Unexpected Arrivals (The Unexpected Series Book 2) Read online

  Unexpected Arrivals

  The Unexpected Series, Book 2

  Stacy Eaton

  Copyright © 2020 by Stacy Eaton

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Chapter One

  2. Chapter Two

  3. Chapter Three

  4. Chapter Four

  5. Chapter Five

  6. Chapter Six

  7. Chapter Seven

  8. Chapter Eight

  9. Chapter Nine

  10. Chapter Ten

  11. Chapter Eleven

  12. Chapter Twelve

  13. Chapter Thirteen

  14. Chapter Fourteen

  15. Chapter Fifteen

  16. Chapter Sixteen

  17. Chapter Seventeen

  18. Chapter Eighteen

  19. Chapter Nineteen

  20. Chapter Twenty

  21. Chapter Twenty-One

  22. Chapter Twenty-Two

  23. Chapter Twenty-Three

  24. Chapter Twenty-Four

  25. Chapter Twenty-Five

  26. Chapter Twenty-Six

  27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

  28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

  29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

  30. Chapter Thirty

  Thank you!

  More Books by Stacy Eaton

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Trevor

  “Welcome back,” Alex said to me as I paused at his office door. “How did it go?”

  I leaned against the doorframe, laughing. “It was a major clusterfuck, but that’s nothing new.”

  Alex chuckled. “Yeah, so I gathered by the reports that I read. When did you get back?”

  “Just after midnight last night.”

  He grinned at me. “No wonder you look like hell. You should have taken today off.”

  “Nah,” I stepped further into his office, “I got a few hours of sleep, sitting around my place is not going to help me unwind, you know that. Although the weather sucks today, I could do without all the rain.”

  “Yeah, I hear ya.”

  “Do you miss not going over?”

  “Fuck, no!” He laughed. “I’m rather happy to be stateside for good. I’m getting too damn old to play that game. Besides, Lexi is beyond happy that I’m here.”

  I grinned at him, thinking he was pretty damn lucky to have someone like Lexi in his life. She was a good match for him, and as much as it sucked not having him with me overseas when I traveled to watch my back, I understood his need to be home, especially now that he had a new baby on the way.

  “Everything all set for the wedding next weekend?”

  “Yep. I’m glad you made it back when you did. I didn’t want to have to ask Screamer to fill your spot as my best man.”

  “No way. I wasn’t going to miss it. I’m happy for you, Alex.” Maybe it was my tone of voice, or perhaps it was because he knew me so damn well, but he studied me carefully for a moment.

  “Someday, you’ll find what I have.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” I gave him a lopsided grin as thunder rattled overhead, and then turned for the door, not wanting to talk about my lack of a love life. Although it was my choice, it wasn’t like I hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to be in relationships. I did; I chose not to be. Maybe I was holding out for that special someone who rocked my world—did that person even exist?

  “Hey, Trev,” I paused and glanced over my shoulder as he continued to speak. “You deserve to have a good woman. She’s out there, be patient.”

  “Shit, man—I’m thirty-nine years old, if I haven’t found her by now, I doubt I ever will, but maybe.” I shrugged and then told him I’d talk to him later before I headed to my small cubical near the back of the floor we occupied.

  I didn’t need an office like Alex had now. After telling our boss, Jake, AKA the Screamer, that he refused to travel overseas anymore, he’d been upgraded from a small cubical to a four-wall floor-to-ceiling office. Now instead of working from home most of the time like he used to, he punched the clock—fuck that. I never was one for working office hours. Nope. I much preferred to be fluid and work as needed, grabbing a few hours of shut-eye before moving on to the next adventure.

  Alex used to be like that, but his world had changed, and while Jake hadn’t been happy to lose one of his best operatives and safety coordinators, he would rather have him in some capacity than not at all. He knew if he didn’t grant Alex his wish, Alex wouldn’t have let the door hit his ass on the way out. That’s how much his future wife Lexi, his daughter Veronica and the new baby meant to him.

  A baby. I couldn’t even imagine what having a child would be like with my lifestyle. Another round of thunder vibrated the building, and I dropped my backpack to the floor next to my desk as I pulled out my chair and let my gaze slide over my desk. Personally, I’d never been one of those men to say, yeah, I want a wife, house, kids, picket fence, and a dog. Okay, so maybe a house and a dog. A dog would be cool, but that might even be hard with how much I traveled.

  I sighed as I got situated. While I did like my bachelor-style life, I guess I did want more. I would enjoy having a woman to share my life—my bed—maybe. Why the hell was I even thinking about this? Maybe it was because Alex was getting married soon and I saw how happy he was. Perhaps a small part of me was jealous.

