Chapter Seven

Claire’s Point of View

“It’s me, Liam.” The words left the man’s mouth, and I stared at him for a good two minutes before bursting out laughing.

“That’s funny. Liam has like a midnight blue colored hair and he lives in London.”

“I only dyed my hair that color years ago. I thought it looked good back then. And I’m here on a case,” he said slowly as he watched for my reaction. Tears filled my eyes and I angrily wiped them.

You are not weak, so stop crying.

That’s right, I’m not weak, yet there are tears that won’t stop streaming down my face.

I stood up from the grass. “You see here’s the thing. You can’t be Liam because Liam wouldn’t be talking to me because he knows how upset it would make me,” I hissed, wiping pathetic tears from my face.

“I’m not trying to hurt you Claire. I didn’t even know I was going to see you here,” the guy claiming to be Liam said.

“Okay, as interesting as this is, we need to leave here because I really don’t know how long that’s going to last on all of them,” Joey interjected.

I narrowed my eyes.

Joey picked up Clover and instructed me to follow him to the house they’re staying at. I got in my car and followed them about thirty minutes away to their place. It was a medium-sized house with white paint peeling a bit on the sides.

A sudden knock on my window made me jump and put my hand to my chest. “Don’t do that to me. I’m feeling very stressed right now,” I said once I exited the car.

“Sorry, I forgot this must be a lot for you,” Joey said before leading the way to the house with me, the imposter holding Clover, and two other girls following behind him.

“Is everyone okay?” a man asked. Joey nodded.

“Everything’s all good,” he said.

“Nothing is okay. She just almost got fucking raped, Riley is laying amongst all of those killers, and we are still absolutely nowhere!” I said, throwing my hands up in the air with more fucking tears filling my eyes. How on Earth can he act like everything’s all sunshine and daisies?

“I meant if you two were safely out, and I can see you are. How about you take a seat on the couch?” he said with his hand on my back, directing me to their living room.

“Sorry, I’m just a bit of a wreck right now,” I told him wiping my eyes and watching as the imposter set Clover’s body on a loveseat.

“Can you get her some tea?” the man asked the imposter, and I shook my head.

“I’m fine. I hate tea.” That was a completely lie, but I didn’t want him to get it for me. You make think I’m being childish, but I personally think it’s just me being stubborn.

“No, you don’t. That’s one of your favorite drinks,” he said. I narrowed my eyes. This guy acts like he knows me. Even if he was Liam, he has no right to act like he’s known me forever.

“Claire, Just so you know, Riley is okay. We just had to leave her with the rest of them or else her cover would be blown and then we’d really be going completely nowhere.” A girl said before another argument was started and I raised an eyebrow.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. My name’s Emily and this is Rachel.”

“Thank you for telling me that, and it’s nice to meet you.” I gave her an appreciative smile.

“No problem. Liam should be back with your tea shortly,” she said.

I nodded, trying to calm myself.

I sat there moving my right leg up and down. This whole case thing was stressing me out big time. I gasped as I felt a sudden pain. “Shit,” I hissed, putting my hand to my lower stomach. It was only there for a minute before it went away. Taking a deep breath I frowned as I felt it again a minute later. It wasn’t so painful that I needed to go to the hospital, but it was starting to reoccur and it freaked me out. I was thankful no one was in here with me as these pains came and went. Must be cramps starting, which meant my time of the month was definitely coming.

“Are you okay?” this so called Liam said.

I nodded as I started releasing heavy breaths. Okay these cramps needed to go away.

“No, I’m not okay,” I said with my hand still to my stomach and releasing fast breaths.

“Claire, what’s wrong?” he asked when I moaned out in pain. Okay, I lied, I’m not fine. I feel like something’s inside my stomach and throwing rocks at it.

“Liam it hurts. It really hurts.” I almost yelled as my left hand clenched the couch. My right hand held my stomach as I tried to get myself to breathe right again.

“Claire, it’s going to be okay.” He rubbed my back, taking a seat next to me. “Just cramps right?” he asked.

I shook my head moaning in pain.

