[Whistleblower 01.0] Wounded Animals by Jim Heskett

Author:Jim Heskett [Heskett, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller, Suspense
Amazon: B00VQL7LOA
Goodreads: 25309338
Publisher: Royal Arch Books
Published: 2015-05-07T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

WHEN I ARRIVED home, I didn’t even make it to my bed. I was so exhausted, I passed out on the couch. Dreamed of ladybugs, a swarm of them crawling up my arm, like wearing a collection of writhing red bracelets.

I woke up to Kitty purring in my ear, kneading my chest with her prickly claws.

Every part of my body ached. The cut on my back felt like my flesh had been stretched. Still, I had to get up, so I lifted the cat off me and set her on the floor. She trotted toward her food dish, and I followed. Mixed the wet food, scooped some dry food, gave her some circular back scratches as she ate.

Checked my watch, I still had a couple hours until the office would open. My keycard might let me in early, but I’d never tried that before.

I’d intended to go back upstairs and nap some more, but something in the baby’s room caught my eye as I neared it. A squirrel outside the window, perched at the end of a long branch. It chirped at me as I entered the room.

Once there, I felt an urge to sit in the nursing glider, so I settled in and rocked it back and forth, imagining what Grace would look like in this chair with our son at her breast.

The day she’d told me she was pregnant was the same day IntelliCraft had announced they were closing down our local office in favor of hiring a whole new team in Dallas. I’d been in a foul mood, nervous about the future, resentful at them for disrupting the lives of so many good people. I wanted to be alone to stew in my anger, but Grace came home early with a pizza and a mischievous grin on her face.

“I’m not hungry,” I said with a sneer.

“This is an extra special pizza. It’s got aged pepperoni. You’ll love it.”

“I said, I’m not hungry.”

She shoved the pizza box under my nose, gave me the puppy dog eyes. “Please, baby. Try the pepperoni for me.”

When I flipped the box open, they’d arranged the pepperonis so they spelled out BABY in greasy circles across the face of the pizza. Took me a few seconds of ignorant staring to figure out what was going on. I could make out the letters, but I didn’t equate it with her miles-wide grin right away.

When it dawned on me, I gulped in air. My eyes shot wide open. She tossed the pizza box on the counter and leaped into my arms, planting kisses all over my head and neck.

We’d wanted a baby for nearly a year. Or, to put it more honestly, she’d wanted a baby for more than a year. We’d only been married for three, and I still wasn’t sold on the concept of parenthood. Add to that the fact that I’d learned I had a hard date to the end of my job, and therefore, the end of health insurance to pay for sonograms and pediatric visits… I didn’t take the news well.

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