Defective (The Institute Series Book 3) (27 page)

He shakes his head. “I want to do this for you. I meant it when I said you’ve saved my life more than once – literally and figuratively. If it weren’t for you, I’d still be that arrogant, confused jerk. I’d still be at the Institute as a prisoner, not the director. Actually, if it weren’t for you, I would’ve died alongside Jax in that car accident two years ago. You say this is too big, I say it’s not enough.”

“Thank you,” I whisper as I wrap my arms around him once again.

Jayce clears his throat behind us. He raises an eyebrow at Drew as we pull out of the embrace. “Not trying to steal my woman, are you?” he says playfully.

“Not likely. She’s too much drama for me.” Drew looks down at me. “You know, you really should try settling down.”

I laugh as I push him away from me and wrap my arm around Jayce’s waist. “I plan to,” I say, smiling up at Jayce. “Speaking of drama,” I nod in Jenna’s direction, who’s trying not to stare at us. “Go talk to her.”

Drew runs his hand through his hair. “Okay, I will,” he says, inhaling deeply like the air can give him courage. He begins to walk over to her, and Ebbodine and Jamie retreat as they see him approach.

Jayce kisses the side of my head. “Everything okay?”

That’s such a heavy question, but as I look around at my family, my friends, I realise that everything is more than okay. I’m finally free. I’m finally
home.
I turn to Jayce and kiss him with everything that I have. When I pull away, I look into his bright, shimmering blue eyes and nod. “Everything is perfect.”

Epilogue

3 YEARS LATER

Sweating, breathing deep, arms heavy. Actually, my whole body feels heavy under the weight of my protective gear. We’ve been outside this abandoned warehouse for what feels like hours, although it’s probably only been twenty minutes. I want so badly to get in there and get this over with.

“Okay team, hold your positions,” the voice in my earpiece says. I can’t help letting out an exasperated groan.

They’ve brought out everyone for this. We have two special response teams on site, all of us with one goal –
Take Brookfield out.
I’m on the east side of the building with Jenna, the rest of our team’s spread out over the area. The only other officers we can see are across from us, taking cover behind the next warehouse.

“Psst,” Jenna says beside me. I tilt my head in her direction. “Look at the newbie over there sweating bullets.” She laughs, nodding toward a new recruit. He looks like he’s about to throw up.

“Hey, no teasing. I’m sure you didn’t look much better on your first raid,” I whisper.

“You didn’t look like that,” she says to me.

“It helps that my first raid was a Brookfield residence. It was personal for me. Still is.”

“We’ll get him today,” Jenna assures me.

“You’ve been saying that for the last three years, Sergeant.”

She rolls her eyes at me.

“Three years, Jenna. We’ve been playing this cat-and-mouse game for three years. I’m ready for it to be over. It needs to be over.”

“It will be.”

“Okay team, move in,” the voice in our earpieces instructs.

“Finally,” I say relieved but with a hint of excitement.

“After you,” Jenna nudges me.

I go first, kicking open the rusting door. Brookfield has made a habit of finding abandoned places like this to hole up in. Thus far, every time we’ve managed to track him down, it’s been right after he’s fled.

We charge in, guns poised, swiftly moving from one partitioned off area to another, gracefully moving in between old furniture, storage crates full of god-knows-what, and around random obstacles like brooms, food cans, and broken glass. We make our way through one end of the warehouse to the other, coming up trumps.

“There’s nothing here,” I say, my shoulders slumping in disappointment even though I was kind of expecting it. “I friggin’ knew we were too late. We’re always too late.”

Jenna comes up beside me and sighs. “I’m sorry, Allira.”

“Yeah, yeah, heard it all before.”

“How about you go home?”

“No thanks, boss. I’d rather help with the sweep here. See what we can find.”

“The rest of the team can handle that. You need rest. You haven’t rested since you joined the force. You’ve been busy busting your arse on cases and doing the Defective advocate/public figure thing. You need a break. Everyone deserves a break now and then.”

“But—”

“No buts. That’s an order. Go home, relax, and spend some time with those beautiful kids and that stupid brother of mine.” She smiles. “Actually, I’m ordering you to take the annual leave you’ve been building up. Take the next two weeks off, and come back refreshed.”

