“You ever been to Seattle, baby?” I ask and she looks up at me with a scowl on her face, her eyes searching mine.
“Seattle? No, why?”
I shrug. “Just wondering.”
“Well, if you’re planning a trip or something, pick somewhere else. I don’t want to go on vacation to a place that rains all the damn time.”
“Note taken,” I mutter as my mind spins. Is she lying to me? All this time that I’ve been following her, I haven’t seen anything that would make me think she is planning to leave me but that just leaves me with more questions. If she has nothing to do with the flowers at her work and the reservations in Seattle, then who could it be? As I stare out at the road in front of us, a theory pops into my mind and it’s so ridiculous that I shake my head but it still nags at me.
What if it’s the same person threatening the club?
“What are you thinking so hard about over there?” Piper asks and I glance down at her, forcing a smile to my face.
“Nothing, babe.”
I can feel her gaze on me as I glance up at the road again. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah, baby. I’m great,” I lie, hoping the smile I flash her this time is more convincing as I slow down and turn into the parking lot of the doctor’s office. She sighs but doesn’t say anything. I turn the truck off and get out of the truck before turning to help her down and she remains silent as she takes my hand. The silence makes me fucking nervous and I resist the urge to twitch as we walk into the doctor’s office and Piper walks up to the window.
“Can I help you?”
Piper smiles. “Yes. I have an appointment at ten thirty.”
“Piper Landry?”
Piper nods and the receptionist tells her she is all checked in and to have a seat in the waiting room. She doesn’t even glance back at me and I follow behind her, wishing I could get my shit together but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
“Hey, babe,” I say and she stops, glancing back at me. I pull my phone out of my pocket and hold it up. “I’m gonna go make a quick phone call.”
“Just don’t take too long.”
Nodding, I turn away from her and walk back outside as I dial Streak’s number and put the phone to my ear. His annoyed groan greets me.
“What?”
I laugh. “Morning, sunshine.”
“Oh, shove it up your ass, Fuzz. I was up until five in the morning going over those fucking cases.”
“Speaking of which, you got anything new on those?”
“What the fuck do you think?” There is a pause before something crashes on his end of the line. “Jesus fuck. I mean, this is fucking hopeless. You know that, right? I’ve combed through these cases, you’ve combed through these cases, and I’m just not seeing anything that will help us. I talked to Rodriguez again today but he’s just as stumped as we are.”
Blowing out a breath, I run my hand through my hair. “Yeah…”
“I mean, there is evidence but it’s like only the evidence he wanted us to find. It’s just enough to drive us crazy but not nearly enough to get us anywhere.”
“I know what you mean.”
“Like, how the fuck do we find him if all we have to go on are the breadcrumbs he wanted us to find? He’s leading us in goddamn circles and I’m losing my shit over here.”
I lean against the wall of the office and drop my head back. “I know what you mean. Pretty sure I’m single handedly ruining my relationship.”
“That sucks, dude. I actually like Piper. She’s good for you.”
“Yeah…” I mutter as the idea I had in the truck pops into my mind. “Hey, do you think this guy would meddle in our lives? Like send our women flowers and make fake hotel reservations?”
He scoffs. “At this point, I don’t even know how to answer that. We know about the girls but he has probably been messing with us in other ways that we don’t even know about. Who knows what he’s actually done.”
“Right,” I reply. It’s the answer I wanted but it doesn’t make me feel any better. “All right, man. I gotta get back inside before the doctor calls Piper back.”
“Whoa. Is she okay?”
I grin, remembering his reaction to Tate’s news at our housewarming party. “Yeah. We just found out she’s pregnant.”
“Motherfuckers. All of you,” he says before hanging up the phone and I laugh as I slip it back into my pocket and walk back into the office.
“Piper,” a woman in pink scrubs calls from an open door as soon as I step inside and I glance over at Piper as she stands up. Relief washes over her face when her eyes meet mine and we meet halfway across the waiting room, locking our hands together as we stop in front of the nurse. She smiles at us and turns. “Follow me, please.”
We trail behind her and after she takes Piper’s weight and blood pressure, she leads us back to a room with a table, two chairs, and a desk. As I sit down in the chair, she hands Piper a paper gown.
“Just put this on. The doctor will be in shortly.”
Piper smiles. “Thank you.”
She closes the door and Piper jumps off the table and pulls her dress over her head before slipping out of her panties and pulling the gown on. When she’s covered again, she grabs her clothes off of the table and folds them, setting them in the chair next to me.
“You gonna ignore me all day, baby?” I ask as she sits up on the table and she shrugs.
“I don’t know. You gonna keep acting weird?”
Leaning forward, I drop my head into my hands. “I don’t know, Pip.”
“I was thinking about going to your parents’ house again this weekend. Tell them the good news, you know?”
“Yeah,” I whisper, meeting her gaze again. “That sounds good.”
“Did it help? When we went last time?”
The memories of last weekend flash through my mind and I scrub my hand over my face, unable to believe that was only a week ago when I feel like it’s been months since then. Being back home did help but I’m not so sure how well it would work a second time. As I look up at my wife, I feel so much love it feels like my heart might bust open but there is also that little voice in my head, screaming all my doubts and suspicions back at me.
I’m at war, with myself, with her, and with this threat shadowing all of our lives. It’s constant, teasing me, tormenting me, and it’s not hard for me to understand how Piper spiraled out of control so easily when I deployed. Most days, I feel like I am one more incident away from losing it but the only thing that holds me together is the knowledge of what could happen to Piper if I’m not here to keep her safe.
“Wyatt,” she whispers, tears welling up in her eyes as she stares at me. “Please talk to me.”
I can’t though.
I can’t tell her all the awful thoughts running through my head because she needs me to be the strong one. She needs me to hold everything together, for her.
I open my mouth to assure her everything is okay when someone knocks on the door and before we can answer, the door swings up and the doctor, a lovely older woman, walks in, flashing me a smiling.
“Hello. I’m Dr. Ward.”