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.
Okay, so that feeling bad for her thing was a thing of the past.
“I hope you don’t,” I countered. “I hope you live your life immersed in the knowledge that you lost. That you didn’t win in making Nathan’s life hell. That you realize that Nathan won and he’s not suffering all the while you question your decisions.”
Eerie flipped me off just as Nathan pulled up in his truck.
He got out and didn’t spare Eerie one single glance.
Instead, his eyes were all for me and his baby.
“Ready to go home, Reg?” he asked as he took the baby and placed him into the car seat.
I grinned. “Ready and waiting.”
We drove away all under the watchful eyes of Eerie, who never lost her scowl.
“Let me get my family home.”
Chapter 29
I have mad hustle and a dope soul.
-Text from Reggie to Nathan
Nathan
Three weeks later
“I want to know everything,” I said to the man that was sitting in front of me looking nonplussed.
The man shifted in his seat.
Yet, despite knowing that it might wind him up in trouble, he didn’t once hesitate to tell me the truth.
Honestly, he hadn’t even looked surprised when I walked into his office.
Apparently, he’d never been hiding from us. He’d only left his house so that we wouldn’t go there. He’d been staying at his office. Living out of it, actually.
“It was found when Eerie’s eggs were harvested that she wasn’t fertile. None of them were viable,” Dr. Mick Messings said. “I… with all the pressure from her father, I didn’t think it was a good idea to tell her that I couldn’t do it. Well, I did tell them. They told me to do it anyway. To fix the impossible, I guess. And since he was saying that he could take away my license and threatening my practice… I have a sick child, Nathan. She’s been fighting cancer on and off for years. My practice being open was the only thing that was making it possible for me to pay her medical bills. Him threatening me was like a suicide of sorts. In the end, I harvested some eggs from a donor that had perished in an automobile accident. One that closely resembled Eerie Foster.”
His words made my eyes open wide.
“You just… used someone else’s?” I asked in surprise.
He shrugged.
“The Fosters gave consent. As did the egg donor. If she was to perish, her harvested eggs would be donated.”
I had a feeling that the Fosters had no clue that they’d agreed to ‘donation’ but it worked for me now.
“I’m not sure they understood what Eerie and her family knew they were consenting to,” I admitted.
He shrugged and narrowed his eyes. “I sure the hell didn’t consent to her and her father making my life a living hell, either. But I did what I thought was best at the time.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
“I’m not sure if you realize it or not, but you just saved me a custody battle.” I paused. “I was set on not liking you. I was convinced that I was going to walk in here and dislike you immensely. Yet you’ve completely changed my mind, and you haven’t even tried that hard while doing it.”
Dr. Messings grinned. “That family was very hard to work with, and I’d hoped that if it ever came down to it, I wouldn’t have to work with them again.” He paused. “My daughter once again has cancer. We’re fighting it, but it looks to be winning at this point.” He narrowed his eyes. “You actually were a part of the calendar where the donations helped with a few treatments. Mr. October, correct?”
My brows rose. “Actually, yeah. Luckily, the hype has died down a bit. I haven’t been called Mr. October by anybody but you.”
His shoulders slumped a bit.
“When Ms. Foster came to me, she had the paperwork that I needed signed and notarized. Your signature was on the paperwork that granted access to the eggs. I apologize for not following up earlier. I only learned a few weeks ago when she called me in a flurry of apologies saying that the notarized copy that she’d had signed wasn’t actually signed by you. Then she threatened my job.” He looked apologetic all right.
Extremely apologetic.
Honestly, he looked defeated.
I could imagine if his daughter was going through yet another cancer treatment.
“I’m going to worry about Ms. Foster,” I admitted. “You’re not in any of my plans.”
He looked kind of sad there for a minute.
“I should be. What I did was illegal, and all I can say for myself is that I was a little distracted at the time, and all I could think about was how nice it was that the paperwork was done for me for once.” He shook his head. “I’ll never do that again, I can assure you.”
I looked around the office that I was standing in, then looked back at the man in the seat behind the rather large desk.
“Take care of yourself, Dr. Messings. And let us know if there’s anything we can do for your family,” I said softly.
Dr. Messings honestly looked quite stunned as I turned my back on him and walked out.
Nodding to his secretary, I went back to work, quite happy where my lunch hour had taken me.
Honestly, I’d been quite happy with quite a few of the places I’d been taken lately.
Granted, I sure wouldn’t have chosen to take the routes that I’d taken to get where I am today again, but they’d gotten me to a place in my life that I really loved.
Looking down at my watch, I realized I didn’t have enough time to get home and visit my little man—my little man that was being taken care of by Reggie, who’d taken six weeks maternity leave from her job.
Instead of visiting, I called.
She answered on the fifth ring.
“Hello?” she said breathlessly.
“Hey,” I said. “Why do you sound like you just sprinted to the phone?”
She continued to pant.
“I’m actually at the park running. I’m trying out the new jogging stroller we bought yesterday. This thing is awesome. And your son actually seems to be enjoying himself. He hasn’t closed his eyes for the entire hour that we’ve been here,” she gasped.
