They elbowed each other, struggling in the small space to get dressed. Leo laughed, falling to his ass as he tried to get his jeans back on. Shelley tumbled into Wolf. They all hit the ground.
“Shhh.” Wolf shoved a hand over her mouth. “Someone’s out there. Listen.”
A masculine voice cut through the silence. “I need to talk to you before I leave.”
“That’s Zane,” Wolf said in her ear.
“All right. What you need to tell? You go to hospital?”
“That’s the Russian,” Leo whispered. “Alexei. Zane’s bartender.”
Damn. The last thing she needed was to get found half-dressed the night before her wedding. What they had done in the closet was probably some sort of health code violation.
“Yes. I just got a call from Callie. I have to go to the clinic. Jen’s having the baby. Nate and Callie are already on their way, but I have to join them. Stef is like Callie’s brother. She won’t let Jen go through this alone,” Zane said.
They all settled down, no one making a move, as though they were all praying the door didn’t open.
“No problem. I take care,” Alexei said. “You don’t to worry about anything.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that.” Zane’s voice was tense. “You need to see what’s in the freezer.”
What the hell was in the freezer? Did they have a bad shipment of beef?
She heard the sound of a heavy door opening. A moment passed and then Alexei spoke.
“What has happened, boss?”
Zane Hollister sighed and then his voice went low. Shelley couldn’t hear most of what he said to his bartender, just a couple of words stood out. Hiram. Mayor. She heard Alexei gasp in what sounded like horror when that sweet lady named Nell from her bachelorette party was mentioned.
“This is disaster,” Alexei said.
“We have a plan,” Zane replied. There was more whispering and then a long sigh. “So you understand why we have to keep this quiet? I’ll take care of it in the morning. You just need to keep Lucy out of here tonight.”
There was a little sniffle. “This make me miss mother Russia, Zane. Yes. Yes. Not to worry. I take care of for you.”
“Dear god, no. I’m going to handle it in the morning. Properly and through all the right channels. I’m just waiting for Rafe to do the right thing. He just needs a night. I don’t want Cade as our mayor. He’ll make the whole damn town a safe place to be naked. I don’t want to watch Max Harper flicking his dick in everyone’s face. He will do it.”
“Yes, he would make me uncomfortable as well. I could burn evidence for you. I do this many time before.”
She felt Wolf start to laugh. She clasped a hand over his mouth.
“Damn it, I didn’t commit any crimes,” Zane argued. “I just want to make things right. Just don’t let anyone in the freezer, okay?”
“This I protect.”
They continued to talk as the voices faded away.
“What the hell was that about?” Shelley asked as she managed to get up.
“God only knows. We are not going into that freezer,” Leo said. Her bra was in her hands. She pulled it on.
“I don’t want to know,” Wolf said. “I just want to go out there and get the ceremony done and get married tomorrow.”
Bliss was an odd place. Ignorance really was the town’s name.
She got dressed and followed her men out, carefully avoiding the freezer.
Twenty minutes later, she made her pledge—to fight all aliens, to embrace humanity, to love the Earth. Easy promises to make.
When Cassidy passed her a shot glass filled with beet juice, she slammed it down to the roar of the crowd.
Proving her humanity and her love for two very human men.
Chapter Eighteen:
Rafe
Trio was hopping. Even from the street he could hear the raucous laughter coming from the tavern.
He patted the baby who was currently strapped to his chest. Yep, he was taking his baby into a bar, but then Trio wasn’t the kind of bar where people got trashed and broke things. That was Hell on Wheels, and hopefully his daughter would never see the inside of that place. No, Trio was a meeting place. Trio was filled with families and friends.
Sierra’s legs and arms kicked. He couldn’t quite see her face but he was sure her eyes were wide with that wonder she seemed to have for everything from the trees to the fabric of his shirt to his car keys. His baby girl took everything in and all of it seemed amazing to her.
Maybe all he really needed was a little of Sierra’s wonder.
He opened his eyes and really took in the town he lived in.
