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Chapter Twenty-Six

Jolie

I woke up to Chester by my side, and his tear-stained face was beaming with happiness. Out of all my guys, he struggles with his emotions the most. He warned me plenty of times, but seeing that side of him reassures me the man I see is in there. While he is all kinds of red flags to the average person, I’m so far from average that his brand of crazy speaks to me.

“Good news,” Chester says as he strolls back into the room. “The nurse gave me this.”

He’s pushing a wheelchair with a shit-eating grin on his face. I don’t know who he had to threaten to get it, but I don’t care. I have been awake for an hour and want to see my babies. They say it’s too soon to get up, but if they didn’t let me, I would have just walked myself there regardless of their thoughts. I heal twice as bloody quickly as the average person, and everything inside me wants me to be with my children. I don’t know if that’s a normal feeling or something that comes with being the way I am.

“Finally! No one died though, right?”

“It was a close call,” he jokes, parking the wheelchair next to the bed and pulling back the covers. My legs have full movement, and the regular nurse that came in to check on me was baffled. She also has no idea that what they knocked me out with wasn’t your average drugs—I would have been wide awake and felt every damn part of the C-section if that were the case. Chester lifts me out of the bed, and I let him because I know it makes him feel useful. Besides, I don’t hate the feeling of being cradled to his chest.

Once I’m situated in the chair, Chester wheels me out of the room and to the NICU. The security guards waiting in the hall see us coming and scan the door open, one nodding politely as we pass.

I touch Chester’s arm as we walk in. “Stop,” I whisper and point towards the babies. Creed has them on his chest, and he is quietly talking to them.

After they saw me in recovery and reassured themselves I was okay, I forced all the other guys to go home and shower. But Chester refused. I had wondered where Creed was, and now I know.

“Have you seen them yet?” I ask Chester.

“No,” he states simply. “I couldn’t leave you. It has and always will be you, and that’s why I will make a shit father.”

“You will be a fantastic father, just you wait and see.”

Creed looks up, and we move closer to him. “You’re up already.”

I nod. “You know me, doing as I’m told is not a strong suit when it comes to what’s mine.”

Chester wheels me across the room and parks the chair next to Creed. I reach over and run my finger down my baby girl’s arm. I feel bad she doesn’t have a name yet, but nothing I’ve come up with seems to be right. When Boston came up with Zadom, I just knew that was his name, and looking over at him now, I know we picked right.

“Jolie,” Brennan whispers—both babies have just gone the sleep—and I look up at him. “We have a team here, ready to transport the babies back to Olympia.”

“I’m going with them,” I state, leaving no room for argument. There is no way in hell I’m letting them travel with strangers.

“That has already been arranged. You can go with them, and we will all be following behind you.”

I nod my head in a quiet thank you. The doctor came around today and cleared them for travel. Besides their size, you would never know they were born early, and I’m thankful for the genetic modifications right now. The doctors also found out that there was an issue with my daughter’s placenta. If Zadom hadn’t gone into fetal distress, she may have not made it. Last night, we all spoke about Grace and placing her in charge of the babies’ medical and research teams. She will order their tests, oversee everything, and monitor them throughout their lives—that is, if she is willing to give up being a midwife. Olympia will pay for all the training she might need, and pay her well, because she would also oversee our babies’ team, observing and recording how they all interact and what abilities they all develop as they grow and mature.

It takes half an hour for the babies to be ready. An ambulance has to transport them, but we have managed to get one of our security team to sit in with the driver of the ambulance. Even we can’t bypass certain rules, and I want to do everything the right way.

Once we are all loaded, I take my seat. “We will be right behind you,” Brennan confirms.

“See you all at Olympia.” I look out the back of the vehicle, and all my guys nod.

“The babies’ team is already there and awaiting their arrival,” Grace says as she slips into the back with me. We managed to get them to agree to her travelling with us since she is unofficially the babies’ medical caretaker. Not to mention the people in charge really couldn’t say no to Chester.

The door closes and the engine starts. Grace smiles at me. “Are you ready?” she asks.

“I sure am. I know Olympia isn’t home, but I will feel better with them being in a secure building. This maternal instinct stuff has hit a whole new level now that they are here.”

We talk back and forth, and I spill the beans that she will be asked to meet with us later this week. She squeals so hard—apparently being a midwife was a back-up career. She bashfully tells me she comes from a wealthy family who has attended events at Olympia where she became obsessed with the teams. Her natural curiosity caused her to do some digging, and she uncovered things were not as they seemed. Getting a job with us was a dream come true.

The tyres squeal, and Grace and I unclip our belts at the same time, jumping forward to check the babies. Both are still fast asleep, just as they were when we left. We take a sharp right, and Grace stumbles and falls into me. We both hit the floor as the ambulance comes screeching to a stop.

“Stay in the vehicle,” the man from Olympia says. “Any issues, you floor it and don’t stop. Radio for Brennan and see what their ETA is—now!”

He jumps from the ambulance and gunshots fill the air. Is that the guys, or are we under attack?

I turn to Grace. “Guard them,” I say, and she nods.

I need to protect my children no matter what, even if it’s bad. Although I’m still not the best shot with a gun, with all the practice we have done, I have improved from where I was originally. At about seventy percent accuracy when I really concentrate, that will have to do. My hand shakes as I pull the gun Boston gave me out of the baby bag we packed for the trip.

The sound of someone opening the sliding door has me pointing the gun and waiting. The door slides open, and my first mistake is not pulling the trigger immediately. A man stands there, but I can’t make out who it is clearly. I freeze, my body locked up tight. Grace launches her body towards the man, trying to protect me and the babies. He doesn’t have time to shoot her, instead bringing the gun down across her head, instantly knocking her unconscious. She falls, and he kicks her lifeless body aside.

