She snorted. “Whatever.”
“No,” I disagreed. “I’m being serious. As of today, the judge awarded us full custody of Dare.”
“Stanley,” she corrected. “And we’ll see about that.”
“We won’t see about anything,” I countered. “This is the final say in the matter.”
“You can think that all you want, but I’ll fix it.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“You have no claim on this baby anymore,” I said softly. “You will not come back.”
“I carried that baby for nine months! He’s mine!” she cried, pointing her clawed finger at me with anger stamped all over her face.
I stared at her, eyes just as hot.
“You may have carried the baby for seven months,” I corrected. “But you are not the baby’s parent. Nathan is. Biologically. He’s no more your child than he is mine. And, just sayin’, but I have more claim on him now than you do. I’m married to the baby’s father, after all. You, on the other hand? You don’t even carry the same DNA. You may have carried the baby, but the baby wasn’t yours. You are not the mother. The DNA test proved it.”
“Here,” Willet said softly.
I turned to her, grin wide on my face, and took the paperwork. Then I handed it to Eerie who snatched it out of my hand and immediately started to read it.
Her face blanched as she stared blankly at the paperwork.
Her eyes looked up at me, startled. “You didn’t take my DNA.”
I nodded my head. “You did. You left that drink here. The one that you bitched about not taking into the room with you because it wasn’t going to hurt anything. The lawyer took the straw. He said it’d be easier to do that than to call you back to give us a sample.”
Eerie was furious. “This can’t be right.”
I shrugged. “Have it done again. That doesn’t change the judge’s decision for today. Now, I better not see you here again without a court order, understand?”
Eerie stomped her feet and bared her teeth. “I’m not leaving.”
Willet snorted and made her way to the washing station.
“Oh, by the way,” I said before Willet went back inside. “I would like to start our son on breastmilk, effective immediately.”
Eerie’s enraged shout followed soon after, and I heard more than felt her launch herself at me.
But I’d grown up with Nathan as a playmate. Nathan who, might I add, wasn’t ever gentle with me.
We brawled, we hit, kicked, punched and bit. We didn’t give one single fuck when we were growing up whether we were hurting the other person.
And that’d given me the ability to fight with the best of them.
Which meant that I could stop her, but I chose not to.
Because if she hit me, then I would have the ability to press charges, and you bet your ass I was going to press charges.
I turned so that I was facing her just in time for her to rear backward and punch me as hard as she could in the face.
The ring that she was wearing on her finger cut my face, and I knew without a doubt that I was going to need stitches.
I felt my cheek rip open from one side of my temple to right under my eye.
It hurt like a bitch, and even better, there were witnesses.
“I will not stand for this!” she shrieked.
I pulled out my phone and dialed the cops.
“Don’t let her go,” I said. “I’m pressing charges.”
Eerie let out another enraged shriek that ended with the security guards each grabbing her by the arm and tucking her in tightly to their bodies so that they could control her if she tried to go at me again.
“Ma’am,” the bigger of the security guards said. “That’s enough.”
He was a cop that worked security at the hospital for extra cash. His name was Beetle—which was his actual last name if you were wondering—and he looked like he wished he didn’t come to work today.
I winked at him and he raised his brows. “You might want to grab a towel and grab that blood before it stains your shirt.”
Too late.
I looked down and the blood started to drip down my cheek.
The elevator dinged behind them and I was startled to find Dr. D stepping off looking at his phone.
He looked up, took a look at everything that was going on, and immediately came to stand by my side.
I loved Dr. D.
He was the sweetest, most caring doctor I’d ever met, and I was happy that I got to work with him as often as I did.
He took one look at me and glared at Eerie. “You’re not welcome in my NICU anymore.”
I laughed and jerked my head toward the papers. “She’s not for real. She’s not the baby’s mother.”
Dr. D’s lips twitched. “Good.”
Then he walked to the washing station and scrubbed himself clean before going into the NICU without another glance back.
I walked over and did the same, grabbing towels to clean myself off and rewash my hands before the cops got there.
They arrived within three minutes and wasn’t it my lucky day, the man to come inside was none other than Ford Spurlock.
He took one look at my face and his face got thunderous.
“I’m pressing charges,” I said without preamble. “She assaulted me, and I have three witnesses.”
Ford’s eyes went to mine, then to Eerie.
“Did she now?” he said softly. “Ma’am.” He gestured at Eerie. “Please let me have your hands. We’ll do this all nice like.”
Eerie bared her teeth at him and nearly lunged at him, but the security guards still had a hold of her arms.
“Y’all mind walking her down to the ER entrance with me?” Ford asked the two men.
“Sure thing,” the shorter one said as he pressed the button to open the elevator doors.
The elevator arrived within short order and Ford stepped in with everyone else. He placed his hands on the doors, though, and looked at me. “You call him yet?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. He’s in a meeting right now. Or he was supposed to be. With you as a matter of fact. But I’ll be leaving right after I get this looked at. I’ll let him know then.”
