Duncan (The Protectors #3)

“There’s plenty.” Pam poured him a cup, pushing the sugar and cream toward him.

“Thanks.” He added a little sugar, but no cream. “Have you guys heard from Jared or Tessa?”

“No,” Duncan replied, sitting down resting his elbows on the counter. “She saw the picture I take it?”

Sid nodded. “She left last night after Slade stitched up her fingers. Adam said they tracked her and Jill to her place. She won’t talk to anyone or answer her phone.”

“What picture?” Pam sat the plate of food in front of Duncan and picked up his coffee cup refilling it.

“You didn’t tell her?” Sid glanced at Duncan.

“No. Didn’t really have a chance to.” Duncan winked his thanks for the food and coffee.

“Well you do now, so tell me.” Pam grabbed some toast and orange juice, sitting down next to Duncan.

“Someone is taking pictures of us all, and one of the pictures was of Jared talking with Vicky.” Duncan took a long drink of coffee. “It looked like more than it was. It’s kind of hard to explain, but Tessa saw it and obviously thought the worse.”

“Is there anything between Jared and this Vicky, or has there ever been?” Pam took a bite of bacon not really feeling hungry.

“There was, but it was actually kind of over before Tessa came on the scene,” Sid replied when Duncan kept quiet.

“Didn’t her ex treat her pretty crappy?” Pam glanced between the two men. “He cheated on her, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he was a real asshole,” Sid hissed. “Almost got us killed.”

“Listen, I don’t know Tessa real well, but I don’t think it’s Jared.” Figuring they had no clue what she meant since they were staring at her with vacant eyes, she tried to explain a woman’s thought process. “A few times she’s mentioned her weight in different ways. I’ve seen her pulling her shirts down or pulling them out from her body. I also noticed she dresses down, wearing large shirts and things to hide herself.”

“But she’s a gorgeous woman,” Sid replied looking confused.

Pam pushed her half-eaten piece of toast away. “We women are more self-conscious than men. It’s a fact, and it sucks, but that’s the way it is. We will never be happy with our looks. We will either be too large, too thin, too short…you get the picture?”

“None of that matters to us.” Duncan rolled his eyes. “Maybe human men, but not Warriors. We see what we want, and we go after it. It doesn’t matter what size or shape the woman is if we love her.”

“But it matters to her.” Pam sighed. “I haven’t seen the picture, but if I had, and it was me, I would probably be upset, just like any of you would if there was a picture of your woman and another man.”

Both their eyes narrowed. “Good thing there would be a picture,” Duncan replied with a growl.

“Yeah, need something to remember the dead son of a bitch by,” Sid finished with a sneer.

Pam rolled her eyes at their macho mumbling. “What other pictures were there?” Pam asked, even knowing there were probably tons of her with her big belly.

Sid and Duncan shared a glance. “Sloan had the pictures Kenny had of us analyzed.” Duncan looked at her. “They were faked.”

Pam’s forehead wrinkled in confusion until her eyes narrowed in anger. “Fake?” Her expression changed to anger as soon as what that meant sunk in. She stood up knocking her stool over. “You mean I went through hell to keep you safe over fake pictures.”

“Calm down, babe.” Duncan stood, picking up the stool so she wouldn’t fall over it.

“That son of a bitch.” Pam didn’t hear anything, just kept stomping around cursing. “That goddamn bastard son of a bitch.” Pam grabbed a knife throwing it.

Both Sid and Duncan watched as the knife stuck in the wall, the handle vibrating.

“Damn.” Sid glanced at Pam then back to the knife. “Impressive.”

“Pam.” Duncan walked toward her still looking at the knife, also impressed as hell and actually turned on. How fucked up was that.

She reached for another knife, but Duncan stopped her. Her eyes flared up at him. “How could I have been so stupid?”

“You had no way of knowing they were fake.” Duncan reassured her.

Sid walked over pulling the knife out of the wall. “The pictures were of high quality. We couldn’t even tell. That’s why we sent them out to have them analyzed.”

Pam pulled away from Duncan, walking to the hole the knife left. “Oh my God,” she cringed. “I’m sorry.” She put her finger in the hole.

“Actually, I’m pretty damn impressed.” Duncan smiled. “A little putty and paint will fix that right up.”

Pam looked from the hole back to Duncan. “I can’t believe I did that.” She took two steps back toward the island but stopped suddenly. Grabbing her stomach, her eyes widened, and a splashing noise on tile filled the room. “I think my water just broke.”

Chapter 21

“You think your what just broke?” Sid eyed her funny.

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