Page 67 of Hard Corps (Selected Sinners MC 7)

I continued to pace the floor, not paying much attention to anything other than the baby in my arms. After a few laps across the floor, I shifted my eyes down to Casey. He was fast asleep, but that by no means meant he wasn’t listening to his favorite uncle.

“You see, as Marines, we’re first to fight. Anytime, anyplace, anywhere. As soon as you wake up, I’ll tell you a story about the night Gunny Marshall and I got drunk in Okinawa, Japan. You’ll appreciate it when you’re a little older,” I said.

“You will not, Alec. Don’t fill his head with stories about your drunken escapades,” Kace snapped from across the room.

I glanced toward Kace and grinned, not realizing I had walked close enough for her to hear me. “Just reassuring him he’s safe in my arms.”

The unmistakable sound of someone running down the hallway echoed throughout the hospital. All eyes shifted to the door.

“You motherfucker’s ready?” Ripp screamed as he stepped in front of the door.

“Michael!” his mother gasped. “Don’t say that in the hospital.”

“It ain’t a church, Ma. And it ain’t the dinner table, it’s a fuckin’ hospital,” he said as his eyes darted around the room.

He tossed his hands in the air and widened his eyes. “So, you ready for the news?”

Apparently he didn’t like the lack of response from the crowd and was attempting to develop interest.

“Ready!,” Katie hollered.

“We’ve been waiting for three hours, spill it,” his father bellowed.

Katie walked to my side, squeezed my arm, and waited for the report.

“Eight pounds and fifteen ounces. Almost a nine pounder,” he said. “And both my little girls are doing just fine.”

“A girl?” Kace shouted. “Vee had a girl?”

“We had a girl, she’s ours,” Ripp responded.

“Congratulations, Brother,” I said with a nod.

“A baby girl,” Katie whispered.

“What’s her name?” Kace and Mrs. Ripton asked at the same time.

Ripp remained standing slightly inside the door, and looked like the ring leader for a circus who was making his announcement to the crowd. With his shoes covered in protective booties and still wearing the Tyvek paper suit, it was hard for me to take him seriously.

He waved his arms like an excited child as he responded. “Three at a time can come see her, and her name is Jessica Ann Ripton. We’re gonna call her Jessie. Jessie and Casey, has a nice ring, huh?”

I held Casey with Katie at my side, not necessarily as interested in the birth of Ripp’s daughter as much as I was in holding my nephew. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, or that I was even insensitive to the event, it was more a matter of prioritizing.

Katie was my first commitment, and she was the most important thing to me. Casey was my second, and he was equally important, but his needs were different. I had always done a pretty good job prioritizing my commitments, and the majority of my devotion was currently cradled in my arms.

“How’s Vee?” Kace asked.

“Vee’s doing great,” he responded. “I need to get some cigars; we need to celebrate.”

“Got ‘em right here, Ripper,” Kelsey said as he reached into his gym bag. “Brought several of both, just in case.

“Alec?” Mr. Ripton asked as he held a cigar in the air.

I grinned and shrugged my shoulders. “Still trying to quit.”

He shook his head from side to side and tossed the cigar into the air. I cradled Casey with one arm and caught the cigar with the other. As I shoved the cigar into my back pocket, I glanced around the room.

The excitement lingered heavily in the room. Hugging, talking, and Ripp’s repeated telling of the birth continued until his mother complained about needing to see the baby. After a short argument, Ripp decided to take his parents and Kace in the first wave to see the baby.

I continued to cradle Casey in my arms, hoping Shane wouldn’t object. As Ripp walked out of the room, I wondered how many babies were born throughout the course of a typical day and if that number exceeded the amount of men killed in a normal day during the war.

As Katie began to walk in my direction, her face covered with the satisfaction of being new aunt, I decided it didn’t matter. All that mattered at that moment was what was in my arms, and what was walking toward me.

I was no longer at war, and I was no longer in charge of protecting Marines. My solemn duty, at least at the moment, was to protect the people gathered in the waiting room.

And I intended to do that at all costs.