"Fuck!" She shot to her feet, stomping around the room. "Evan and Jasper have no idea where they are, and Beck is not answering his phone."
"Riley!" I shouted, and she stopped her frantic pacing. "Stop stressing. I don't need Dylan here to hold my hand. I have handled most of the shit in my life alone, and I expect this will be no different."
She just shook her head and laughed. "Oh Brooke, my sweet, naive, Brooke. Dylan is going to be so far up your ass for the rest of your life that you'll actually wonder if he's a new growth you might have to surgically remove."
My face scrunched up as the mental image of that flashed across my face. "Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean we’re going to play happy family. Fuck, it doesn't even mean I'll be pregnant tomorrow. I'm still lightly bleeding, there's nothing they can do to definitively save the fetus right now, and… let’s be real, Dylan does not want to be a father."
I’d seen his face. The utter shock on it was one thing, but there’d been so much more there I hadn’t had time to unpack.
Riley wore a knowing look, like I was being an idiot but she would indulge me because I was pregnant. "We look after our own, Brooklyn. Even before the baby, I knew you were going to be part of our world. Dylan would never have ripped us to shreds for just anyone. I've never met anyone he cared enough about to fight for like this. And that was long before the baby news."
My hospital door smashed open and two hulking dudes lurched through the doorway. After being attacked by strangers, I wasn't sure if I should panic or not, but when the nurse followed a moment later, shouting at them, I simply lay back to watch it all play out.
"You are not allowed in here!" she yelled, trying to wrestle them out the door.
Guy one, who wore his blond hair in a shaggy, surfer do, slapped a smart-assy sort of smirk on his face. "Nurse lady, seriously, you don't want to get in our way. We're the major donors for this hospital, and there's nothing you can do to stop us."
She went super pale, which was impressive since her heritage seemed to be from an Asian country. "My apologies, sir. I didn't recognize you in casual clothing."
He waved her off, and before she could say another word, ushered her out the door and slammed it closed. Then, blondie and his brown-haired friend spun to smile at Riley.
"I told you fucking idiots to stay in the lobby and keep guard," Riley snapped. "What are you doing in Brooklyn's room?"
Blondie moved closer, examining me as if I was some sort of science experiment. "We can protect you better from here," he said, and I saw the gun at his waist. He'd concealed it so well I hadn't noticed it until now.
Riley sighed. "This is Jasper," she said to me, "and the other is Evan."
Their names gave the flash of recognition that their faces hadn’t. The other heirs, in the flesh, and I honestly didn't recognize them at all. Though to be fair, I pretty much only stared at Dylan whenever Delta was on the news, and occasionally Beck and Riley because they were just so striking. The other two were a bit faceless and nameless to me.
At least they had been until this point. Funnily enough, they were both very handsome, tall and muscular, and I wondered if “supermodel hot” was the minimum requirement to join their crew.
"This is Brooke," Riley continued. "She’s our current mission to protect, so I need you both at your top game—"
"Do you think I still need a protection duty?" I interrupted.
Jasper nodded. "Oh yeah. And that was before we found out about the..." His eyes dropped to my mid-section. "But, yeah, D asked us to watch over you while he killed a motherfucker, and as much as I wished I could go on a hunting trip, I'm expecting some action here too."
Anxiousness gripped my chest, and I shook my head. "No, I'm done with all of that. No more action here, thanks."
Evan just gave a casual shrug. "It'd be cool if that's how it worked."
Jasper snorted a laugh and shot his friend a look. Clearly, I was missing some inside joke there... or perhaps their lives really were dramatic enough that this was their version of normal.