He gives Brielle a double take when he spots her behind the wheel, but quickly focuses on the rest of us. “Raven. You doin’ okay?”
Raven nods and he lets out a harsh breath.
“Zoey?” He looks to Captain.
“Papa!” Zo calls right then.
He turns to see her running up, Victoria behind her.
From there, everything happens quickly.
We rush into the private elevator. I grin when Maddoc starts banging on the doors, trying to hurry them up and get us to the Brayshaw wing, and laugh when he runs into a lab cart, knocking the thing out of the way in his rush to get Raven to the nurses’ station.
The chicks ask us to stay outside while they get her settled. This time it’s Raven who laughs and then glares at the lady who sticks a couple needles in her arm.
We didn’t go out.
Now here we are, pacing a large room while Raven sits tied to a bed, staring at the wall across from her. She’s not really tied, but there’re wires and tubes and shit placed in places I can’t see so... tied.
“Under different circumstances, her being strapped to a bed might be kinda fun, eh Madman?”
Maddoc’s head snaps my way, and it takes a second, but his shoulders fall, an airy laugh leaving him. It follows around the room, and the stiffness we fell into begins to soften.
“Fuck, man. I might need a nurse.” Maddoc grins from me to Cap. “I think I had a heart attack.”
“I think I need some oxygen, feels like my lungs collapsed.”
They laugh.
Captain walks closer to Raven, placing a hand on her belly.
She looks up at him with a smile. “You okay, Cap?”
He nods, staring at her stomach.
“You don’t have to stay inside if it’s too much,” she tells him what he already knows, and likely knowing his response before it even comes.
He shakes his head, not once moving his focus from her belly. “I didn’t get to be a part of all this with Zo, I’m not missing any of this.” His mouth twitches and he looks to Maddoc. “Baby’s moving.”
Maddoc’s hands fall to the other side.
Victoria grips my shoulder and squeezes and I knock my knee into hers.
Cap looks to Victoria and back to Raven. “Can we let Zoey in for a minute? I think she’s worried something’s wrong, maybe let her see you’re okay?”
“Don’t ask, Captain.” Raven tips her head. “She wants in, you bring her in.” My dad must have been hovering at the door, waiting for the words to come, because seconds later, Zoey pokes her little head through.
She pushes the blonde curls from her face and walks toward Maddoc who stands hovering over Raven, legit hovering.
“Come here, Zo.” He lifts her up, setting her right beside Raven on the bed.
She looks to Raven, placing her hand on her belly and her pretty little eyes tighten.
“Does it feel different?” Raven asks her.
Zoey nods, following with the same question she’s asked since the very first day she understood there was a baby inside Raven’s stomach. “Is baby sleeping, RaeRae?”
Raven’s lips pinch tight and she shrugs. “I don’t know, Zo.” Her voice is strained, fighting to hide the pain from her niece and us. “Do you think baby’s sleeping?”
Zoey shakes her head. “Um, Rora said baby’s ready to come see us today.”
“I think Rora’s right.” Raven’s nose begins to turn red, and she looks to Maddoc.
He stares down at her, his features pulled tight as he drops his forehead to hers, his hand coming up to hold her steady.
Holy shit.
The others will finally learn what I’ve known for weeks.
The sex of the baby.
I’ve held the secret strong, but today it comes out and I can’t wait to see my brother’s face when his little one is born.
This is the last time it will ever be just the two of them.
Raven and Maddoc.
What a fucking feeling that must be. A legit part of him is coming to change our world once again.
Raven’s hand shoots up to grip Maddoc’s wrist, and all at once, we stand.
“Hey, Zoey Bear,” I call and move closer. “Want to go tell Papa, RaeRae and Uncle D are okay?”
“Yes!” she shouts and hops down.
I grab her hand and together, all of us step into the waiting area to give the soon-to-be parents their last minutes as a duo.
Brielle sits beside Maybell in the waiting room, my dad just across from them. They push to their feet.
“She okay?” my dad asks. “Maddoc?”
“Yeah.” I nod, smiling through a sigh. “It’s wild, but they’re good.”
He nods through his nerves and spins to his chair, handing me the gift box he grabbed from my closet.
“You look at it?”
“Nope.”
I narrow my eyes.
He laughs and turns to Zoey. “Want to go with Papa to find something to drink?”
“And candy for Uncle Bro?” She lights up.
He laughs, grabs her hand and off they go.
Maybell, Captain, and Victoria follow them down the short hall to the small snack station.
Brielle grabs her bag off the seat and hands me my keys. “Thanks for today. I had fun. Your family’s amazing, and Zoey, she’s too cute.”
“Wait.” Victoria comes out of nowhere. “You’re leaving?”
Brielle’s lips tip up slightly and she nods. “I think I should, yeah.”
“You should stay. I could use your help.”
She steps closer, a low laugh leaving her.
“Who knows what will happen here when Raven gets farther into this and the unkillable pain kicks in. I’ll need all hands on deck. Zoey likes you. Royce trusts you.” She nods. “Stay.”
Royce trusts you.
Brielle’s eyes meet mine but quickly return to Victoria.