  My cellphone rang, and I glanced at the screen to see an unknown number. Thunder rumbled so loudly around me that I glanced at the ceiling. Damn. I slipped my thumb over the screen and sent it to voicemail. In the last ten days, I had received several phone calls from that same number, but I hadn’t answered any of them, and no messages were ever left. Sooner or later, the caller would either stop or leave a message as to why they were calling. If they didn’t, then it wasn’t important enough for them to call me in the first place.

  “Hey, welcome back,” Jake said from behind me. “You available to do a debrief in a little while?”

  “Yeah, give me fifteen, and I can do that.”

  “Let’s say thirty. I’m going to have breakfast sandwiches brought in, and we’ll meet in the conference room once they arrive.”

  With a plan in place, I listened to my messages on my office phone and checked through a few pieces of mail that were left for me. Mostly advertisements for tactical equipment and a few offers to try specific gear out. It was one of the best things about my job. A lot of tech and tactical companies reached out to us to test products. Many of them wanted to know if they would be beneficial enough for military use before they tried to jump through hoops to get it in front of someone who might purchase it in quantity.

  Some items were awesome, and others sucked. Alex and I enjoyed trying things out and putting them to the extreme to see just how much they could handle. Once we’d finished, we’d write up our thoughts and suggestions to make them better and send them to the companies, along with any mishaps to their products. Because we did such a great job with that, they continued to send us things to play with and test. Now that was my kind of relationship.

  When breakfast arrived, six of us filled the conference room, and Jake introduced me to Harvey Melton and Gregory Blaire, two new guys who just started working with us. We gathered around the table, talking bullshit for a few minutes while we ate, and Alice, our receptionist slash secretary, popped her head into the room.

 
“Trevor, I’m glad you’re back in one piece.”

  “Thanks, Alice.”

  “Did you scorn a woman before you left?” she asked with a hiked brown brow.

  I laughed. “No, why?”

  She rolled her eyes like she didn’t believe a word I said. “Because a woman has called here every day for the last week asking for you.”

  “Who?”

  “I don’t know. She wouldn’t leave her name or a number, but she said it was important to talk to you once you were back.”

  “Okay.” I laughed, thinking about the call I’d received on my cellphone for the last ten days. “Must not be too important if she hasn’t left a number for me to return her call.”

  “I’m sure she will call back today; I did tell her you’d be in the office sometime this morning.”

  “Let me know when she does.”

  Alice nodded and slipped back out the door, but not before she sent Gregory a nervous smile. We all glanced at Gregory, who was grinning at the door as it closed.

  “You tapping that?” Jake asked gruffly.

  “What?” Gregory said quickly and shook his head. “No!”

  “Yeah, well, make sure you don’t,” Jake muttered. “I can’t afford to lose Alice if you piss her off.”

  Everyone laughed, and then the conversation veered away from women and on to my trip, where I gave them all the details. I shared the things that worked, what didn’t, and what I thought we should add to our classes to help the future civilian contractors that were tasked with going overseas to rebuild the areas.

  The storm continued to vibrate the office building angrily, and once the lights flickered as if they were going to go out, but they stayed on. We were sequestered to the conference room for over two hours before Alice poked her head in again. “Trevor, you have a visitor.”

  “Tell them we are going to be a few more minutes,” Jake growled while I asked a question at the same time.

  “Who is it?”

  “I think it’s the same woman who had been calling you. She said her name was Davina Daniels.”

  I flipped through my mind and couldn’t ever recall meeting anyone by that name. I shrugged. “Okay, well, tell her it will be a few minutes.”

  “You got it.” Alice pulled the door closed.

  We were discussing the upcoming class that was starting next week, and I learned that Harvey and Gregory were going to be helping me, as Alex would be focused on finishing things out around the office before he went on his honeymoon, when a loud crack of thunder sounded, and we all tensed. Memories of bombs and heavy artillery going off flashed through my mind and I’m sure everyone else’s in the room. A sound outside the door grabbed our attention.

  “What the hell is that?” Jake growled.

  Alex peered over his shoulder toward the door. “Sounds like a baby.”

  “Who the hell would bring a baby in here, especially on a day like today?” Mike Johnson, one of our technical advisors, asked.

  Jake shook his head as the baby’s cries continued. “Okay, let’s take a break, find out what’s going on, and then we can get back together this afternoon or tomorrow morning to finish.” He glanced at his watch. “Shit, I have to head out to a meeting now anyway.”

  We gathered our papers, and Alex opened the door; the shrill sound of the baby invaded our space and made me wince. We all filed out, and I was the last one to exit. When I did, I found several of the guys standing in the front welcome area staring down at something. The sounds of the baby crying were replaced with cooing noises from Alex and, I think, Harvey as they talked to the infant. I rolled my eyes as I tried to get past them.

  “Trevor!” Alice shouted my name, and I turned back. “This is Davina; she said she needs to speak with you.”

  I let my gaze slide from Alice past my co-workers to land on a little pixy of a woman with a mop of wildly frizzy brown hair thrown haphazardly up on top of her head and a baby in her arms. I studied her and again had no idea who this woman was or why she would want to speak with me.

