Chapter~35~Double whammy.

Nick~

About ten minutes later, I burst through the door of her apartment to find Harley pacing the floor. Of course, I reach for her, but she backs away from me, a feeling I don't like.

"Sit." She gestures toward the sofa, and I take a seat.

"What is wrong, Amante?"

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she wrings her hands and paces the floor in front of me. "I am pregnant, Nick."

"That's amazing; why are you crying, Harley?"

"Shut up, damn it, Nick, listen to me for a minute; it's not that simple because I don't know who the baby belongs to."

I have never been so high, or so low, so quickly; Harley stops in front of me as if she's waiting for her punishment, but I don't have any to give. There's no doubt in my mind that Harley loves me, and I can clearly see that she is already punishing herself enough; still, she backs away as I reach for her.

"There's more, Nick."

What more could they possibly be? She looked at me, and it didn't matter. "Tell me whatever you like, but I've already made my decision. Please come here to me!"

Harley accepted my extended hand, and I pulled her onto my lap, where she put her face in the curve of my neck, and her tears fell onto my chest. "Doctor Jones said it takes 7-10 days for the pregnancy hormone to appear in the blood, and that means you and Ben are neck and neck."

"I don't follow."

"We….well....before you and I.....met, Ben and I had also met; in fact, it wasn't too long after we wrapped up our meeting."

That was not what I expected to hear; it stung a little but changed nothing. 'You need to get them to the pack hospital, Nick.'

'Can't you tell if it's my pup or his baby Zeek?'

'Not from the fucking womb!'

'Paternity isn't a question. I'm not leaving Harley. I hope you can accept that.'

"It doesn't matter to me, Harley, you're my mate, and this is my pup," I rested my hand on her stomach, "but it would help ease my mind if you would get checked out by a pack doctor."

"After I see Melinda, I will go to whatever doctor you want me to."

"What are you going to do about Ben?"

"He'd probably try to have me committed, since I can't prove it without dropping the wolf bomb Ben can't know at all."

Harley's phone rings. She reaches for her ass to get it from her pocket, and I stop her. "Oh no, no work for you today, Amante."

"What choice do I have, Nick? Everyone knows I have been sick and had a doctor's appointment. If I don't show my face back in that squad room, I might as well tattoo Prego across my forehead. Ben also saw me tossing my cookies this morning. You don't think he'll put the two together?"

She took the phone from me and called him back. "Yeah, Captain."

"How did the appointment go?"

"I got shot right up all better."

"Good, have you been in contact with Agent Reins?"

"No, I haven't seen him."

"I'll call him again. Belinda has finished comparing the rope from Culver to the fibers she recovered from our victim. As we thought, they are the same, and I'd like you to look. I'll have Agent Reins meet you in the morgue."

Zeek is growling at the captain as Harley disconnects the call; she hears him and tousles my hair. "It's going to be ok, Zeek."

"It is going to be ok, Amante; regardless, I will be right here beside you." My phone rings. "Yeah, Captain."

"Meet Detective Gibson in the corner office, then meet back here."

"I, I, Captain."

"Stay close to me, ok, Wolfman?"

"As close as skin, Amante."

We drive separately to the station, but I can feel the hot mess Harley's head is in. I'd never known one soul could hold so many emotions in one space at one time. We also enter the building together yet separate, and I don't like it. Harley swipes her badge, and we enter the lab where Belinda waits.

The corpse, missing its head, remains hogtied on her table, and I notice Harley averts her eyes. "Belinda, the Captain said you had something on the rope."

Belinda nodded and motioned us over to a microscope. "Take a look." Harley does. Not wanting to be the dummy again, I looked in the viewer when Harley moved, though I had no clue why. "It's definitely the same rope," Belinda says. "From the same spool."

"How can you tell?" I asked.

Belinda goes to the counter, picks up an empty spool and a piece of rope. "Each spool of rope, though wound the same way, leaves distinct impressions on itself." She winds the rope. "The rope at the bottom of the spool will have the strongest impression, and a pattern forms with each additional layer added."

"So the fibers match the winding pattern of the rope," Harley said.

"Precisely!" Belinda moved over to the body, and that's when the train derailed.

Harley sways a little, and I push against her as though I want a better look at the headless man. "I believe this is the rope's end section, and that's why he left it," Belinda says.

Harley focused on the rope, her eyes followed its length, and she homed in on a small logo on the blue-tipped end. Pain pounded through my head as I saw through Harley's eyes the same rope, packaged with the same logo on the label, hanging on a wall. The memory ends, but the pain doesn't, and I had to brace myself against Harley to keep her standing.

"Are you ok, Detective?" Belinda asked.

"I am fine. We should search the beachfront businesses. If the stalker is coming and going by boat, maybe he stopped to shop for supplies."

I wasted no time getting my Amante out of the door and into the car, where I called the captain, knowing Harley would have made me. Then I focused on her; she had her head against the rest, and she looked at me.

"How was your first trip?" She grinned.

"It was fucking wild! Is that what you go through every time?"

"Yes, only since I've gotten pregnant, the side effects are worse."

"You know where he got the rope from, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, Wolfman."

"Is there any chance we can have a sit-on with that information tonight? It's already late, and I would like you to get some rest."

"Yes, there is, so let's go home."