I felt Dad get out of the Tahoe with me still tucked close to his body, then he was walking so fast he was practically running. I heard Shane whispering something, my dad curse, and then there was a whole group of voices I didn’t recognize. Someone told Dad to put me down so they could examine me. He barked at them to get out of his way.
“Move or I will move you,” he told the woman who had told him to put me down.
“Sir, we must tend to the child,” a male voice spoke up and I struggled to uncover my head so I could see who was speaking.
I wiggled, needing down. “Daddy, I have to use the bathroom.”
I was instantly placed on my feet and the blanket was pulled off of me, a chorus of gasps greeting me as they saw my face for the first time. “Are you going to be sick again?”
I just shook my head and was relieved to find a sign for a bathroom just down the corridor from where we were standing. I had to pee so badly, it was a wonder I hadn’t already gone in my tights. I locked the door behind me and ran to the toilet, already pulling my old dress up, not caring if I tore it or not. It had been stupid to go as a zombie version of Jane Austen anyway.
When I was done, an entire minute later, I flushed and moved to the sink to wash my hands. That was when I finally got a look at my face. I froze at the sight staring back at me. I had cried off most of the green and black makeup that I had used for my costume but I still looked like something that would roam the streets on Halloween. My left eye was a rainbow of colors: black, blue, purple and all kinds of shades in between. It was swollen shut, making my face look almost deformed. My top and bottom lips were split, and even though it looked like it had started to scab it was still bleeding just a little. There was a bruise in the shape of a hand print on both cheeks. When I touched my fingertips to them, I winced as it caused the throbbing to start all over again.
“Lucy?” I heard my dad’s voice on the other side of the door. “You okay?”
“Be right there,” I called back before washing my hands and grabbing a few paper towels to dry them.
Opening the door I found Dad, Shane, and Nik standing there while a man in a doctor’s coat and two nurses stood behind them. “I just want to go home,” I told Dad.
He grimaced. “I know, baby. But you need X-rays at the least.” He reached for my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere, okay? I’ll be right here with you the whole time.”
Chapter 23
Layla
If I had to wait one minute longer I was going to climb the fucking walls.
It was after midnight and I knew that Jesse was downstairs with Lucy by now. Shane had rushed out the door about ten minutes ago, keeping me from asking more questions. If he thought that was going to stop me from asking questions or seeing my baby he was out of his mind. I’d already told the perky little nurse that I needed a wheelchair. I wasn’t supposed to be on my feet yet, but that didn’t mean it was going to stop me from getting downstairs to my child.
Drake stood by the door, obviously standing guard. He didn’t want me to get out of bed but if he even dared to stop me I would make sure that he and Lana only had one child. I might be sore from the C-section but that wouldn’t keep me from kneeing him in the balls.
Lana was already helping me put my shoes on—a pair of slippers that I’d packed in my suitcase weeks ago. I’d started packing the second I’d hit the six-month mark, wanting to make sure that we were ready for anything. Harper held my robe, waiting for the nurse to get back so that they could help me up and she could slip it on me. Neither woman had tried to talk me out of going downstairs. They understood my consuming need to get to Lucy.
The door opened, knocking Drake in the back of the head and ass. He stepped forward, rubbing at the spot on his skull as the nurse wheeled in the chair. “Here we go, Mrs. Thorton.” Her smile was gone, had been since I had told her that my daughter was downstairs and needed me. I might not like the nurse very much, but she hadn’t protested when I told her I wanted to go downstairs to be with Lucy.
Drake cursed under his breath as the nurse and Harper assisted me into the chair. I won’t lie, it made me hurt like hell, but I sucked it up as I settled into the wheelchair and covered my lap with a folded blanket. “This isn’t smart.”
“Get the fuck out of the way, Drake,” Lana snapped. “You’re wasting time here.”
“Angel…” When she just stood beside me glaring at him, he sighed and opened the door for us. Harper pushed me through and toward the elevators. “Jesse doesn’t want to upset you, Layla. You should get back in bed and wait for him to bring Lucy up.”
