"I seriously doubt he planned it, darling. It happened though and we'll get through it," he said softly. Putting a hand on her back, he leaned in and kissed her. "Don't be too hard on him, please. You know that he wouldn't get hurt on purpose, not with you in his life and Junior on the way."
"I know that. Believe me I know that. And I won't be hard on him. Well, not too hard. I am going to be a little hard on him though because I want him to recall that jumping into a dangerous situation like he did was just plain silly."
"Yeah, but he probably had no clue what he was dealing with and was trying to keep the mission on the rails. Any noise would have been bad in our books," he said softly. He stopped and dug out his phone, putting it to his ear. "Hey, Ax, what's going on?"
Nodding a few times, he made grunts in his throat and snorted a couple of times. "Well aren't they just idiots," he muttered. "No, he's doing good. We spoke to the surgeons and they've stopped the bleeding and are getting to work on his shoulder now. The doc wasn't completely sure but it sounds like there's at least one more surgery in his near future. Yeah, I know, so glad it's not my ass being put through that. Especially considering Lacey's stance on it and the hell she'll be putting him through soon enough." He grinned at her and mouthed an "I love you" to her.
"No, that's great, let me know if you find out anything more. What?" he asked and then laughed. "Yeah, I have Byrne picking them up at the Veil. I did warn him about my mother but he said it would be fine. That boy's got balls of titanium on him to actually think he'll make it through that drive without wanting to kill her at least twice. Yup, keep you in the loop," he said and hung up.
"They got the other two from the sewers and put them into interrogation. They started babbling a mile a minute as soon as Artaxias flashed a little fang their way. They were paid to go underground and wander around toward the warehouse. They had a map and were told just to get into place and say a few key phrases. Their bank accounts support that, they each got fifty thousand for a couple hours of work."
"So they were the ruse to keep us from noticing the change in our guys? Has anyone found him, by the way?" She just hoped that he wasn't dead, but sadly she wasn't holding her breath on that one. Sad but true facts.
"No, the teams have been searching along the route he was supposed to take and expanding out. They only know of one stop he was supposed to make, which was our last contact from him. So they're working from that point in and from the warehouse out." Swiping his wrist over the scanner he nodded to the worker who had tallied up their meals. Walking with her to a table, he pulled out a chair for her and then settled at her side.
"I really hope that they find him alive," she whispered. "But I have a feeling they won't. Which is just downright sad. But unfortunately that happens far too often in our field, doesn't it?" She looked down at her food and took a bite. "Oh this is actually good." Surprisingly good for it being a hospital, actually. "And you are damn right I'm going to give Ansell hell. Gosh blessed it all."
"Jumping topics again, oh goodie, my favorite type of dinner conversation." At her look he just smiled and batted his lashes a couple of times. Picking up the sandwich he'd chosen, he began to eat and nodded. "Not bad at all, for hospital food that is."
"You know that right now my brain is jumping topic to topic and I'm just trying to grab them as we go along. I can't seem to help it. I don't like jumping topics, but I swear it's like pregnancy has sucked every single ounce of my brain power from me." Because it seemed as if she couldn't hold a thought longer than a minute and was like a bunny on crack when it came to things like sex, or her men. She was seriously going through some weird shit with this pregnancy.
"Not touching that one with a forty-foot pole even on a dare for a large cash prize." Turning in his seat he looked at her, brushing her hair back with a light finger. "Baby, don't worry about it so much. Yes, it's more than likely the pregnancy, it makes sense along with all the other changes. This fits right in. Try not to fret about it though, that just causes stress that you don't need."
"I swear if pregnancy is going to be like this every single time I think that, we will have words. Many words. Not all of them nice ones." She touched her belly though and grinned. "But they will be far from this little one and any other little ones we might be blessed with. I'm a lucky woman." She was bipolar at this point with her pregnancy and hormones running amuck.
Rolling his eyes at her, he leaned in and kissed her, hard and fast. "Eat your dinner and then we'll go back up and wait for Ansell to come out of surgery. Besides, you know you are loving being pregnant, even with all the weirdness you have associated with it."
"Oh I am totally loving it but there is an assload of weirdness associated with it. I wish I would have known about all this weird before the pregnancy so that I could have at least warned you guys. Right?"
"Darling, as I'm sure any woman out there will tell you, every pregnancy is different. What happens in one may not happen in any of the others. So I wouldn't be going into round two thinking that you'll have these same weird things to deal with. You'll likely have a whole whack of new ones." He smiled at her, big and toothy.
"Wonderful. You guys are going to be ready to kill me by the end of this one, what makes you think that there will be another one?" Oh she wanted more than one child, she wanted a large family and with Ansell and Zhubin she would have one, thankfully.
"There will be many more, Luhpynes are naturally pack animals. The more kids we have the happier we will be, even Ansell and his no-diaper policy will be right there with us the entire way. Besides, it'll be interesting to see just how many variations you have on your pregnancies. I see big money in our futures," he teased with a wink.
That had her laughing and she shook her head. "And if I have a pregnancy where I don't want sex, at all?" she asked with a laugh. "That would seriously suck for you boys now wouldn't it? If I found that I didn't want to have sex at all." Yeah right. She couldn't see herself not wanting Ansell and Zhubin, ever.
He shot her a look and grinned, giving a lazy shrug. "I somehow doubt that would happen but if it did, we would deal. It's only a few months and just think of how well-rested we'd all be by the end of that pregnancy."
"Good point," she said with a grin. "All that I know is that if that happens, I will be a cranky bitch by the end of the pregnancy so let's hope and pray that never happens." Because to be honest, she was a very sexual being and they all damn well knew it.
Bantering back and forth some more, they got through the meal quickly. When they were done, Zhubin cleaned up and grabbed them both some water. After that they headed back up to the waiting room they'd been assigned to. Settling in the seats again, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kept her tucked close to his side.
Chapter Twenty-One
A month later …
She slapped his hand again as he started to itch at the wounds on his shoulder. "I'm telling you, Ansell, you touch it again and I'm damn well going to beat you black and blue." Lacey pushed Ansell back into the pillows of their bed and gave him the eye, and all but dared him to move. "I mean it. You might be home now and all that fun stuff but you are now under my domain and that means you do what I darn tootin' well say or else I'm going to be very cross with you mister," she grumbled.
Tipping his head slightly he squinted up at her. "I am already black and blue, woman, so really, I doubt I'll notice. Second, I'm drugged up out of my gourd, bring it babe."
"Someone is cranky on drugs, good to note," Zhubin commented from the door. He grinned at her when she spun and moved to hug him close. "Hello, little darling. How's it going keeping cranky pants in line?" he asked, pressing a kiss to her lips.
"It's going but I don't know who is crankier, me or him." She hugged Zhubin close and closed her eyes. "Your mom is supposed to come by today to check on Ansell, and your dads are coming as well. I figured we would order dinner in?" Because right now, Lacey couldn't seem to cook to save her ass. She tried, gods only knew she did, but she was burning even water at this stage in her pregnancy.