Page 13

Chapter Twelve

W hen the call disconnected, Ian pulled the phone from his ear and stared at it.

Nick glanced at his front-seat passenger and noted his frown before returning his gaze to the road before him. “ Something wrong?”

Devon was operating the SUV behind them with their mother onboard.

All members of Trident’s Alpha and Omega teams would be in the air as soon as they were cleared to take off.

Carter and Jordyn had Xiao at a secure location, waiting for their MSS contacts to pick him up and return him to China .

Nick doubted the man would ever see the inside of a courtroom—odds were, he’d be tortured during an interrogation.

After he gave up his secrets, he’d finally be rewarded with a swift death.

Before heading back to Scotland , the Steel Corps team was escorting Jocelyn to the clinic and then putting her on the next commercial flight to Manila where her parents still lived.

Although she was still shaken from the entire incident, she was unharmed.

Nick wondered if she would stay with Operation Smile after this or find a permanent position in a nice, safe hospital somewhere.

Tucking his phone into one of the thigh pockets of his black BDUs , Ian shook his head. “ Angie said no, but ...”

“ But what?” Nick’s eyes widened as he split his attention between his brother and the road.

“ You don’t think she’s in labor, do you?

” He met Jake’s gaze in the rearview mirror.

His husband’s eyes narrowed in a “shut-up” expression.

Yeah , Nick probably should have kept that question to himself.

There was nothing Ian could do for Angie from the Philippines , and verbalizing that fact, even in a roundabout way, was going to do nothing but freak him out.

Biting his bottom lip, Ian whipped out his phone again and hit a speed dial button.

When the call was answered, he said, “ Egghead , get a location on my wife’s cell phone.

” He paused. “ Tell me if she’s at the compound or at the fucking hospital having my kid, damn it .

.. no, I’m not kidding, asshole. Find out now or you’re a dead man. ”

A few minutes later, the vehicles pulled into the hangar where Chuck was waiting with the two pilots.

The relief Nick saw in his father’s eyes when he pulled his wife from the first SUV and into his arms almost brought him to tears.

From the back seat, Jake tapped his shoulder.

“ Let’s get the family back to Tampa in time for Little Bit . ”

Nick glanced around and saw they were the only two still sitting in any of the three vehicles.

Everyone else had poured out and were quickly transferring all the bags and weapon cases into the jet.

He hesitated a moment to wipe his eyes, and Jake squeezed his shoulder in support.

“ That’s going to be us in thirty or forty years—hopefully not on the tail end of a kidnapping, though—but our love will still be going strong, just like theirs. ”

He met Jake’s green eyes in the mirror again. “ Think we’ll have grandkids by then?”

His husband snorted. “ Now there’s a scary thought. I guess that’ll be up to our kids if we do or not, but I’d like to think so.”

“ So do I .”

“ Come on. Let’s get going before Ian starts bitching.”

From the relaxed look on his older brother’s face when Nick and Jake got out of the vehicle, it was clear Angie was still at the compound. Good , she wasn’t in labor yet. Hopefully , she’d stay that way until the jet landed in Tampa .

Thoughts of Jake and him having a child or two occupied Nick’s mind as he helped load the gear until well after they’d taken off.

Should they adopt or use a surrogate? Either way, they’d have at least a year or so to plan for the arrival.

That seemed so far away and yet it wasn’t.

Images of Jake holding a baby had Nick smiling to himself.

It was probably a good thing they lived right next door to his brothers and sisters-in-law and their growing families because Nick and Jake had a lot to learn about raising a kid.

“ What’s that smile for?” his mother asked as she took the seat next to him that Jake had just vacated a few minutes ago.

Nick’s father had finally released his wife’s hand—he’d been holding it for well over an hour, as if she’d disappear again if he let go.

The couple had been sitting on one of the jet’s couches toward the back of the plane, while Nick and Jake had been relaxing in one of the rows of first-class-style seating toward the front of the cabin.

Grasping Marie’s hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “ Just glad to have you back in one piece.”

“ Nicholas Charles Sawyer , I’ve been able to read your expressions since you were a toddler. I always knew when you were up to something.” She winked before adding, “ Like now.”

He smirked and shook his head. “ I never could hide anything from you. But ... for now, I’m not ready to talk about it. Soon , but not yet. There’s nothing to worry about—it’s a good thing.”

She stared at him for a few moments before nodding and smiling. “ I can wait, but just remember, I’m not getting any younger.”

“ Arrrgghhhh ! Son of a flying beach ball! Shit , shit, shit!” Angie rode out the contraction as Kristen finally pulled into the parking lot of the hospital.

Harper and Jenn were back at Angie and Ian’s apartment with JD and Mara .

When she’d realized the contractions were coming at fourteen minute intervals, Angie had panicked and called her obstetrician’s twenty-four-hour hotline, even though she knew most women didn’t go to the hospital until their contractions were around five minutes apart.

It hadn’t taken long for Dr . Monique Sellares to ascertain that one, Angie was in labor, two, she was freaking out, and three, she had someone available who could drive her.

Monique was a sub at The Covenant , but she was a take-charge woman when she was in doctor mode.

She’d assured Angie she’d meet her in the maternity ward and that it was highly doubtful she’d give birth in Kristen’s SUV —definitely something Angie didn’t want to do.

Her sister-in-law chuckled as she pulled into a parking space near the hospital main lobby entrance.

“ Been there, done that. Feel free to curse your head off, Ang . I won’t tell.

And if Ian demands you fill up the swear jar when he gets here, I’ll gladly take a spanking from Devon when I tell your Dom to take a flying leap off a fucking pier.

