Out of Time Read online

  “You should watch her closely for the rest of the day, Mr. Wilson,” the doctor, a woman who couldn’t have been much older than twenty-five, instructed him. If Natalie was surprised that he’d adopted her false identification—or that he’d posed as her husband—she didn’t show it. It had seemed simpler when he was trying to get someone to help them. “Don’t let her sleep longer than an hour or two. You’ll want to assess her consciousness every time you wake her.”

  Scott nodded. “I’m familiar with the AVPU code.” The acronym stood for alertness, response to a voice, assessment of pain, and making sure they weren’t unresponsive to any of the tests. In the Teams they used something similar but more detailed called MACE when someone had their cage rattled.

  The doctor nodded, eyeing him a little closer and clearly trying to size him up. “Good. And don’t hesitate to bring her back in if the symptoms worsen or don’t improve in a day or two.”

  Natalie had been unusually quiet, but she finally broke her silence. “Is my baby okay?” She looked as if she was going to cry. “I fell.”

  Scott froze.

  The doctor smiled down at her kindly. “It wasn’t a body scan, but I saw from your chart that you are pregnant. Your husband mentioned the fall, but I didn’t see anything to concern me. You aren’t bleeding?”

  Natalie shook her head, not correcting her on the wrong assumption of their marital status.

  “I’m sure the baby is fine,” the doctor assured her. “They have a nice soft landing in there. But try to take it easy for the next few days, all right?”

  Natalie nodded.

  Scott was reeling. He sat, glad there was a chair behind him to catch him. Natalie hadn’t been lying. She was pregnant.

  “Are you all right?” the doctor asked him with a frown. “You look a little shell-shocked—like you were the one with the lump on your head.”

  Scott was having trouble finding words.

  Natalie filled in for him. “He didn’t know,” she said. “I was going to surprise him.” She turned to look at him. “Surprise, sweetheart. You’re going to be a father.”

  Eight

  Father? Scott still didn’t want to believe it. He stared at the door long after the doctor went out.

  She’s pregnant. Pregnant, damn it!

  But as soon as the shock began to fade, another thought stole through his head. A possibility that he didn’t want to believe but that he couldn’t ignore. “Even if you are pregnant, how do I know it’s mine? For all I know the baby could be the hockey player’s.”

  She flinched as if the accusation had physically struck her, which seemed odd. Her gaze pinned him as if to say, How could you ask that? But could she blame him? She’d lied to him from the first moment they’d met. Why should this be any different?

  “I told you before that I despised Mick.” The truth of her words was punctuated by the fierceness of her expression. She was angry, but there was something more. Something raw and intense. Something that came close to revulsion and was too reactive to be feigned. “It’s your baby, Scott. I haven’t been with any other man since I met you.”

  Her gaze didn’t falter from his. Either she was telling the truth or she was one of the most accomplished liars he’d ever met.

  The fact that he didn’t know which one pissed him off. Detecting bullshit was his job. For a SEAL commander, not being able to trust his judgment could be deadly.

  “How the hell did this happen?” he said with an angry drag of his fingers through the long hair that he wasn’t used to.

  He didn’t expect an answer, but she gave him one. “I think you know exactly how it happened. Or should I remind you?”

  She didn’t need to. He remembered. He remembered that night only too well. It was what had given him that niggle of doubt from the beginning. They’d had sex without a condom. Once. But once was all it took, as every mother everywhere told their teenagers.

  Scott was the one to look away first. He raked his fingers through his hair again and moved to the window, staring absently through the blinds into the parking lot.

  What a mess. Just when he thought things couldn’t get any more fucked up. He should have known better. Things could always get more fucked up. But he didn’t have a backup plan for this.

  Was it possible? Could the baby be his? And if it was, where the hell did that leave him? He had to take her in to clear his name and see justice done for his men, but what would happen to her and the baby after? She would probably be imprisoned. Could he do that to his unborn child?

  It wasn’t even a question. As she must know. She had played him perfectly.

  He turned back to face her, furious at her and at his own stupidity—he wasn’t a teenager, and he knew better than to have sex without protection. But that night . . . he’d needed her.

  “I want a blood test.”

  She held his gaze for a moment before letting her eyes drop as if she didn’t want him to see how his words had hurt her.

  Scott felt something akin to shame twisting in his chest. But he told himself he had every right to do this. He had no reason to trust her about this or anything else. And he knew firsthand how devastating it was to find out you had the wrong DNA running through your veins.

  “Of course,” she said with just enough disappointment to make him feel like a world-class asshole. “Whatever you want, Scott.”

  She looked so wronged and innocent lying there in the bed that it pissed him off. He wasn’t the bad guy in this. No matter how much she played the wounded dove. “Jesus Christ, Nat, can you blame me?”

  The errant slip of the nickname was proof of just how pushed to the edge he was by all this. She had him twisted up in knots. Confused and angry. He didn’t know what was a lie and what was the truth anymore. She’d betrayed him every way that mattered; what to think and how to feel should be crystal fucking clear.

  She held his gaze, maybe understanding his confusion. “No. I guess I can’t.”

  * * *

  • • •

  If the doctor was surprised by the request for a blood test, she was too professional to show it. She drew the blood from Natalie and collected the cheek swab from Scott for the NIPP test.

  NIPP apparently stood for non-invasive prenatal paternity test. Not surprisingly, as this was Natalie’s first time being pregnant or being accused of lying about the father, she hadn’t heard of it before. But thanks to advances in medical science and DNA testing, paternity could now be established without the risk of miscarriage that used to come from amniocentesis or CVS testing.

  Natalie knew she had no right to be hurt by Scott’s request for proof. She’d lied to him in so many ways, why should he believe her about this? But could he honestly think she could be sleeping with someone else when they were sharing that kind of passion and intimacy?

  What they’d had was special. She knew that, and part of her wanted him to know that, too. To believe in her—in them—just a little. To see the real her. Not some Russian Mata Hari but the woman forced to do something against her will. If he had truly cared about her, shouldn’t he believe her just a little? Shouldn’t he wonder why? Shouldn’t he have questions and not be so ready to rush to judgment?

  Maybe it was foolish and unrealistic. Rationally she knew it was too much to expect, but the tightness squeezing her chest told her that her heart just wasn’t getting it.

  And Scott had no idea how wrong he was about Mick.

  She knew why Scott suspected him. Mick had been gorgeous. The type of guy women flocked to. When she first met him, Mick had still been playing hockey, and she’d been over the moon, not to mention the envy of all her friends, when the tall, muscular, bronzed god had come up to her in the Georgetown restaurant where they were celebrating her coworker’s twenty-fourth birthday to ask her out.

  She’d refused at first. She didn’t go out with strange guys