“It’s a moot point now,” Copper said at the sound of two motorcycles pulling into the forecourt. “They’re here. Let’s go.”
When I got to the truck, Layla showed me how to fasten the car seat straps and told me I had to ride in the back with the baby. At my look of panic, Layla climbed into the seat on the other side and rode in the back with us.
“Where are we supposed to take her?” I asked.
“We’re meeting River at the hospital, and we’ll go from there,” Copper said.
River was waiting for us just inside the sliding glass doors that led to the ER. “Come on back. I’ve already got you registered and checked in.”
I carried the little bundle, who had been screaming since the moment Copper turned off the truck’s ignition, to the exam room and placed her in the plastic baby bed as River instructed.
River reached for the baby and started to undress her as she continued to wail. “Aw, it sounds like somebody’s hungry,” River cooed and pulled something out of a drawer with one hand while she continued to examine the unhappy infant. After placing a few items on the small table attached to the baby bed, she looked up at me. “Go wash your hands.”
I heard Leigh stifle a laugh as I did what River said and returned to her side when I was finished. River handed me a tiny baby bottle. It was so small I would’ve thought it belonged to a doll. “It’s time to eat, hungry girl.”
“River,” I said low enough for only her to hear. “The only thing I know about babies is how to make them. And that this one right here can soak a pool table in piss in less than a minute.”
“Sorry,” she mouthed then spoke louder. “Bronze, let’s have you sit in this chair right here, and I’ll hand you—uh, does she have a name yet?”
“No, but let’s call her Blue for the time being. I don’t want to keep referring to her as the baby, and since she hasn’t been confirmed as my biological child, I don’t think I should call her my daughter just yet. So, Blue it is.”
“Cute,” River smiled. “Did you choose that because of her eyes?”
I snorted. “No, she’s wrapped in a blue blanket, and it was the first thing that came to me. But I’m going to say it was because of her eyes if anyone else asks.”
“Okay, so I’m going to hand you Blue like this, and once you’re both comfortable, you’re going to touch her lip with the nipple of the bottle to let her know it’s there.”
“Then what?” I asked, hoping I hid the trepidation in my voice.
River laughed. “Chances are she’ll do the rest of the work. If not, I’ll be here to help.”
With those vague words of reassurance, I touched the tip of the bottle to Blue’s lip and watched in amazement as her head turned toward the nipple, and her lips started moving as if she was trying to find what touched her with her mouth.
“That’s called rooting. It means she’s looking for her food source, because she’s ready to eat. Go ahead and put the nipple in her mouth. She’s probably so pissed off right now she’ll latch on like a champ.”
That’s exactly what she did, emptying the small bottle of formula in what had to be record time. “How do I know if she’s still hungry?”
“You’ll know because she’ll continue to look for a food source and she’ll start to cry when she doesn’t find one. I’ve got a handout that goes over what each type of cry sounds like and means. I can’t stress to you how much easier your life will be if you take twenty or thirty minutes to commit everything on that piece of paper to memory. Also, I have a magnet you can stick on your refrigerator that tells you how much to feed her and how often.” River cleared her throat and shifted her weight. “You’re aware that the hospital is obligated to notify the police about this situation, right?”
“I’ve already notified them,” Copper interjected. I glanced at him in surprise, and he answered my question before I could ask it. “Right after Blue pissed all over my phone. I had to use Layla’s. You owe me a new cell phone, by the way.”
“Knock, knock,” a woman called out as she entered the room.
“Oh, Dr. Daniels, we’re so glad to see you,” Leigh said sincerely.
“I certainly wish it was under better circumstances,” she said while washing her hands. “Now, let’s have a look here.” With gentle movements, she carefully examined Blue, taking a close look at her umbilical cord. She put a tiny stethoscope to her chest and listened, then did the same to her back.
