Meow Or Never: BBW SEAL Shifter Surprise Pregnancy Romance (Chicago Catastrophe) by Anya Nowlan, Rory Dale

coast seemed to be clear.
    You have to look both ways before crossing or you might get hit… on.
    Still, her walk to the car was rushed. She wouldn’t put it past Culliver to jump out of a nearby bush or roll out from under her car. Despite the fact that she knew him to be a ruthless mobster, he was taking on the role of a cartoon villain in her head. If it wasn’t a sign that she was trying to force herself to put the man out of her mind, she didn’t know what was.
    Luckily, there were no surprises this time. Hailey got in her car without incident and drove off, sights set on the nearest pharmacy.
    It only took about twenty minutes of finger-drummingly nervous driving until she pulled up to a Rite Aid. Hailey sat in the car for another five minutes, frozen. She had always wanted a family of her own, but this wasn’t exactly the way she’d imagined it happening.
    She barely knew Troy. She liked him, sure, but that wasn’t nearly enough to have a baby with someone. Their chemistry was off the charts, but they could be totally incompatible in all other areas of life.
    Would he even be okay with being a father? Could she even tell him?
    Okay, stop putting the pregnant horse before the cart and go buy the damn test!
    Hailey got out of the car, telling herself she was a strong, successful woman and could handle anything life threw at her. She repeated it almost enough times to actually start believing it. A few months ago, before everything had happened with the Crimson Claws and her parents, she wouldn’t have had to assure herself of something she already knew. Now? Well, things were different.
    Skulking through the pharmacy’s maze of shelves, she finally got to the pregnancy tests. She grabbed three, just in case, and paid hurriedly. The cashier smiled at her as she rung her up, and something inside Hailey made her smile back.
    Grabbing her bag of possibly life-changing urine strips, Hailey left the pharmacy, feeling like she was stuck in someone else’s dream. She got back in her car, all ready to spend her day off peeing on sticks, but her ringing phone indicated that was not in the cards.
    Hailey didn’t recognize the number, which concerned her some.
    “Hello, Hailey,” Culliver’s voice said, and she almost hung up then and there.
    “What do you want?” she sighed, too exhausted and worn down to even get properly angry at him calling her at her private number.
    “We have another case for you. You need to come in immediately.”
    “Riiight,” Hailey drew out. “And where would I be meeting you? At your apartment perhaps? Or a nice romantic restaurant?” she demanded, more than a little suspicious.
    “We’ll be meeting at the Twin Rivers Casino and you’ll speak with the new boss,” Culliver explained.
    I don’t suppose the old one just retired and is playing mini-golf in Hawaii, Hailey wondered grimly.
    She grew silent. The casino would be a public place and it wasn’t like she could tell him to fuck off, no matter how much she wanted to. The Crimson Claws still owned her. She wasn’t even done with the case she was handling for them now before another one had popped up, just like she’d expected.
    “On my way,” she finally responded, defeated, before hanging up.
    Her nausea was almost gone thankfully and Hailey only hoped seeing Culliver’s face wouldn’t make it come back with a vengeance. She started her car and headed in the direction of the casino, knowing where it was because she’d been there previously with a couple of her friends.
    That was before rumors started swirling in the lawyer circles that a lot more than gambling went on at the Twin Rivers.
    Hailey used the thirty-minute drive over there to try and calm her nerves. It seemed too much was going on at once. She found herself thinking of Troy, and not just because he could have possibly knocked her up, though that didn’t help.
    There was something about the man that Hailey found all too appealing. The more stressed out she