After Midnight: (A Penguin Special from Signet Eclipse) (Killer Instincts) by Elle Kennedy Read Free Book Online Page B

across his face. “I want this baby. I think deep down you want it too, and it makes me crazy that you can consider the alternative. I never took you for a coward.”
    Anger bubbled in her throat, then spilled over in a fast, hot rush. “I’m a coward now? Just because I have doubts about my ability to raise a child? I’m sorry, but I didn’t have the idyllic childhood you did. My mother was a
prostitute
who brought her johns home to play with me!” Nausea churned in her stomach. Although Kane was fully aware of her past, she still felt ashamed talking about it. “I was seven when one of those bastards raped me. Seven years old, Kane.
That
was my childhood.”
    His tone softened. “And then Jeremy found you. He adopted you, showed you a different kind of life.”
    She laughed without an ounce of humor. “God, Kane. I loved that man to death, but do you really think my life with Jeremy was any less screwed up? He trained me to be a warrior. He loved me, but there was no warmth in our relationship. He treated me like a soldier, and yeah, he taught me a lot and I appreciated everything he did for me, but that wasn’t a real childhood either.” She angrily shook her head. “I don’t know how to do all the stuff your mom does. Cook and bake and knit sweaters and—”
    “You can learn,” he cut in.
    “I’m not sure I want to,” she shot back. “Look, I might be fucked up and scarred, but I’m fine with who I am. And if we do keep this baby, I’m not about to change my entire personality.”
    “I don’t expect you to.” Kane sounded as frustrated as she felt, and despite his firm denial, she suddenly realized how untrue it was.
    He
did
want her to change.
    The upsetting notion brought the sting of tears to her eyes. Kane always swore that he loved her for who she was, that he accepted her flaws, but the future he’d just described said otherwise. Moving to Michigan? Buying a house near his parents? That wasn’t what she wanted
at all
. She could never, ever belong in that kind of setting.
    Even if they kept the baby, she would want more than the goddamn suburbs, and his inability to see that made her want to cry. The sorrow and disillusionment hit her hard, sending her stumbling toward the door.
    “Where are you going?” Kane demanded from behind her.
    “I need some air.” She didn’t turn around. Didn’t want him to see the tears that had welled up.
    She heard him jump to his feet. “I’ll come with you.”
    “No,” she said sharply, her hand going for the doorknob. “I want to be alone right now.”
    “But you’re pregnant.”
    Now she
did
whirl around. “That doesn’t make me an invalid!” She fought to control her rising temper.
    A multitude of emotions streaked across his face. Frustration, anger, worry, desperation. “Abby—”
    His phone rang, making both of them curse. Kane snatched the cell from the bed and answered the call. He didn’t sound the slightest bit thrilled as he muttered, “We’re on our way out.”
    “Morgan?” she asked after he’d hung up.
    He nodded. “We have an address. They’re waiting for us outside.”
    Abby bit the inside of her cheek. “Look. Regardless of what I—
we
—choose to do, I still don’t think I should be in the line of fire tonight.”
    “Obviously,” he said, his voice colder than she’d ever heard it.
    “But you still need me.”
    “Fine. We’ll position you off-site, and you can keep watch in case Nazara is there and makes a run for it.”
    “You want me to be a lookout?” After all the grisly things she’d seen and done, she found it damn ironic that she’d been banished to sitting in a car.
    He gave another terse nod. “If Nazara does escape, don’t engage. Just follow him.”
    Two minutes later, Kane relayed the same plan to Morgan when they met him in the parking lot. Noelle was already in the backseat of the Jeep, a bored expression on her face, while the fingers of one hand lazily twined a strand of her