PS02 - Without Regret (51 page)

ignored her or made it painfully obvious that she needed to leave, she refused to budge. In the three months that she’d been here

she hadn’t gone out once. Not once, because she wasn’t allowed to.

It wasn’t the life he wanted for her and he hoped she figured out that she was more of a prisoner here than she would be on an

island. There she could at least go wherever she wanted on the island and explore, but here she was limited to the confines of

the compound.

He couldn’t stomach the idea of her living like this for another day never mind a hundred and seventy years.

“Chris,” she moaned, grabbing his attention once again.

This was their time together. He savored his mornings with her before he had to turn into an asshole and ignore her, only

seeking her out for sex. She should fucking hate him. Hell, he hated himself, but she didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

She was too focused on her job and her excitement over the baby to care.

He bent his knees and held her hips as he began thrusting into her, careful of her and the baby. Several minutes later she was

screaming his name again and he was biting back the words “I love you,” so instead he shouted them over and over in his head

as he struggled to catch his breath.

“Oh my god……Chris! She’s kicking again!” Izzy said, reaching for his hands to press against her stomach, but he wouldn’t let

her. If he did it would add to his pain and misery.

“I have to get to work,” he said, guiding her off of him.

He ignored the hurt look on her face and forced himself to walk to the bathroom. “Training is in two hours,” he bit out coldly.

“I can’t make it. I’m having breakfast with Joshua before my appointment,” she said, making him stumble.

Fucking Joshua.

The bastard was always around, always laughing and smiling with Izzy while he had to be the bad guy. He almost hated his

brother as much as he loved him. It pissed him off knowing that he couldn’t allow himself the pleasure of spending time with

his mate, but Joshua could.

That was probably because his brother didn’t have a wife and daughter to worry about. He did. All the fucking time, he

worried about them.

************

“Stop!” she said, laughing when he pouted. She’d tell him to go and grab another one, but she’d grabbed the last two. She loved

the compound’s cafeteria. It was large, but without the cafeteria feel. The room was large, with oak wood trimming, beautiful

cream tiles, small oak tables along with long ones for large groups to eat together before and after patrol and of course it had

Helga.

She loved Helga.

Helga ran the cafeteria. It ran twentyfour hours a day.

She could get breakfast any time of day, pizza, hamburgers and if she asked in advance she could have an entire turkey dinner

any time she wanted. When she left in a few weeks she was going to try and kidnap Helga.

“I’m starving,” he said, reaching for it again, but she ignored his pathetic little hurt expression and took a huge bite out the

warm pastry.

“Fine,” he said, sniffing. “Then I’m going to show you the surprise.”

“Yes, you will,” she said, stealing his orange juice and taking a sip, knowing he couldn’t keep anything from her. Over the last

couple of months they’d grown close, very close. He was her best friend and pain in the ass.

He amused her, kept her entertained and held her when she couldn’t take it anymore. She lost count of how many of his shirts

she’d soaked with her tears.

He sighed heavily as he took his juice back and finished it off. His eyes glimmered with humor and she wasn’t too surprised to

find Chris glowering at them from across the room.

“He wants to kill me,” Joshua said brightly.

“No,” she mumbled, “he just wants me to leave.”

“There is that,” Joshua conceded. “But I think that he thinks it’s for your own good.”

“It doesn’t matter what he wants. I’m staying,” she said, for probably the thousandth time. She didn’t care what he wanted or

thought anymore. The only thing that mattered was her baby, her little girl. He didn’t want them, then that was fine because in

less than two weeks she was moving into her new home. There she could live a full life, go out, enjoy her life and raise her

child in peace while she still worked. Joshua must have read the expression on her face and knew what she was thinking.

“Have you told him yet?”

“It’s none of his business.”

“He’ll find out soon enough since the rest of the family is going with you,” he said sighing as he stole a pancake off her plate.

She shrugged, knowing that there was no way to hide it from him since he was no doubt going to be coming with them. Yes

them, apparently she’d inherited his entire family and they didn’t want to let her go, which actually felt pretty good. It was nice

to be a part of a family for once.

Ephraim treated her like a daughter. Jill and Madison treated her like a sister and good friend. Marc was like the little brother

she never had and of course Chris was the estranged husband that wanted to get rid of her.

As she popped a hunk of ham from Joshua’s plate into her mouth she wondered how he was going to feel when he found out

that he was going to be moving into a house, mansion really, half owned by her. He probably wouldn’t take it well, she

decided, trying not to smile.

His eyes narrowed on her before he stormed off towards the food. Nope, he definitely wouldn’t take it well and he’d have his

family to thank for that.

It hadn’t taken long to realize that compound life was not for her, except for the lovely Helga of course. After they staged her

death and filtered her money through what seemed like a hundred banks Isabella Williams was born and she decided to start

her new life. She looked at houses online for a good week before decided to treat herself after years of a crappy existence to a

really nice home.

The one she settled on was a beautiful English style cottage mansion, whatever the hell that meant. All she cared about was that

it had virtually no neighbors and a hundred acres of land that guaranteed privacy. It had taken several long arguments to

convince Eric that it was the best thing for her and in the end he gave in because she promised to keep working for them and

agreed to the three Sentinel homes he decided to put in the area to help protect her.

When she asked Joshua to go see the property on her behalf and finalize the sale she hadn’t expected Ephraim to go along with

him and definitely hadn’t expected Ephraim to put down half the money and buy it with her. So now she was co-owner of a

very large home and part of a very close knit family. Everything would be perfect if her mate wanted more than just sex and to

make her feel awful.

