Blind Promises

57. Vancouver

It started out as a teaching moment and ended up as a lesson learned. Colleen standing behind Gwen holding her arm tight, he knew he was wrong to doubt his sweet angel. John was out in the hanger with Rich and Larry, she had called it. She was right, had she suggested his mother he would have laughed. Laughter threatened still, if not for the pistol his idiot of an incubator held to Gwen's side.

"Are you so far removed from your children that you don't care about your grandchildren? Lower your weapon, mother. Threaten me all you like but let my wife and unborn child go."

"I don't believe you." Indifference dripped from Colleen as she eyed Gwen, her midsection. "Take the silly vest off, prove it."

"Not a problem, this crap is hot and uncomfortable." Gwen began shucking the vest as fast as she could, granted some of it would require assistance. "A little help here? Christ, it's like a torture device, I'm strapped in from the back."

Colleen took care of the straps in the back, Gwen tossed it to the side, "Thanks."

"Mother, have a look, she can't hide anything in that compression shirt. That's my baby, an infant Halstadt. If you hurt her, there is nowhere on this earth that you can hide that I can't find you. Don't forget who they send to find all the worst of the worst. I'll have every special operations team looking for you, including DEVGRU. When I find you, I will kill you. Slow, agonizingly painful death just so you'll begin to know what my torment has been like. What it will be like if any harm comes to her or the baby she carries. My baby."

Colleen stared at the bump in front of her, the handgun carelessly rested on her desk, thrown aside. "You're not being a heartless bastard of a child, are you? To get me to surrender."

"Oh, for God's sake, here!" Gwen grabbed her hand and stuck it over the tiny protrusion. It was unimpressive, he wasn't sure he'd believe it either if he didn't know her intimately. She raised her shirt, this would scandalize the hell out of his over proper mother the right way. Gwen had grown tight, with no room for question that it was real. "You cool?"

Colleen held her throat and swallowed. "You are giving us an heir. Of course, we are on good terms, dear. Liam, does your father know?" With her other hand still in place, she looked to Gwen's face with begging question in her eyes, Gwen acquiesced. He knew that she would, her tender heart would allow nothing less, he was repulsed by it. At least when he'd tried to feel movement, it was a faint whisper of an imagined flutter, she had to confirm if what he felt was real. His mother would not have the pleasure of feeling the child kick. He could live with that.

"Yes, mother, he and Alexandria were informed last evening. He is proud of me. Alex is angry we did not tell her until Gwen was in her 17th week of gestation. Why is this of any importance to you?" Liam demanded.

Layers went back on while Colleen was distracted, the OTV was difficult to put on by herself, she made due, he hoped it'd do its job. Liam glanced over, satisfied, his attention focused back on his mother. "Again, mother, why is it important who knows? Are you all in on this little operation? Trying to make it a complete family business, are we?"

Staying frosty was never an issue until right that second, Alexandria being in this operation had not crossed his mind, it certainly hadn't been on Gwen's judging by her reaction to what he'd just said.

"Don't be ridiculous, Liam. I couldn't trust your sister to do something like this, she hasn't the stomach for it. Your father is too vain to be trustworthy enough to stand up to this line of work. It's messy, difficult, and sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do."

"Implications like that aren't a good idea when you're standing in front of a well-trained killer." Liam inched towards Gwen a little at a time. Gwen had caught on while Colleen was nursing her ego at having missed the information at hand, she backed away, picked up the pistol from the desk as quietly as possible. Risky move, he wished she would have just kept going. However, she was now armed if his mother wasn't bluffing. "You make a fatal error if you are threatening to harm my wife and unborn child. I do have to say this, mother, you were the last person I thought I'd see when I walked through that door. She saw the signs, the patterns, but she was right not to tell me, I would have laughed. What a fantastic guise, a vapid WASP, no one would ever guess."