“What’s wrong?” Clover mumbled, rubbing her eyes and sitting up. I shook my head, not responding. I was going to hit someone if they asked me what’s wrong again.

“Claire?” she said now, fully awake as I let out deep breaths and moaned in pain.

“Can you all shut the hell up?” I hissed in between clenched teeth.

“No, we’re taking you to the hospital right now,” Liam said, standing up and taking my hand.

“I don’t even know you, so no,” I responded rubbing my stomach as it made the pain start to disappear. Maybe they were gone for good this time.

“Inside you know I’m Liam, so stop being stubborn,” he hissed. I narrowed my eyes at him and pointed my finger at him ready to snap some response back before bringing my hand right against my stomach again. Shit, it was back.

“Claire? I think we should take you to the hospital too,” Clover said.

I glared at her for agreeing with him.

“I already got my keys,” Liam said, pulling them out of his pocket.

I gasped in pain before nodding.

“Fine,” I hissed still trying to control my breathing. What the hell was wrong with me?

It was a ten minute drive to an urgent care, and they let me in after about a twenty-minute wait. Apparently me feeling like something was attacking my stomach wasn’t an urgent problem for them.

“Hello Claire, I’m Nurse Layla. I’m just going to need you to take a few deep breaths to get you calm okay?”

I nodded. She went through an inhaling and exhaling exercise about ten times that actually helped quite a bit.

“Now I’m just going to ask you a few questions.” I agreed to answer all of them.

“First of all, I need to know what’s going on? You obviously came here for a reason so what kind of pain do you have?”

“I feel like I have an extreme version of cramps in my lower stomach, but it comes and goes every few minutes.”

“On a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst, how bad is the pain?” she asked me gently as she entered the information in the computer.

“I’d probably say a solid 7,” I said honestly, and she nodded typing it in before looking at me again. She started to ask me the basic questions like if I have any allergies and stuff like that.

“Okay, last question, have you had any other problems?”

“I’ve been nauseous and throwing up lately, and I’m light headed at times. I’ve been bloating more then usual, plus I gained weight on top of all of that.”  She nodded and typed in the information into the computer with a small smile on her face. What the hell was she smiling about?

“Okay, the doctor will be in here in a few minutes,” she told me before logging out of the computer and standing up. She sent me a friendly smile before leaving and closing the door behind her.

About two minutes later there was a knock on the door and the doctor entered.

“Hello Claire, I’m Doctor Loris and this is Mr. Thompson who’s currently in training. Do you mind if he joins us?” she asked, and my eyes widened at the sight of my old friend.

“No, of course not,” I said still looking at West, who gave me a shy smile. He must have gone back to school to be a doctor.

“Okay so you’re having stomach pains correct?” She looked at her clipboard and I nodded.

“Yes, this has been the first time in the past hour that I haven’t had any,” I told her and she nodded.

“Okay, now Claire I’m just going to throw out an idea based on everything I’ve been told about all of your symptoms lately and the reason why you came here in the first place,” she said before a smile appeared on your face. “I think you may be pregnant Claire, and I think the pain you’re experiencing is what we call Braxton Hicks Contractions. In case you don’t know, those are false labor pains you can start to get if you are close to your delivery day.”

I thought I was going to pass out. She had to be kidding me. Where was the camera? Because I knew there was no way. Like I said, Caiden always used protection. He told me himself he didn’t want kids. And trust me when I said he never forgets. He has stopped at intense, unexpected moments just to put a condom on.

“That’s impossible. My boyfriend is always wearing protection when we have sex,” I told her completely forgetting about West’s presence.  

“Now we won’t know for sure until we do some tests, but it is a possibility Claire, especially because condoms do not always work.” I shook my head with tears filling my eyes. I can’t be pregnant. Caiden would kill me. He’d probably even leave me as soon as he found out. I’d be that single mother and would one day have I tell the child that their father didn’t want them.

“How long will it take for the results?” I asked, biting my lip nervously while trying to blink the tears out of my eyes. I probably looked like some prostitute who got knocked up since I walked in here in a short dress and high heels.

“For you, I can get them in an hour,” she said, giving me an encouraging smile.

