After Midnight: (A Penguin Special from Signet Eclipse) (Killer Instincts) Read Free Page B

sliding even lower and nestling his blond head against her belly. She listened to his even breathing, felt him drifting off, and the joy dancing inside her slowly faded into unease. Every soldier she’d ever known always slept with one eye open, and Kane was no exception, for the most part. But when it was just the two of them, he allowed himself to fall into a deep sleep, trusting her enough to do so.
    The glaring evidence of his faith in her gnawed at her now, signaling the return of that unceasing flow of guilt.
    Swallowing, she gently moved his head and wiggled out of his embrace. When he rumbled with discontent, she brushed her lips over his forehead in a reassuring kiss. “I need to use the bathroom,” she whispered. “I’ll be right back.”
    She left him on the bed and made a beeline for the private bath. She’d stashed her duffel there when they’d arrived, and her gaze instantly sought it out. Taking a breath, she knelt on the tiled floor and unzipped the black canvas bag. She rummaged around for her toiletry case. Unzipped that too.
    A second later, she held a pink cardboard box in her hands. She stared at it. Read the exclamation-mark-riddled text.
    Instant results!
    Easy to use!
    99% accurate!
    Abby bit her lip. Shit. She couldn’t do this.
    No, she didn’t
want
to do this.
    It was so much easier to remain oblivious, to only worry about the hypothetical. She couldn’t be pregnant unless the test told her so, and if she didn’t take the test, then she could continue to live in ignorant bliss.
    Gulping, she walked over to the sink and ran a small washcloth under the warm water, then cleaned herself up. They hadn’t used a condom tonight. She was on the pill, but a quick Google search had revealed that the stomach bug she’d caught six weeks ago could have decreased the effectiveness of it. She hadn’t realized she was so late until a couple weeks ago, when they’re returned from a job and she’d glanced at the calendar, shocked to discover she’d missed a period without even noticing.
    But maybe stress was the culprit for her MIA period. That was a possibility, right? It didn’t mean she was knocked up.
    Not the end of the word if you are. You’ll be a great mother
.
    Her breath hitched. God, it had been ages since she’d heard her adoptive father’s voice in her head. It had once served as her compass, her subconscious taking on Jeremy Thomas’s deep baritone whenever she was in a jam, voicing the advice she knew he’d dispense.
    This time, she wasn’t sure she agreed with it.
    A great mother?
    How could that ever be true? She was a former assassin, a woman who’d once used her body as a weapon. And even if you could erase her past, her current line of work wasn’t exactly conducive to child rearing, either. She was a mercenary—and she
liked
it. She liked the missions, the danger, the adrenaline high. Isabel Roma, Abby’s closest friend, would probably quit her job in a heartbeat to have Trevor Callaghan’s kid, but Abby wasn’t Isabel. She wasn’t kind and warm and
motherly.
    She was ruthless and cold, without a single maternal bone in her body.
    Her gaze traveled to the box she’d left on the porcelain toilet lid. After a beat, she grabbed the box and shoved it back in the duffel bag.
    Not tonight. She couldn’t do it tonight.
    It had taken her a long time to find a place where she felt like she truly belonged and a man she could truly connect to. She loved Kane, but she wasn’t ready for their life to change. She wasn’t ready to be a mother.
    She didn’t know if she’d
ever
be ready.

Chapter Three
    “Morning, kids. How we all doing?” Jim Morgan strode into Kane and Abby’s hotel room with a surprising amount of energy—and an honest-to-God spring in his step.
    Kane couldn’t help but gape at his boss, and noticed Abby doing the same. After ten years of working for Morgan, Kane had reached several conclusions about the man: Jim Morgan was a moody bastard, he was