It was filled with family. He stepped up close to the door and Max and Rye were walking out.
“Rafe, my man, did you hear about Jen?” Max asked, slapping him on the shoulder. “Won’t be long now, and we’ll have a bigger playgroup.”
Rye let Sierra take his thumb in her hand. “Max and I think we need to start a poker night. The girls have their meetings. We should be able to have one, too, right?”
The girls’ meeting was something called the “I Shot a Son of a Bitch” club. Poker night sounded practically innocent. And it would be fun to get together with the men. “I think that would great. I’ll bring the beer.”
“Bring a lot,” Max said. “Have you seen how much that Russian can drink? He can drink us all under the table.”
Alexei? Drink him under the table? “You haven’t seen a Cuban drink, my friend. Perhaps I’ll bring rum instead. I think this is going to be fun.”
Rye’s eyes widened. “Well, hell, I’ll look forward to it, then.”
The Harper twins walked off, talking about Stef and how they would have to watch him for a while. Rafe wasn’t so sure Stef needed someone to watch him. He thought Talbot would make a good father, but he put it out of his head as he walked through the doors.
He was immediately surrounded. Holly gave him a hug and reached for the baby.
“Cam and Laura are dancing. You should join them.” Holly winked a little. “I need baby snuggles.”
“I can give you these snuggling babies, dushka.” Her husband Alexei, who was going to get a run for his drinking money at the next men’s gathering, gave his wife a smile before turning to pour another beer for Jesse McCann.
Holly shook her head. “He’s baby crazy.” Holly looked a little baby crazy herself as she held her hands up. “Please?”
Why had he thought his daughter wouldn’t have a family? His daughter’s family was huge and sometimes obnoxious. Like a family should be.
He’d spent the last few weeks mourning his own rigid, formal childhood. Perhaps a man always longed for what he knew, but what he had now was so much better. It was messy and hard, and these people would make him crazy.
And they would really love him. They would love his daughter. They would stand by him and his wife and partner whether they always agreed or not. They would argue with him and fight with him and they wouldn’t leave him.
Sometimes a man lost one family only to find another.
“Rafe?” Zane walked around the bar. “Man, I’m glad to see you. Laura told me I needed to talk to Cade. I don’t think that’s a good idea. He’s going to have to wear a shirt to town hall meetings, and that might be hard to get him to do. And let’s face facts. If Cade takes over, he’s going to be Gemma’s puppet. That girl scares me a little.”
He pulled out the letter they had found in Hiram’s desk. It was time to put Zane and the Bliss Chamber of Commerce out of their collective misery. “It’s all been decided. I think you’ll find the new mayor’s name here.”
Zane frowned and took the paper. “Maybe we should talk about this.”
“Just read the name.”
Zane’s eyes went to the name and he smiled. It was written right there. The deputy mayor of Bliss, selected by Hiram Jones himself, was one Rafael Kincaid. “Thank god. You won’t regret it, man.”
“Oh, I’m sure I will.??
? He was certain he would need to start drinking before his first Bliss City Council meeting. But he also knew that it was right. He did have a job. He could mold the way his town developed. “But I expect to be mayor at least as long as Hiram.”
Zane held out a hand, grasping his. “That’s all we can ask, man. You have no idea how happy this makes me.”
Rafe sent Zane what he hoped was a very mayoral frown. “Don’t be too happy. I might have something to say about your health and sanitation standards if you don’t extricate my predecessor very soon.”
Zane shook his head, using his thumb to point to his bartender. “Alexei says he knows what to do. I filled him in on everything. He’s a great accomplice.”
Alexei nodded. “This is no problem. I handle many of these situations in Russia. I am good cleaner. I take care of this.”
Alexei used to be a Russian mobster, so Rafe wasn’t sure he wanted to know how Alexei would clean up. “You cannot chop him up. You just need to get him to the funeral home. We found his will when we were looking for the document. It lays out everything he wanted, including instructions about how to handle his funeral and his body. He wants to be cremated.”
