Chapter Ten

Claire’s Point of View

“I’ll see you after work,” Caiden said, pressing a long kiss to my lips before pulling back.

“Yeah, I’ll make sure to bring a picture from my appointment today,” I told him, and he nodded, grabbing a piece of bacon off the plate on the counter and heading towards the door. “Love you!” I yelled through the house – and I heard him yell it back – but it came out more like a bunch of gibberish since his mouth was full.

“You have another appointment?” Clover asked me.

I looked over at the table where her and Andrew were sitting.

“My doctor left me a voicemail last night telling me she’d like to see me again soon since I went so many months without proper monthly check ups,” I said.

“How far are you anyways?”

I bit my lip trying to remember what the doctor told me. I know I’m a horrible mother already.

“I’m pretty sure at most 18 weeks,” I told her, looking down at my stomach. She suddenly jumped up and squealed.

“You’re so far along! I remember those days,” Clover said, placing her hand on her stomach before looking at Andrew.

“Let’s have another baby,” she said. Andrew started coughing on his orange juice. The poor man sat there choking for a good three minutes .

“We have two seven-year-old children at home right now. I don’t think we need anymore. They’re both a pain already,” Andrew said, but you could see the adoration for his children in his eyes. I couldn’t help but wonder if Caiden would be like that one day.

“What time does the appointment start?” she asked, watching me take a sip out my glass of milk.

“Ten,” I said, looking at the watch on my hand.

She looked at me with wide eyes.

“Can I please come?” she begged.

I stared at her for a minute before reluctantly agreeing.

“Caiden can’t come, so I don’t see why not. It would be nice to have someone else there,” I said.

She squealed, making me cringe.

“You can’t do that again if you’re coming.”

She only nodded in response and sent me a huge smile.

“I’ll go get ready really quick,” she yelled, rushing upstairs when she saw it was already eight fifty.

“Where’s Chris and Jasmin?” I asked Andrew.

He shrugged, scowling through his phone.

“They have some friends here that they rarely get to see, so they’ve been visiting them a lot recently,” he said.

I frowned. They couldn’t have stayed with them then? I don’t mind the company since I’m not working as much, but having four grown adults in the house was kind of a lot when you’re use to just having two.

It took Clover a solid twenty minutes to get ready before we were rushing to my appointment. I tried to pay attention to her ranting about some other model, but I could hardly focus as butterflies filled my stomach. This would be my second ultrasound and I could only hope my doctor would tell me everything was okay.

“Claire?” Clover asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I almost slammed on the breaks.

Pulling into the doctor's office, I finally responded, “Yeah?”

I looked at her as I parked the car.

“You okay? You look like you’re going to puke,” she said.

I waved her off. I was perfectly fine. What could have possibly happened in the past couple of weeks that I need to worry about.

“I’m fine,” I told her as we entered the large building. We took the elevator to the fifth floor where my doctor’s office was usually located.

“Hi, I’m here to check in,” I said to the lady in pink scrubs at the desk. She looked up and smiled.

“Here, just fill this out,” she said, handing me a paper on a clipboard.

I quickly did so since there were only a few questions on it.

“Oh, you’re Ms. Martez?” she asked.

I nodded. The nurse immediately brought me into one of the rooms. “I was scheduled to be your nurse for the day so we can get started right away, but I wanted to let you know about an unexpected change due to certain problems.”

I looked at Clover with wide eyes and she held up her hands mouthing ‘calm down.’

“What kind of problems?” I asked.

She looked almost embarrassed to say it.

“We found out your doctor had leaked your personal information about you being pregnant. As soon as we found out, we got rid of her and replaced her with a new and better doctor,” she said.

I wonder how much money she got from information I wasn’t actually hiding.

“This new doctor is good right?” I asked as she began her tests.

“Yes, better even. He came from a great medical school and has helped deliver plenty of babies before. You have to be in the best hands,” she said smiling. I didn’t return the smile. A thousand questions filled my head as I thought about everything that could be wrong with the doctor. God, I was turning into my mother, I thought, shaking my head.

