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Agent Knight holds up a finger as he pulls the officer to the side, leaning in to ask him something.

I gasp, another slice of pain ripping through me. “The… the barricade.Wicker.”

He’s there instantly, grabbing my face to draw my gaze to his. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s fine. You don’t need to worry. I’ve got this handled.”

“How?” I whimper.

He pauses, mouth pulled back in a grimace. “Okay, so I don’t actually know. Lex told me my job during labor was to keep you calm, so that’s all I know how to do.” His face falls. “But I swear in another circumstance, I’d be absolutely killing it. I had all these massages and?—”

I double over with a moan. “Wick, we can’t leave and an ambulance can’t get to us. What do we do?”

There’s a beat where a steel resolve comes over his features. “Maybe an ambulance can’t,” he agrees, whipping out his phone. “But nothing can stop Lex from getting to you.”

I takea deep breath as I pace in circles.

It’s only been ten minutes and it’s already getting harder to hold myself up. But sitting down had been worse, so I’m just walking. Breathing.Listening.

Mostly to my mother, who’s giving Agent Knight the dressing down of his life.

“My baby is about to give birth, and your stubborn, incompetent, Barney Fife ass better cook up a quick way to get her to a goddamn hospital, or we’re going to sue your ass to kingdom come!”

The agent scratches his head, looking a bit harried. Clearly, in all his planning, he hadn’t been expecting a pregnant woman’s labor to interrupt his grudge raid.

“We have EMS medics coming,” he explains, watching the door. “They’ll have supplies, and if it gets to that point, they’ll know how to deliver?—”

“Fuck your medics!” I shriek through another gritted wave of pain. I can’t explain why, but I’d rather linger in pain than know this asshole played any part in Justice’s birth. “Nobody working under your supervision is touching me. Not one fucking finger, or I swear to god, they’ll lose it.” I take a breath, trying to calm down. “He’ll get here. I know he will.”

Even my own mother looks stunned at the outburst, although also reluctantly impressed. She ultimately rolls her eyes. “Oh, fuck this guy. Someone grab Pauly!”

Pauly. I take a slow breath. Pace’s father isn’t exactly who I want but at the very least he’ll have drugs.

Wicker approaches, the phone pressed to his ear. There’s a sheen of sweat on his forehead that wasn’t there before, and he thinks I don’t notice him forcibly smoothing the bothered divot in his brow away. “He’s on his way,” he tells me, “breaking speed records.”

“Don’t worry,” Mama says, watching my pacing. “Sinclaire women have the easiest labors, Ver Bear. You slipped right out of me like a slug from a water can.”

A chorus of disgust sounds out, and I’m reminded once again of the ten DKS sitting against the wall, all their wrists cuffed behind them. The first paddywagon is full, and the second got blocked by the barricade, so they’re all stuck here until Knight unfucks his own mess.

Fuckingperfect.

Remy grins from his spot on the floor. “That’s beautiful, Mama B. Red as fuck.”

Wick turns away to hiss into the phone. “Lex, where are you? They’re talking about slugs and gross stuff, and this isn't my area of expertise! I’m just supposed to be the soothing, calm guy. Listen to my voice, Lex. Do I fucking sound calm?”

I shake my head, as if I can shake the pain and panic away. “They won’t let him in. We’re trapped here, and they don’t care.” The hysteria of it all grips me just as another sharp contraction hits.

Lex and I had a plan. I’m delivering at Forsyth General, where he’s going to assist for credit hours—a string that had been pulled almost eight months ago, the same week my pregnancy test came back positive. Wicker made me a playlist and Pace was going to be my anchor because they were both going to be in the room with us. There was supposed to be a full medical facility anddrugs. It was a good plan. A solid plan. A plan that didn’t involve ten detained cubs, an FBI agent, and a gym medic.

“I know a way in.” I spin at the sound of Pace’s voice, seeing him rush toward me. Looking around, I realize Knight and his officers are momentarily distracted outside, and I all but collapse into Pace’s arms. His hair is windswept, and he’s panting—a lot like me. “It’s completely fucked out there. Cars stalled five deep with half the fucking police force clogged up behind them. I had to scale up the back and come in through the roof.” He pulls back, searching my face. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I lie.

Wicker, looking relieved to see at least one of his brothers, answers, “No. I’ve been timing her contractions for Lex, and?—”

As if he’s summoned it, I grip Pace’s shirt in a tight, white-knuckled fist as another contraction grips me. The fierce, unyielding pressure radiates through my core, and I howl out a primal, “Fuck!”

It goes on for a stretch where all I see is blinding, white-hot pain behind my eyelids. But I also feel Pace in front of me and Wicker behind me, his fingers digging into my lower back.

I guess that’s the massage he was talking about.