Kade. Zora stepped forward and spun back on Hernandez without thinking. The heel of her hand connecting with his chin had his head snapping back. His hand in her hair loosened and she drew her knee up, aiming for his nuts once again as she grappled in his waist band for her forty-five.
The knife entering low on her abdomen had her staggering back.
Stitch spun the pistol still hooked on his finger around and took aim, hitting the man that was in motion now in the chest. Hernandez let go of the knife as it was still stuck in Zora. He pulled the gun she had went for and returned fire on Stitch. It was a round from the roof of the club that had Hernandez hitting the ground.
~Chapter Eighteen~
It did not take but seconds for the word to spread that Hernandez was dead and the men he had brought with him fled like the cockroaches when you flip on a light. Kade ran with cover fire for where Zora had disappeared behind the vehicles parked in the road. He skidded to a stop as he rounded the cars.
Stitch sat on the ground, Zora lay on her side, his hands hovering around a knife sticking out of her lower back. He looked up at the man standing in shock at the sight. “I wasn’t fast enough bro. I’m sorry.”
The words broke the trance Kade was in and he lunged for Zora, scooping her from the ground. He turned to run with her back to where he left Tucker to find the man right behind him. Zora’s weight left his arms as Tucker took her from him without a word and shoved her in the nearest truck before jumping behind the wheel and squealing tires as he drove off without waiting for anyone else.
Kade felt a hand on his arm and turned to where Stitch was standing next to him, a hand pressed to his own stomach just below his ribs. “I’m sorry man. You told me to protect her and I didn’t.”
Kade caught his club brother’s weight as he sagged forward. “No. You did good. You got to her when I couldn’t. You saved her. I thank you for that.”
Stitch smiled and nodded before going completely limp.
The crew that walked in the doors of the emergency room drew every eye.
The officers of Glory’s Horde walked right up to the center counter and the nurses on duty. Tactical wear with bullet proof vests and guns still on their thighs had the fat security officers coming from the elevator bank at a brisk trot that made them puff with the exertion when the head nurse pushed the button under the counter. “Can I help you gentlemen?”
Sawyer nodded and placed his hands on the counter. They were covered in the blood of his fallen men still. “We had several people brought in.”
The nurse nodded with pursed lips and looked pointedly at the weapons on their sides. “This is a gun free zone, gentlemen. You will have to disperse and return once unarmed.”
Kade shook his head and growled. He was not leaving now that he was here. “My wife is here.”
Ghost and Weasley began gathering the pistols and let the rent-a-cops steer them out of the waiting area to back outside. The head nurse stared down the glaring behemoths in front of her, she was no stranger to alpha personalities and would not take any lip in her hospital, from anyone. “You were part of the mess earlier? Really? A shoot out? We are over capacity thanks to that. Few have had more than wounds treated and we don’t know who is who yet. You will have to wait.”
Kade slapped his hand down on the counter making the woman jump and turn her glare on him. “My wife was the first brought in. She was taken even before emergency services arrived.”
The woman turned to the computer. It would do no good to argue with them, she would just prove that no information was available yet. “Name?”
“Zora Kinkade.” Sawyer answered for him. Kade looked ready to jerk the woman and computer across the counter. “And I need to know if you have a Stephen LéRoux as well.”
The woman nodded and began typing. Those two names came back with results. “Mister LéRoux is still in surgery. Misses Kinkade is out and in recovery.”
Kade heaved a huge sigh and braced his hands on the high counter, stepping back and let his head hang as he took deep breaths. She was in recovery. Tech slapped him on the back. Kade spoke to the floor. “Can I see her? Please?”
The woman typed some more. Her eyebrows arched when more information came on screen. The man must be frantic. His wife’s location was a key to what she was going through. “Yes. Fourth floor. East wing. Room four oh two.”
Kade took off for the elevator followed by Ghost and Weasley at a near run. Tech stayed with Sawyer since Stitch was his best friend and once they found Tucker, the others would send him to check on Stitch and the rest of the men. The club medic would understand any doctor jargon better than anyone else.
It was the longest ride that Kade had ever taken on an elevator. Four floors seemed to take hours instead of thirty seconds. As the doors opened, he bolted for the left, following the large blue arrow on the wall for the East Wing. Ghost and Weasley both stopped and looked at each other, reading the signage on the walls, before running after their brother.
Tucker was standing outside the double doors that were the entrance to the wing and held up his hands as Kade slid to a halt in front of him. “She is fine. Resting. You need to calm down or they won’t let you in there.”
Kade took deep breaths that moved his big chest against the hands of his friend that held him from the woman he loved. “I am calm.”
Tucker arched an eyebrow at him and then turned to lead the men into the hall. Weasley elbowed Ghost as they passed the nurses station with the women there boldly taking appraisal of the man candy walking through. Dirty and bloody, muscles and gear, seemed they were drool worthy. Tucker stopped before a door just past the station and looked again at Kade.
Kade nodded and shoved his big fists into his pockets.