“I promise you Ms. Martez he is the best doctor for you. If you for some reason don’t think so and have a problem with him, just let us know, and we’ll find you a new one,” she said.

“Thank you for letting me know,” I told her.

She nodded, sending me a smile. We finally got to the most exciting part of my examination where I could finally see the baby that was growing inside of me.

“Can you tell me the gender?” I asked her as she started putting a cold gel like substance on my stomach, causing Clover to almost bounce in excitement in her seat.

“Dr. Mabry will discuss everything with you,” she told me.

I sighed. I jumped a little in surprise when the sound of some female singer filled the room. I looked at Clover who sent me an apologetic look, excusing herself.

“Would you like pictures?” she asked and I mumbled a yes. I watched as she moved the transducer across my stomach. I looked up at the screen and couldn’t help it when tears filled my eyes. I didn’t really understand what exactly was each part of the baby’s body yet until she quickly went through what was what. Once she was done she excused herself and mumbled something about the doctor being on his way in. I started to wipe the gel off my stomach and jumped in surprised when, about twenty seconds after she left, the doctor knocked on the door. I quickly rubbed the excess off and pulled down the shirt I was wearing, sitting up on the edge of the bed.

“Come in,” I yelled, and the door opened. My eyes widened in surprise as the handsome man entered the room. His dark, curly hair stood out the most, and I couldn’t help but wonder how this man was a doctor. Doctors have a friendly look to them. This man had a mysterious look, one that almost seemed like he was hurt.

“Hello, I’m doctor Mabry, but since we’re going to be seeing each other so often you can call me Keith if you’d like,” he said, holding out his hand for me to shake. Something about his accent left me dazed for a moment before I snapped out of it and let my hand touch his and shook it before immediately letting it go.

No hand should be that soft.

He sent me a charming smile, and I realized I never introduced myself.

“Oh sorry! I’m Claire. It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for taking over,” I said.

He chuckled.

“It’s no problem at all. It is my job,” he said.

I stared at his perfect smile. Gosh, what am I thinking? I have a boyfriend, who I’m going to be having a baby with in the next few months.

You’re only appreciating the fact that he’s a handsome man.

I’m allowed to do something like this right? I mean it’s not like he can hear my private thoughts.

“Now your results, everything seems to be perfectly healthy with you and your baby, but I’d like to start doing an every two week check up with you,” he told me, looking at the clipboard.

“I’m only at eighteen weeks though?” I said looking at him with worry.

He stared at me in what looked like surprise before clearing his throat.

“You have nothing to worry about. I just want to really know as many details I can about the little man inside there before I help you deliver him,” he said.

I sighed in relief. The fact that he cared that much for the delivery that’s months away warmed my heart a bit.

“Wait, what did you say?” I asked with wide eyes.

“I said you have nothing—”

“No, I heard all that. But did you say little man?” I asked.

His eyebrows furrowed.

“Yes, I—”

“It’s a boy. I’m having a little baby boy,” I said out loud, cutting him off. I placed my hand on my stomach and looked down at the small bump.

“I apologize if you did not want to know,” he said sincerely.

I shook my head.

“No, it’s okay, I wanted to know,” I said smiling.

He returned the smile.

“Oh well, that’s good then,” he said after a moment. I nodded, standing up.

“Is that all then?” I asked, looking at him expectantly.

“Do you know your due date?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“April 19th,” he said.

That seemed so far away.

“Good to know. Thank you,” I said.

A knock sounded on the door. It was the nurse from before, and she handed me an envelope.

“Those are your sonogram pictures,” she said.

I thanked her.

“It was nice meeting you, Dr. Mabry,” I said, holding out my hand for him to shake again. Unlike me, he didn’t stare at it like it was some foreign object. He grabbed my hand and shook it.

Again with those soft hands.

I wonder what he could—

Caiden!

I swear you’re such a buzz kill.

I thanked him again before we both exited the room. I walked out to the waiting room where I saw Clover sitting there still talking on her phone. She frowned when she saw that I was finished already.

“Done already?” she pouted.

I rolled my eyes.

“You’ve been out here for a while,” I told her.

