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My brain was fuzzy. I needed to tell him something. It was important. What was it?
“I have to tell you something.” I mumbled out.
“Good, tell me all about it,” Mason encouraged.
“Baby…” I struggled to pull in breath as the pain radiated through me. I just wanted to sleep so badly.
“That’s it, keep talking.”
“We’re going to have–” I gasped for breath, “A baby.” I breathed.
I stared at the backs of my eyelids, as Mason processed what I just said.
“We’re– you’re pregnant?”
“Mmmhmm.” I hummed as the blackness dampened everything out.
33
MASON
“At least tellme how she’s doing. Give me an update. Something!” I struck the counter at the nurses’ station with my good hand. I wasn’t even supposed to be back here, but I was desperate for an update on Emma. I’d pushed my way back here moments ago. The security guard finally had given up trying to stop me. He’d gone pale and wide eye’d after I’d threatened to throw him through a wall if he didn’t let me through.
The nurse huffed out an irritated breath. “Mr. Reynolds, she’s still in surgery.” Her tone softened ever so slightly. “I will give you an update as soon as I have one.”
I paced the hall in front of the desk before finally shooting another look back at the nurse. “She’s fucking pregnant.” I didn’t know if I was talking to her or myself anymore. I was on the verge of tears, and I rubbed the back of my neck before I collapsed against the wall and sank down to the floor. My head fell into my hands as the weight of the situation came crashing down onto me. The adrenaline from our escape had dissipated, and I felt every ache in my body, and every tremor of worry in my mind. “She’s the mother of my child. I can’t lose her.” I mumbled into my hands, feeling the words come out of my mouth for the very first time. I cursed when I’d absentmindedly bumped my own broken hand.
The nurse stood with the clipboard as if she was debating smacking me with it. “I know. We’re doing everything we can.” She said it in such a way that I knew she had said those words a dozen times today already. “I would really like to look at that hand.” She stood lingering in front of me with a stern look on her face.
I blew out a breath and looked at her numbly. “Fine.” I pushed myself off the floor and lumbered down the hall after her into a room.
As I followed her, I went numb, considering the worst-case scenario. The possibility that Emma had come to save me, and that now there was nothing I could do to save her. It was in someone else's hands entirely. Emma had been so brave, and also so, so stupid. I was livid at her for coming to save me. And I was terrified of the consequences.
Just when I’d finally gotten something good in my life, it threatened to be ripped away. I shook my head. She was so fucking smart and clever, she’d even pieced together the information on that hard drive and figured out who Viktor was, in mere hours. She was too clever for her own good to have figured out exactly where I was and how to come get me.
And now I was out here, and she was in there.
I was so grateful to have escaped from Viktor’s clutches, but I was horrified at what it had cost. I didn’t like that I had to bring her to the hospital. We were both too vulnerable here, but there was no way around it. Emma needed medical care immediately, and I’d been on edge the moment they’d wheeled her away from me. A sickening pit had settled in my stomach when the hospital doors had swung shut, with me on one side and her disappearing somewhere on the other. I couldn’t keep her safe if I wasn’t with her, and I grew more and more agitated the longer I waited. I was just waiting for the agency to slip in and finish us both. Every minute that passed left me more terrified than the last.
I warily let the nurse inspect my hand, not bothering to cry out in pain anytime it shifted. I was holding the fear and pain of a thousand lifetimes in my chest, what was a few broken bones. As she looked over my broken hand, I leaned into the pain, the only thing that I could feel stronger than my terror of losing Emma.
“Agent Reynolds?”
My pulse quickened.
A woman in a slick pantsuit approached, and I instinctively reached for my gun, which I had subconsciously forgotten was no longer holstered to my leg. Security had promptly stripped me of my weapons when I raced into the emergency room earlier with Emma. They’d nearly tackled me, except for the wounded woman I carried in my arms.
I tensed, eyeing the woman in front of me, clearly another agent. I’d kept my eyes wide open for anyone Viktor would have sent immediately after. After several hours, I’d convinced myself that if he had intended to send the team after us, they would have come to the hospital already. If he had, we were sitting ducks, the job would have been finished before we could blink an eye. The fact that we were still alive was evidence that we were safe for the moment. That sentiment was clearly a mistake.
As I eyed the woman in front of me, it did not miss me that two burly men stood armed out in the hallway several paces away, lingering, watching, assessing.
“Agent Reynolds?” She asked again.
“Yes?” I asked cooly.
“I’m Agent Zuri with the CIA.” She flashed a badge at me, and I watched her warily. “I’m aware you’re part of a special black ops division, and we’re going to need to bring you in for questioning.”
“Yeah, listen.” I glanced at the men in the hallway. “There’s not a chance in hell you’re bringing me in.” I stood up, and she immediately pulled a gun on me that I hadn’t realized she’d been wearing. The two men in the hallway now also had their guns aimed at me. One was now inside the room and the other blocking the doorway.