Tucker opened the door and the quad walked into the room with low lighting and the curtains closed on the now evening sky. Zora laid small and frail looking on a big bed with wires and leads all over the place. Monitors beeped and surged on both sides of her.
Kade hit his knees next to the bed. Gently taking her hand where an IV came from the inside of her wrist, he held it in his big paw. Rubbing the back of it on his cheek, he spoke softly to the woman sleeping. “Little one. Wake up for me. Please.”
The pain in his voice was too much for the men and they stepped out of the room to give Kade and Zora privacy.
Zora turned her head to the sound of Kade’s voice. Her eyes were so heavy, but she managed to get them open and look at the man kneeling next to her.
Kade smiled and felt a few tears fall. “You scared the hell out of me woman.”
Zora smiled weakly at him. “Is that so?”
Kade placed his head on the hand he held. “I love you.”
Zora turned her hand and cupped his jaw. “I love you.”
The door opening stopped Kade from surging from the floor to kiss Zora as he wanted. A man in pale green scrubs walked in with a laptop tucked under his arm while a woman in a set covered in little hearts on a black background pulled a machine in behind him. “Mister Kinkade?”
Kade nodded and stood from the floor, not releasing Zora’s hand.
The man held out his opposite hand so that Kade would not have to let go. “Doctor Frances Kisner. Your wife is going to be fine. The injury missed everything vital thank God and she isn’t far enough along to warrant harm to the baby.”
Kade and Zora looked at each other in confusion.
The doctor looked up from placing his computer on the table over the foot of Zora’s bed. The couples’ faces telling him it was news they were not aware of. “The baby?”
Both shook their heads. What baby?
“Oh, then this is going to be a treat. Seems you two are going to be parents. And sooner than you think as we think you are about four to five months along.”
Kade looked to Zora. Zora shook her head again. “I didn’t know. I swear.”
The doctor placed his hands on the computer keyboard and looked to Zora. “Well, let’s see how t
his was missed. When was your last period?”
Zora thought back. It was before she was stabbed. She had never been really regular and any time she dropped weight like she had with worrying over who killed her father, it would disappear completely. She had talked to Tucker about it when she put the lost weight back on and it had not returned but there were no usual ticks on the ‘you might be pregnant’ checklist. Neither thought it was possible since she had not had at least morning sickness which should have hit by now. And every time except the first time, either Kade had pulled out or used a condom. “Months. More than five, so are you sure?”
Kade’s brain went where some men would have at that moment. Months? They had only known each other...he had no clue, but it was not that long he knew. Was she trying to pawn someone else’s kid off on him? “What the fuck Zora?”
Zora yanked her hand from his. She could tell by his face what he was thinking. Ghost and Weasley came into the room at Kade’s shout. They moved along the wall behind the doctor and technician with what was obviously now an ultrasound machine. Grabbing Kade they pulled him from the room.
Kade shook them off when they were out of the room and walked a few feet from Zora’s room. Bracing his hands on the sill of a windowed room behind the nurse’s station, he hung his head and bonked it a few times off the thick glass. “She’s pregnant.”
Ghost rolled his eyes. “We are in the maternity wing.”
Kade growled and continued to slowly bang his head. Suddenly the blinds were opened, and a nurse stood on the other side glaring at him. The room held a few bassinets with small sleeping bundles in them. Kade mouthed sorry to her and turned from the sight. He could not stomach the thoughts he was having right now and seeing the tiny infants only made his gut churn more.
Weasley stood between him and the exit when Kade made a move to storm from the wing. “So? Don’t you want kids?”
Kade glared at the man in front of him. All knew how Weasley felt about having a family as it was all he talked about. And, yes, Kade did want kids. But not to be tricked into raising someone else’s. Hell, he would have taken the kid on no matter what if Zora had been up front about being pregnant. “It isn’t mine. We use something.”
Ghost took up a stance next to Weasley. Both glaring at their club brother. Alpha stance in play.
Kade rubbed his head in frustration. “We do, I swear. Or I pull out.”
The nurse that had been in the room with the babies stepped around the counter, catching his last statement. “And neither are a hundred percent. Condoms are only eighty-five percent and pull out is about seventy. Many a father is here from just those percentages. All it takes is once, one failure.”
Kade looked to the door of the room where Zora was. Those percentages were not the greatest, like having an almost thrown in the situation. And he knew almost only counted in horseshoes and hand grenades.
The doctor stuck his head out of the room and motioned for Kade to return.
Back in the room, Zora refused to look at him as the woman squirted clear blue goo on her now exposed stomach, careful of the wireless fetal monitor that Zora had not even noticed thanks to the pain meds making her a little numb.
It was a little fuller, but he thought it was just because she was finally eating proper. A food baby, not a real one. Hell, you could still see Zora’s hip bones.
Doctor Kisner took the offered wand and pressed it into Zora’s lower abdomen on the opposite side of the sutures and monitor. “There, just as we thought when we looked prior to your surgery.”
Kade watched the screen as a clear sepia image of a small baby came into view. It was for sure a baby thanks to three dimensional imaging.
