my purse and pulling my phone out. “Put it on speaker. No funny business.”
I nodded, taking the phone and answering it. “Hi, honey. You’re on speaker, so be polite.”
“Hey, baby,” he said. “How’s the shower?”
“It’s good. Lila looks so cute and the cake is amazing. You should see the family room. The fireplace is gorgeous,” I improvised, another contraction hitting part way through.
“Any idea on when you’ll be heading out?”
“Honestly, no. We’re having so much fun.”
Lila smiled, waving her hand for me to wrap it up.
“Um, I should probably go. We’re getting ready to play a game.”
“Okay. Alamo and I have a few things to do over that way, do you want me to swing by and pick you up?”
I closed my eyes and forced myself not to cry. They were here.
“No, I’m good, honey, I have my car.”
“Okay, baby. I’ll see you at home.”
Lila snatched the phone from my hand and hung it up, throwing it back in my purse. “Good job.”
“Do you think I could have a little water?” I asked.
“Oh, ah, sure. I’ll get you some.”
She left me and I took a deep breath, my savior just outside, and a fireplace poker directly in front of me. I only needed one pain free moment, and Lila distracted enough, for me to use it.
Rabbit
“SHE KNOWS WE’RE here, and she’s in a room with a fireplace,” I said, and led Alamo around the back of the house, trying the back slider to find it locked up tight. Alamo was right, there was no way to see inside, so we were blind. “Now we just need to get in.”
“The chimney’s in the middle of the roof,” Alamo said. “So, the room with the fireplace has to be dead center.”
“Yeah. There was a tiny window around the side that didn’t look like it would be too difficult to break.”
“But how are—”
Before Alamo could finish his sentence, a blood-curdling scream came from inside the house and I didn’t think. I pulled my gun out, shot through the slider and rushed inside, tearing the drapes down in the process.
“Rabbit!” Parker screamed, and I followed the sound.
“I’m here!” I bellowed, and she screamed again.
I rushed into the room and found her leaning on a bloody fireplace poker, Lila moaning at her feet, her face covered in blood.
Lila started to get up, but I was faster, shoving my boot on her head. “Stay down, bitch.”
“I got her, brother,” Alamo said, and I reached for Parker.
“I’m in labor,” she rasped, and I nodded, lifting her into my arms.
“We’ll call an ambulance.”
“No. I want out of this hell hole.”
“Where’s your purse?” She nodded to the sofa and I grabbed it, fishing her keys out of it, then turning to Alamo. “Gonna drive Parker to the hospital.”
“Okay, I’ve got this,” he promised, and I carried Parker out to her car, setting her gently inside.
I drove her to the hospital, confident Alamo would take care of everything else.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“It was all a trap,” she whispered. “Lila was never pregnant. The shower was all a ruse to get me over there so she could cut him out of my body. But I went into labor and convinced her to let it all happen naturally. She was going to kill me, Zane.”
I decided not to point out that I had a feeling the cunt was crazy and warned Parker not to leave her mother’s house. That conversation could wait until our son was in the world safely.
“Okay, baby, I got you,” I said, taking her hand. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
She burst into tears and squeezed my fingers. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, baby,” I said, pulling into emergency. “Let’s just get you inside.”
She nodded, and I helped her out of the car, then into the hospital. They rushed her up to labor and delivery where I was made an impotent observer as they hooked her up to monitors, took blood to see what she’d been drugged with, and called a doctor in to deliver the baby.
Twenty-five minutes later, Cooper Daniel McCormick arrived with a bellow. He was healthy, but obviously not happy to be out in the cold. Our nurse, Shiloh, set him in Parker’s arms, and I finally got eyes on my child.
He was perfect.
“Hi there, little Coop,” Parker whispered. “You look just like Daddy.”
I smiled, leaning down to kiss her, then him. “You did so good, Pebbles.”
“I’m so tired.”
I stroked her cheek. “You can sleep, sweetheart.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to miss anything.”
A doctor