“I do this many times in Russia!” Alexei smiled like cremating a guy was an everyday occurrence. Well, if he ever needed an enforcer, he knew where to go.
“The funeral home, Alexei.”
The Russian shrugged. “I do for free, but I follow orders of mayor. Mayor has seized power in smart play that has blocked all competitors. This I respect.”
He’d just kind of done what Zane had told him to. And he didn’t feel bad about it. It really was best for the town, and Hiram really had chosen him. And left him with a legacy.
He would build his family the way Hiram had. When he’d been turned out, Hiram hadn’t just gone into his shell and retreated. He’d gotten kicked in the gut, and his response had been to open himself up, to offer more, to build a town.
A deep sense of responsibility settled over him. Bliss was his, his to protect, to grow, to love. His family needed him and he wouldn’t let them down.
He looked over at Sierra, who was cooing at Holly. She would be the mayor’s kid and the deputy’s kid. She was doomed to be hell on wheels.
And he wouldn’t have her any other way.
“Will you excuse me? I need to make a call.” He started to look for his cell phone. He would have to go outside. It was raucous in Trio.
Zane pointed to the back. “Use my office, Mr. Mayor. I have to go and wait for Jen to spit out a baby. We’re growing, you know. We need to talk about schools. I don’t want my sons taking an hour long bus trip every day. We need a school here.”
“It’s on the agenda,” he said, moving back toward the office. He shut the door behind him and made the call he needed to make. He waited. It rang once and then again. Three times.
A low, angry voice came over the line. “I told you I will not speak with you, son. Not until you change your life.”
Ah, his mother. He had but one more thing to say. “Don’t speak. Simply listen. This is important because after this, the ball is in your court, Mama. I love you. I want to thank you for raising me. I want to thank you for loving me as much as you could. I want you to know that you can call me anytime and I will come to you. I will always honor you as my mother. I’m going to start something, Mama. I’m going to take pictures, so many of them that I can fill a wall in our house. Those pictures will be our blood, our history and tradition. You say that blood is all that matters, but, Mama, blood did not teach me how to work, how to strive. You did that. Blood did not hold me when I was sick. That was you. You are always welcome here in Colorado. And I will always love you. I would love for you to be a part of those pictures on my wall, but if you choose not to, then I will move on and I will raise my children with love. The way you raised me.”
There was a little sob that came over the line.
And then nothing.
She had hung up.
He’d done all he could do, and now it was up to his mother. Rafe took a long breath. Pain bloomed, but relief was right beyond the door. He didn’t hesitate this time. He walked out and joined his family.
“Rafe!” Cam yelled over the music. “Come on. We’re dancing.”
Laura smiled, that gorgeous goddess calling to him. “Dance with us!”
Holly was bouncing Sierra gently, holding her close as Alexei smiled down at them both. His baby girl was safe with her aunt.
And it was time to dance.
Chapter Nineteen:
Stef and Jen
Stef Talbot held his wife’s hand, but he just wanted the whole ordeal to be over with. She was so tired, in so much pain. She squeezed his hand tightly, but he wondered how much more of this she could possibly take.
Hours and hours had gone by and it had just gotten progressively worse. At first the contractions were little bubbles of pain that she’d managed to smile through, then she’d squeezed his hand and promised him it wasn’t so bad, and now she screamed and groaned with every single one.
And they wouldn’t let up. It was midnight. A whole night of her pain had gone by with no end in sight.
He was utterly helpless. He was surrounded by friends, and he’d never felt so alone in his whole life.
Max, Rye and Rachel, Callie, Nate and Zane, his father and Stella were all out in the waiting room, but he didn’t want to talk to them. He didn’t want to tell them how much pain his wife was in, how small and insignificant he felt in that moment.
He just wanted it all to be over.
She finished another killer contraction and Jennifer’s head flopped back to the pillow, her hand slacking in his. She was covered in sweat, her face red from exertion.
