Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I didn’t feel fucking lucky.
Not with the way my head was feeling, anyway.
“Did they catch him?” I asked.
Her phone chimed as she said, “Nope. He’s still at large.”
She reached for her phone to look at it, and I saw her brows furrow.
“Well,” she said. “It looks like I spoke too soon. They almost caught him.”
“They did?” I asked hopefully. “Where?”
“Here,” she said. “In the front of the hospital. Apparently, he was coming to finish the job. He got away, though.” She paused. “He did hurt someone that was coming out of the hospital, though. A nurse.”
Her words made me shiver, and she placed one hand to the baby that was sleeping on my chest.
“I have a baby on my chest,” I found myself saying.
She grinned. “You do.”
“Why?” I wondered.
Not that I was complaining or anything.
She smiled down at the baby, then looked back up at me.
“It seems that when you turned into a sad sack, your son didn’t like it. He declined right along with you,” she murmured, rubbing her finger down the length of Dare’s cheek. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. So I brought him in here, defied hospital protocols out the ass, and placed the baby on your chest. It took him all of two seconds to perk up. And we’ve left him here ever since.”
Chapter 27
I hate pants and socializing.
-Text from Reggie to Nathan
Reggie
Four weeks later
“Will I what?” I stared in awe at the room around me.
“Will you marry me? Again,” Nathan repeated the words.
I opened my mouth and closed it, staring in awe at the decorated room around me.
“I…” I paused. “Nathan.”
That was when my mom and dad came out of the side room, followed by the rest of our friends and family.
My uncle Michael.
My grandparents.
Nathan’s parents.
Our brothers and sisters.
The SWAT team and their wives.
“Oh, God,” I breathed. “Nathan…”
Then the priest started walking toward the front of the room.
Tears were now streaming down my face as I stared at the man that I loved.
“I love you, Reggie. I want you to marry me. Again.” Nathan sounded so fucking self-assured. So solid. So… mine.
“Okay,” I breathed. “I’ll do it.”
He grinned and swept me up into his arms, walking me toward the priest in the next second.
When he dropped me to my feet in front of the priest, I couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped me.
We were getting married in front of the NICU. So his son could be a part of it.
I was dressed in hospital scrubs.
He was in his SWAT gear.
But it was the most romantic thing that we’d ever done.
I didn’t think anything could make the day better.
Then, the sweetest words I’d ever heard sounded from the front of the room.
“They found him!”
I’d been living in fear for weeks now.
Fear that Darius would find Nathan again. Would find me or even Dare.
I covered my mouth with my hands and burst into tears.
Chapter 28
I do what I want.
-Text from Reggie to Nathan
Nathan
“Are you sure about this?”
Dr. D looked at me like I was a bug.
“You made the child.” He paused, waving his hand in the air. “I mean, the child is… shit. This isn’t where I was going with this. Yes, I’m sure. Dare is doing great. He’s five pounds even, passed the car seat test. He’s yours. Take him home. Enjoy him. Try not to fuck him up.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that burst free of my lips. “Try not to fuck him up? That’s all you got for me?”
Dr. D shrugged. “You’re gonna fuck him up. Everybody does. Just try not to fuck him up too bad that he can’t function without you when he’s eighteen.”
Reggie snorted from her position beside me.
She leaned into my side and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder.
I swallowed hard as Dare was handed to her without any wires or tubes hooked up to him.
Jesus, I was scared as hell.
“It’ll be okay,” I heard.
I looked up at my dad who was standing a few short feet away from me, then my mom.
“You survived being shot in the head twice,” he said. “I think you can handle a little tiny baby.”
I flipped him off, causing him to laugh.
He was right, though.
If I could survive being shot in the head twice, I could survive Dare.
Right?
***
Reggie
The nurse that’d been shot coming out of the hospital had been none other than Eerie.
Eerie who, might I add, hadn’t had the best of luck lately.
Her appeal to get another DNA test was denied.
Her appeal to have visitation was denied.
Her appeal to appeal was denied.
She no longer had a legal leg to stand on, and even worse, she got shot coming out of the hospital by the same man that was out to get Nathan.
Her luck was bad, and I almost—almost—felt bad for her.
Until she glared at me where I was holding Dare.
“I hope you die,” she snarled.