Ford nodded. “Good. And I had some things to take care of. I was just here when the call went out, and heard your name over the scanner.”
Then he let go of the door and stepped back.
The elevator doors closed and the doors behind me opened.
“Get in here and let me put a few stitches in there,” Dr. D ordered.
I followed him inside to the nurses’ station and took a seat where he directed.
Then he proceeded to put seven stitches in my cheek.
He then sent me home.
“Go get changed. Come back when you’re clean. Don’t want to scare the other parents,” he ordered.
I sighed and agreed.
“I need to talk to Nathan anyway.”
I drove straight home, not stopping until I pulled into our driveway, even though I could sorely use a fucking cookie.
When I got there, I was relieved to see Nathan’s truck in the drive.
I could see him sitting on the couch grinning at something on his phone.
Last night, after we’d decided to give this a go, had been the first time that I’d seen him look anything but pissed off in the weeks since we’d found out about the baby.
The baby that was hopefully set to come out of the NICU within the next four to five weeks, if all things went well.
The only problem was, there was still no decision made on where the baby would go.
At least, there wasn’t before I’d taken the phone call.
Now? Well, now we had a cut and dry case. She would never be able to come at me again.
I slowly made my way inside, stopping only when I stood just inside the door.
He glanced over almost absently, turned back to
the phone, only to return his gaze to me when he registered that I was staring at him.
“What happened?” he asked, standing up with a look of alarm on his face. “Did you get in a wreck or something?”
“No, not exactly.” I licked my lips. “I, uh, I just got a call.”
He blinked. “And?”
“The DNA came back,” I said. “Per court order, remember?”
He frowned but nodded. “Yes. I remember. I gave you my DNA, remember?”
I rolled my eyes at his sarcastic response. “I know. But. Well. While the lawyer was there, he decided to, for shits and giggles, give them Eerie’s DNA, too. She’d left a cup at the NICU. I gave them the straw out of the cup.”
He frowned hard at me. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Eerie’s DNA didn’t match the baby’s,” I told him bluntly.
He sat up straighter in the seat.
“What are you… are you sure that you got the right DNA?” he asked.
I nodded. “She was drinking this ridiculously stupid drink from a nutrition place to help her with her ‘milk production’ that she had no intention of using,” I explained. “The cup was left with a shit ton of nasty looking green stuff in it. The straw was, too. I know that the cup was hers. She left it there because she knew that I’d have to clean it up.”
“I…” He started to ask why I would have to be the one to clean it up, but everything else won out.
“The baby isn’t hers.”
“If not hers, then whose?” He frowned hard.
I was already shaking my head. “I don’t know. But what I do know is that you need to call the lawyer right now. The only thing that Eerie did at this point was act like a human incubator for seven months. That baby’s not hers at all. He’s yours.”
“And your face?” he asked, finally registering what might’ve happened.
“She punched me. And I let her.” I grinned then. “And Ford arrested her.”
Chapter 22
There should be sympathy cards for Mondays.
-Text from Reggie to Nathan
Reggie
“What do you mean I can’t go in there?” Eerie all but screeched.
I’d been waiting to hear what charges would be brought against her for twenty-four hours. Twenty-four blissful hours where we didn’t have to worry about her crazy ass at all.
I could hear what she was saying because I was standing outside the NICU doors waiting for her along with a security guard.
Nathan was inside visiting his son.
His son that, as of twenty minutes ago, had a few changes in his chart concerning the woman currently glaring daggers at me.
Not only had the judge decided, once and for all, that the baby would be able to go home with Nathan and me, but she’d also ruled that Eerie would have no access to the baby at all.
For once, Nathan’s money and influences were put to use.
The baby now known as Darren Wolfgang Amsel-Cox was completely ours. Darren after Nathan’s biological father. Wolfgang after his adoptive father, Wolf. It was heartwarming.
And last night when Nathan signed the paperwork, I’d cried. I hadn’t stopped crying since we’d come up to the NICU and I got to face off with she-bitch from hell.
“I mean,” I said carefully, “that you’re not Darren’s mother. You’re a surrogate.”
Eerie’s eyes widened into saucers. “Would you stop calling the baby Darren! That’s not his name! And I’m not the surrogate! I’m his mother!”
She was clearly delusional.
“Darren, formerly known as Stanley.” I grinned, knowing it’d piss her off. “We did another DNA test, per court order. As you know seeing as we just went over this yesterday. You were the one that requested the test, remember? They sent both samples, yours and Nathan’s, to the lab. I know that the baby’s lawyer called you and your lawyer yesterday with the news that your DNA didn’t match to Darren’s. So here’s the question, whose eggs did you use to start this whole mess? Does some chick have a baby that she has no idea about?”
Eerie growled in frustration. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! That baby is mine! We’ll have another DNA test to prove it!”
I nearly rolled my eyes at her refusal to see the truth.