“Hello, Jolie. Drop the gun, or I will blow up the entire ambulance. Just like I did with your teams.”

I blink a few times, stunned by the familiarity of his voice, and Ziyon steps into view. He is full of shit. If they were hurt, I would know about it. Clearly, he isn’t aware of that.

“What do you want?” I ask, my gun still aimed at him.

“The babies, of course.”

“Over my dead body,” I snap.

“That can be arranged,” a voice behind me says.

Looking over my shoulder, I find that the damn driver has a gun to my head. I lower my weapon, placing it carefully on the ambulance floor—I can’t risk guns going off in here. Even if he kills me, the guys will hunt him down until they find the babies. Plus, Chester will want his head, and that in itself will lead the others to our children.

“Why now? I haven’t even had them for a day.”

“Why waste time? Melinda didn’t get to raise you or your sister, and she deserves her chance. I suppose I can tell you since you will die here today. When I had Melinda’s memories taken, the plan was to bring you with her. I wanted you both to myself. I wanted a family. Zacari always got everything he wanted in life. He was happy to share her; he said we could be one big family. He always wanted me to be complacent, so I would do what he wanted. But I loved her more, and he was married to his job. I paid off the doctor, and I had it all in place. She missed him when he went away and would cry all the time. She had me and still missed him. Even though she claimed to love us both, it was always him. I could see it, so I took a leaf from my brother’s book, and I took what I wanted.”

“So you wiped her memories. What was the point? She wouldn’t have remembered loving you.”

“A sacrifice I had to make. But because she also didn’t remember him, the heartbreak of losing her daughter was gone. She didn’t remember you either. I was hoping once she fell for me, I could give her another child, but complications from your birth stopped that. But now, I win. Melinda loves me, she can have the babies she always wanted, and we can run Olympia together.”

“You’re forgetting one thing,” I say.

“And what’s that?” he sneers.

“I’m not going to let you take them without a fight.”

As the words come out of my mouth, Zadom cries. It’s soft but enough to shift the focus off me for a split second. I use the training the guys gave me to get the dick behind me disarmed. He must have really just been a driver because he barely puts up any fight, and I pull the trigger the moment I have a clear shot. I didn’t want to, especially being this close. Bile rises in my throat as the blood splatter covers the windscreen.

A scream tears through my throat when I’m ripped back by my hair. I clutch the gun with everything I’ve got, letting him drag me from the vehicle. My ears still ring from firing inside the enclosed space, and I can’t hear the twins crying, so hopefully they’re okay. All I know is I need to fight.

The gun is kicked from my hand when I’m thrown to the ground, and a second kick to my stomach sends blinding pain shooting through me. The man above me points a gun towards me, and I turn my head to see Ziyon removing the babies from the ambulance.

“No!” I scream.

A blur wooshes past me, and a warrior scream is all I hear. Then pop pop, and everything goes black.

A small eternity later, my eyes flutter open, and I roll to my side with a wheeze. Grace lays next to me, blood surrounding us. “Grace,” I say, slapping her face.

She gasps a heavy breath, and her eyes open. “I’m alive?” she asks, and I nod.

“But why are we still alive?” I rasp. “He wanted us dead. He was spooked.”

The sound of an engine roars as it gets closer, dust filling the air when the car slides sideways and stops just a few steps from us.

Where the fuck are we?

“Jolie,” Trace cries, falling down beside me along with Chester and Laughn. Two more cars pull up, and I’m quickly surrounded by all my guys.

“They’re gone,” I cry. “He took them. We tried to fight them off, but they were too strong, and I don’t know how we are alive.”

“Fuck,” Creed spits out. “Get them in the ambulance and strip them down. I need to stop the bleeding.”

I fight him away. “The babies!” I scream.

“Shh, Star, the others are on it. We already have a team in the air. He can’t have gone far,” Trace whispers, and I relax slightly.

“Little Angel,” Chester says, leaning over me. “You need to have that head looked at.”

“Fuck my head, Chester. Go and find my fucking babies. You and Laughn. You ripped Mr Z limb from limb, so go do it again! I want my babies back now!” He looks me in the eye, and he can see me—my pain—and nods.

“The fucker will wish for death by the time I’m done with him, and I will nurse him back to health just to see his soul leave his body over and over again.”

Trace slowly lifts me, and I see Davis lift Grace just as gently. We are both moved carefully into the ambulance, even though I have no clue what the heck happened. Creed kneels down in front of me and lifts my shirt, checking that I’m okay, and Trace holds a cloth to my head. “You’re so lucky—the bullet grazed your head. We have an ambulance on its way to be safe.”

“Guys!” Davis shouts. “Some help over here. She has been hit, and there’s a lot of blood.”

Creed turns around and clears off the bed. They lay Grace down, and I reach out and take her hand. While they rip her shirt off and get to work, the blaring sound of an ambulance gets louder. The flashing lights finally reach us, and they rush Grace from one ambulance to another. Creed fires off information to the paramedics and gives them our doctor’s details and says he will meet them at the closest emergency room.

“What about her?” I hear one of them ask.

“Just a graze,” he growls, and I’m thankful for that. They couldn’t get me to go with them even if they tried.

The paramedic nods and doesn’t push his luck.

“What about the police?” I ask. This is a crime scene after all.

“All taken care of,” Brennan says, stepping into the back of the ambulance. “Creed is going to take you home. Colt’s and Summer’s teams will meet us there to wait with you. The rest of us are going hunting to get our children back.”

“I’m coming,” I demand.

“Tenshi, those babies need their mother alive. Please let us do this.”

Not even his presence can calm me down, and tears don’t stop flowing.

I failed them.

I was supposed to protect them, and I couldn’t even do that.