by Apryl Baker
Mason paced.
He sat and fidgeted.
He paced some more.
Waiting was a bitch.
He asked the nurse if there were any updates, but she told him no.
He tried calling Keith, but he was in the air, so his phone was off.
He paced until the other people in the room asked him to sit.
He sat and fidgeted some more.
Leaving wasn’t an option. What if the surgeon came while he was gone? He and Jo both agreed to tell the hospital he was her brother so they would let him stay.
It wasn’t like she was having heart surgery or anything. They were fixing her leg. Nothing to be worried about.
But he was terrified.
She’d looked so afraid when they’d told him he couldn’t go any farther, it shattered him. He felt helpless, and that feeling only got worse as the minutes passed.
The watch on his wrist laughed at him. She’d only been gone about forty-five minutes, but it felt like hours. They’d needed to prep her, so she might be in surgery by now or she might not.
He was going nuts.
His phone buzzed. He glanced at it. Ray.
Motherfucker.
He let it go to voicemail.
He started pacing again, and the other people gave him looks that promised repercussions if he didn’t knock it off.
Fuck them.
He’d do whatever the hell he wanted to do.
His phone buzzed again, and he ripped it out of his jeans, ready to scream at Ray, but found a text from Dimitri instead. Becca was on her way to Saint Mary’s. Her water broke.
Jesus. Thank fuck he was already at Saint Mary’s. He shot off a text saying as much and to call him as soon as he got here. Becca had to be freaking the hell out. The girl was terrified of crowded places, and an emergency room in New York City could be crowded as fuck.
One more fucking thing to pace about.
His life had become a series of worries. He was the carefree one. When the shit had he started caring this much about people?
When his brothers’ wives came into the picture and introduced him to the world of being an uncle.
Sure, he loved his brothers and their wives, but his nieces and nephews? He’d literally die for them. The new baby counted in the latter category.
He missed fun Mason.
But he wouldn’t trade those kids for the player he used to be. They owned him.
About as much as Josephine owned his heart.
The player had been played.
What the fuck was he going to do about his feelings for her? She’d shown him earlier how much she loved the fucker she lived with. Despite everything, she’d wanted to call him. He was the cause of her hurt, and she wanted to call the fucker.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
He was so screwed.
His phone rang again. It was a series of text messages from his family telling him to get his ass to the hospital. The baby was coming.
He sent back a group text to let them know where he was and why. And the flood of replies began. He stopped trying to keep up with them and shoved the phone back in his pocket. His family would come find him here. As much as he wanted to be down there with them for Becca, he’d promised Jo he wouldn’t leave her alone.
And dammit, he wasn’t going to leave her alone. Becca would have his entire family with her. Jo would only have him until Keith arrived. Or Ray. He was probably on his way here now. Mason still hadn’t decided if he was going to punch him or hold him while Keith did. Or maybe they could take turns.
Jo would be pissed, but he didn’t fucking care. It was about time someone taught Ray the etiquette of taking care of his woman and the consequences when he didn’t.
Viktor and Sara arrived first, minus the kids. The babysitters had been on alert for the last two weeks and were ready at a moment’s notice. They were going to earn some serious cash tonight.
“Is she okay?” Sara hugged him. She gave the tightest hugs, and Mason needed it more than ever.
“No, they took her into surgery a little over an hour ago. Her leg’s all mangled. The ligaments and tendons are torn and severed. The doctor didn’t say too much, but I got the feeling it was really bad.” He sorta got the vibe the good doctor was going to let the surgeon explain to Jo exactly how bad it was.
“What happened?” Viktor asked, handing him a cup of coffee, which Mason took gratefully.
“Her bastard boyfriend, knowing the girl can’t take two steps without potentially killing herself, let her cut the grass. The lawnmower went right over her leg.” He closed his eyes, remembering the sight of her butchered flesh. “She soaked through the towels before the ambulance even got there. They managed to get the bleeding stopped and then rushed her to surgery.”
