Be My Hero(34)

So I shoved them right back out. I absolutely refused to acknowledge that anything bad could happen to Skylar.

It wasn't until we veered sharply around a corner that another shock of pain startled me out of my safe place.

"Easy," Pick barked at whoever was driving.

"Damn, man," a male voice I didn't readily recognize shot back. "I'm trying here. Your car's got more power than I'm used to."

I whimpered and Pick's lips instantly hovered over my ear, his breath  warm and soothing. "We're getting you there, Tink. Just a little bit  longer."

"My baby," I managed to rasp.

"She's okay. She's going to be just fine. Nothing is going to happen to that precious little angel. I promise you."

"How . . . ?" There was no way he could make such a promise.

"She's fine. I've seen her," he whispered, before choking back what  might've been a sob. "And she's beautiful. Absolutely perfect. She's got  your amazing blue eyes and the sweetest little cherub face, kind of  shaped like a heart. And her hair's dark with the slightest curl. She  has a cowlick in her bangs, right here." He pressed his lips to a spot  on the right side of my forehead, just at my hairline, where I did not  have a cowlick. "Her bottom lip's fuller than the top, and her nose  turns up slightly at the end, just like yours."

If he'd used all my features to describe her, I would've had a harder  time believing him. But the mention of a cowlick and dark hair-so unlike  me-made me envision the child he described until she became a living,  breathing creature again. She was alive, and she'd stay that way.

This time, instead of blocking the pain, I embraced it. Still clutching  Pick's shirt with one hand, I gripped my belly with the other. "I'm not  going to lose her," I promised him.

"No, you're not," he said. "You're going to fight for this little girl, and she's going to make it. You both are."





Chapter 13


PICK


As a frantic E.R. staff wheeled Eva away on a stretcher, I collapsed  onto the nearest bench I saw and pressed my back to the wall, closing my  eyes. Unable to hold her any longer, my hands began to shake, so I  gripped the edge of the bench for dear life.

Reese paced by me as she chattered on her phone, talking a million miles  a minute to a dozen different people. Noel, who'd driven us to the  hospital, was lingering nearby, and Mason, who'd stayed back at the  apartment to take care of the guy I'd damn-near killed for touching my  Tinker Bell, was still absent.

All the while, I couldn't stop feeling the wetness of Eva's blood soak through my shirt.

What the fuck had I been thinking?

I'd stood outside that garage, listened in on her conversation with her ex, and I'd done nothing. Nothing!

It didn't matter that Noel had kept telling me not to intervene; it was  none of my business. I'd felt the violence oozing off him. I'd known he  was a hair trigger away from unleashing it on her.

Why the hell hadn't I just walked into the garage, made my presence  known, and diffused some of the anger? She could've still gotten her  big, closure conversation with him while I was standing right there,  openly listening to everything.

But shit, I'd let Gamble talk me into thinking it was best to let her  have this moment on her own. And that bastard had gotten in way too many  punches before I'd been able to reach him.

Pinning him to the wall by the throat, jacking him in the face with a  wrench, and kicking him in the balls hadn't been nearly enough before  Gamble had managed to pull me off him. I still regretted inviting that  bastard to come with me tonight. He might be all torn up over losing his  woman, but his helping to convince me to stay back might've just lost  me mine.         

     



 

I gulped and tried not to freak out.

No, we weren't going to lose Eva tonight. She was going to be okay. The  baby was going to be okay. Everyone was going to be okay, except maybe  her baby daddy. I kind of hoped he died.

But there'd been so much blood coming from her. I choked out a sound and surged to my feet to pace.

"Hey, man." Gamble grabbed my shoulder as I passed him, but I shrugged him off and sent him a death glare.

He obligingly lifted his hands away from me, but kept talking. "You okay? Let me see your hands."

"They're fine." I'd barely gotten two punches into Alec Worthington.  Everything on my body was perfectly fine. He should be worried about  Eva.

Fuming, I stepped closer to him, needing to unload some of my anger and  fear. "Why the fuck did you keep pulling me back? Why-?" When I realized  accusing him would solve nothing and only make me regret my words  later, I whirled away and stalked off.

