AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s our baby,” he said.
She gazed up at him. “That’s our baby.”
He looked at the screen again and was startled by the sense of recognition moving through his body.
There you are…
The words were stuck in his throat, spoken by some other version of himself who had unknowingly been waiting for this moment all his life.
“Active little one,” Patty said. “See?” She used the cursor to point to the tiny arms and legs, clearly moving on the screen. “And there’s the heartbeat.”
She pointed to a flash, then turned a knob on the machine. A moment later, a rhythmicwhooshfilled the room, like a tiny, faraway train.
“That’s a heartbeat?” Lyon said, unable to keep the wonder from his voice.
“That’s it,” she said. “Nice and strong.”
Lyon looked down at Kira. “Like its mother.”
She smiled. “And its father.”
“Do you want to know the baby’s gender?” Patty asked.
Lyon looked at Kira. “Do we want to know?”
He had no idea how any of this was done. He was an only child, a lonely child, without cousins or aunts and uncles. The closest he’d been to pregnancy and childbirth had been when one of the men in the bratva had become a new father, a position requiring nothing more than congratulations and cigars.
“Do you want to know?” Kira asked.
He thought about it. “I want what you want.”
“I think… I think I want to wait,” she said. “I think we could both use a happy surprise.”
He couldn’t disagree.
“We’ll wait,” he told Patty.
She smiled. “I’ll give you a website with a code. If you change your mind, you can log in — or have someone log in for you — and find out the baby’s gender.”
“Thank you,” Lyon said. He hesitated, glancing nervously at Kira, not wanting to upset her after all she’d been through. “Does everything look okay?”
“Everything looks perfect,” Patty said. “The baby is in the 80th percentile for growth and you’re right on target for a September 2nd due date.”
“September 2nd,” he murmured.
Vadim hung over the date like a black cloud. Would they be rid of him by then? Would it be business as usual within the bratva? Or would something terrible have happened? Something Lyon hadn’t anticipated?
No, he wouldn’t allow it. Wouldn’t allow Vadim to cast a shadow over the most monumental event of his and Kira’s lives.
The baby's upcoming due date — just three months away — was more incentive to finish the business that Vadim had started when he’d taken Lyon prisoner.
Patty gave them a few more details, and Lyon stared transfixed at the image on the screen.
That’s my child.
He already knew he would burn the world to keep him or her safe.
By the time they stepped out into the sunshine outside the doctor’s office, he was eager to get on with the business of finding and eliminating Vadim. He had three months to secure the city for his wife and child, and by god he would do it.