“I’m probably about to make her mad. I’d like to apologize for that now,” Dr. Daniels said and did something with Blue’s legs that caused her to let out an angry wail. “Just checking to make sure her lower joints are intact and stable. Some babies are born with their hips dislocated or very loosely in place.”
She continued to examine Blue, who was still fussing but not exactly crying. My eyes remained trained on Dr. Daniels, watching every move she made. It didn’t matter if Blue was or was not my daughter; I silently declared myself her guardian and protector until that position was proven to be mine or the person it rightfully belonged to was found.
When she was finished, she carefully wrapped Blue in a blanket the same way Leigh had. Seeing how it seemed to instantly comfort Blue, I said, “I’m going to need one of y’all to show me how to do that magic blanket thing.”
Every woman in the room laughed. “That’s called swaddling, and I’ll show you how to do it when things settle down unless an opportunity presents itself before then,” Leigh said.
Dr. Daniels cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “First, Baby Black appears to be a healthy baby girl. After examining her, I estimate her age to be between six and twelve hours old. It does appear that she was cared for by someone with at least a little bit of medical knowledge and access to medical supplies judging by the way her umbilical cord was cut and clamped. However, due to her age alone, she’ll be admitted to the hospital for at least twenty-four hours, if not longer. Under the circumstances, we’re going to assign Baby Black a bed in the newborn nursery, but we’re going to also reserve a room on the Mom and Baby unit for you—and the mother should she be located. That way, Blue can stay in the room with you as much as you want. If you need to take a shower or get a few hours of sleep, you can ask your nurse to take her to the nursery,” she explained.
“My nurse?” I asked.
She chuckled. “The nurse assigned to Blue. Typically, mom and baby have the same nurse, unless the baby goes to the nursery. I’m going to go put in her admission orders now, and then it’ll probably take fifteen or twenty minutes before you can be moved to your new room. In the meantime, there are some officers here who would like to speak with you.”
With that, she exited the room, and two familiar faces stepped inside. “Hello, everyone. I’m going to skip the formalities and get right to it,” Officer Dunk said. “Copper gave us a brief explanation over the phone, but we’d like to hear it from you.”
Blue looked like she was trying to squirm around even though she was securely swaddled in a blanket. Instinctively, I scooped her into my arms and held her against my chest, successfully settling her for the first time. Then, I cleared my throat and relayed the events of the morning to the officers.
“And you don’t know who the mother is?” Officer Underwood clarified.
“The only person it could be is Heidi Coleman, but her mother isn’t the woman who brought the baby to the clubhouse.”
“Heidi Coleman? Why does that name sound familiar?”
“She was a waitress at Precious Metals, but she was also injured when the clubhouse was bombed.”
Dunk snapped her fingers. “I bet that’s it. I probably recognize the name from the police reports.”
“Did you know she was pregnant?” Underwood asked in a way that didn’t sound like an accusation.
But I exploded anyway. “No, I didn’t fucking know!” I roared, causing Blue to stir in my arms and let out a quiet whimper.
Placing his hand on my shoulder, Copper squeezed
, silently telling me to get a handle on myself.
“I apologize,” Underwood said. “I should’ve worded that differently. I just wanted to confirm that you did not know about the pregnancy at the time she disappeared.”
“Not one fucking clue until this morning,” I said honestly.
“Might be the reason both of them took off in the first place,” Copper pointed out.
“No,” I said vehemently. “There has to be another reason. Heidi would’ve told me if she was pregnant with my baby.”
“You sure about that?”
“All right, we have a few more questions, and then we’ll call this into the chief and get the ball rolling. We’ll likely need to obtain a copy of the surveillance footage from this morning, but this isn’t the official request,” Dunk said and shot Copper a pointed look.
He reached for his phone, cursed, and took Layla’s phone from her outstretched hand. “I’ll call Judge right now and have him email the footage to you.”
“Thanks,” Underwood said and rattled off a few more questions, followed by a promise to be in contact soon.