“I need to be in there as long as Raven will let me, but Zoey could use someone to play with out here, that way if Rolland wants to pop in sometimes while we wait, he can? And Maybell, she might have to run and check on the girls at the house and back. Something.”
My dad slips in then, sticking a hand out to Brielle. “Brielle Bishop, it’s very nice to meet you after all these years.”
“You as well, sir.” She shakes his hand, but quickly turns to me, unsure. She comes closer. “Should I go or...”
“She asked you to help.” My eyes move between hers, a heavy sense of expectation stirring in my chest. “You tell me, you want to help? Play with my niece? Make today easier for me?”
For me?
“For us.”
Her lips twitch, a knowing look in those metallic eyes. “I mean, you might need someone to bring one of you back to life again the next time someone passes out.” She teases with a shrug.
Victoria and I laugh, but my dad raises a dark brow.
“We should go back in.” Captain grabs Victoria’s hand, his other landing on my shoulder. “Brielle, give her whatever she wants to keep her happy. If she tries to force candy on you, you don’t have to eat it.”
Victoria laughs, but little does he know, my girl loves her some sweets.
Brielle smiles, her eyes popping up to mine, cheeks growing a perfect shade of unexpected pink when I step so close, her chest rests on my shirt.
I push her hair over her shoulder and she inhales.
“You’ll be here when I come out.”
“That didn’t sound like a question,” she says quietly.
“Yeah. I know.” I trace her features, meeting her eyes. “Be here when I come out.”
Her laugh is low and airy, Victoria’s the same at my back, and then I’m steered away.
We rejoin the others in the hospital room, waiting for the newest Brayshaw to meet the world.
It’s near one in the morning when the doctors deliver nightmare news.
The baby’s heart rate is dropping, and Raven needs an emer
gency C-section, one that Maddoc can’t be in for because there was no time to prep.
To say I was surprised when he didn’t scream and yell and get his way is an understatement, but he let her go like a man, forced to trust the doctors to do right by his entire fucking world.
The nurse realized we planned to stand right outside the doors she was wheeled through the entire time, so it didn’t take long for her to have three chairs moved in front of it.
So here we sit, together, silently screaming as fear begins to tug at our hearts and minds.
Maddoc’s knees bounce, but the rest of him is unmoving, his chin tucked to his chest, eyes frozen open and unblinking.
Captain hasn’t moved, not his hands or his feet, not his frown, which is locked on the double doors not three feet from us.
And me?
I’m wigging out, but already pulled at every bit of patience I have, which ain’t much, and have been holding back the urge to joke it off or run from it, to punch shit or pick a fight, to take a dozen shots to numb my emotions, like I do when they peak too high for me to handle.
I simply sit here beside my brothers and wait for our family to grow bigger.
Twenty-five torturous minutes go by, and finally, the nurse pokes her head out.
“Mr. Brayshaw.”
Maddoc darts up and we’re right there with him.
She smiles brightly. “Everything went beautifully,” she says, and our hands dart out to steady our brother when his knees give.
“It did?” he asks, standing on his own now and taking slow, subconscious steps toward his missing pieces.
She nods. “We’re sewing her up now.”
“Sewing?” he rasps.
The nurse pins him with a gentle stare. “She didn’t feel a thing, honey, I promise. She’s beginning to wake now, but the baby is ready for you, if you’re ready.”
Maddoc’s hands shoot out, gripping on to the sleeves of our hoodies. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She laughs through a smile.
“What about Raven? Has she held the baby yet?” he asks.
“Not yet, but as I said, she’s waking now. Would you like to come in, see your little one together for the first time?”
A choppy breath leaves him and when I look over, his jaw is tight, eyes misted. He gives a jerky nod and releases us. He looks from me to Cap.
“Go, brother,” Cap whispers. “We’ll be right here waiting.”
Maddoc disappears behind the double doors, and not fifteen minutes later, they open again.
A bed is pushed through, Raven sitting up inside of it, a little cocoon-like blanket gently tucked tight in her arms, a pillow beneath it, Maddoc at her side.
Something comes over me, settles into me.
Never in my life have I seen that look on my brother’s face and I can’t even explain it.
It’s as if for the first time, he’s whole. Complete.
What a feeling that must be.
Victoria runs around the corner then, her hands flying up to her mouth, and Raven lets out a choked laugh.
Raven’s eyes find mine, and I step closer.
Closer to her, my brother, and their baby.
Zoey’s little footsteps sound behind me and I can’t not spin toward her, everyone else doing the same.
Nobody wants to miss her little when she meets her cousin for the first time.
We stare and she slows her steps, walking up with her hands over her mouth, her little dog ear slippers flapping all around, my dad and Victoria behind her, Maybell behind them.
I pull the small gift from the box, kneeling in front of Zoey.
She reluctantly pulls her eyes from Raven’s arms and meets mine.
I place a pink stuffed wolf in Zoey’s hands with a wink.
She smiles, nods and looks to her daddy.
Captain bends, lifts her, and holds her right beside Raven.
Zoey looks to Raven. “Baby’s not sleeping, RaeRae.”
