Page 63 of Kyle

The room was packed.

Leo and Colin sat next to their wives while Linc and Declan, the two men in the room who were about to become uncles, paced.

The door opened and Zane walked in. Linc was at his brother’s side before Zane could speak.

Not that he did right away. He stood taking in the room, needing a moment to gather his emotions.

“My son…” Zane stopped, his lips pinched, and with a nod he continued. “Eric Lincoln Lewis…” another pause as the men in the room sucked in all the available oxygen, “is here. Ivy did great.” Zane turned to his brother and Jasmin, who’d joined her husband, and with glassy eyes asked, “You ready to meet your nephew?”

The three of them exited the room and Anaya poked my shoulder. When I turned from the door to her, she got close and whispered.

“Why did everyone react that way when Zane announced his son’s name?”

Sadness hit my soul. My team had been on assignment when Eric Wheeler had died in Brazil selflessly saving the rest of his team when he jumped on a grenade. We hadn’t made it back in time for his funeral, something all of us regretted.

“Eric was a teammate. And a damn good man. He gave his life for his team.”

She didn’t say anything else but she didn’t have to—her sweet, sad smile said it all.

“Sit down, Dec. You’ll wear a hole in the carpet,” Brooks said.

Declan’s pained expression brokered no room for further comment. He wasn’t going to sit down and he wasn’t going to relax until he heard from Jaxon his sister was okay.

It would take two more hours and three more rounds of coffee being refilled before a haggard Jax came into the room.

“Declan, you wanna come meet your nephew?” Jax smiled at his brother-in-law.

“’Bout goddamn time,” Dec muttered and Jax shook his head.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t say that to your sister.” Jax turned his attention to the rest of us. “Give us a few minutes, then Vi wants the rest of you to come meet him.”

“Yo!” Leo bellowed. “His name?”

Jax shook his head. “Vi wants to talk to Dec first.”

The two men stalked out of the room and Erin started to laugh.

“What’s funny, Sunshine?” Colin asked.

“It feels like a lifetime ago I was in Zane’s office when Ivy and Violet told us they were pregnant,” Erin said.

“It was fun watching Zane and Jax get tied in knots the further along they got,” Olivia agreed.

More envy hit my chest. I glanced at my team and they were feeling it, too. All of us had missed out and I knew one thing for sure, I wasn’t missing anything else.

I’d give it a day, then I’d talk to my team.

Chapter 19

It was after two in the morning when we left the hospital and Brooks drove us to a house Kyle had explained Zane’d rented for the team to stay in.

I hadn’t wanted to say anything but I was relieved Brooks was driving and not Declan. Not that that was an option, considering he’d opted to stay at the hospital, but I was happy all the same not to have another death-defying experience.

Declan drove like a maniac.

When we’d walked in, Brooks and Tatiana and Thad and Emerson had peeled off, going to their bedrooms.

Brooks, Max, and Thad had already claimed their rooms, leaving me wondering where I was going to sleep. The house was gigantic. Spacious, open floor plan downstairs, leaving the kitchen, dining, and living rooms all in full view from the foyer. To the left when you first walked in was a formal seating area, directly in front were the stairs, and a little to the right was all the rest. There were also two closed doors—Max had explained one led to the basement and the second was the bedroom he’d taken.