Before they left, I stopped them to make one request. “I would like to keep this out of the media if possible.” I nodded in Blue’s direction. “Whatever her story turns out to be, she doesn’t need to find out about it from news articles and reports.”
Both officers nodded and smiled kindly. “We’ll do everything we can to keep this as quiet as possible.”
I had barely taken a full breath after they left when the door opened again, and River entered the room. “Let’s get you two moved upstairs and settled into your new home for the next day or two.”
From the moment we arrived in our hospital room on the Mom and Baby unit, there was a seemingly endless stream of people coming and going—starting with Phoenix and Uncle Tommy walking into the room.
“Of all the calls I expected to get, this was not one of them,” Phoenix said as he crossed the room and engulfed me in a hug. “You hanging in there?”
“Don’t really have much of a choice. It’s the only thing I can do,” I said honestly. “I can’t say I’m surprised to see you, but I didn’t know you were coming. Did Shaker bring you?”
“He did,” Phoenix nodded and smiled warmly. “He had to get back to Keegan, but he wanted me to let you know that he’s there if you need him; the whole club is. You know I’ll always be here for my family. And since Pop and Gram happened to be in Croftridge visiting, Pop wanted to come with me in case he could be of any help.”
“I can give you all the legal advice you’ll ever need over the phone, but trust me on this, you get much better results when you call in favors in person. And there are quite a few people in this town who owe me a favor or two,” Uncle Tommy added as he shook my hand and pulled me in for a hug. It didn’t matter if the entirety of both clubs called him Pop, he would always be Uncle Tommy to me.
“Appreciate it. Means the world to me that you two are here,” I said.
“We’re happy to help. Though your Aunt Dolores wasn’t too thrilled about not being able to come meet the alleged newest addition to the Black family with us,” Uncle Tommy said with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t be expecting any special Christmas cookies from her this year.”
I grinned. “Oh, I’m already planning on using all of Blue’s cuteness to get cookies every chance I can.”
Uncle Tommy laughed, “Based on those cute little cheeks alone, I’d say that’s a good plan.”
“What do you think I should do first?” I asked.
“You need to get a court-ordered paternity test as soon as possible. A friend of mine, Judge Hinkley, will be in his chambers in about an hour. If you’d like, I can stop by and get that order for you. Also, I think we should talk to him about granting you emergency guardianship until the paternity results come back or the mother is located. On that note, have a couple of the Old Ladies on standby to get the clubhouse ready to bring a baby home if Hinkley gives you custody. There’s no doubt that social services will be involved in this case.”
He paused for a moment and held my gaze. “Now, I personally don’t give a shit, but it’s not my opinion that matters. The state considers recreational marijuana use illegal, and it’s better that I know now if passing a drug test is going to be an issue for you.”
I snorted. “You could’ve just asked me if I smoked weed.”
“I don’t care if you smoke it, eat it, or vape it. What I want to know is if you can pass a drug test,” he snapped.
“Yes, I can. Piss, blood, or hair,” I said proudly.
Uncle Tommy grinned and clapped his hands together. “That’s what I wanted to hear! All right, you stay here and keep doing what you’re doing while Phoenix and I go see Judge Hinkley. You want us to pick you up some lunch while we’re out?”
“Yeah, that probably wouldn’t be a bad idea,” I said. “Any kind of sandwich or burger from wherever you go will be fine. And a cookie.” I typically wasn’t a picky eater, but I wasn’t concerned with what they brought me back for lunch because I wasn’t sure I could eat anything. The knots that had been in my stomach since Blue was placed in my arms continued to tighten as the hours passed.
Hundreds of various outcomes played through my mind, from Heidi and I sharing custody of our daughter, to Blue being given to her real set of parents—which was neither me nor Heidi. But the one that I kept going back to was me raising Blue as a single father. What was Sloane going to think?
