“There’s something you need to know!” She sounded much closer now. “Something Chase needs to know. It’s about Scottie. It’s something she told me right before they left the shower.”
“Scottie’s pregnant,” Chase said the strange words aloud.
The woman he loved was pregnant. And there wasn’t a single doubt in his mind that the baby was his.
“H-how did you?—”
“This.” Chase interrupted Natalie, turning around to show her and the others what he’d found. “It must’ve fallen out of her purse when that man…”
His voice cracked, so he cleared it but said nothing more. At this point, what was theretosay?
Scottie was pregnant, and she hadn’t told him. And now she’d been kidnapped by a madman for reasons he still didn’t understand, and he had no idea where she was, or even where to start looking.
Learning she was pregnant with his kid only made the desperation eating him alive inside that much worse.
Please, God. Please don’t take them away from me! Not now. Not before we even have the chance to?—
“She was going to tell you.” Natalie spoke up again. “W-when you two got back to your apartment. She was afraid you wouldn’t be happy, but I told her?—”
“Not happy?” Chase’s eyes flew back up to his sweet friend’s brown stare. “I love Scottie with everything I am. Sure, she said she was on the pill, but…these things still happen, you know? I mean, I get that none of that shit is a hundred percent. What I don’t understand is how could she think I wouldn’t be happy that we’d made a baby?”
Sympathy shone through Natalie’s worried gaze. “You two only recently got engaged, and she was afraid you’d think it was too soon.”
Too soon? He’d waited fourteen fuckingyearsfor this particular dream to come true. Everything he'd always wanted was finally within his grasp, but now…
I can’t lose them. Not now. Not fucking ever!
Chase felt a strange sort of peace fall over him, and he realized what he needed to do. Come hell or high water, he would find her. He’d find Scottie, and then he’d bring her back home where she belonged.
They were going to get married, and then they were going to have a baby. In that fucking order. After that, Chase planned to spend the rest of his life protecting them with all he had.
Protecting and loving themboth. With all his heart and soul.
I’ll find you, sugar. If it’s the last thing I fucking do, I will find you!
Scottie pushedher legs to go faster than ever before. Her muscles burned, and she nearly lost her footing more than once. But she didn’t stop. Shecouldn’tstop. If she did…
He’s going to kill me.
A thin branch slapped against her cheek, but she pushed it aside with her still-bound hands and kept on running. In the back of her frantic mind was the worry she’d harmed the baby when she’d fallen out of the back of the van, but it was either fall and run, or stay and…
Die.
She wasn’t dying. Not today. Not when she finally had so much to live for.
Her determination to survive pushed Scottie to move faster. Forced her legs to work harder. She had to put as much distance between her and the man who’d taken her as she could. After that, Scottie would worry about the fact that she’d most likely be lost in the middle of a freaking forest.
“Oh, Scottlynn…” The singsongy voice traveled to her through the trees.
Run faster!
As if Chase were right beside her, coaching her toward the way out of this mess, Scottie continued pushing her body to its limits. Continued racing as fast as she could through the trees.
Praying the shadows cast by their natural canopy would be enough to keep her hidden when the time came, she ignored the urge to stop and continued forging onward.
Please don’t let him catch me! Please don’t let me die!
The branches and leaves blocking her path began to blur with the silent, frantic prayer. But Scottie quickly blinked away the unshed tears, knowing they were a waste of energy she couldn’t afford to lose.