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Dillon ran his fingers lightly over his wife’s distended belly, loving the feel of the taut skin, knowing that his child was safe inside Penny’s womb. He was awed and a little bit — okay, a lot — terrified at the thought of being someone’s father. Was he truly ready to take on that responsibility and would he do a better job than his own father had?
“If this baby doesn’t come soon, I quit,” Penny grumbled, shifting for a more comfortable spot on their bed. Dillon helped put a bolster behind her lower back to give her some more support and she sighed in relief. “My back is killing me.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked, hoping for a task or job that would make him feel less useless than he always ended up feeling when he saw Penny in pain. Penny shook her head and rubbed at her ribs where his child was presumably sticking a foot. “On second thought, you can distract me by telling me what’s going on with Vince. Shannon told me some distressing news about some girl he has holed up at the penthouse. Is it true?”
He cursed silently. How could he have thought that the girls wouldn’t share information with one another? Now he had to come clean. “I hadn’t wanted to say anything because I didn’t want you upset,” he explained. “There’s a situation with a club that the twins own and we’re trying to get it figured out before it gets out of hand.”
“If he has a beat up girl holed up somewhere, I’d say it’s already out of hand, don’t you think?” Penny said, wincing and blowing out a deliberate breath in an attempt to manage the pain. When he paused, more concerned about his wife than the problems with Malvagio, she gestured for him to continue, saying, “Believe it or not, it helps to focus on something other than how crappy I feel. Nobody tells you that nine months pregnant is akin to torture. Everything hurts and my feet are swollen.”
“Your feet are beautiful,” Dillon assured her but her dubious expression said she didn’t believe him. He went to the edge of the bed and started gently rubbing her feet. She smiled, her eyes going warm and misty with appreciation. He smiled as he rubbed, saying, “Don’t go ruining my reputation as a hard-hearted jerk by sharing how I rub your feet at night.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” she said, nodding. “Oh! Yes, right there at the arch. Gently…ahhh, that’s nice. Now what were we talking about? Oh, that’s right…this club. What club is this?”
“It’s a private club called Malvagio and before you ask, yes, it’s a sex club and no, I’m not a member nor have I ever been there.”
“Does Shannon know about this club?”
“I’m not sure. She must know something because she knows about the girl.”
“True. I wonder why she didn’t say anything about it though? Maybe Nolan only shared the barest of details. Shannon can be a little judgmental at times.”
Dillon agreed. “Well, that’s his problem and I don’t envy him. The situation is that someone has beat up two girls — sisters of all the dumb luck — and it seems personal.”
“Against the sisters?”
“No, against the twins. I think it was just a coincidence that the girl — her name is Emma Winters — got caught up in the same web as her sister, Lana.”
“It’s going to be impossible to catch who did this. People come and go out of clubs every night.”
“Not exactly with Malvagio…it’s a members only establishment and it’s only open on Saturday nights on an invitation only basis. It shouldn’t be too hard to track down who was on the guest list that night.”
Penny frowned. “Assuming that person was an actual member. Maybe they snuck in.”
“Twice? No, something tells me whoever did this is a member,” Dillon said.
“Why? Does the club have video surveillance?”
“Yes, but whoever did this knew how to avoid getting his face on camera. All we have are back shots and he’s wearing a dark suit in a dark room.”
Suddenly Penny sucked in a wild breath. “Oh, that was a good one,” she said, a little shaky. “Your kid is using my kidneys for a soccer ball.”
“Athleticism does run in my family,” he joked but he was really starting to wonder if Penny was going into labor. He didn’t have much experience — okay, he didn’t have any experience with this sort of thing — but he was starting to think that maybe a trip to the hospital would be a good idea. “Maybe we ought to call Dr. Shabaz and have him check you out,” Dillon suggested to which Penny waved away his concern.
“Honey, I’m nine months pregnant. There’s bound to be some discomfort. I could really use a hamburger. I’m starving.” She looked to him with a sweet smile and he couldn’t deny her even if it was ten o’clock at night and he had no idea where he was going to find a decent hamburger at this hour. But just as he went to grab his keys, she made a small gasping sound and he whirled around to see a red-faced Penny, looking distressed and plainly embarrassed at the growing puddle beneath her, wetting their expensive sheets.
“Um…sweetheart? Did you just…pee?”
“No,” she wailed, her eyes widening. “I think my water just broke!”
#
Nolan had just closed his eyes when his cell went off on the nightstand with a soft, insistent buzz. He snatched it up in the hopes of catching it before it woke Shannon but she bolted awake the moment he grabbed it. “Is it Penny?” she asked blearily, rolling onto her side with a yawn.
“Yeah, it’s Dillon,” he answered to Shannon. To Dillon, he said, “Is it time? Is Penny in labor?”
“Yeah! I thought at first she peed but—“
“Don’t tell everybody that! It’s embarrassing enough as it is!” Penny yelled in the distance and Nolan grinned as Dillon continued with a quick apology, plainly rattled by the idea of being a father.
“So, do you want us to meet you at the hospital?”
“Well, Dr. Shabaz said early labor could take hours, how about I let you know in a few hours how things are going?”
To S
hannon, he relayed what Dillon had said and she nodded in agreement, her eyes already closing again. “First babies are notoriously slow. I was in labor with Aubrey for eighteen hours. We’ll stop by in the morning after we’ve had coffee.” At then Shannon was sleeping again.
“Okay, the boss says we’ll stop by in the morning after coffee,” Nolan said, grinning. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” There was a pause and then, “Holy shit…I’m going to be a dad!”
“It’s a fantastic gig,” Nolan said, thinking of Aubrey. “You’re gonna do great. Just remember…this is the easy part.” There was a groan in the background and Nolan clarified. “This is the easy part for you. Good luck, big brother.”
Dillon said a hasty goodbye and then the line went dead. Nolan settled back in bed and Shannon instinctively cuddled up to him. He quickly dialed Vince’s number but it went straight to voicemail. Instead of leaving a message, he sent a quick text: Penny in labor. Meet us at hospital tomorrow morning. And then he put his arms around his wife, excited for Dillon and Penny and wishing he’d been there for Aubrey’s birth. He would’ve died to hold Aubrey in his arms the moment she took her first breath. Unfortunately, he hadn’t known about his little girl until she was two. Long story, that. All that mattered was that he had his girls now. Why couldn’t Vince find the same kind of happiness? He wanted his twin to know how amazing it felt to hold the woman he loved in his arms and watch the mischievous light spark in his child’s eyes. All those years Nolan had spent doing things that would’ve made their mother ashamed…he’d been trying to fill a hole left deep inside. And now that he had Aubrey and Shannon, he never wanted to go back to the way things were. Vince needed to come around — he needed closure.
Isabel…set Vince free before he kills himself trying to run from the past. This has to end somehow.
But even as Nolan murmured the small prayer, he didn’t hold out much hope. Vince seemed on a collision course with destruction no matter how hard they all tried to pull him out of the skid.