“Thank you,” I said. She nodded, standing up.

“I’m just going to need you to take a quick blood test. Nurse Layla can help you with that.” She held out her hand to shake.

“It was a pleasure meeting you Claire. I love your clothes.” I gave her a small smile.

“Thank you,” I said before shaking West’s hand too. “It was nice to see you again West. Maybe we can get a cup of coffee and catch up sometime soon?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” he said, sending me a smile before leaving the room behind Dr. Loris.

About a minute later Nurse Layla led me to another room where I got my blood taken. Walking out to the waiting room with a bandaid on, I sat next to Clover. These weren’t the people I wanted to be surrounded by right now. I wanted to be next to Mia, Nathan, and Caiden. I wanted Nathan’s bear hug, I wanted to hear Mia’s sass, and I wanted Caiden to be here with me for support and to tell me he’s not angry with me. But I guess I can’t always get what I want.

“What’d they say?” Clover asked me after a minute of silence.

“They took a few tests, and they’re going to tell me the results in about an hour. You guys don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,” I told them, looking blankly at the floor.

“I don’t mind staying, and by the way I called Caiden,” she said, making me glare at her.

“Where’d you even get the number?” I questioned.

She rolled her eyes.

“Calm down, I was worried about you so I had to call. And I got it from Liam who got it from Joey who found it on your emergency contact papers for the case. He should be here any minute.” I shouldn’t be angry with her since she was only trying to help. I’ve turned into such a bitch lately.

It’s the hormones.

“Thank you for everything,” I said, leaning back in the chair trying to ignore my conscious. I’m not pregnant. There’s no way.

Yes, you are.

“I should be saying thank you for helping me get out of there,” she said, giving me a closed-mouth smile. I nodded, looking at my shaky hands in my lap.

“Claire, we should really talk,” Liam said, looking straight at me. But I ignored his presence.

“You do know that when Riley became owner of our agency she got rid of the rule that says you can’t date outside of the agency.” I frowned looking at him.

“And? Do you want me to jump into your arms now? Because if so, then I’d hate to disappoint but that’s not happening. I am perfectly happy with my boyfriend.”

“Keyword: boyfriend. Clover how long have you and your husband been married?” he asked, not taking his eyes off me.

“I’m not getting involved with this,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder while she continued to look at some fashion magazine.

Liam rolled his eyes. “Well, my point is if you two were really happy then you’d be married by now.”

“Stay out of my business Liam. You want to be friends? Sure then we can be friends, but don’t come to me now almost eleven years later and tell me you want something more because I didn’t wait for something that you told me was never going to happen.” I wiped the tears away from my eyes. I was tired of crying.

“Now can you please leave. The doctor told me that stress wasn’t good for me,” I said softly.

He nodded before leaving the building.

I wrapped my arms around my stomach. Could there really be a little human being inside of me? Was it a girl? A boy? It was sad that I was feeling so scared to be pregnant. Most girls would be ecstatic to find out her and her boyfriend of about 8 years were going to have a baby together.

“Claire?” Caiden said a few feet away, and I jumped up rushing over to him. It’d been about thirty minutes of me sitting in silence, and it was killing me. He wrapped his arms around me and brought me close to him. “Please tell me you’re okay,” he whispered, pulling back a little to examine me for any injuries.

“I’m okay,” I responded softly. He nodded, kissing my forehead before giving me a plastic bag.

“I heard you were still in your party clothes so I brought you a change of clothes,” he said.

I kissed his cheek, thanking him. I walked over to the bathroom and changed into what he brought me: a pair of pink pants and a tan-colored tank top.

Looking at the pair of heels in the bag, I scrunched up my nose and left them in there. Although they were adorable, I didn’t feel like wearing shoes. Caiden must have known that because there were a pair of black ankle socks in the bag too. Slipping those on, I left the bathroom and went back over to Caiden, who was sitting in a chair while tapping his foot impatiently.

“So what did the doctors say?” he asked.

I bit my lip nervously.

“They don’t know what’s wrong with me yet, but they took a test and they said they would get back to me in an hour,” I said.