“Sorry, it’s an important call,” she whispered before focusing on what the person on the phone was saying. I made my next appointment before we made our way out. All that filled my thoughts the whole way home was the baby boy inside my stomach. I wondered if Caiden would be happy about it being a boy or did he want a girl?

Or maybe he didn’t want either.

The thought itself made my smile turn into a frown because I knew it was true. But I had to remember he just had to warm up to the idea.

***

Riley’s Point of View

“I hate this whole barely seeing each other thing,” I said to Joey, leaning my head against his shoulder as we sat in some random parking lot.

“Me too, but we just have to remember you’re my fiancé, and once this whole mission is finally over we will be finally having that wedding,” he said, pulling away so he could look at me. I did the same before pressing my lips against his, something I haven’t had the opportunity to do in a while. I smiled into the kiss when Joey brought me onto his lap. The kiss got heated, but was quickly ruined when some random teenage boys knocked on the window.

“Get it!” one yelled before they all ran off laughing. I pulled back, narrowing my eyes at the teenagers.

“Way to ruin a moment,” I muttered.

“Oh, don’t get all grumpy. I’d rather hear that teenagers are interrupting makeout session than doing drugs and drinking,” Joey said.

I raised an eyebrow.

“They’re probably doing both,” I said, but he ignored me and made loud noises.

“Don’t darken my thoughts with your negativity!” he said, and I couldn’t help but laugh at him. It’s hard to believe he was twenty-nine years old since he still acted like a child.

“Whatever, just shut up and kiss me,” I said, pressing my lips to his. About a minute later we were interrupted again when the alarm on my phone went off.

“That’s my call,” I muttered, moving back into my own seat and opening the door.

“Thanks for freeing up an hour of your life to come see me. Maybe next year we can get and hour and two minutes,” Joey said sarcastically.

I scowled, slapping his arm. He laughed.

“Let’s not forget this was your idea.”

He responded by sticking his tongue out at me, before quickly presseing another quick kiss to my lips, mumbling a goodbye.

“Love you,” I told him before getting out and shutting the door. The gang house was about a ten-minute walk from here so I started jogging that way being careful to not slip on ice. Though there was snow and ice on the ground, I wasn’t feeling any winter spirit. It’s the first winter I’ve spent away from home in years, but all I wanted to do was snuggle up with Joey on our couch by our fireplace as we watched some Christmas movies.

“Where have you been?” Jacob questioned suspiciously when I showed up at the house suddenly.

“Out.”

“Look at the sex hair. She was definitely getting it on,” Lily said smirking.

I plastered a fake smile on my face and tried to hold back the urge to hit the girl. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been, I still didn’t like the girl.

The door suddenly slammed closed, causing me to look at the figure that entered the room.

“Keith?” Jacob question as he entered the living room. I was surprised to see how nice he cleaned up. He grabbed a bottle of bourbon and a glass cup, pouring a little in it.

“How’d it go?” Jax asked curiously.

Keith looked up from his glass and smirked.

“Better than expected,” he said on the chair, putting his feet up on the side.

“Care to elaborate?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“She trusts me.”

“How do you know?” I asked immediately, causing him to look at me carefully.

“Because I do. The look of adoration was all over her face every time she looked at me,” he said before drinking the rest of the alcohol in the cup.

Jax snorted, “Bullshit.”

“Yeah, you’re right, but I can see she trusts me or else she would have requested a new doctor,” Keith said, pouring more into his glass.

“So when’s her next appointment?” Jacob asked, lighting a joint.

“In two weeks.”

“It’ll be a while before you see her again,” Leon said, looking like he was thinking, but Keith chuckled.

“No, that’s the next time I’ll be seeing her as Dr. Mabry. No one said I couldn’t run into on the streets,” he said, just as Taylor walked into the room.

“What? You’re not talking about Claire, right?” Taylor asked

Keith shrugged.

“Why?”

“Jesse will never allow it.”

“Jesse needs someone on the inside, and I’m the closest person he’s got right now so there shouldn’t be a problem,” Keith said. The way he looked at him was like he was daring for him to question him again.