“I’m not waiting another minute. Even if she doesn’t need me, I need to see her.” To make sure she was okay, that she really was with Jesse and not still trapped in the nightmare this night had turned out to be.
The elevator opened and Harper pushed me inside while Lana and Drake stepped in behind us. It took three minutes to get downstairs and to the ER. We didn’t stop to ask anyone where Lucy was. There was no reason to. The two huge men standing outside of a private exam room was like a neon sign telling us exactly where she was.
Recognizing us, the guard on the right opened the door and Harper pushed me into the room. It was crowded inside and I didn’t see Lucy right away. Shane and Nik were standing on either end of the bed while two nurses rushed around the room doing who knew what. A doctor was standing beside Jesse whose face was a dark storm cloud of emotions while he listened to whatever the doctor was saying, but his eyes were solely on Lucy who was lying on the bed.
“I can’t determine if her cheek is broken until we get the X-rays back but her lip is going to need a stitch or two,” the doctor was saying. “But what concerns me the most is the swelling around the eye. I think we should do an MRI to make sure everything is okay.”
I gasped at what the doctor was saying, making Jesse’s head snap around. His eyes darkened even more when he saw me but I could tell it was with concern and not anger. He took three big steps and then he was crouching in front of me. “She’s going to be okay… Just don’t upset her when you see her.”
I blinked back my tears and nodded. When he straightened and stepped aside my eyes went straight to the bed to find Lucy looking at me. My hands covered my mouth as I tried to stifle the cry of distress that escaped me. Her face was one big bruise. Eye, lip, cheeks. She didn’t even look like Lucy right then.
Trembling, I reached for Jesse’s hand and pulled him down to me again. When my gaze met his, my eyes were wet but hard. “Did you kill that fucker?” I whispered.
A small smile lifted one corner of his lips. “As good as.”
“Good.”
“Mom…” At that one word I pushed Jesse aside and Harper wheeled me over to the bed before I actually got up to get to her. Lucy rarely called me Mom. It slipped out every now and then and I was okay with that. I was her sister just as much as her adoptive mother. I wasn’t going to pressure her to do something that didn’t feel natural for her. But when she did call me Mom it melted something inside of me.
As soon as I could reach her I caught her hand and brought it to my lips. “Oh, baby. My sweet baby. How are you feeling?”
Her right eye, the only one that could open, blinked a few times. “Is this what it feels like to be high? I don’t think I like it. What I can see of the world is spinning and it’s making me sick.”
I frowned and glanced at the doctor who grinned and shook his head. “Just a little morphine to help with the pain, Mrs. Thorton. She was feeling pretty bad. We can give her something for the nausea.”
“Then do it,” I told him before turning my full attention back on Lucy. Her hair was a mess and there was Halloween makeup smeared in patches on her face. “I’m so happy to see you, baby.”
“Is Aunt Emmie okay?” Lucy glanced around, stopping when she landed on Nik. “Is she going to be okay?”
“She’s fine, Lucy. She’s upstairs in her own room and you can se
e her in the morning if you want to,” Nik assured her with a tender smile. “Mia’s sleeping in bed with her right now.”
“It’s my fault she got hurt,” Lucy whispered. “She told me to run and I didn’t. I couldn’t run away and leave her there…”
“Oh, sweetheart.” I shook my head, not wanting her to blame herself for something she couldn’t have controlled. “This is not your fault, and Emmie would do anything to protect you. She loves you as much as I do. Don’t blame yourself for any of this.”
“But…”
“Mom’s right, Lu,” Jesse told her as he stepped beside me and leaned forward to kiss the top of Lucy’s head. “Now close your eyes and rest. It’s been a long night and you’re exhausted.”
Whether it was the medicine or if she really was completely exhausted, Lucy didn’t try to protest and closed her eye. Moments later her breathing evened out and she was asleep.