The doctor continued talking with Kade only half listening. “With some quick measurements, we can get you an approximate due date.”
Zora watched the baby move around. How close she had come to losing it without knowing it even existed. A tear ran down her cheek as she watched the baby kick out at the pressure of the probe.
“You are sixteen weeks, give or take a day or so. Would you like to know the sex?”
Kade was looking at her now. He was sorry, it was written all over his face. But she was not in a forgiving mood with him right now. Sixteen weeks put the baby at probably that first night they were together. Kade’s baby. Once was really all it took. They had been together since she had entered the Horde’s clubhouse. Four months plus a little as she was not one of those women that kept count of those things to the exact second either. She nodded at the doctor.
~Chapter Nineteen~
Kade looked from Zora’s tear filled eyes. Tears she was trying to not let fall. He had hurt her with his accusations even if they were not said out loud.
The wand moved around on her stomach, coming close to the black ties that could just be seen on her back and side that were marking where Hernandez had tried to take her from him. And then it crashed on him. Even if it had not been his kid, he would not have wanted to lose her. He loved her and would have loved the baby. He was an ass.
“It’s a boy.”
Zora watched as the screen showed for sure that the baby was a son. A little man to come into this world with parents that were currently angry at each other. And it was his father’s fault. “Thank you. I wish I had my phone. I would love a video of him.”
The nurse handed Zora a box of tissues as Kade pulled his phone out of a leg pocket. His hands were shaking so bad the video was just a blur. Taking pity on him even when she thought him a douche nozzle, the nurse took the phone and held it in front of the screen as the doctor did a quick recap of the ultrasound, even printing images for a few keepsakes.
Kade pulled the chair in the corner over to the side of the bed and sat as the doctor and nurse left the room with orders for Zora to rest. Elbows on his knees, head in his hands. He looked down at his boots. “I know it isn’t enough, but I am sorry.”
Zora sat looking at the small snapshots in her hands. It was far from okay and she was still angry but there was a child now to think of. A child that would be here in little over five months. And she knew that if this somehow broke them, Kade would be there for his son. She would make him. The Horde women would help, Lyndsie especially. “How could you?”
Kade shook his head. “I’m an ass.”
Zora snorted and picked up his phone from where the nurse had laid it on the bed next to her. She keyed in his passcode and flipped on the video. She watched it as it loaded into a media message so she could have it herself, sending it to her phone, wherever it was. Neither of them had social media accounts so it was not like it was going to be broadcast out for the world to see. But she would treasure it, if even on her own.
A knock on the door signaled that Weasley and Ghost were still out there. Tucker was back too. He pulled Kade from the room as Zora showed the pictures and video to the other two.
Tucker nodded back to the room. He had picked up on the vibes as well as been filled in by Ghost and Weasley. “What the fuck you thinking?”
Kade shook his head. “I wasn’t.”
Tucker punched him the arm that held the spot that Zora had shot Kade in that first night they met. Kade winced as it was still tender. “She came to me a couple weeks back. Asked me some questions but I never thought she was pregnant. She isn’t even showing. As small as she is, you would think she would look like she swallowed a basketball. Honestly, we are lucky I thought to tell them when I brought her in, or you might not even know now. I don’t even know what made me tell them she might be pregnant. Probably the fact that my room is next to yours and you two go at it like fucking rabbits.”
Kade looked at the tiles on the ceiling. Someone had painted them to look like a blue sky with white fluffy clouds. “It’s a boy.”
Tucker looked at the door they had just came out. He had some bad news with all this to lay on Kade. As Kade was Veep, his wide shoulders would have to carry it. “Stitch didn’t make it.”
“Fuck!”
&nb
sp; The nurses looked at him with glares at his disruption of the peace they tried to keep on this ward.
It was a life for life world. Kade felt even worse. A man had given his life for his wife and the child she carried, and he had crapped on the moment he found out he was going to be a father. That moment could never be returned. Stepping into the room, he went back over to his chair.
Zora watched the faces of the men fall when Tucker joined them. Something was wrong. And in the fire fight of hours earlier, it was a given someone would be hurt, or worse, killed.
Tucker stood at the foot of the bed and looked down at the peaks in the blanket caused by Zora’s toes. “There were some injuries and one casualty.”
Zora reached for Kade’s hand. Even mad at him, she felt the need for his strength.
Tucker continued to look at the blanket. “Stitch.”
Zora had got to know Stitch a little as he was often around Tech when he was not working at a construction job. And she had taken an instant liking to the man. He did not hang around the club house much in the evenings, preferring his apartment to living on site. And he never fooled around with any of the girls that made themselves available.
Now he was gone. A life ended before its time. And in the course of protecting her. Did he have a family? Who would feel his loss? Poor Tech. He had called Stitch his best friend having grew up together and then served together as well.
Life was just too short. It could have easily been Kade that was in that situation and she could now be facing being a single mother. Or it could have been her and Kade would have lost his wife and son. Pulling on the hand she held, Zora urged Kade to sit on the side of her bed.
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