“But—”

“Stop butting me! Go, now!”

I grimace at her.

“I’ll let you know if we find anything,” she says, forcing me out of the warehouse.

***

It’s been hard not being in contact with HQ every day, but after the first few days, I think Jenna ordered Jayce to take my work tablet away from me. I haven’t seen it for almost two weeks.

It’s funny that the small piece of technology I was clueless about when I started on the force has become a necessity to me. I feel naked without it. It’s probably with my anniversary present that I know Jayce has bought, but is hiding from me. He has to give me my tablet back today, though, I’m officially back on duty and on call.

“Babe?” Jayce calls out from the entryway.

“In the kitchen. And don’t be starting that war with me again!” I yell back at him.

“What war?” he asks innocently, coming up behind me and kissing me on the cheek.

“The cutesy nickname war. Nice try sneaking it in there. How was the shooting range with Drew?”

“Fun as always. Where are the kids?”

“Nuka’s at a friend’s house, and William’s in his room,” I reply, going back to chopping tomatoes.

“I guess I better start getting ready for the family barbecue, hey muffin?” he says elbowing me.

“Yes, you should. And no pet names.”

“Why not?” he asks persistently.

“I don’t do nicknames. You should know that after being with me for three years,” I say with a sigh. “Why do you so badly want to give me a sickly, demeaning nickname anyway?”

“It’s not demeaning, bae,” he says. The smile drops from his face when I turn and scowl at him. “Fine then, what about killa, because you’re so damn vicious?” he stands closer to me, whispering in my ear.

I sink into him. “No.”

“You’re no fun. Maybe I should call you buzzkill.”

“Definitely no.”

He lets go of me and turns to walk away as I go back to making a salad. I think he’s left when I hear him right behind me.

“What about wifey?”

I drop the knife on the counter, barely missing cutting my finger open. “W… what?” I stutter, slowly turning to see him on one knee, in our kitchen.

He reaches for my hand and holds it in both of his. “I did plan a big speech, you know, with lots of cutesy pet names thrown in there, but seeing as you don’t like that, I’ll cut to the chase. Will you ma—”

“Yes!” I accidently cut him off, but it’s too hard not to.

He jumps up off his knee and takes me in a big hug, only pulling back to kiss me. This would be totally romantic, too, if it weren’t for the fact that I get a whiff of his aftershave when his lips touch mine, sending my stomach into a frenzy – and not the good kind. I barely make it to the sink before I’m vomiting for what feels like the millionth time today.

“Still vomiting? It’s been a few days now, maybe you should go see your aunt. Unless it’s the idea of marrying me that’s making you sick?” he jokes, rubbing my back as I continue to vomit.

“Maybe the baby doesn’t want us to get married,” I counter, my head still in the sink. Not exactly the best way to break it to him, but it’s done now.

His hand immediately stops rubbing my back. “Baby?” he asks.

“Are you calling me another stupid nickname, or are you actually asking if that’s what I said?” I turn back around to face him, my stomach empty once again.

“Baby?” he repeats himself. His eyes are hopeful, not at all fearful like they were when he found out about Nuka and William.

“I just found out. You’re going to be a daddy – a real one.” I cringe as soon as the words leave my mouth, realising how it sounds.

His shoulders slouch as he tilts his head to the side disappointedly. “You know I hate it when you say stuff like that. Nuka and William are my children, just as much as that baby in there is,” he points to my stomach.

“I know. I’m sorry.” Jayce is an excellent father. He treats Nuka and William as if they were his own, William even calls him Daddy.  “I didn’t mean it like that. I know how you feel about the kids – I feel the same way about Nuka as I do about William, and I wouldn’t trade them in for the world. But this,” I grab his hand and put it on my belly, “is made of
us
.”

He wraps his arms around me and buries his face in my hair. He kisses my neck, making his way to my lips before he remembers what I was just doing.

“Clean your teeth, then I’ll kiss you,” he says. “You know I love you, but eww, vomit breath.”

“It’s like we’re married already,” I mutter, walking towards the bathroom.

Jayce takes over from me in the kitchen as I go clean my teeth. When I come back out, I see a ring box sitting on the kitchen bench.

“Is this… is…” I can’t find words.