Nik
I left the ER after the doctor had come back to tell us that Lucy was okay. No broken bones in her face. The bruising would keep her a symphony of colors the next few weeks and she had to have a stitch in her top lip and one in her bottom. Other than that she was fine and good to go home. Layla made Jesse take her home so Shane and Harper drove them while Lana and Drake helped Layla back up to her room.
Now, as I stood outside of Emmie’s private room on the same floor as Layla, I paused. I couldn’t go in there just yet. Not with Mia sleeping with her mother and me still shaking with the rage that lingered even after I had smashed Vince Grady’s face into an unrecognizable mess. My soul hadn’t been satisfied with the bloody pile Jesse had left the man. I needed to add to the damage to avenge my woman. I wanted to rewind and do it all over again. Stomp my boot into his face, his chest, his groin. Cracking, breaking, shattering bone.
“Are you okay, Mr. Armstrong?”
My head snapped up to find the two guards standing on either side of the hospital room door staring at me with concern. I’d been so lost in thought that I hadn’t even noticed them, which was nearly impossible with the size of the two guards. Shaking my head to clear it of the images that were still flashing through my head, I shrugged. “It’s been a long night, man.”
The guard who had spoken to me nodded. The entire staff knew most of what had happened tonight. Extra security had been added to the maternity floor once Emmie had been placed in her room. “Understandable, sir. You should go on in. The nurse was just in and said that the ultrasound will be done in just a few minutes.”
That had me pushing everything else to the back of my mind, unimportant in the face of seeing the child I had created with Emmie soon. I opened the door and took two steps inside only to stop at the sight before me.
Emmie, her eyes closed with her hair spread over a pillow that was as flat as the bed she was in. Mia was sound asleep, snoring as she lay across her mother in a position only my daughter could perfect: her little behind in the air, her head buried in her mother’s chest, one arm around Emmie’s neck, the other clutching the blanket that was pulled up around her.
The sight of Emmie’s face made my stomach churn. She was black and blue and purple. The gash on her head was bandaged but I could still remember how bad that wound had been, how it had started to bleed at the drop of a hat every time she so much as moved the wrong way. Seeing her like this made me want to find Grady and finish the job. That fucker didn’t deserve to live. Didn’t deserve to breathe when he had been the reason my wife was hurt and lying in a hospital bed with the fear of a miscarriage hanging over both our heads.
Sensing me, Emmie’s eyes lifted. When she spotted me by the door she lifted her free hand, silently asking me to go to her. I crossed the space that divided us in less than a second and caught hold of her hand. Bending, I kissed her palm. “How are you feeling?” I asked as quietly as possible. “Are you hurting?”
“Stop worrying,” she murmured with a smile. “I’m fine. The baby is fine. They listened for the heartbeat just a little while ago and it was strong. The tech will be here soon so we can make sure everything is fine… How’s Lucy?”
“Nothing broken. Two stitches. Her eye is the worst, though. It’s going to be swollen shut for a few days at least.” I carefully sat on the edge of the bed, keeping hold of her hand. “Jesse took her home.”
“A good night’s sleep will help everyone.” She yawned and I suddenly felt bone tired. There was no way I was going home tonight, though. I’d camp out in one of the chairs beside the bed and Mia could sleep with Em. I would climb the walls at home all night long. “You were right…”
I blinked, because I was sure that I had heard her wrong. No way had she just said I was right. Right? “Of course I was… What was I right about, again?”
A soft snort escaped her. “About the assistants thing. But I don’t want Natalie to find them for me. I’ll find them myself. I was thinking about turning the guest house into my office. It’s about the right size for a few more employees. That way we won’t have so many people in the house around the kids. And… I want to hire a nanny. Someone with an Early Education background. I know we’ve already discussed that, but I wasn’t really one hundred percent on board until now.”
