I hated admitting it, but if we were on our way to a job, I couldn’t compromise what we were hired to do because I didn’t want to look weak. A head injury could get a lot of people hurt or killed, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Not after Leo. I’d swallow my pride and do the right thing.
Eleven
Aline
He was gone.
I stared at the phone. He’d been there one minute and then gone. He hadn’t hung up. I was almost one hundred percent certain of that. I’d heard a curse, which could have been a valid reaction to what I’d just told him, but not the other curses that followed. Or the yelling. I’d heard it in other men’s voices, not just Eoin’s.
I might be pregnant.
My own words were ringing in my ears, and the news was still freaking me out, but all of that took a back seat to whatever had happened on the other end of the phone.
I called him back, and it went straight to voicemail. “Eoin, I need you to call me back because what I heard before the call ended scared me. Please.”
I barely got the last word out of my mouth before I went down on my knees and threw up. Fortunately, since I had already been in the bathroom to take the pregnancy test, I made it to the toilet and didn’t have a mess on the floor to clean up on top of everything else.
By the time I cleaned myself up and brushed my teeth, I felt like enough time had passed that I could call Eoin again without seeming like I was freaking out, even if that was what I was doing a bit.
Straight to voicemail again.
I left another message. “Eoin, I’m getting worried here. If everything’s okay, but you just don’t want to – or can’t – talk right now, please at least text me to let me know that you’re all right. Please.”
I paced, counting off two full minutes before sending a text that said pretty much the same thing. Eoin had it set up on his phone to show when he’d read a text, but the alert didn’t turn from ‘delivered’ to ‘read.’ Not after two minutes and not after four.
Something was wrong.
Eoin had made some poor decisions in the past when it came to handling things between us, but he wouldn’t just completely blow off all communication like that, especially not right in the middle of a conversation this serious. No, my gut said something had happened to keep him from responding, and I didn’t think it was as simple as the battery in his phone dying or lack of cell coverage in the area.
Based on what I’d heard and Eoin’s text about the agency having a job, I was fairly certain that he was with at least one, probably more, of Cain’s men. Which meant the agency would know at least a little more than I did.
After a quick search online to find the agency’s phone number, I placed the call. With each ring, my heart fell a little further. After five rings, the call went to an answering service, but I didn’t bother leaving a message. Either everyone from the agency had been with Eoin, or whatever had happened had called them away from the office. I was a little surprised that the landline hadn’t been forwarded to someone’s cell phone, but that wasn’t really forefront in my mind.
I needed to get ahold of someone from the agency, and while I remembered being introduced to the other guys, I didn’t have any information that could help me contact one of them. Except for Cain, I realized suddenly. Freedom had to have called him to hire his team to get me, and I doubted she hadn’t gotten every possible number she could use to reach him.
Dammit.
I really didn’t want to talk to her, but my need to find Eoin outweighed my family issues.
“Aline!”
The worry in Freedom’s voice was almost enough to make me feel guilty for how long I’d shut her out. Almost.
“I’m so glad–”
“I need Cain’s phone number,” I cut in.
Silence for two beats before she asked, “What?”
“Cain. Military guy. Your ex. Came to Iran to save me.” My tone was harsh, clipped, sounding nothing like me. It didn’t bother me the way I knew it should have, but personal analysis had to take a back seat right now.
“I know who he is.” Freedom’s voice was tight. “Why do you want his number? I think we have more important things to discuss.”
“Actually, we don’t,” I snapped. “I’m not calling to talk to you about what’s going on between us. Something happened to Eoin, and I can’t get ahold of him. No one’s answering at the agency either.”
“Eoin.”
It was amazing how much Freedom could say with just his name.
“Are you going to help me or not?” A sharp pain made me look down, and I saw four half-moon marks in the palm of my hand. “I can figure it out on my own, but you’d save me a lot of time if you just give me what I need.”
A few seconds of silence passed, and then, just before I was ready to hang up and try something else, she rattled off nine numbers. I repeated them back.
“Yes, that’s it,” Freedom said. “Am I going to hear from you again?”
“Yes,” I admitted, “but I can’t say when.”
“All right.” Another brief pause. “I hope Eoin’s okay.”
She ended the call before I could respond, and I was relieved that she’d done it. I couldn’t handle one more confusing thing for me to deal with right now. Not when I was already struggling with a probable pregnancy and whatever had happened to child’s father.
My hands were shaking as I dialed the number Freedom had given me, and I sank down onto the closest chair without remembering when I’d come into the kitchen. If I was going to hear bad news, I didn’t trust my legs to hold me.
“Aline?”
“Cain?” My heart gave an unsteady thud, and I closed my eyes.
“First off, he’s more or less okay.”
A rush of air went out of me. That wasn’t exactly what I’d wanted to hear, but it was better than so many other alternatives.
“We were on our way to meet a client, and our SUV was hit,” Cain continued. “Eoin hit his head pretty hard, but he’s conscious. The medics are taking him to the hospital for tests though, to make sure.”
“Okay.” My mind raced, all sorts of awful possibilities piling up one after the other.
“I know you were on the phone with him when we crashed.” Cain’s voice was gentle but held a firmness that I found reassuring. “I’m assuming you called him a couple times before calling me. His phone was smashed.”
At least I knew now that the reason he hadn’t answered his phone had been because of something wrong with the phone, not physical injuries that had prevented him from taking a call.
“What hospital?” As Cain told me, the wail of ambulance sirens echoed in the background. After confirming the hospital name, I added, “I’m on my way.”
After hanging up, I wrote a quick note to Martina, telling her where I was and why, and then I called for a car. It was hell waiting for them to come, but it was still faster than taking the bus would have been. For the first time since I’d left my parents’ house, a part of me wished that I’d stayed, if only because that would have meant I’d have had a car available for me to use.