“She’s clumsy?” Sara let him go and stepped back. “She didn’t seem that way when she was at the house.”
“She sat most of the time there. She told me with the babies, she tried to stay seated as much as possible. Couldn’t risk falling and hurting them.”
“Where’s her boyfriend?” Viktor frowned.
“Fishing.”
“The fuck?”
Conner had somehow snuck up on them all, Mateo attached at the hip. Kade couldn’t be far behind. He and Angel never let that kid out of their sight for long. Mason wasn’t surprised they’d brought him.
“Fucker, don’t go stealing my lines.” Viktor fist bumped his twin.
“Language.” Sara wagged her finger at them all and then pointed to Mateo. At eight, he was still small, and they all assumed it was his premature birth. The kid had been born at twenty weeks and survived. He might be small, but he was a hell of a fighter.
“Your girl good?” Conner asked after winking at Sara, who rolled her eyes and walked away muttering about hot sauce.
“Hot sauce?” He glanced to Viktor for an explanation.
“She’s threating to catch me asleep and put hot sauce in my ear.” Viktor shrugged. “Not sure what that would do, but…”
Conner laughed. A full-on laugh that made both Viktor and Mason go completely still. It was such a rarity to hear him laugh.
“It will cause severe pain, and you won’t be able to hear right for weeks. It’s a hell of a good torture instrument.”
“Sí.” Mateo nodded. “Juan has done to me.”
That shut them all up. Being raised in the cartel meant the kid saw a lot, and sometimes the things out of his mouth terrified them. But when he spoke of the torture he’d endured, not realizing that was what it was, it made them all want to hunt Juan, the man responsible for raising Mateo, and murder him.
“Juan will never hurt you again, mio.” Conner squatted to look the boy in the eyes. “Remember my promise?”
“Sí.” The kid’s green eyes went hard and cold, and it made Mason swallow nervously.
“I will bring you proof next week.”
“You found him?”
“Sí.” Conner grinned, the smile full of the promise of death. The expression in his black eyes matched the one in his nephew’s perfectly.
Dear God.
“Enough of that,” Viktor said, ending that particular conversation. “Kade hears you talking about that, he’ll be pissed.”
“Promises are promises, Viktor.” Conner stood and ruffled the boy’s hair. “I’m just fulfilling a family obligation.”
They all let it drop.
“Now, about your girl…”
“She’s not my girl.” Mason cut Conner off.
“Why the hell not?”
“Uh, because she’s in love with someone else?”
“When has that ever stopped a Kincaid? Boy, didn’t we teach you anything?”
“Fucker…”
Mateo giggled, and some of the tension went out of him. That boy’s laugh was magical, considering he’d looked like a stone-cold killer moments before. Maybe he would be all right.
“Conner’s right,” Viktor said. “You need to fight for her.
”
“Weren’t you the one warning me off her a few days ago?” Mason shook his head. These people and their advice were whiplash-worthy.
“That was before you told me the asshat was fishing instead of at her bedside. No respect. He needs to go. I like that girl, and I like you around her. Some of that cockiness goes away, and the real you shines through. It’s nice to see.”
“Asshole, you’re just as cocky as me, and you know it.”
“True, but it’s toned down around my family. I’m more me since I met Sara. I like me, and I’m liking you more and more around Josephine.”
“Jo,” Mason corrected him. “She doesn’t like to be called Josephine.”
“Isn’t that what you call her, though?” Viktor arched a brow.
“Hells yeah.” His first hint of a smile slipped out. “I only do it because it irritates her.”
“The little things are what you’ll remember the most, son.”
They all jumped when Ronin Kincaid spoke. Bastard could skulk better than even Conner.
“Where’s Mama?” Conner asked, pushing Mateo out from behind his legs and giving the boy a look.
“Downstairs with your brother and his wife. The girl’s spooked.”
