Page 113 of Endure the Pain

I sat up. “We do?”

He nodded. “Buck’s child bride, Amber—no—Amelia, the one that’s pregnant.” He was so excited he was stumbling over his words. The poor kid really needed some fresh air. “Her sister just checked into the hospital for pregnancy complications.”

I knew I must have looked confused, but I waited for him to explain.

“Her sister isn’t pregnant, and I hacked into the hospital’s cameras and it’s Buck’s wife. She’s gone into labor early and is getting ready to have a C-section. Buck isn’t there. I figured if she’s getting ready to have his kid, he’s bound to show up sooner or later. Or she might know where he is,” he said.

“Way to go, Vincent!” Brenna praised.

“Which hospital is she in?” I asked.

“Yale New Haven hospital,” he answered.

Brenna frowned. “I bet those bastards have been hiding back home this entire time.”

I stood from the couch. “Looks like we’re going backto New Haven.”

We arrived back in New Haven right after Ameliagot done delivering her baby via C-section. Vincent continued to monitor her from the cameras inside the hospital, while all of us pretty much camped outside waiting and watching for Buck to show.

When he didn’t show the next day, we knew we had to go about this a different way.

I showered and got cleaned up at the same hotel we'd fled from after Jamie and Louie had found us. I dressed casually in jeans, a green blouse, and a long tan peacoat. My makeup was light, and my hair was straight. I was aiming to look down-to-earth and unintimidating.

I put my wristlet and burner phone in my coat pocket and grabbed the teddy bear Brenna had purchased before heading back to the hospital.

We all agreed I’d go in alone, while they monitored the hospital’s entrances and cameras. As I walked through the hospital’s halls toward Amelia’s room, my earpiece filled my ear with static.Ow!I winced and pulledit out. I grabbed my burner from my pocket, intending to call Vincent, but I didn’t have any service.

My eyes flicked to Amelia’s door, which I was mere feet from, and I debated. Maybe I was out of range and the hospital had bad reception? She was getting discharged tomorrow morning and we might not get another chance.

Mind made up, I continued on. I knocked on her door and waited for her to respond.

“Come in,” a young and delicate voice said.

I walked in and saw that Amelia was sitting up in the hospital bed, holding her baby. She was very thin, despite just having had a baby. She was sporting a swollen black eye and split lip. Her hair was black as ink and her eyes were a bright shade of green.Christ, she’s just a kid.

Her un-swollen eye widened the moment she saw me and she clutched her baby closer.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” I said, quickly. “I just want to talk.”

My words didn’t seem to reassure her. I held out the teddy bear. “I got this for the baby,” I said, placing it on the foot of her bed, and took a step back.

She stared at the bear, then me. The baby let out a cry and she rocked it in her arms while patting its bottom. “I don’t know where he is,” she said.

“Will you tell me what you do know?” I asked.

She looked away, her good eye turned glossy. “I can’t. He’ll kill us.”

I took a seat in the only guest chair in the room. “What is it?” I asked, gesturing to the baby. I didn’t even want to acknowledge it, but I needed to find some common ground with her.

“It’s a boy.”

“Did you pick a name?”

She shook her head.

“What’s your plan after you’re discharged from here?”

That question seemed to break her, and she started crying. “I don’t know. I don’t want to go back to him, but he’ll find me. I’ve been clean since I found out I was pregnant. If I go back, he’ll make me shoot up again to keep me compliant.”