“I am starving,” Madison said, placing her tray on the table and sat down and Isabella envied the woman.

They were both nearing their fourth month and Madison only had a slight baby bump compared to the huge medicine ball she

was carrying around.

“Morning, mom,” Joshua said, leaning over to press a kiss to Madison’s cheek.

“Morning, sweetheart,” she said, smiling brightly and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she’d either just devoured a box

of chocolate or had her way with Ephraim. She’d put her money on Ephraim since she was devouring everything on her tray

like she was starving.

“Move over,” came Chris’ grumble and with an sigh, Joshua picked up his tray and moved to the other side of the table to sit

right next to her instead of just moving one chair down. She was guessing it was to piss Chris off since he seemed to enjoy

doing that a lot.

She was actually starting to think it had more to do with the way Chris was treating her than just getting a kick out of annoying

his brother. When Joshua laid his arm across the back of her chair and reached over to rub her stomach while glaring at Chris

she knew she was right.

Over the past couple of months the two brothers had come close to killing each other several times and probably would have if

Ephraim and about a dozen Sentinels hadn’t stepped in they probably would have.

As much as she appreciated Joshua’s concerns she didn’t like this. The last thing she wanted to do was come between two

brothers who obviously loved each other.

“Stop it,” she whispered, placing her hand over his to move it, but he simply ignored her and continued to rub her stomach.

“I’m just saying good morning to my sweet little niece,”

he said innocently, but the look he was sending Chris’

way was anything but innocent.

Madison sighed wistfully. “I can’t wait to hold her. I hope we make the move before she’s born. I want to have the nursery

ready for-“

“Whoa,” Chris said, holding up his hand. “Back it up there, what the hell are you talking about moving?”

Madison bit her lip nervously as she shot her an apologetic look. “Sorry,” she mouthed with a rueful shrug.

It was fine. More than fine actually. She was actually surprised that they’d managed to keep him in the dark this long. She had

no problem telling him actually, but everyone else seemed to think they should break it to him at the last minute.

“We bought a house in upstate New York. As soon as the house is ready, which shouldn’t be more than a week, we’re

moving,” she said, shrugging like it was no big deal.

“Who’s we?” he asked, his voice hollow.

“Your father decided it would be better to keep the family together, but we didn’t want the kids growing up in a compound. He

purchased a house with Izzy, a very large home with plenty of land. It’s being set up now.

Eric’s overlooking the security,” Madison explained.

“He’s making sure it’s safe, Chris. He’s even placing Sentinel homes around the property.”

“Looks like you can stop being a prick and man the fuck up and take care of your family now,” Joshua bit out angrily and just

when she expected Chris to lounge for Joshua like he’d done so many times before he stood up, but he didn’t make a move on

Joshua.

“Joshua, stay out of it,” Madison hissed.

“No,” Joshua said firmly as he stared Chris down.

“It’s fine, Joshua. He made his choice and I made mine.

Jessica and I will be fine,” she said in what she hoped was a soothing tone since the last thing she needed was these two

boneheads trying to kill each other again.

“Who’s Jessica?” Chris asked, sounding a little dazed.

Joshua let out a snort of disgust. “She’s your daughter, asshole. Izzy picked out the name two months ago.

Where the hell have you been?”

“Please stop it,” she said, placing her hand over Joshua’s when Jessica decided that kicking her in the ribs sounded like fun.

She looked back up at Chris to find him staring intently at her hand over Joshua’s. That tick in his jaw was going double time.

“I was able to get a sonogram in here so if you want to see your daughter, be at the clinic in a half hour,”

Joshua said evenly.

Instead of telling Joshua off and acting like he didn’t care, Chris nodded once before he turned around and walked away. She

didn’t know what to think, but she knew he wouldn’t come. He never did for any of her appointments.

“A sonogram?” Madison asked excitedly. “Oh my god!”

she squealed, jumping to her feet. “Don’t start until we get there! You know how much your father would love to see that!” And

with that she was running out of the cafeteria, leaving them to stare after her.

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, you should be. I asked you to stay out of this. You know this is between me and Chris. It has-“

“No, not that,” Joshua said, shaking his head slowly.

“Then for what?”

He sighed heavily as he picked up both of their trays.

“You’ll see.”

Chapter 44

“I didn’t break it, did I?” he heard his father snap.

“No, but you promised not to touch anything!” Joshua shot back and he would have laughed if he was scared out of his fucking

mind at the moment.

It was truly frightening how one moment of clarity could change his whole outlook. Not even an hour ago he’d been prepared to

live a life of hell without his mate and then one word changed all of that.

Jessica.

He’d tried so hard not to think of the baby, so fucking hard. Hearing his little girl’s name was the kick in the balls that he

needed. He started to picture a little face to go along with the name and he couldn’t imagine not being there to hold her, love

her, help her and guide her in this world. Now he just prayed his little Munchkin would give him a chance, otherwise he’d be

doomed to a life of watching from afar.

Where he’d failed to secure a safe home for his mate and child, his father and Eric had succeeded. Judging by the pictures and

security details Eric just sent him they’d more than succeeded. The mansion’s security was a hundred times better than the

compound’s and that was saying a hell of a lot. The property was gated, monitored, and unbelievably beautiful.

He couldn’t believe this, couldn’t believe how badly this situation had become fucked up. Here he was pushing his mate away

thinking it was the best thing for everyone and his goddamn family had not only been embracing her, but doing their damndest to

secure her future and happiness and what the fuck had he been doing?

He’d been an asshole.