Page 99 of Love Me in the Dark

“Your boy has a high pain tolerance, Ryker.”

A smile spread across Ryker’s face as his chest puffed out.

“I find myself wondering why?”

He wasn’t very happy about that. “Are you accusing me of something, Louis?”

“Is there something I should be accusing you of?” I asked with a cocked brow. “Kings are protected and not to be harmed. Even baby ones.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about my son, before I take an interest in yours.”

Micha wasn’t the target of that threat, it was Mason. None of us said it, but we all knew who put my wife’s second baby in her belly, and I had the paternity papers to prove it. DNA didn’t mean shit. Mason was my son, and I would not let Ryker’s vendetta hurt him. Nor would I allow anyone to take him from me. Even if that meant breaking one of our most honored codes.

A king can never kill a king.

While I’m sure Logan had an encounter or two with his father, I genuinely believed that Ryker loved his son. Mason would just be another way to destroy me. That was precisely why I’d been making plans since my youngest son first opened his green eyes. I, was his father. It was my job to secure his future and protect his innocence. Even if that meant I wouldn’t be there to watch him grow up.

By the time Mason was old enough for his initiation, Ryker would no longer be a problem. What I didn’t count on was the unstableness of my wife.

6

Cheyenne

10 years ago

One step into work and I stopped. The entire emergency room was in a panic. Nurses were rushing around while doctors called for crash carts and other supplies. It was the kind of mayhem I expected when we lived in the city. But there were no ten car pile ups or mass accidents in Ashen Springs.

I reached out and stopped, Patty – a fellow nurse – as she rushed by. “What’s going on?”

The second her eyes met mine, I knew it was bad.

“A mother tried to kill her kids.”

“What?” I had to have misheard her. There was no way a mother would hurt her child.

A tear rolled down Patty’s cheek. “She drove her car into the lake with her kids in the backseat.”

Oh my God.

I was at a loss for words. How? Why? I couldn’t fathom hurting a child, let alone trying to murder one. Mothers were supposed to protect and nurture their children. I woke up this morning excited for the future, and now…

My hand instinctively went to my belly.

This could not be the day that Brett found out about our new addition. He would have no idea what happened, but I would. I would see it all, and what if the children didn’t survive? My husband would have to wait until another day to find out I was pregnant. I would not let my baby’s announcement be marked by this travesty. Besides, I had more important things to do.

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and put on my nurse hat. “Go and make sure we have blood if we need it.”

Patty nodded and took off, after which I headed over to the nurses station and dropped my sweater and bag on the counter. Everyone around me was crying and sniffing back sobs. Half of whom was looking around as if they didn’t know what to do.

The ER here was very quiet compared to the one I transferred from. So, my coworkers weren’t use to this kind of thing. To be fair I don’t think anyone was used to something like this. The only one who appeared to have any kind of composure was Dr. Reynolds who was yelling for warming blankets.

I let him handle his thing and turned my attention to my fellow nurses.

“What are you all doing?” Most of us were mothers, I understood their sorrow, but this is what we trained for. “Stop crying and get to work. We are going to save these babies.”

The chaos in the room took on an organized structure. We all concentrated on the incoming emergency. Then came the sirens and everything went quiet. The sky lit up with red and blue while quiet prayers were uttered.

I held my breath as the ambulance pull into the bay.