Fuck! I needed to call Sloane and tell her what was going on. Reaching for my phone, I stifled a curse when I remembered it didn’t work. Copper said he’d bring me one of the burners from the clubhouse to use when he came back by the hospital, so it’d have to wait until later.
My thoughts were interrupted when two nurses entered the room to collect cheek swabs from me and Blue for the paternity test. I didn’t doubt that Uncle Tommy would be able to get the order for the test, but I was surprised at how fast it was executed. And I hoped he was having as much luck with the order for guardianship.
By the time Phoenix and Uncle Tommy returned, my hopes for good news had significantly dwindled, but I tried to stay positive. With a somewhat forced smile on my face, I said, “I already know you got the order for the paternity test. They came by to collect our samples over two hours ago. Thank you, Uncle Tommy.”
“You’re welcome. Sorry it took us so long to get back with your food. You’re probably starving by now,” he said and handed me a paper bag and a drink.
“I appreciate it,” I said and placed the bag to the side. “But I don’t feel like I could eat anything right now.”
Phoenix snorted. “Yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about. The part that’s making you want to puke will go away once you get the results. Well, it did for me. But then again, I got the results I was hoping for.”
I shrugged. “I can honestly say I don’t know what result I’m hoping for. I haven’t really had much time to think about that part.” Not expecting a response, I turned my attention to Uncle Tommy. “What about the order for guardianship?”
When he took a seat and clasped his hands together in his lap, I knew he was not going to deliver the news I wanted to hear. “It’s not what we were hoping for, but hear me out before assuming it’s bad news. Judge Hinkley didn’t grant you emergency guardianship because the baby will still be in the hospital when the test results are received, which will be tomorrow morning. He said it would be much easier to ensure you had custody if the test is a positive match than it would be to revoke any custody you were granted if the test isn’t a match, and I have to agree with him on that. In the meantime, he didn’t put any restrictions on her visitation. In other words, we’re going to keep this quiet, and you can continue to stay in the room with Blue and interact with her as you have been.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Will the test results really be back tomorrow morning?” I asked. I wasn’t aware they could be done that fast.
“
Yes, they will. The testing process is much faster than it used to be, and now results can be delivered electronically, which is helpful in emergent situations like this one.” Uncle Tommy studied me for a few moments and smiled. “It’d make things a whole lot easier if gut feelings were admissible in court, wouldn’t it?”
I rubbed my hand over my face and let out a combination of a laugh and an exasperated sigh. “Is it that obvious?”
“It is to me, but I’ve seen the look on a man’s face after he loses his heart to his daughter many different times in my life, and this is exactly what it looks like.”
“She looks like both of us,” I murmured. “She has my eyes and mouth, but her nose, chin, and ears definitely belong to her mother.” Blue’s features were the perfect combination of mine and Heidi’s. And it wasn’t wishful thinking. I had no doubt she was mine. And I also knew she would break hearts when she got older—specifically mine.
“I hope like hell she is yours,” Copper grumbled. “Because you’re already in way too deep to simply let her go if she’s not.”
“There’s nothing wrong with caring about someone,” I argued. But I knew my feelings for Blue had rapidly developed and sailed past caring within the first hour of her being in my life.
“If it hurts you more than it helps them, it’s wrong,” he said, using a phrase our mother used to say when we were younger, and some of the older boys we played with were too rough. Instead of telling us how to respond or handle it for us, she let us make our own decisions with only that bit of wisdom as guidance.
“It won’t,” I vowed and silently hoped I wasn’t wrong.
Before I knew it, night had fallen and the steady stream of people in and out of our room had dwindled down to only me, Blue, and Copper after we said our goodbyes to Uncle Tommy and Phoenix.
“I’m going to head out too,” he started. “Unless you want me to stay.”
“There’s no reason for you to stay. I’m not good company right now, and I’m probably going to just sleep anyway.”
Copper shook his head. “You haven’t been around many babies, have you?”
Bronze (Blackwings MC - Devil Springs Book 5) Page 6