I grinned, because I had known all of that. She had agreed too quickly when I had told her that was what I wanted her to do. I was just glad that she had finally seen things clearly. Emmie was on the same scale as Wonder Woman, she was so kick-ass. But even Wonder Woman couldn’t save the entire world on her own. She needed Superman and Batman every now and then. “I’m glad. You have to eat and sleep sometime, baby girl. With the added help for work and the kids you’ll be able to do more, go further with all of this.”
When we had fired Rich Branson as our manager, turning everything over to Emmie—something that she was doing anyway—I hadn’t really thought of all the extra hard work she would have to do. She never complained, always seemed on top of everything. And even now she still was with OtherWorld added to the mix. But with talks of her adding a few other bands that we knew—bands that would kill to have Emmie representing them in any shape or form because of how great she was with us—I knew she was going to be over-extending herself. No person could handle all of that with just one assistant who lived on the other side of the country.
It took the tech another ten minutes before he showed up. I carefully lifted Mia into my arms so that the guy could do his job. He put the little wand inside of Emmie and moments later the room was filled with the sound of our child’s heartbeat. My arms tightened around Mia, remembering the first time I had heard her heart beat and seen her on a screen just like I was watching right now.
The tech started asking Emmie questions and punching in some numbers as he took measurements. “Okay, Mrs. Armstrong,” the short man said after a few more minutes while I just kept staring in awe at the screen on the ultrasound machine. “Looks like you are just a little over eight weeks pregnant. From all the measurements your due date will be June eighteenth.” He smiled as he pulled a few pictures free from the machine and handed them over. “Congratulations on the addition to your family.”
I forced my gaze from the screen that was now blank and looked down at Emmie. Her eyes were bright, but she hadn’t let her tears spill over yet. “So, he’s okay? Everything is okay?”
He nodded. “Looking good. Your fall earlier hasn’t affected the baby in any way.” Standing, the man nodded at me and I gave him a tight smile before he pushed the machine out the door. “Good night.”
The door closed behind the tech and I laid Mia down in a more comfortable position beside Emmie before doing what I had been aching to do from the moment we had heard the baby’s heartbeat. I kissed her, devouring her lips as she clung to me. Tonight had been hell, absolute fucking hell. But the ending—getting Lucy back, finding out that our child was still safely growing deep inside of Em—all of that was the ending I had prayed for.
Chapter 24
Lana
The phone was ringing and I
was too tired to care. The cordless was sitting on the nightstand beside the bed, but I had no energy to roll over and answer it. The last few weeks had caught up with me at last and I had been walking around like a zombie from the moment we had landed in New York three days ago.
Drake and I had stayed in California for another two weeks before finally flying home and only then because I was told I wouldn’t be able to fly if I waited much longer. My doctor had said I wasn’t going to be able to fly at all in the last six weeks of my pregnancy. So I had to leave then or wait until the baby was born, because there was no way I was driving from California to New York when I had to pee every twenty minutes. It would take me two weeks to get home at that rate.
At least Layla was home now, so I didn’t have to worry about her as much. Lucy’s face was starting to look better as well. Her left eye had lost all the swelling but was still a vibrant black and blue mixture. Jesse had told me that she was having nightmares though and most nights he crawled into bed with her so that both of them could actually get some sleep. It was the twins that I hadn’t wanted to leave. My nephews were still in the hospital. Their sleep apnea alarm was still going off at night and they wouldn’t be released unless they had three consecutive nights without it going off. The doctor had assured Layla that because of their early births, the twins were unlikely to come home until closer to their original due date.
I had hated leaving Layla when she was so devastated over not getting to take her babies home. She had been an emotional wreck the last couple of weeks. Her OB/GYN was concerned with all the crying she did, her only sign of postpartum. Considering everything she had been put through emotionally since Shane’s wedding, I thought she was handling everything really well though. Sure she got a bit hysterical the first day Lucy went back to school, that was normal in my book. Of course Emmie had helped out with that by putting a guard on Lucy much the same way she had for Harper. Now everyone was able to breathe a little easier when Lucy was out of sight.