“Don’t worry, everything is going to be okay. You’re Claire Martez, one of the strongest girls I know,” he whispered to me with his hands on my cheeks. I covered my hands with his and gave him a weak smile.

I pulled away when I felt the pain start in my stomach again. Could these really be false labor pains? I mean I know I’ve gained a bit of wait, but it’s not like my stomach is humongous.

“Claire, are you okay?” Caiden asked when I clenched my teeth and bent over in the chair. Usually this worked for cramps, so it probably works for this too.

“Baby doll?” he asked and I shook my head sitting up. That did nothing. I rubbed my stomach and leaned back when the pain left for a minute.

“I’m okay,” I told him. He just sighed before lifting me into his lap.

“Well as adorable as this is I’m gonna get going. Andrew is here to get me, and since our plan failed I’m probably going to be taking a flight home tomorrow,” Clover said, standing up and stretching.

“You do know this won’t go away if you leave right?” Caiden told her coldly. She flinched at his tone.

“He can’t get me if I’m in a different state,” she said not so confidently.

“Are you fucking stupid?” he asked her loudly, causing the few people in here to look our way. I elbowed him in his stomach and sent him a glare.

“Don’t give me that look. That man is a murderer, and trust me when I said I know more about him than any of you do. He will follow you to the end of the Earth if he has to until he sees your dead body in front of him with your blood staining his hands.” Caiden’s words even made me flinch back.

“I’m not surprised you two know each other. I mean, it seems you two aren’t really different. Both monsters in my eyes.” She spat before walking out of the urgent care. I grabbed Caiden’s clenched fist and set it on top of my lap, turned his face towards me, and rested my palm against his cheek

“You are not a monster and she knows that. She is only scared and upset right now,” I told him softly and his oh-so-famous dark look appeared.

“Baby doll, I’ve known since I was sixteen that I’m a monster. Nothing you say can change that. It’s just who I am, and I’ve learned to accept it, so you should too.”

“Jesse is the monster here,” I told him. He looked away from me, and my hand fell to my side. How could I get him to see he’s not this terrible person he thinks he is?

“Claire Martez?” Nurse Layla interrupted, and I quickly got off Caiden’s lap and stood up. Caiden followed me over and the nurse immediately put her hand up, gesturing him to stop.

“Excuse me, sir, you have to wait out here unless you’re family,” she said. Caiden narrowed his eyes.

“She’s my girlfriend,” he told her with a glare. She gulped and nodded.

“This way then,” she said and led us to the same room as earlier. “Dr. Loris will be with you in one moment,” she said before leaving the room.

In reality I didn’t want Caiden here. Yes, I know earlier I said I did, but if she tells me those cursed words in front of him I’ll probably be left here all by myself and be forced to stay at Mia and Nathan’s place.

Three knocks sounded through the room before Dr. Loris entered with West right behind her.

“Hello Claire, how are you feeling?” she asked me.

I shrugged.

“The pain keeps coming and going,” I replied honestly.

“I see you have a guest with you. Hello I’m Dr. Loris. My guess is you’re Claire’s husband?” She held out her hand, which he shook.

“Boyfriend. What’s Wesley doing here?” he questioned, nodding his head at West, who awkwardly avoided his gaze.

“This is West, he’s currently in training. If it bothers you that he’s here, then he can be sent out,” she said politely.

“It does.”

“He’s fine. Can we just talk about my results,” I asked right after sending Caiden a glare.

“Yes, of course,” she said, looking down at her clipboard.

“Now I am happy to announce you are indeed pregnant Ms. Martez.”

I stared at her blankly. I didn’t look at Caiden to see his disgusted look or anything like that. I just stared. I was pregnant. I have a baby boy or girl growing inside of me.

When Dr. Loris realized I wasn’t going to say anything, she cleared her throat and continued. “Now it’s strange that you’re having Braxton Hicks Contractions since you obviously aren’t close to your delivery day, so my guess is that it’s because of stress. “

“How do I get them to stop?” I asked her quietly.