” She put the vehicle in park and opened her door.

“ Sit tight while I get someone with a wheelchair.”

“ I can walk.”

Kristen’s eyes narrowed. “ No , you can’t. Pampering starts now—you’ll thank me later. Trust me when I say if you’re not in a maternity room by the time the next contraction hits, you’ll be thrilled I insisted on the wheelchair.”

She let out a sigh as the last of the intense waves of pain eased. “ Fine . But hurry— I don’t want my water breaking in your car.”

Laughing , Kristen climbed out of the driver’s seat. “ You and me both. That’s why I put all those towels under you and on the floor.”

When the door shut, Angie leaned her head back and waited, trying to pull herself together and not being very successful.

Tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks, and she quickly wiped them away before squeezing her eyelids shut to stem the flow of new ones.

“ Damn it, Ian . Make CC fly that plane as fast as he can. I don’t want to do this alone. ”

But she wouldn’t be alone. Kristen , Harper , and Shelby were all her backup Lamaze coaches.

All three of them had gone through the course and knew what to do.

Kristen and Harper had done it while expecting their own children, and Shelby had coached a friend of hers whose boyfriend had left her high and dry hours after she’d told him about the baby.

Angie would never fault Ian for not being here in her time of need, nor would she ever be jealous that his mother had taken precedent for the first time in their marriage—there was no one to blame except whoever had abducted Marie and her nurse.

Shit happened, more often than not, when it came to the Trident Security teams and their families.

Angie had known that from the start. While it really sucked Ian was somewhere over the Philippine Sea heading toward the skies above the Pacific Ocean , there was nothing either one of them could do about it but pray Little Bit waited for his or her daddy to get there.

The passenger door opened, and Angie jumped as her eyes flew open to see Kristen holding out her hand.

Behind her was a male orderly with the wheelchair.

If she didn’t have other things on her mind, she might have found him intimidating.

He was huge, almost as big as Travis “ Tiny ” Daultry , the head security guard of the compound and club.

Tiny , a former professional football player, was six-foot-eight and about two-hundred-eighty pounds, most of which was muscle.

He was also the biggest mush in the world.

JD wasn’t old enough yet, but Ian’s employee would lay down on the floor for little Mara and let her climb all over him.

Angie hoped he found someone special one of these days—she’d love to see him married with children. He’d make a great father.

By the time the next contraction hit, Angie was lying on a bed in one of the labor and delivery rooms and admitting Kristen had been right.

If she’d been on foot, she would’ve ended up on the ground, begging for a wheelchair.

A nurse named Ginny , dressed in scrubs with whimsical panda bears all over them, was getting ready to hook Angie up to all sorts of monitors and an IV port. “ Just breathe through the pain.”

Angie almost punched her.

Obviously used to death glares, the nurse waited until the contraction was gone, then helped Angie change into an ugly hospital gown.

A fetal monitor was attached to Angie’s swollen belly, and after a few moments of listening to the beep-beep-beep , Ginny announced Little Bit was doing just fine.

Fifteen minutes later, Angie’s last contraction had been assessed via another monitor, an ultrasound had been done to see if there had been any significant loss of amniotic fluid, and Ginny had checked for dilation.

At only two centimeters, she had a ways to go, but she was still afraid Ian wouldn’t make it on time.

Kristen came in with a large cup of coffee she’d found somewhere for herself, and a plastic pitcher filled with ice chips for Angie .

The woman had been a godsend since the moment Angie had called her to say she was in labor.

She’d quickly taken charge, and after leaving instructions about JD with Jenn , she’d grabbed the go-baby-bag, as Ian had called it, and gotten Angie to the hospital.

Once upstairs in the Labor & Delivery ward, she’d double-checked Angie’s admission paperwork that’d been filled out in advance and unpacked a few things, putting everything in an orderly fashion on a bedside tray-table within Angie’s reach.

Then , before she’d stepped out to find the pantry available to patients and their coaches, Kristen had turned the room’s television on, finding reruns of Friends on one of the channels.

As she sat in a comfortable chair in the labor room, Kristen’s phone chimed, and she swiped the screen to answer it.

“ Hey , Jenn . We’re all settled in. She’s not dilated much, so it’ll probably be a while.

How’s JD ?” Whatever the answer had been, Kristen smiled.

“ Great . Now go get some sleep. I’ll call if anything happens, but I think that’ll be way after the sun comes up . .. I will. Bye .”

She disconnected the call and blew Angie two kisses.

“ Those are from Jenn and Harper . JD went right back to sleep after his bottle and a new diaper. Mara didn’t wake up at all.

” Since the little girl had been sleeping through the brief chaos, after Angie had roused Harper and then called Kristen and Jenn , it’d been easier for them to bring JD downstairs instead of carrying Mara up to Kristen’s apartment.

Harper had a court hearing first thing in the morning for a few hours, so Jenn would be babysitting both kids.

Reaching into her huge purse, Kristen pulled out her iPad.

“ I think you better call Ian and let him know.” Before Angie could protest, she held up a hand.

“ I know there’s nothing he can do from thousands of feet in the air, but if your husband is anything like mine, and I know he is, then he’s going to be mad if you wait.

” She held up the device. “ I brought this and the charger, so you can Skype with him for hours. If Little Bit refuses to wait, then I’ll record the birth for you.

This way, even if it’s over the airwaves, Ian will be here with you. ”

Angie smiled, knowing Kristen was right. “ You know, you’re my favorite sister-in-law.”

“ I’m your only sister-in-law, and I love you too. Now let me call Devon and tell him to get you and Ian patched into each other.”

She nodded, then bit her bottom lip as another contraction hit.