“Listen, Eerie,” I said softly, knowing that my lighter tone would cause her to stop screeching. “You’re not getting into the NICU. No way, no how. If you have a problem with the decision made by the judge, appeal it. We’ll be happy to perform another DNA test for you. However, you need to realize that this isn’t going to change anything. If you have a problem with any of this, I would definitely go see someone else that’s not us.” I paused. “And, just sayin’, but if you get yourself kicked out of this place for good, you’re going to regret it since you work here. Think about that before you do anything really stupid. I would hate for you to lose your job like you lost your kid.”
Eerie’s face went slack.
“I’m sorry.” I shrugged. “But maybe next time you’ll remember that Karma’s a bitch.”
Eerie growled in frustration and tried to lunge at me again.
This time the security guards—the same ones as yesterday—caught her before she could make any contact with me.
“That’s enough,” the big security guard said. “Time to leave.”
He all but dragged Eerie into the elevator after that.
It was later, on our way home, that I brought up the subject that was confusing me.
“I think we need to talk to the doctor that helped her,” I said as I rode up front next to Nathan but looked back in the back at Darren’s car seat.
The car seat that hadn’t been used yet, but would be soon.
We didn’t want to be without it in case they allowed us to suddenly take him home.
Even though I would know when he was almost there—and he still had a few weeks left until he was.
“Already on that,” he admitted. “I started calling around a few weeks ago when all of this started. He’s in the wind. When we finally find him, though, and we will, we’ll get the information out of him. My father’s already looking into it.”
“As your father, or as the FBI?” I asked.
When I looked up it was to see him glancing at me in the mirror, his eyes on the car seat, too.
“As both,” he answered. “This is a crime that crossed several county lines. No one’s jurisdiction, so it goes to the FBI. My father so graciously picked it up.”
I couldn’t help the grin that stretched my face.
“You got him, Nathan,” I said, reaching for his hand. “That’s a huge start. She’ll try to fight this, but as of right now, she has no legal leg to stand on.”
He squeezed my hand tight and glanced at me before returning his gaze to the road.
He didn’t let go of my hand the entire way home.
Chapter 23
People are particularly stupid today. I can’t talk to any more of them.
-Text from Reggie to Nathan
Nathan
“Where are you going?” she asked, eyeing my swim trunks.
I grinned. “A surprise. Remember, I won’t be back until late tonight, so I won’t be able to meet you at the NICU at all today.”
Reggie was working today, and I luckily had the day off to slip away and go diving to find a pesky little ring that slipped away while tubing a few weeks ago.
She rolled her eyes at me. “What do you think of this?”
I grinned wickedly. “It’s cute, do you think it’ll fit him?”
She wiggled it. “I hope so. I found it in the kid’s section at Target. It’s actually a match for a doll. You know, one of those kid and doll dress up things? So they can dress up like their dolls? I’m hoping that it’ll fit him.”
“It might,” I said, leaning into her and pressing my mouth against her neck.
“Don’t you dare, Nathan Co
x,” she ordered. “I have to go to work, and I can’t be late.”
“I won’t make you late,” I said as I smoothed my hands around her hips to her belly.
She shivered in the mirror and looked at me while my hands moved for the hem of her shirt and the waistband of her pants. Once my hands slipped underneath both and got to bare skin, one went north, and the other went south.
She shivered and pressed her butt against me, wiggling her backside against my cock that was very ready for her, even though it’d already had her less than twenty minutes ago.
My every morning started out with a dip in her sweet heat.
My every evening ended the same way.
But sometimes, when I watched her get ready, I couldn’t help myself from touching.
I’d denied myself so long that it was an impulse that I could finally give into. And I did it quite a bit. Even when she had to go to work in fifteen minutes.
“I already started your coffee, got your lunch ready, and put it all next to the front door next to your nursing bag. All you need to do is finish your makeup,” I teased.
She had a mascara wand in her hand, and the tube in the other.
But she was standing still, mouth slightly parted, as my hands dipped down.
One to her breast and the other to her pussy.
My fingers delved between the lips of her sex, splitting around her clit, and stopping at her sopping entrance.
Palm pressing against the bundle of nerves, I wasted no time slipping two fingers inside of her.
She groaned and reached down to place her hands on the bathroom vanity.
Black mascara smudged the counter where the wand touched the granite.
But she didn’t care, and neither did I.
Not until I got her off a few minutes later after torturing her a bit.
She panted and looked at me like I’d wrecked her.
I couldn’t help but grin and wink at her in the bathroom mirror.
“I have to change my panties now,” she gasped.
I pulled my fingers out of her pussy with slow deliberate movements, then brought my hand out of her panties and licked my fingers clean.
Her head shook as she blinked at me in disbelief.
“I would totally reciprocate,” she admitted. “But I think that your ride is knocking at the door.”
Officially Over It (SWAT Generation 2.0 Book 10) Page 17