“Please take the drugs.” He’d stopped commanding her a few hours back. It hadn’t worked. She’d snarled back at him and refused. She had a birth plan, she’d told him, and it didn’t involve drugs.
“Okay. I’ll take them,” she said, her voice a tortured whisper.
Thank god. He looked up at Naomi who was calmly writing in a chart. “She needs an epidural now. Call the anesthesiologist.”
He’d decided natural childbirth was for the birds. Rachel must have an unnaturally high tolerance for pain. Jennifer didn’t need to compete with her. Callie had been perfectly happy with her epidural. She’d started out with every intention of getting through it and four contractions in was screaming for drugs.
When Jennifer was relaxed and out of pain, maybe he would be able to breathe.
“Mr. Talbot, she’s at a nine. The time for an epidural has passed.” Naomi set aside the chart and gave Jennifer a friendly smile. “I’m sorry, honey, but it won’t be long now.”
“I hired an anesthesiologist to be on call.” He’d only agreed to her birth plan because he had a team on call. Jennifer had insisted the baby be born in Bliss and not in Del Norte, where the nearest full-service hospital was. Logan Talbot was going to be born in Bliss according to his momma, and that meant his father had to be prepared. He wasn’t about to let anyone ruin his plans. “I want him in here now. I want him doping her up and making her feel better and I want it right now.” He used his deep voice, the one that got people to do what he wanted.
It seemed no one had given Naomi the memo. She shrugged off his command. “I explained when she got to four centimeters that we didn’t have long. She’s too far in for an epidural now. Dr. Harris is still on call, but he’s only here in case she needs an emergency C-section, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. She’s doing great.”
Jennifer’s body seized and she screamed again, reaching for his hand. He let her damn near break his bones as she rode out the wave of pain.
“Oh, god, it hurts.” She sobbed. “It hurts so much. I want to push. I want it to stop.”
Every word tore at his soul. Why had he ever thought this was a good idea? She was precious. He should never have put her through this. “I’m going to fix this.”
&n
bsp; Naomi was moving to the end of the bed. “You do that, Mr. Talbot. Jennifer, I’m going to check you again. Don’t push yet.”
“I’ll take care of it, love. I’ll make this right.” He hated leaving her, but he had a job to do. He stepped out of the larger of the two patient rooms that Caleb had renovated in the last several months. The Bliss County Clinic now boasted a small emergency room, one operating room for the worst of emergencies, and two recovery rooms. And one very full waiting room.
“Hey, is she holding up okay, Stef?” Rye asked.
“She’s in pain. She needs drugs.” He looked around. Where the hell had Caleb gone?
Rachel was shaking her head. “See, I think woman should just get drugs the whole last month of their pregnancy.” She pointed at her slightly rounded belly. “This baby is getting drugs. And he’s not being born on a table at Stella’s. You know why? Because Stella doesn’t have any drugs. Caleb has drugs.”
Maybe his wife wasn’t so far behind in that particular competition. But that didn’t matter now. His eyes caught on Caleb as he walked into the waiting room wearing green scrubs. The man with the drugs. “Caleb, get in there and tell your nurse to call the anesthesiologist, or better yet, call him yourself. And then when you’re done, you can fire her because she doesn’t listen to orders.”
A brilliant smile crossed Caleb’s face. “Couldn’t get Naomi to do what you wanted, huh? That’s why she’s the best nurse I’ve ever had. And it’s too late for an epidural.”
“Goddamn it, Caleb, she’s in pain.”
“That’s what happens when you try to push a baby out of your body. I keep telling you people it’s a bad idea and you just keep on making kids.”
He wasn’t about to let this go. “Caleb, you owe me. You get my wife her drugs and maybe I won’t sue you for shooting me with a tranquilizer gun.”
Caleb shook his head sharply. “Look, I’m not sorry about that. You’ve been an ass. And no jury is going to convict me. As for the epidural, I could go into a lengthy medical explanation of why it’s a bad idea at this late stage of labor, but I’m just going to say no and leave it there.”