“They’re here already?” Shit. How was he going to be there for both Jo and his family?
“Yes, I came up here to check on you.” Ronin slapped him on the back, his father’s way of hugging his grown-ass son. “How is she?”
“In surgery. We won’t know anything until they come out and talk to us.”
“Then we’ll take turns waiting with you and Becca.” Ronin walked over and sat down, a cough slipping out. “Girl’s as nervous as a cat. Dimitri’s with her, but the minute more than two or three people come in the room, she gets antsy.”
“She’s got severe anxiety of crowds, Papa.” Mason took a seat beside him, needing to be near his father. Ronin exuded the kind of strength all his sons could only wish for. “She had a rough life. It left a mark on her. Don’t judge her. You don’t know her story.”
Mason did. She’d told him all about growing up with a father who was more interested in his motorcycle club than how her crack whore mother treated his kids. She’d confessed how she and Jackson, her brother, sometimes stole food from the grocery store so they wouldn’t starve. Becca had been through enough without her father-in-law adding to it.
The softest smile graced his father’s face. “You’re growing into a fine man, Mason. I’m proud of you, son.”
His father was never one to hand out compliments, but he’d been doing it a lot this last year. And now they knew why. He might be dying, and he wanted his boys to know what they meant to him.
“Now, tell me about this girl you’re sweet on.”
Mason laughed. He was more than sweet on her. He loved her. He’d suspected but fought those feelings. It wasn’t until he saw her lying bloody and screaming that he admitted it to himself.
“She’s not sweet on me, Papa.” He sighed and settled into the hard chair while he told his papa all about Josephine Maxwell. “And then, knowing the bastard caused this, she wanted to call him. I don’t know how to fight that kind of blind love. How do you convince the most stubborn person on the planet they deserve better?”
“Through your own stubbornness.” Ronin nodded like this was gospel or something. “You keep being there for her, wear her down, boy. Don’t give up the fight. If she’s really worth it, then put in the time.”
“You gotta tell her, though.” Vik finally put in his two cents. “Won’t mean as much if she doesn’t know you’re fighting for her.”
“But what if she doesn’t want that? Want me? What if she tells me to get the hell out and not come back?”
This was his biggest fear. He’d decided to be her friend for this very reason.
“Give her your most charming smile and tell her that shit’s not happening. She’s stuck with you until she comes to her senses.” Viktor smirked, proud of himself for thinking that up.
“Shithead, it’s the twenty-first century. Going all caveman on a woman doesn’t work so much anymore. They are allowed to have an opinion now.”
Ronin shook his head. “Son, here I thought you’d learned a thing or two from your brothers. Not so much if you don’t understand the man-woman relationship hasn’t really changed all that much since creation. Men and women fight, then they make up and fight some more. It’s what you do in between that counts. Man up, buttercup. Be the Kincaid man I taught you to be.”
Mason wasn’t about to argue the point. Kincaid men were hardheaded and learned it from Ronin. He wasn’t his father or his brothers. He wasn’t going to go in there and tell her she was his, and that was that. That might have worked with their women, but he had a feeling that shit wouldn’t fly with Josephine.
Nik, Viktor, and Dimitri all used that mentality with their women, and maybe Lily, Sara, and Becca needed that. They’d suffered so much in their lives. It must have been a relief on some level to have someone to take care of everything. With Angel, well, her initial relationship with Kade was built on a lie. They’d had a lot of shit to work through. He could understand the caveman mentality with all of them. Hell, he even approved of it.
But Jo? She wasn’t anything like them. Sure, she might think it was okay for Ray to put himself first, but he wasn’t abusive. Just apathetic. Jo had been raised in a loving home and treated the way a normal kid should be.
That was the crux of it. She was normal. There were no demons to overcome, no lie to get past.
Just him baring his soul to her and hoping she didn’t kick him out of her life for good.
“Slow down, brat…you’re not making sense.”
