inside. Feeling as awkward as a teenager buying condoms, she put the tests on the counter and the cashier rang them up.

“Making sure, huh?” the cashier said, chuckling.

“They’re for a friend,” she said. Self-conscious, she grabbed her change and the bag, and rushed out of the pharmacy. The walk back to The Bramble seemed even longer than the walk to store. The boxes banged against her leg the whole way. This was the moment of truth. There wasn’t anyone else there, so she’d have plenty of time to take them in peace. Liam was meeting with his brother and no one else from the kitchen was in yet.

She ran up to the office, taking the stairs two at a time. Sitting down on the toilet, she unwrapped the first test and read the instructions. Damnit, you were supposed to take them first thing in the morning! She couldn’t wait. She needed to know now. Knees bouncing, she took the test and set it on the counter waiting for the results. Setting the alarm on her phone, she checked out the other tests and decided she was going to need some more water.

She left the tests there and went to the kitchen to get something else to drink. No one should be back for at least another two hours, which would be plenty of time. Pacing in the office, she slid her hands through her hair and thought about what this could mean. What if she was pregnant? What the hell would she do? Liam would freak out.

How could she be a mom? She didn’t even really remember having a mom. Who knew if those memories she had were real or not? She couldn’t base being a good mom off a fantasy of an amazing mom. And the rest of the adults in her life growing up weren’t exactly models of great parenting. She would totally screw this kid up.

Sitting on the couch, she put her head between her legs as she started to hyperventilate. What if she screwed this kid up?! Calm down, Rox. Calm down. She didn’t even know if she was pregnant. The timer on her phone went off and she rushed into the bathroom, still afraid to look at the test. She flipped it over and her breath caught in her throat.

Negative!

Ripping open the other boxes, Rox spent the next hour chugging water and peeing on five more pregnancy tests. All of them were negative. She breathed a sigh of relief, taking all the tests and putting them in the pharmacy bag. She should have been elated, but a small part of her was sad. She pictured a little boy or girl the spitting image of her and Liam. She’d allowed herself a little daydream, especially between tests four and five, that maybe the first ones had been wrong. Admonishing herself for even going there, she took the bag filled with negative pregnancy tests and stuck it in the kitchen trash, making sure to put a few things on top of it. She went back up to the office to catch a little shut eye before everyone arrived to get things ready for the day.

* * *

Liam’s leg shook the table, ripples pulsing through his glass of water as he sat next to Luc with what seemed like a squadron of lawyers facing them. The documents in front of him should have made him happy. He’d officially be bought out of Doppel. All the stock he owned would be turned into a buyout and he’d never have to worry about money again. Maybe he’d work with Mark to launch bars in different cities once NYC was up and running. It would be a way to do something familiar, running a bar, but keep things fresh by heading to new locations. In a small way, he was sad as he uncapped the pen and started signing the stack of papers. He hated that it had stopped being fun, but he did like the people he worked with. He liked showing the new engineers the ropes, and how much everyone enjoyed the work they did there.

But his mind wandered back to Rox and that was all he needed to know this was the right choice. He’d never been happier and in some ways he waited for the other shoe to drop. The Jon situation sat at the forefront of his mind. She couldn’t pretend this wasn’t an issue, especially after what happened at the house. The rest of the meeting was a blur. Luc’s giant smile at the end of it made him frown. They hadn’t talked much since their lunch meeting. Now that this was all wrapped up, he didn’t really want to see his brother for a while. Letting Luc get into his head almost made him lose Rox and that wasn’t okay. Handshakes finished, he got back to the bar and kissed a certain chef, who pulled his lunch out from under the warmer. How did he get so lucky? He kissed her and copped a feel before she kicked him out of the kitchen.

Paperwork was going to be the death of him. The phone in his office rang, but he couldn’t even find it under the mounded papers. He hadn’t even known there was a landline. Pushing the papers aside, he found the phone and picked it up.

“Hello?” he said tentatively. Who the hell used a landline?

“Hi, is this the employer of Roxanne Weller?”

“Yes,” he said, sitting in the chair.

“We got this number from when the police completed a report on an attack that happened a few weeks back.”

“Yes, okay.”

“We wanted to inform Ms. Weller and your establishment that Jon Hollis has been arrested.” Liam breathed a sigh of relief.

“He was?”

“Yes, just a few hours ago, he was found robbing a convenience store.”

“Does she need to go down there and identify him?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. It will all be handled.”

“And you’re absolutely sure that this is Jon Hollis?”

“Yes, had his wallet on him with his ID. We’ll run him through the system as well. It will take some time, but we’ll verify everything about him and then he’s going back to jail.” Hanging up the phone, he sat back in the chair. What did this mean? Did they really have him? Was Rox safe? He had to be one hundred percent sure that this psycho was locked up for good, and until then he wasn’t going to take any chances.

He’d keep his security on her and ensure that she wasn’t in any danger. There weren’t very many things he was sure of, but he was sure that he would never be able to forgive himself if something happened to her. He hadn’t been able to help his mother, hadn’t been able to protect her, but he wouldn’t let the same thing happen to Rox. Over his dead body.

His cell vibrated under the stacks of paper. He uncovered it and saw it was from the security guard he had following Rox.

“Is she okay? Did something happen?”

“Everything is fine. Nothing happened to her, but I thought you might want to know. I know we didn’t go over the parameters of my duties other than ‘keep her safe,’ but I thought you might want to know. I mean, I would want to know, if it were me,” he said, rambling.

“Okay, fine. Spit it out!”

“She went into a pharmacy earlier. I kept my distance, but I definitely saw her buy about five pregnancy tests.”

A whooshing roar filled Liam’s ears. Rox. Pregnancy tests. What the hell? Rox might be pregnant? There was an initial bubble of elation, followed by the crush of his previous pregnancy scare. He wanted so badly for her to be pregnant. He could imagine it now: kissing her belly, heavy with his child, feeling the kicks, giving her foot massages. She would freak, but he would love it. Then all those little snipes Luc made came flooding back. And all the crap that happened with Yvonne replayed in his mind.

Was she trying to trap him? Did she think a baby was a quick way to get something out of him? He wasn’t a guy someone like Rox should be with, he was a chubby nerd who hadn't gone on a date until he was in college. Old insecurities and fears came crashing down on him as he thought about what exactly this might mean for them. They had used protection, well most of the time…okay, there were a couple of slip-ups, but he’d assumed she was on something since she hadn’t said anything.

Why hadn’t he asked? Why did he just assume? Thoughts raced through his mind so fast, he could barely follow the train of his own thoughts. He felt like someone was sitting on his chest. He’d just signed a several hundred million dollar deal earlier today. This could have been her plan all along. Was she that good of an actress? Could this all have been a giant ploy?

He thought about the ring box he’d had sitting in his top dresser drawer for the past week. Waiting for the perfect time to take it out had been agony and now he was glad he hadn’t asked yet, wasn’t he? He didn’t know, but when they got home, he was going to find out. She still hadn’t said she loved him. She was going to let him know exactly how she felt about him, one way or another.