Shadow: Cerberus MC Book 3 (5 page)

Many adoptive parents insist on it, not wanting to take a risk of something being wrong with the baby. The counselor insists it’s so they can be prepared and there are no surprises on delivery day, but I know better.

There was another woman there a month or so ago. One of her sonograms revealed a spinal abnormality. Her adoptive parents backed out very quickly.

I’ve never watched the scene on any of my sonograms, not even the one at the abortion clinic. My heart couldn’t take even a black and white picture of my son. I remind myself each and every time I come in here that I’m doing what’s best.

I close my eyes and listen to the fast, steady rhythm of the heart beat as the doctor checks it. It’s the only consolation I’ll give myself. It’s a sound I will hold in my heart for as long as I live.

“Baby is looking good,” the doctor says handing me a towelette for my stomach and turning on the light. “Thirty-six weeks means it’s pretty safe to go into labor at any point now. With a male, though, we need to try to keep him in as long as possible. His lungs could use a little more time to develop better.”

“Thank you, doctor,” I say sitting up.

“I bet the adoptive parents are super excited,” he says hitting a button on the screen. I hear the small printer working across the room. “I’ll make sure one of the girls gets these to them,” he says holding up the backward facing strip of sonogram pictures.

I give him a brief nod and climb off of the table. The adoptive parents were quite disappointed when they found out they wouldn’t be involved in my doctor’s visits. This was a right I wasn’t going to give up. I didn’t want to build a relationship with them; it would only make things harder. They already get my baby; they don’t need my friendship too.

Another mission, another three weeks away from home. I should be grateful it didn’t last six like the last one. Even after following all of the information we received, we never found what we were looking for. Kincaid had to finally call it when the intel we’d been given had gone cold.

This latest mission has brought us to Costa Rica, not a beautiful coastal town on the beach, but one of the seediest places in Central America. This is where an abducted teenage girl was taken. One minute she’s on a luxury cruise with her parents, lazing away in the sun, and the next she’s being hogtied and sold to a well-known sexual deviant.

This mission is counted as a success simply because we found her alive. She’d been repeatedly raped, beaten severely, and tortured within an inch of her life. She’ll have nightmares and struggle every second of the rest of her life, but she’s on her way back home. I pray each time we rescue a girl that she’s not pulled down by the memories of the abuse she suffered. We hear all too often that many of them end up institutionalized or worse yet, they take their own lives, unable to live with the pain.

We were able to pull four other girls out of the hellish brothel also. The government is working now to get those girls home to their families. They have a hard time trusting the police because many times the people who’ve taken them have politicians and people they've been raised to trust in their back pockets. There was one girl in this last group who refused to talk. Her captors swore if she ever escaped they would kill every member of her family. She believed them even though in most of these situations the men who abducted them have no clue about lineage.

“I’m surprised you agreed to this,” I tell Kincaid as I tip my beer up to my lips.

He rolls his eyes at me. “Ace pretty much threatened me.”

Ace did most of the groundwork for this mission, so it’s only fair he’s rewarded him with a night out before we head back.

“We have a few things left to do tomorrow,” I say narrowing my eyes at him.

He laughs loudly. “He doesn’t know that.”

I smile and look over at Ace, Snatch, and Itchy. They’re laying it on pretty thick with a large group of women. They’ll walk away with at least one woman on their arms. Snatch is very likely to pull two for the night. For some reason, foreign women love the Mohawk and the endless tattoos covering his body.

“And Kid?” I ask.

“He’s back at the hotel. Skype date with Khloe,” Kincaid says signaling the waitress for another round.

“No Skype date for you and Em?”

He winks at me. “The night is still young. What are your plans?”

I angle my beer toward the petite, golden-skinned beauty looking our way. “Her,” I say simply.

She’s been staring at us since we sat down. Not that I can’t read the look in her eyes, but she’s also been licking around the top of her beer bottle like she wishes it was my cock. No doubt, she’s here to pick someone up. Lucky me.

I throw back the last of my beer and stand from my chair.

“Wheels up at thirteen hundred hours.” I nod in acknowledgment and walk across the bar. I bend my arm and offer her my elbow. She slides seductively off her chair and loops her arms through mine. Most days this is honestly too easy.

We normally double up in rooms when we travel, but the last night we opt for our own rooms. Snatch and Itchy still always double up, but they tend to share everything they bring back, so it works for them. I know Kid and Kincaid, since they have no intentions of prowling tonight, have settled into a room with double beds. Kincaid is only downstairs in the hotel bar right now to give Kid some privacy.

This is the first mission we’ve gone out on since the Christmas holidays. I know it’s been particularly hard on Kincaid since it’s the first time he left his fiancée behind. Every other time Emmalyn was his girlfriend, but he asked her to marry him on Christmas Eve. They’ve been even more inseparable since then.

Still no positive pregnancy test, even though it’s not because of a lack of trying. He’s told me he assures Em that it will happen eventually, but I know she’s not so sure. She even told him no when he proposed at first. She told him that she wouldn’t force him to marry her when she couldn’t give him everything he desires, including children. Kincaid promptly threw her over his shoulder and carried her to their room. By the next morning, she had a smile on her face and his ring on her finger.

