When he stopped his exam, she immediately wrapped her hands around her stomach. “I couldn’t stop,” she repeated again.
And he’d been helpless.
This ends now.
He pulled her against his chest and held her until he heard the wail of the ambulance.
When the EMTs rushed toward him, Gunner said, “She’s pregnant. Just...please, make sure she’s all right.”
As she was settled into the ambulance, he finally looked around.
He saw that others had joined the crowd. Cale was there, with Slade.
Slade’s haggard face told Gunner that he’d heard his words. The time for secrets was over.
“Meet me at the hospital,” Gunner called out to Cale.
The other agent nodded.
Gunner wasn’t letting that ambulance leave without him. He climbed inside and caught Sydney’s hand.
“Gunner,” Sydney whispered. “My stomach’s cramping.”
Tears stung his eyes. He held her hand tighter even as he bent and pressed a kiss to her lips. “It’s going to be all right.” The ambulance lurched forward, and Gunner began to pray.
* * *
SYDNEY WAS ON a special exam table. She was too early in her pregnancy for the doctor to hear the baby’s heartbeat, so an emergency ultrasound had been ordered.
Gunner paced beside her, his expression even more fierce than normal.
The cramping had stopped, but the fear? Oh, yes, that was still there. She didn’t want anything happening to the baby inside her.
Not my baby.
“Gunner, I’m scared.” She could tell him. He was her best friend. Had been, even before they’d become lovers.
He stopped pacing and immediately came to her side. “Don’t be. This baby is fine.” His fingers twined with hers.
She wondered if he knew that she could see the fear in his gaze. Usually he was much better at masking his emotions.
Usually she was, too.
She stared down at her stomach, covered now by a green exam gown.
“I love you.” Gunner’s words were rough and rumbling, and at first, she thought she’d imagined them.
Because she’d wanted to hear them for so long.
Sydney shook her head, an instinctive move. He hadn’t—
“I want you to marry me.”
Now her gaze flew to his. “Gunner?”
His lips hitched up into a half smile. “This isn’t the right place, is it? Not the right time. But I’ve never been that guy, Syd. The guy with the smooth lines and the perfect moves. I am the guy who loves you, though. The guy who’d give his life for you. Who’d do anything for you.”
He wanted to marry her. Was this about the baby? Or—
“I want you. I love you.” That half smile vanished. “Sometimes I think I started falling for you the first time I met you, but you were so far out of my reach then.” He glanced down at their intertwined fingers. His hold tightened. “I still feel like you are. You deserve better than me, but I swear, if you give me the chance, I’ll do everything I can to make you happy.”
A knock sounded at the door; then, a few seconds later, a doctor and nurse were bustling inside.
The ultrasound technician was there, getting everything set up. She lowered Sydney’s bed, angling it.
Sydney stared at Gunner. He was waiting for her answer.
Maybe Gunner had always been waiting, and she hadn’t seen it. She’d noticed his silence, his watchful ways, but she hadn’t realized what any of that meant.
Then she thought about their lives. The way he was always coming to her house in D.C. for dinner. The way he never forgot her birthday or the way he made sure that she never spent Christmas alone.
“Sydney?” Gunner asked.
“Yes,” she told him, because if he wanted to build a future with her, she was more than ready to build one with him.
Gunner’s face changed then. It lit up as she’d never seen it before. He didn’t simply look dangerous or sexy just now...the man was gorgeous.
The monitor flickered on next to her. The ultrasound technician went to work. Sydney forced herself to concentrate on that monitor. She was afraid to look, but she had to do this.
“You’re early on,” the doctor said, “so what we’re looking for is the sack...well, well...”
The doctor moved, blocking her view of the monitor. No, no, that couldn’t be good. She squeezed Gunner’s hand, probably cutting off his circulation.
But the doctor just smiled at her. “Some mild cramping early in pregnancy can be perfectly normal. The baby is fine.” He nodded once, then said, “From the looks of things, they both are.” Then he backed up and pointed to the screen.
As he moved his fingers and started talking, showing them the two tiny lives that were their babies, Sydney couldn’t even hear his words. A dull roar had filled her ears.
Not one baby. Two?
She glanced back over at Gunner. She’d never seen a smile so wide.
And he’d asked to marry her, before he even knew about the baby’s fate. He’d wanted her.
“Now, you’re going to need to be careful. Carrying twins will mean that your body is doing twice the work.”
Careful—not exactly part of life for the EOD.
“She’ll stay safe,” Gunner vowed, and she knew he meant the words.
Good, because she wasn’t going to play the killer’s game anymore. In that instant when she’d seen Gunner’s headlights coming at her, she’d known that her chances for survival were running out.
No more games.
No more attacks.
The doctor finished up. Sydney dressed and Gunner went to stand guard outside her room. Even though she was afraid and had death stalking her, a bubble of happiness kept growing inside her.
Twins. Gunner. Marriage.
If she could just get the killer off her back, she’d have everything she’d ever wanted.
She pushed open the door.
“I’m sorry, Gunner, but you have to come with me.”
Logan’s words froze her.
“The hell I am!” Gunner snapped. He jerked away from Logan. “I’m not leaving Sydney’s side. I’m not—”
“A witness saw you tampering with her brakes.”
The words filled Sydney’s ears.
She stilled. That bubble of happiness wasn’t feeling so light anymore.
“And Sydney’s neighbor had sent a lady out to house-sit while she and her husband were out of town. The house sitter was there that night, and she reported seeing your truck, just sitting out in the street, waiting, right before the fire started at Sydney’s home.”