Page 61 of Kyle

“Don’t include me in that statement, brother,” Max said. “I’m not handing my balls over to a woman. At least not just one for the rest of my life. Variety is the spice of life.”

“Best decision I ever made, handing the Gold Team over to Dec. Now he gets to deal with all the drama.” Zane chuckled.

“The drama ends with Kyle,” Declan declared. “There’s zero fucking chance I want a woman, and Max is an untrusting, cantankerous bastard who’s lucky to get laid once a year. No woman would put up with his shit so I’m safe. But you, brother, you still have the Blue Team. And if you think about pulling me from Gold to send me over with Myles and the guys, I fucking quit.”

I sat back in my chair enjoying the banter going on around me. I’d missed this while my team had been gone. Not that we didn’t bullshit with each other. We did, we were all tight. But I’d missed the comradery within the company. Just because we were broken up into teams and sent on different operations didn’t mean we weren’t close. We were.

A lot had happened in the years since my team had been stuck in the desert. My friends had found their other halves. Had gotten married, had children. None of which we’d been around for.

It was then I realized I didn’t want to miss anymore. Linc and Jasmin’s twins were growing up. I’d only met Leo and Olivia’s daughter, Gia, once. And Ivy and Violet were both pregnant. I wanted to be around, I wanted to be a part of their lives. And I wanted to give this to Anaya. Friends. Family. Steady. I wanted her to have a safe place to heal. And there was no better group of people to help her do that.

Life had passed me by.

The door slammed open and ten men all reached for their hips, when Erin came into view, her long, light brown hair flowing behind her.

“We have a problem,” she panted. “Violet’s—”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence before Jax and Declan bolted from the room.

“Her, um, water broke,” Erin rushed out.

“Fuck,” Zane clipped and stood.

The rest of us followed suit, and as soon as we’d exited the conference room, we could hear a very angry Violet demand her brother and husband step away from her.

“I can walk down the stairs. No one is carrying me.”

“Vi,” Jax growled. “I’m helping you down the stairs. Dec, get in front.”

Violet shook her head and gave in. She was halfway down when I caught sight of Anaya. Her eyes were wide but she was smiling. And damn I wished I could’ve taken the time to soak it in. But a very loud groan reminded me Violet was in labor.

Dec, Jax, and Violet finally cleared the staircase after the longest, slowest descent known to man and as soon as Anaya reached the bottom step, I didn’t delay pulling her to my side.

“Holy crap,” she muttered. “I thought you could get growly and bossy. Sheesh.”

She hadn’t seen bossy, yet.

My attention went to Ivy as her face contorted like Violet’s had. She was fighting it, trying her hardest to mask the pain. I glanced at Zane and he hadn’t seen it yet, he was too busy talking to Declan.

“Ivy?” I called. “What’s wrong?”

Zane snapped to attention and turned to face his wife.

“Nothing,” she lied.

“Bullshit.”

“Really. I’m—” Her sentence hung in the air unfinished as she panted and tried to stand straight.

Zane was frozen, a look of sheer panic had firmly taken hold.

“How far apart are your contractions?” I asked.

“Contractions?” Zane echoed, and I wanted to laugh at the crack in his voice.

“About five minutes now. I was gonna wait until your meeting was over but I think I need to go to the hospital, too,” Ivy confessed.

Pandemonium ensued.