“No, ZoZo.” Raven swallows. “Baby is wide awake.”
Raven’s eyes come to mine. “So, tell us, Uncle Bro. Was the sonogram right?”
I step closer, staring down at the perfect little baby in her arms, and choke back the emotion threatening to escape.
I pull a second stuffed wolf from the box and lay it against her arm.
She inhales a choppy breath and I lean down, kissing her temple.
I breathe through a smile.
“Yeah, it was right,” I whisper, holding her eyes. “You did good, RaeRae. He’s perfect.”
Zoey leans over, officially making each and every one of us lose our damn cool when she whispers to her baby cousin for the very first time, “I love you, best friend. So, so much.”
Chapter 26
Royce
Nobody wanted to leave the hospital and we pretty much flat-out refused until Maybell worked her voodoo on us. In the end, we agreed to head home for the rest of the night and let them know we’d be back the second our eyes opened.
She had a point, they need their time, Cap needed to get his baby girl into a real bed and not the little cot they brought out for her, even if she was excited to lay in it. He and his girls walked out just before me.
They’ll go home, tuck their daughter into bed and then climb into one together.
Maddoc will stay with his wife and newborn son, as he should.
And me?
“Royce?”
I don’t realize I’ve slowed the car until Brielle calls my name from the passenger seat.
A car horn honks behind us, and it pisses me off.
I hit the gas, only to hit the brakes harder, and the horn honks again.
Brielle jolts forward with a small squeal, frowning as my slow grin spreads. “Royce?”
I reach into the back, grab a bat and push my door open.
Brielle leaps across the center console, grabbing me by the arm. “What are you doing?”
“He’s being a dick.”
“Because you slammed on the brakes, and how do you know it’s a he?”
“Don’t, but I’m about to find out.”
“That’s what you want to do right now, fight? Hurt people?” she snaps. “You just spent an amazing day with your family, waited all night like a kid with a golden Wonka ticket, dying with excitement to meet your nephew, and this is how you want to end the night?”
“And you care why? You’re going home to an empty-ass room like always. I go home and what... fuckin’ sit there?”
“It’s three in the morning, Royce,” she whispers. “You go home, climb into bed, and fall asleep.”
I scoff a laugh, shaking my head, but nothing’s fucking funny.
Nothing is funny.
I’m alone.
Strictly solo.
The leftover Brayshaw.
I drop her off and it officially begins, the just me.
The silent nights that scream loud in my mind.
Dread spreads through my veins, heating and weighing my body down.
“I wanna get fucked-up.”
“Newsflash, Playboy, you are.”
My head snaps her way, eyes angry... until I see hers.
Hers are smiling. Perceptive. “It’s true, you bought a pink and blue wolf so no one would know for sure what the baby was when they peeked. And guess what. They all peeked. They told me,” she teases. “So fucked-up,”
My frown begins to fade, and before I can stop it, a low laugh leaves me.
I close my door and drop my head against the headrest. “You just said fuck.”
Brielle grins, and I let her take the bat. “Drive, playboy, before they get out and knock on your window and I have to find another way to reel you in.”
“Maybe I should stay right where I am then.”
She laughs and I put the car in drive, headed for the group home.
Brielle
We roll to a stop, and Royce sighs, staring at me.
I don’t say anything, but wait for him to instead, and it
doesn’t take long.
“You trip me out,” he shares.
A small grin twitches at my lips. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” His voice is heavy, full of rasp. “You make me laugh when I wanna tear shit apart.”
You make me feel things I’m not sure I should.
Royce’s knuckle lifts, lazily trailing along my jaw. “What kind of things, baby girl?”
My gaze flies up to his, and the heat in his is too much.
My stomach comes alive with a million flutters.
He grins, but it’s faint, something so much deeper playing in his eyes.
“Do you have blankets in your truck?” I find myself whispering.
He stares, his tone low. “Why?”
“We could lay them out, watch the stars...”
His hand comes up to push my hair back. “You wanna spend your night with me, Tink?”
I think I want to spend all my nights with you.
I don’t say that. Instead, I answer simply. “Yes.”
He pulls in a long breath and then we’re headed forward again. “I’ve got a better idea.”
That’s all he says, and I don’t care to ask what the idea is.
I’m all in regardless.
In more ways than one.
Royce continues forward, curving around the back of the property, a place I’ve yet to see.
Tucked behind the mansion is a giant trampoline with a large net wrapped around it. It’s in the center of a wide-open field to the left of the overflowing flower garden and pool house.
“We put this up for Zoey about a week ago, but I don’t think she’d mind loaning it to us for the night.” He grins, his eyes shifting to mine. “You good with that?”
I nod, because I’m not sure what my voice would sound like.
He brought me to his house, where no one is allowed.
Okay, sure, I’ve come back here on my own twice and this isn’t quite the house, but I know this boy, and this is just as much his home as anything inside that mansion is. Not that going into his home wouldn’t feel like, I don’t know, more? Because it would, but this. This is more than I’d have expected.
“There’s a zipper where the stepstool is, climb in and I’ll be right back.”
I nod and head right for the trampoline.
Break Me Page 27