“Well, based on what you told me, the amount you’re having in an hour is very unhealthy, and I have to say you should go on bed rest for a couple of days to get them to stop.”

I nodded.

“Anything else?” I asked, and she gave me a frown.

“There is one more thing,” she said, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear. “If these contractions don’t stop, then we will have to deliver the baby early and that will give he or she about a 60% chance of living. So it is highly suggested that you stay in bed and you make sure to keep her in bed.” She looked at Caiden during the last part.

“I will. Thank you for helping me today,” I told her, standing up. She smiled, following my lead.

“It was no problem at all, and congratulations on the pregnancy! I know you’re going to be looking for a doctor, and I actually have an office. You can come by in two days at 10 a.m if you’d like, and I can tell you how far you are along and all the fun stuff.” She wrote down her information before handing the paper to me with a smile

“That’d be great. Thank you so much,” I said.

“See you soon. And it was nice meeting both of you,” she said, shaking mine and Caiden’s hand before excusing herself along with West.

Caiden and I left urgent care in complete silence. The whole ride was awkward and was only filled with Falling In Reverse in the background. Caiden’s hands were white as they clenched the steering wheel.

What do I even say? I’m sorry for being pregnant? I’m sorry that both of us created another human being even though you didn’t want to have any children.

No, I wouldn’t apologize for being pregnant because it definitely takes two to tango, and he or she will become my world even if Caiden decides to leave me.

“Caiden, listen I’m not—”

“Stop.” He cut me off and I shut my mouth immediately. His tone didn’t have a hard edge to it, yet it didn’t have a soft one either. It sounded completely normal. Not angry, not sad, just normal.

“You know what, you can be mad at me, you can leave me, or whatever you want, but I’m letting you know this child growing inside of me is here to stay with me.” He slammed on his brakes. Luckily, the streets were empty because it was almost two in the morning.

“Do you really think I’d leave you?” he hissed. I shrugged in response. He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car pacing. I slowly followed his lead and got out.

“Caiden?”

“I love you Claire Martez, and I would never leave you. I don’t know how the fuck I’m suppose to help raise a kid when I can’t even fix my fucked-up self. I’m still a mess Claire. I grew up without any responsible or caring parents. I grew up with some crazy woman till I was sixteen, and then after that I pretty my grew up by myself in the university. Yet now I’m supposed to be some responsible adult without any help.” He slammed his fist into the side of his car.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” he yelled, and I quickly stopped him by grabbing a hold of his hand. I held it in mine and gave him a sad smile as I looked at his tears.

“I don’t know if I can fucking do this,” he told me, looking at me right in my eyes.

“I know you can because you’re not alone anymore. I’ll will be here every step of the way helping you raise this child because it’s not just your baby and it’s not just my baby. It’s our baby, Caiden, and we will learn how to raise him or her together.” I wiped the tears that fell from his hazel eyes. He wrapped his arms around me and brought me as close as possible to his body.

All this time I thought he was just afraid of commitment, but yet here he was afraid of being irresponsible and stupid like his parents.

“I love you, Claire Martez,” he told me before pressing his lips to my bare shoulder.

“And I love you, Caiden Anderson.” I closed my eyes and embraced the feeling of him hugging me. I guess we’d be okay after all.

***

Riley’s Point of View (Reese)

“Get up,” someone hissed. I felt someone kick my side. I resisted the urge to punch the person and opened my eyes instead.

“What?” I snapped, quickly scanning the room. I was still at the party. Last thing I remember was Joey coming in here with Emily, Rachel, and Liam.

Liam better have a good reason for being here. He’s supposed to be looking after the agency with Lex.

“They got away,” Taylor said to me quietly.

I glanced around the room and saw most people were still knocked out, including Jesse.

“What are we going to do?” I asked, standing up and stretching.

“Jesse is going to be fucking pissed. We have to start getting people up. He’ll want every person in the room to get back to work. And be prepared to go out on a raid with Jacob and Jax after this,” he told me, kicking someone else’s side nearby.

“A raid?” I questioned raising an eyebrow. He chuckled.

“C’mon Reese, you’re supposed to have this down by now,” Taylor said.