Elation poured through me at the thought of her out, bonding with my child.
“Which part of the trail are you at?” I questioned.
I didn’t have a second to make it home, but I did have a second to meet her at the end of a trail and get a kiss from my two favorite people.
“I’m just about to turn around at the halfway point. I can be at the trailhead in about twenty minutes.” She paused. “Why?”
“I just visited with the doctor that conceived Dare.” I grinned at how that sounded. “Keep running to the end of where you’re at. I’ll meet you there. I want a kiss before I head back to work.”
I could practically feel her smile.
“I’ll be there,” she gasped.
After hanging up, I drove to the other side of the trailhead that she rarely visited because it was too close to where she’d one time seen Eerie walking.
Apparently, there was a risk of her seeing her again since Eerie lived in the apartments right off of the trail, but Eerie wouldn’t be bothering us today.
At least, I wouldn’t let her bother me if I saw her.
I was done being worried about anything Eerie did, especially after meeting with Dr. Messings and coming to an understanding that he would never, ever use anything by anyone without his own visual consent.
I got to the trailhead before Reggie and threw my leg out of the cruiser and waited for them to arrive.
It wasn’t but five minutes later when they both came jogging up.
I grinned wickedly at my girl.
She was wearing a tight pair of black leggings, a tight hot pink bra, a black form-fitting racerback tank, and hot pink tennis shoes.
She looked cute as hell.
I slid out of my cruiser and walked straight to her, dropping a kiss on her mouth.
“How’s the run?” I rumbled against her lips.
She pulled away to answer, reaching for her water.
“It’s really hard to push this,” she admitted, her breath leaving her in pants. “I didn’t think it would be.”
She pressed the bottle to her lips, and I reluctantly pulled my eyes away from her chest to look at something just as important.
I moved the sun shade out of the way and grinned down at my boy who was, indeed, awake.
Which was a rarity for him. He slept a shit ton.
The pediatrician assured me it was normal, so I hadn’t freaked out big time even though I’d wanted to.
“Hey, Dare,” I rumbled.
His out-of-focus eyes tried to follow the sound of my voice, and I grinned before leaning down and putting my face close enough to his that he could see me.
When I did, he blinked.
“Just pick him up already. You know you want to,” she teased.
I did.
Arguing with her was futile, too.
Reaching into the car seat that he was strapped into inside the stroller, I unbuckled belts and buckles, and then picked him up and brought him to my chest.
He was still so fucking small in my hands.
All of eight pounds even as of last night, he was still in preemie diapers and clothes, and barely to the point where he would’ve been born had he arrived on time.
“And who is this?”
I blinked, surprised that I’d let an old lady get the jump on me.
“This is my son, Darren,” I said as I turned him so that he could be seen, but not touched.
Reggie and I were still extremely careful with him.
He didn’t get to go to the store or out to eat just yet.
His immune system was still very, very new and susceptible to the bad shit going around, but we were hopeful that he would be able to be introduced to the public soon.
“Darren, such a sweet name. You don’t hear that one very often,” she said as she looked at my kid. “Hey, are you Mr. October?”
A muffled peal of laughter sounded from the woman that was going to get a spanking tonight, caused me to blush slightly.
“Yes, ma’am,” I confirmed. “I am.”
“Oh, you were one of my favorites indeed,” she said. “You, and
Mr. February. Do all y’all have babies coming or already came?”
I thought about it.
“There are two of us left on the SWAT team that don’t have children or one on the way,” I agreed.
She turned to leer at my wife.
“I’m sure they’re just irresistible,” she admitted to Reggie. “If I had a man that looked like that, I would get knocked up, too. You look great for just having a baby, too. Wow, such effort you must’ve put in.”
Reggie opened her mouth to say something in the negative but I caught her shirt top and tugged her gently toward me.
“She’s awesome,” I agreed.
The woman smiled at me, her eyes twinkling with an inner light that had me grinning right back.
“Looks like you might make the paper,” she said as she pointed. “This new trailhead was opening today. They’re documenting all the people that came to watch it open.”
“It’s been open for a month,” Reggie disagreed.
“Soft opening,” she said as she pointed around at all the balloons and shit that I hadn’t paid much attention to as I’d pulled up. Sure, I’d seen them, but I hadn’t realized what they all meant. No wonder it’d been tough to find a parking spot. “Today is the grand opening. They’re even cutting the ribbon and having cake. Look.”
She pointed to a ribbon that someone was stretching over the entrance to the trailhead that we were a few yards from. Then at a table that was being set up beside it.
“Shit,” I said as I shook my head. “Making the paper isn’t my favorite thing in the world.”
Reggie rolled her eyes. “You’re so photogenic, though. Everyone else likes it when you make the paper.”
I dropped my hand to her ass and pinched it, causing her to squeal.
The baby in my arms started to fuss, and I moved him until he was upright on my chest, his face up next to my mic, and his body over my heart.
Officially Over It (SWAT Generation 2.0 Book 10) Page 19