I guide the raven-haired beauty inside my room. Without a word from me, she begins to undress. The only thing missing from the strip tease is music and disco lights.

“You don’t waste any time do you, sweetheart?”

She bites her lips and gropes at her breasts roughly. “Let me help you with your clothes,” she says in a heavily accented voice.

I watch as her hands work the buttons of my shirt open and then the fly of my pants. Her eyes widen when I fall heavily into her small hands. I cup my hand to her cheek, a move that expresses more emotion than I actually feel.

“What are you going to do with it?” I ask softly.

She leans in just like I hoped she’d do and takes me to the back of her throat. “Fuck, sweetheart that’s nice.”

She works my cock like an expert, teasing and sucking, but pulling away each time I get close to blowing. All too soon she pulls her head back and stands. I could’ve just ended the night in her mouth and been just fine, but apparently, she has other plans.

She backs up slowly and climbs on the bed. “Your turn, papi,” she says on a moan, sliding her fingers through her cleft.

I shake my head and reach for the condom in the back pocket of my jeans. “Not my thing, beautiful, but I promise to make you see stars.”

I wouldn’t eat bar pussy in New Mexico. Forget about bar pussy in a foreign country where preventative health is a luxury most can’t afford. I’m not saying this woman is nasty, but I didn’t even have to buy her a beer to get her up here. Not taking that chance on anyone.

My mind takes this opportunity to remind me that I went unwrapped once. I haven’t allowed myself to think about Misty in months. I gave up after texting her periodically for months without so much as a ‘fuck off’ in response. Man, what I wouldn’t give for it to be her pussy I was about to sink into. I wouldn’t turn down any offer to cover her flesh with my mouth.

I climb up on the bed with my conquest and line myself up at her entrance. This used to be fun. Fucking women in other countries, never having to worry about stalking or the call back when the night was over. It’s grown boring, almost unnecessary most days. Why I’m here tonight, I don’t even know. I’m hard, don’t get me wrong. I want to get laid, and the sight of her pussy makes my cock twitch in anticipation, but it feels empty.

I thumb her clit in small circles causing her to moan and undulate like a pornstar. It’s a little over the top and completely fake, but to each their own I guess. I slide inside of her slowly, gripping both hips in my hands. She feels nice, not as tight as I’d like, but it’ll work.

Twenty minutes later I’m still pumping in and out unable to find my release. By my count, she’s had three, but with the way she’s acted since the minute I touched her, she could have faked every one of them. Not really best for a man’s ego. Well, one that would give a shit in a moment like this. Fortunately for me, I’m not that man.

I close my eyes and try to ignore her moaning and Spanish phrases. My mind automatically drifts to Misty. If I concentrate hard enough, I can almost feel the pussy wrapped around me tighten. I can hear her soft whimpers as she does her best to take all of me, something we still hadn’t accomplished the last time I had her.

Finally, I begin to feel my balls tighten. I pull out immediately and come inside the condom. I don’t even want to risk a leak in the motherfucker with this chick. I climb off the bed, discard the condom, and dress quickly. I’m not a big enough idiot to leave her in this room while I shower. Her behavior has been erratic at best. She either wants me to find her irresistible and beg her to come home with me to the States, or she planned to roll me when my back was turned. She doesn’t get the opportunity to do either.

I toss her clothes to her. “Hate to run you off, sweetheart, but I got to head out early in the morning.”

“Come back to bed, papi. I’ll keep you warm while you rest.”

I shake my head. “Can’t do it, beautiful. I have horrible nightmares. The last woman that stayed over ended up with a snapped neck.” She gasps and shuffles quickly into her clothes. It’s a lie of course, but one I’m willing to live with if it means this chick gets the hell out of my room.

“Oh,” I moan as another contraction hits without warning. I feel like someone is inside me ripping me to shreds. I woke up thirty minutes ago with a contraction I know are not simple Braxton Hicks.

I’ve been suffering through them while I gather my things. There’s not really much to collect since I don’t have much, but I don’t want to leave anything behind.

I make three trips to my car, only able to carry a bag at a time. On my fourth and final trip out, the door across the hall opens. Familiar blue eyes meet mine. I give Macy a weak smile.

She looks down at the trash bag of clothes in my hand. I’m fixing to beg her not to tell anyone when she smiles back at me. “Good for you, Misty. Take good care of him.” I nod, and she closes herself back into her room.

Macy is only eighteen and three months along. Her parents also tried to convince her to have an abortion and gave her the boot when she refused. She confided in me one night, and her story brings tears to my eyes each and every time I think about it. She was gang raped at a prom after-party her senior year in high school. She’s planning to give her baby up for adoption, and I commend her for being brave enough to carry the baby to full term rather than aborting. It takes a strong woman to do that. Although, I’d never judge a woman who couldn’t after such a tragic event.

I shuffle slowly out to my car and toss my final bag into the passenger seat. The only thing I have packed in my hospital bag is a change of clothes. The adoption agency assured me everything else would be taken care of. I didn’t know until I woke up in labor a little bit ago that I couldn’t go through with it.

It takes three times as long to drive to the hospital across town. There’s no way I’ll go to the private hospital I’ve been set up to deliver in. They’ll check my name and take him before I can even have the chance to leave with him. Instead, I drive to the regional hospital.