I shrugged.

“Sorry I didn’t get a handbook,” I retorted.

He rolled his eyes.

“Jesse wants to start killing someone every Friday after a party, but the thing is he’s going to go crazy with killing tonight since he got beat by the agents again.” Taylor smirked and I pretended to be confused.

“The agents?”

“You know they’re like the FBI. Except these specific agents are from London. The leader wasn’t with them tonight, but I’m sure she’ll be around here soon.” He lit up a joint.

“Jacob, get your ass up,” Taylor hissed. Jacob groaned.

“How much did I drink? I can barely remember a fucking thing. Jasmin really knows how to make that pot,” Jacob said, sitting up and placing his hand on his head.

“We were attacked by agents, so stop whining and start helping wake people up,” he ordered.

“Don’t tell me what the fuck to do.” Taylor grabbed him by his shirt and sneered.

“I have a higher rank in this gang so step down.” Taylor spat before letting him go and continued to wake people. I followed his lead and did the same. We wouldn’t wake Jesse until everyone was up and back to work or else he’d be even more pissed.

“Man, those two blonde chicks Jesse had a beef with were hot as hell. I’m getting a fucking boner just from thinking about them in their tight ass dresses,” Jacob said to Taylor, and he hummed in agreement.

“You must be talkin’ about Clover Thompson and Claire Martez. They are definitely something, but don’t let Jesse hear you say anything about Claire or else you’ll probably be shot. She belongs to him.”

“Well, you won’t tell if I have a quick round with her soon right?” Jacob asked. Taylor snorted.

“She would never let you near her.”

“No one said she has to consent to it,” Jacob said. I glared at the body I was currently shaking awake. I swear almost everyone in here were big arses.

“That’s just sick. I swear, is rape all you guys think about?” They both looked at me.

“I don’t touch girls without their permission, so don’t act like you know me,” Taylor told me while glaring at me. It almost confused me why Taylor was still in this whole gang business. He wasn’t anything like these guys, and he obviously didn’t like it here so why didn’t he get far away from this side of the country when Jesse went to prison. Something else had to be going on without me knowing.

“Well Reese, unless you want to help me fix my fucking problem, I’d suggest you shut the fuck up,” Jacob said.

I raised an eyebrow and kept up with my role.

“And who says I won’t?” I said, raising an eyebrow. Jacob smirked.

“Well babe, how about you meet me upstairs after we wake everyone up?” He was testing me. He wouldn’t believe I would do it, and he was right I wouldn’t. To them I was single, but in reality I was engaged to Joey.

“Please you and I both know she’s probably a virgin Jake,” another girl named Jasmin said, rolling her eyes.

“Will you help me then?” he asked her, and she smirked walking over to him.

“Oh you know I will,” she said, touching him right through his jeans. I tried not to gag. Over the past week I’d come to learn that Jasmin was the gang’s prostitute.

“Yeah, you’re right I won’t. I really don’t want your STDs,” I said. The few people that were up chuckled.

“Hey asshole, get up,” I hissed, kicking Jax since he wasn’t waking from me shaking him.

“Bitch, I’m up, so back the fuck up,” Jax hissed, sitting up.

I rolled my eyes and continued to wake people. It took only an hour to wake everyone up and by that time most of the house was cleared out. It was only Jax, Jacob, Taylor, some girl named Lily, and me. Oh and Jesse of course.

“They want to play games so we’re gonna play. Get your guns ready. We’re taking out a club tonight and not one person is leaving that fucking club alive,” Jesse spat, opening a closet and throwing a few automatic guns at our feet.

“I don’t kill,” Taylor said.

Jesse turned his fully loaded gun towards him.

“Does it look like I give a fuck?”

“I don’t remember asking you if you did. I’m telling you right now I won’t kill whether you want me to or not,” Taylor responded without a second thought.

Jesse shook his head.

“You’re lucky I need you,” he said, lowering his gun. “I don’t care if you kill or not. Just make sure to do your job and we won’t have a problem.”

So Jesse needed Taylor for something. I knew it couldn’t be for this little killing spree, so what was he getting from Taylor?