Viktor’s sharp words pulled Mason out of his deep worries. Something was wrong.
“No, we’ll be right there. Just stay calm and don’t let Becca see your fear.” Viktor hung up the phone and closed his eyes. “There’s something wrong with the baby.”
Jo was in surgery, but Dimitri needed him too. He hated having to leave, but this was important. Jo would understand. He stopped at the nurses’ station and left his number in case the doctor came looking for him. They rode down the elevator to the maternity floor. The rest of the clan was huddled together in the waiting room, or the family room, as the nurses called it.
“I’ll tell Becca after you explain it to me.” Dimitri faced the woman in a lab coat. Had to be the doc. “She’s already nervous and scared enough. You trying to tell her this…it’ll cause a full-blown panic attack. It’s better if I tell her.”
“Fine, Mr. Kincaid, but let her know I can answer any question she has.” The doctor, a brunette in her mid- to late-forties, looked tired. Chances were she’d been on call at the hospital for a while. He hoped to God she wasn’t too tired. Mistakes happened all the time.
Ronin went to stand by Dimitri, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong with my grandson?”
The doctor smiled slightly. “Granddaughters, Mr. Kincaid.”
Wait…twins? Dimitri was having twin girls? That got all their attention. They’d just assumed the baby was a boy. They were fucked. No way in hell could they protect all these girls.
“Twins?” Dimitri stumbled back. “But we never saw a second baby during the ultrasounds.”
“It’s not uncommon for one baby to hide behind the other, and their heartbeats can be so in sync it only sounds like one heartbeat.”
“But there’s a problem with my girls?” Dimitri’s voice shook. “What is it?”
“We didn’t know about baby B. If we had, we would have caught this sooner.” The doctor motioned for Dimitri to sit, and he let Papa lead him over to one of the waiting room chairs. “Sometimes, twins develop a type of illness. It’s called TTTS, twin to twin transfusion syndrome. What happens is twin A ends up with the bulk of the blood, the nutrients, everything. Twin B usually doesn’t survive.”
“You’re telling me one of my babies is going to die.”
“I’m preparing you for that possibility, Mr. Kincaid. Right now, she’s alive. She’s significantly smaller than her sister, and we’re not sure what kind of complications are going to arise once we deliver. Sometimes the kinder thing to do is to let them slip away. You can hold her and sit peacefully with her during the process. We can give her something for pain or even keep her asleep.”
“You’re acting like you’ve already decided not to try to help her.” The anger vibrating in his brother’s voice had them all on their feet. Bitch was giving up on his niece already? Oh, hell no.
“That’s not what I’m saying…”
“Who’s the best neo-natal physician in the country?”
“Mr. Kincaid…”
“Who?” Dimitri bit out.
“It’s Dr. Gloria Macnamara. She’s based in Seattle, Washington.” Nik shut his laptop.
“Call her and see how soon she can get here. Fly her in. I’ll cover the cost.”
“She’s going to tell you the same thing I am,” Dr. No Hope said.
“Maybe, maybe not, but you’re not getting anywhere near Becca or my kids.”
“Mr. Kincaid, I have been Becca’s doctor from the beginning. She knows me, and it makes her less anxious.”
He laughed. “You think she’s going to want you in that room when she finds out you want to do nothing and let our kid die? I don’t think so. Now, get the hell out and find me a new doctor to monitor my wife until we can get Dr. Macnamara here.”
The doctor shook her head and left, realizing there was nothing she could do or say to change Dimitri’s mind.
“Dimitri, you need to go tell Becca what’s going on.” Irinia hugged her son. “The rest of us will go light a candle for both my granddaughters and pray for them.”
“Spasibo, Mama.” A tear finally slipped free, and Dimitri buried his face in their mother’s hair. “Spasibo.”
“You’re welcome, my beautiful boy. Now go, be with your wife. Whatever happens, we are all here for you.”