“Plus, who says he needs to know.” A dark smirk appeared on his face as he did a little bow with his head, holding the cup in his hand up. I shook my head in disgust and walked out of the room without a word. I left the house and walked to the parking lot I was in earlier, texting Joey to come and get me.

This was getting out of hand. I needed someone else to come in with me. I needed Joey. I couldn’t take down this whole gang by myself. Yes, I’ve seen underage teens smoking and drinking, I’ve seen adults with different types of drugs, but that wasn’t enough. I needed to get every last one of them to make sure this gang dies. Every single one of them needed to rot in prison.

When I got to the parking lot a few minutes early, I decided to just sit on the curb. But something caught my attention in a nearby alleyway.

“I said, do you have the fucking money?” a voice yelled. I heard someone getting hit. I stood up and slowly walked closer.

“I just need one more week. If I don’t pay my rent, my family won’t have a house to live in. Please, I have three children,” a guy begged, making my heart clench for him.

“I told you I don’t give extensions, so if you’re telling me you don’t have the money, then you know what it means.” The man sneered. Looking into the alley, I gasped when I saw a guy that looked to be in his thirties getting his head slammed against a wall. My gasp caught the attention of the man, causing him to look up at me.

“Get out of here wench,” he hissed.

I raised an eyebrow amused. It’s been a long time since I’ve kicked someone’s arse.

“You could at least say please,” I pouted.

He released the hair he was holding and let the man’s body hit the concrete.

“Or you can be next. I’m sure we could have some fun,” the disgusting man said, making me raise an eyebrow at him and tuck my hands in my front pockets.

“Awe that’s cute. You think I would get with you so easily,” I said with my signature smirk.

“I don’t remember asking you for permission, little lady,” he said.

I shook my head as he took a step closer.

“You see I don’t remember giving you the option in the first place,” I said, just as he grabbed a piece of my blonde hair, twirling it in my fingers.

“There’s something I don’t understand about you gang members,” I said, turning my head to the side innocently before kneeing him where the sun doesn’t shine. He gasped for air, knees hitting the ground. “You all don’t seem to understand the answer no,” I said, clenching his hair in my hand. “And let me tell you something,” I whispered in his ear before kicking his chest, making him fall back onto the concrete in pain, “it’s really starting to get on my nerves.” I left him laying there.

I knew it was probably stupid of me to mess with a gang member while being undercover as one, but I was sure he wasn’t apart of Jesse’s gang. Jesse would take care of late payments himself. “Thank y-you.” The other guy choked out, and I walked over to him, kneeling down. His face was definitely going to have many bruises tomorrow, but he’s lucky to be alive.

“Listen, don’t ever risk such a great thing for money or drugs or whatever. Your kids would be heartbroken to have to grow up without their father,” I told him, helping him up. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialed 911, briefly telling them what happened.

“I won’t, never again,” he said, shaking his head, tears forming in his eyes. Damn, why must everyone cry when I’m with them.

“You still got it Riles,” Joey said shaking his head with a smile playing at his lips.

“I know,” I said, sending him a wink. Joey walked over and handcuffed the guy on the ground who was finally coming to it. I helped the guy leaning on me move so he was sitting against the brick wall. Looking at the time on my phone, I knew I should get out of sight. Jesse had eyes everywhere and that includes the people who were suppose to be most trusted, the cops.

“I’ll be in the car,” I told Joey.

He nodded.

“I’ve got it here. I’ll explain everything to them,” he said.

I pecked his cheek.

“Thanks J.”

I headed to the car, sitting on the passenger side. I laid down so my body wouldn’t be seen through the window. It only took fifteen minutes for everything to be settled before we started on our way back to the house.

“Joey, I think you should come undercover with me,” I said.

He glanced at me, looking surprised before looking back at the road.

“I can’t.” He shook his head, frowning. “We would only get caught. They know I’m here, and they’re already suspicious about why you aren’t with us.”

I let out a deep breath. I knew he was right but part of me hated going undercover by myself in such a serious case. Yes, I’m suppose to be the best agent there is at the EA agency, but even I get worried about being by myself when there are too many threats to count.

