The Playboy Prince's Baby - Ana Sparks Page 0,44
relaxed a bit at that news, and I let out a breath.
That didn’t mean I was going to let this receptionist push me around.
I slapped my ID down, told her I was Francisco’s pregnant girlfriend, and said that I needed to see him immediately, if she could please hurry it up.
Ten minutes later, I was walking into a small room and finding Francisco sitting there, waiting for me.
I flew toward him, too relieved to see him still here to stop myself, and he caught me when I threw myself at him, his arms coming around me and pulling me roughly against his body.
“I’m so, so sorry,” he breathed in my ear. “I never meant for him to find me so quickly. Although…” He pulled back and gave me a wry grin. “I suppose I should be surprised that it took him as long as it did.”
I returned the grin, mine as wry as his. “At least they didn’t bang down my door this time. But what are we going to do? What’s the plan?”
Because I didn’t want him leaving without a specific plan, this time.
I was in love with this man, and I wanted to know how and when I was going to see him again—preferably, on a more permanent basis. Maybe even for a full week at a time.
Chapter 23
Francisco
The flight home was quite possibly the most terrible thing I’d ever experienced, and I say that as someone who has been locked up in some of the dirtiest jail cells in a dozen countries.
For starters, I wasn’t put on a private—or even commercial—flight back to Tarana. Instead, I was shuffled onto a military flight, and though I didn’t know the exact reason for that, I thought it was probably a lot to do with the fact that I’d actually snuck into the US this time rather than coming legally.
I also knew exactly how they’d found me. Because I’d asked the cop on the way to the station.
“Your brother,” he said simply. “He apparently knows you well enough to be able to say why you’d risk breaking so many international laws to come back to Chicago. He figured it was a girl. And he figured it was the girl you’d been with when you were here before. Which gave him the address. We’ve been watching the apartment all weekend, but haven’t seen you. Until this morning.”
Until the morning. When Erika decided that we absolutely had to go to the zoo because I’d never been to one before. She’d thought we needed to get out of the apartment and actually see Chicago, as long as I was there. And she’d been tired, she said, of takeout. She’d wanted fresh air and sunshine.
And I’d agreed with her. I’d wanted to get out on the streets of Chicago again, and I’d wanted to do it before anything went sideways on me. I’d thought there was a chance that Javier would find me sooner rather than later, but I’d also thought that I would have more time. I’d thought Erika and I would be able to talk more, and that we’d get a chance to go see her parents and give them the news that they were going to have a grandchild.
I’d thought we would get at least one day out and about together.
But I had never, not for one single moment, thought about the fact that they’d caught me at Erika’s apartment once before, and that Javier would have had that in his report—and told them to watch that apartment for me, once he realized I was missing. No, I hadn’t told him about Erika, or how I felt about her. I certainly hadn’t left him a note telling him that I was coming back to her.
But if they’d caught me there once, it made sense for them to watch that apartment again in the future. I just hadn’t even considered it.
What a fool I’d been.
I turned my face to the front of the military plane and shifted around, trying to find a more comfortable position in the odd seat I’d been given. This plane didn’t have their seats facing forward, but lining the walls and facing the center of the plane instead. They also hadn’t built these seats for comfort—or for sleeping.
And those were only two of the things that made this trip so uncomfortable. Also on the list: The lack of an airtight cabin, which meant there was a constant gale flowing through the area. The lack of any in-flight service,