Feeling lost, I roamed the halls, staring blindly at framed pictures of  stupid pink flowers on the walls. I didn't stop walking until I found  myself in the opening of the hospital chapel.

It was eerily quiet inside, the lights were dimmed, and a creepy-looking  Madonna statue tipped her head to the side and clasped her hands to her  bosom as she sent me a sympathetic stare. I'd never stepped foot inside  a church before, but I did now, needing something. Anything.

I sat down in the last pew in the back and stared at the statue, who kept staring back.

I knew I shouldn't feel so shredded about this. I'd known Eva for what,  two weeks? She wasn't the girl I'd been dreaming about for ten years.  She was a perfect stranger, and if she or her child didn't make it  through the night, it wouldn't be the end of my life. But convincing  myself of that was impossible.

I didn't want her to die. I didn't want that little baby who'd kicked my  hand through her belly to die. I wanted to look into her eyes again and  let her fix me up with another Mohawk. I just wanted more time with  her.

Glancing up at the worried Madonna, I sent her a respectful nod.  "Thanks," I said, and slipped out of the chapel. It wasn't until I was  walking by the closed gift shop and saw the stuffed pig Skylar had been  holding in my glimpse that I really calmed down. It was like a sign,  telling me she was going to be okay. She still had a pig waiting for her  love.

My cell phone rang as I headed back toward the waiting room.

With a sigh, I answered, "Tristy, I can't talk right now."

"He won't stop crying," she shouted, totally frantic. "I don't know what to do."

Torn between needing to stay and find out what had happened to Eva and  needing to help Tristy and Fighter, I gnashed my teeth. I could hear him  wailing through the phone.

"Did you check his diaper?"

"I just fucking changed it."

With a sigh, I ran my hand over my hair. "And you fed him?"

She growled at me. "Yes! I'm not a fucking moron."

A bit my tongue to keep from responding to that. "Tris, I can't come  home right now. Someone got hurt; I'm at the hospital. Why don't you  actually trying taking him out of his swing and holding him."

She called me a dirty name but stopped talking for a moment because, as I  suspect, he'd been in his swing and she was finally pulling him out.  His screams almost immediately tempered.

"Isn't it crazy how well that works," I murmured into the phone, my voice acidic.

"You don't have to be a dick about it," she grumbled before adding, "He's still kind of fussy."

"Okay, fine. Put the phone to his ear."

"What?"

"Let him hear my voice."

"That's stupid."

"Will you just shut up and try it? It's soothed him before."

"Fine." A second later, I heard heavy breathing and a scuffle against  the speaker before he cooed. I smiled. "Hey, kiddo. I hear you're giving  your mom a hard time. Think you could try calming down for her until I  can get home? I swear, I'll rock you in the chair twice as long as I  usually do when I get back."

"Fuck, it's actually working," I heard Tristy's voice in the background. "Keep talking."

So I started singing to him. Halfway through "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors  Down, I saw Noel rush around the corner. When he spotted me, he started  waving wildly.

They must've gotten word on Eva and the baby.

"I gotta go," I said, cutting into my own song.

"It's okay," Tris said. "He's fallen asleep."

"Good." I hung up on her and sprinted around the corner to follow Noel.

" . . . and there was significant enough trauma to the uterus to cause a  placental abruption," a doctor was telling Reese and Mason, who must've  showed up while I was trying not to freak the hell out. He wrapped his  arms around Reese and pulled her close as the doctor kept talking.         

     



 

I had no clue what a placental abruption was, but it didn't sound good.  Instantly nauseous, I slumped back onto the bench I'd sat on before to  rest my elbows on my knees and bury my face into my hands.

I'd promised her the baby would be okay. I'd described Skylar to her and given her my word of honor, but-

"We had to do an emergency cesarean section. The good news was the  placenta was low in the uterus when it abrupted. That's why there was so  much external blood loss, but it cut down on the internal bleeding and  everything was successful when the baby was delivered."