  The baby had stopped crying as she bounced it in her arms, looking at me nervously. Alex chuckled as he stepped back from the child and glanced my way, a weird smile on his lips that I completely ignored. What the fuck was he grinning about?

  “I’m Trevor Vaughn, what can I do for you, ma’am?”

  The woman swallowed nervously, glanced at the three men standing next to her, and then opened her mouth to speak, but closed it quickly. She glanced at the men again.

  “Hey, guys, can you give us some space here, please?” I asked them and then thought maybe it might be better to take her someplace private. “On second thought, why don’t we go into the conference room?”

  The wall of men parted as she nodded and looked instantly relieved. With one hand on the stroller in front of her and the other arm wrapped around the infant, she started to push the stroller toward the door we had just come out of. There was an umbrella hanging off the arm of the stroller, leaving a trail of droplets in its wake. The stroller suddenly slammed into the doorframe and the woman jumped slightly.

  “Here, let me get that,” I told her, and she peered at me nervously before nodding and stepping around it into the room. I directed the stroller into the conference room, put it against the wall, and then closed the door.

  A wild flash of lightning lit the room, and then thunder immediately followed it loudly. Damn, that was close. I glanced back at the woman to see her staring at the window, her eyes wide.

  “You said your name was Davina Daniels? I’m sorry, but do I know you?”

  She shook her head quickly as she gave me her attention. “No, we’ve never met, but I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for over a week.”

  I was instantly thankful that we hadn’t met because as I stared into her large whiskey-colored eyes and flushed face, I found myself rather intrigued. If I had somehow met her previously and then forgotten about her, I might have been very frustrated with myself. She was about a foot shorter than me, and as she bounced the baby in her arms, she looked overly frazzled, something that normally didn’t catch my eye. In fact, I preferred women who were more put together, professional even. She was far from a fashion plate in her torn jeans, sneakers, oversized sweater, and messy hair. My eyes strayed to her left hand and found no ring around her finger.

  “Okay, well, you have me here now. What can I do for you, Ms. Daniels?”

  She worried her lower lip for a moment. “Do you remember Carol Cassata?”

  The name sounded familiar, and then a face came to mind as I smiled. “Yeah, of course, I remember Carol.”

  “You were seeing her for a little while.”

  “Well, I’m not sure I’d say we saw each other. We were together for a long weekend once.” That tended to be my normal dating style. Meet a woman, go on a couple of dates, spend a weekend with them, and then move along before they got too attached.

  “Yeah, that’s right. Then you disappeared after that weekend.”

  I cocked my head. “I’m not sure what you are here for, Ms. Daniels. I haven’t seen or spoken to Carol in about a year.”

  “Nine months to be exact—more or less a couple of days,” she murmured, and thunder rumbled again lowly.

  Nine months. The time frame bounced around in my skull, and my gaze dropped to the baby in her arms. No. Fucking. Way. Unconsciously, I took a step back as if someone had just told me they’d found an IED in the center of the room.

  She shifted the baby in her arms and held him out. “This is Devon, your son.”

  Nope. There was no way. I shook my head. “I think you have me confused with someone else.”

  “Oh, no. I don’t.” Her hair whipped wildly around her head as she shook it, and some of her frizzy hair fell from her clip.

  “Look, if that baby is mine, why the hell isn’t Carol here?”

  She began to blink rapidly as she curled the baby back to her chest again. Her gaze slipped around the room and then landed
on mine. In them, I saw pain and sadness.

  “Carol died giving birth to Devon.”

  “What?”

  “Carol had a bad heart, and her doctors didn’t even want her to have the baby, but she was determined. Unfortunately, she didn’t live through the delivery.”

  My gaze dropped back to the child; his little hand had come out from beneath the blanket and was flailing to the side as if trying to reach for something.

  Davina took a few steps toward me. “I know you’re surprised, Mr. Vaughn, and I get that this is a lot to have to deal with, but you need to take your son.”

  She held the baby out to me, and for the first time, I stared down into his little face. Was it possible? Could this little boy be mine?

  “I don’t know what to do with a baby,” I said hoarsely.

  “Just hold him,” she said, pushing him closer to me.

  With shaking hands, I reached for the child, and she set the little bundle into my hands. He weighed next to nothing as I took him. I held him, not sure what to do next, and stared into his face. The little guy opened his eyes, staring right up at me, and my heart clenched for the first time in my life as more thunder rumbled around us.

  Chapter Two

  Davina

  I was a nervous wreck as I pushed the stroller through the torrents of rain into the office. What a day to be doing this. The storm was unleashing buckets of rain, and the thunder and lightning were on the seriously scary side.

  A woman much more put together than myself sat behind the desk in the entrance and smiled at me before her gaze dropped to the stroller I was pushing, and one neatly manicured brow rose slightly.