“You’re fine.”

He grabbed my hand and sent me a loving smile. I don’t know why it took me so long to see it, but at this point in my life I couldn’t imagine myself with anyone else besides Joey. He was the love of my life, and I couldn’t wait for the day when we would really settle down and start our lives.

About ten minutes later we finally reached the house. Quickly rushing out of the car, I ran inside, opening the door. “Joey?” Matt called, peeking his head out of the kitchen.

I couldn’t stop the wide smile from spreading across my face.

“Riley?” he asked, causing two more familiar heads to look this way.

“Bloody hell, I’ve really missed you guys,” I said, running over and giving them all a group hug.

“We’ve missed you too,” Emily said, squeezing me even tighter before releasing me.

“Wow, you really learned how to dress like a slut, huh?” Rachel joked.

I winked.

“You know it.”

“Last time I saw you, you were pointing guns at us,” Liam said.

I wrapped my arms around him.

“It’s been awhile. You spend more time here in America than you do at home,” I said, pulling away and he shrugged.

“I’ve really started to like it here,” he said.

My smile turned into a frown.

“Now as great as it is having you here, you are suppose to be running my agency,” I said, pursing my lips as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Lex has it taken care of and Joey called me in,” he said.

I raised an eyebrow looking at Joey.

“Oh did he?” I said and he nodded.

“Party in the agent house.” Joey started fist pumping, causing everyone to just shake their heads.

“So Joey filled us in a little, but I think you need to explain everything that’s going on. Is that plan with Claire still going on?” he asked.

I turned my head to the side a little, scratching the side of my face.

“Kind of, I can’t exactly plan anything with her because the gang interfered.”

“How so?” Matt asked, leaning his body against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

“They got Claire’s doctor fired, and now they substituted someone in the gang named Keith Mabry as her doctor,” I said.

Liam sneered.

“What? How are you just sitting back and letting this happen?” he hissed at me.

I narrowed my eyes.

“I’m just doing my job, and only about seven people from the gang know about this, so if she suddenly finds out and changes doctors, the first person they’re going to look at is me.”

“Well, people rarely go to their doctors,” Liam said, calming himself down.

“Usually, but Liam she’s pregnant,” I said.

He looked heartbroken. I remember him telling me the story about a girl who he fell in love with, but Cole wouldn’t allow the relationship to continue on. I felt my heart clench at the sight of him. There was nothing I could do to help him. There are just too many people who wanted Claire.

“How far along?” he asked, taking a seat at the table.

“She has to be at least a couple months. She’s starting to show,” Emily said.

He bit his lip and clenched his fists.

“So what’s the plan?” Joey asked, grabbing an apple from the bowl on the counter.

Everyone stayed silent, thinking. What could we possibly do to stop all of this?

“We need Claire to get close with Jesse,” Rachel said.

Joey chuckled.

“Rach, you’re a little late,” she scowled and shook her head.

“No, I mean she needs to get close to him. No fake little meetings trying to get them close. We just simply need to remind her about the contract and start having some accidental meetings,” Rachel said, biting her nail as she thought more about it.

“How does this stop the whole gang? Getting Jesse distracted will only cause Keith to take over,” I said.

Emily cut in.

“No, I get what she’s saying. If we can get Jesse really distracted then we can start moving in. We can start shutting this thing down,” Emily said, shaking her finger and getting that look on her face when she thinks something’s a good idea.

“Okay, so let’s say Jesse’s distracted and Keith is temporarily in charge. I don’t understand how we stop it?” Matt said. Yes, this plan seemed confusing but something about it made sense.

“How much does Keith know about Clover Thompson?” Liam asked.

I shrugged.

“Probably not much. We had to explain to him who Claire was,” I said.

He smirked.

“Clover had be Keith's distraction then,” he suggested.

We all nodded, agreeing with the idea.

“Great, we got two people down. Now please explain to me how we’re supposed to stop the other four hundred people,” Matt asked, looking at us like we were a bunch of idiots. I thought about it for a second before shaking my head.

“We don’t.”