Jayce puts the salad in the fridge and comes over to me, smirking. He grabs the box and lifts the lid, slowly – like painfully slowly. The nerves in my gut flutter… or is that nausea again? I can’t be sure.

“I had this designed for you,” he says, taking out the ring. It’s an oval lab-diamond, not overpoweringly big, but still bigger than what I know we can afford. Surrounding the diamond are smaller diamonds, except for two near the top of the oval. One is an opal, and the other is a peridot. “Nuka’s and William’s birthstones. I guess we will be adding another stone in nine months.”

“I love it,” I say, hesitating a fraction of a second. Tears threaten to fill my eyes at how beautiful it is.

“You sound like you’re unsure of that.” He sounds deflated.

“I really do love it… but… how much did it cost? We’re not exactly rolling in money right now. I know it’ll be different when you get a job, but things are kind of tight at the moment.”

“Today must be the day for good news,” he says, his smile back on his face. “I’ve been recruited. I start the minute I finish my doctorate. Pretty decent pay, Monday to Friday, health benefits – everything.”

“That’s really good news!” I exclaim, throwing my arms around him.

“Yeah, then you had to go and show me up with this,” he says, rubbing my belly again.

“Sorry. How about we only tell your news today?”

“And the engagement,” he says, ceremoniously sliding the ring on my finger, then placing his hands back on my stomach.

“Okay. We’ll keep the baby a secret. Although, Tate’s going to know the minute he sees you. I can’t believe after all this time you still can’t block him out.” I smirk at him. “I’ll have to bribe him to keep his mouth shut. But you know, if you don’t stop touching my belly, everyone’s going to figure it out.”

“Sorry,” he says, moving his hands to my hips. “I’ll try to stop.”

He leans in and kisses me with the same intense need he’s always had for me. We don’t allow ourselves to kiss like this often because we know what it always leads to, and it’s hard to control ourselves once we start.

“We don’t have time,” I say, pulling away breathless and frustrated.

“Sure we do,” he says lifting me up onto the kitchen bench.

As if on cue, Security buzzes from downstairs, and William comes running out of his room yelling, “They’re here!”

I let out a laugh as Jayce groans, putting his forehead on my shoulder. “Damn it,” he complains.

“I told you we didn’t have time,” I say, pulling myself off the kitchen counter.

We try to have these family meet-ups once a month. It’s usually always here because we have the biggest place. With everyone being so busy, it’s really the only time we can get everyone in a room together.

We decide to wait until everyone has arrived to make our announcement. We’re only waiting on Ebb, Jamie, and Annalynne, their three-month-old.

“Any word from Jamie?” I ask Jayce, who’s sitting in the living room with his parents, Jenna, and Drew. They’re still together. They live together, even though he isn’t there during the week. He still stays at the Institute Monday to Friday and comes home on weekends. They aren’t married and have no future plans to wed – as far as I know anyway. Jenna’s always telling me how she doesn’t understand the need to get married.

I agree with her in some ways. It really is just a piece of paper to me. Jayce and I have been committed for the last three years. I don’t need to make it official to know I belong to him and him to me. But I
want
to stand in front of our families and friends, and promise myself to our little family, forever.

“Yeah, I called him earlier. Apparently they were fighting again. And then they had to make up – twice,” Jayce replies with a roll of his eyes.

We were right when we concluded that Jamie and Ebb were perfect for each other because they’re so much alike. The only problem with two high-spirited, independent people getting married? They always have something to fight about… and then to make up for. All. The. Time. It can get exhausting, not to mention awkward. Watching them fight is like watching foreplay. Hopefully it’ll all be out of their system by the time they arrive today. I do not want to walk in on them
again
.

They were reluctant at first to realise what they had. They dated for about two months before their first split, Ebbodine saying she was too young for such a serious relationship. And yet at every family barbecue for the next few months, Ebb and Jamie were drawn back to each other once again. Ebb finally realised her true feelings when Jamie turned up one month with a date.
That
was an eventful barbecue.

She told me when they got engaged that she finally understood how I felt when Chad died. She couldn’t imagine having to live life without Jamie. I almost fell off my chair when she admitted she was wrong. I only wish I could’ve recorded it some way, had proof of the once in a lifetime event occurring.