THE BABY OATH

by Sophia Gray

  “Shit, Rafe. I was just suggesting it. Calm down.” I could hear the sarcasm in Stephanie’s voice and knew she didn’t think I’d do it.

  “And I’m just telling you what will happen. I’m not fucking kidding. She goes to that hospital and she’s gonna regret it.”

  “She said she has to go to work tomorrow.” Stephanie sighed. “I can’t get her to take some time off.”

  “Fuck,” I groaned. “She’s got to have plenty of vacation time, I don’t think that woman’s ever taken one.”

  “She had a call this morning with her boss. She missed a few ways of work, but given the situation they aren’t going to fire her.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “It means she’s getting to keep her job and won’t tempt them further to dump her by taking any time off. Apparently, you’ve made quite an impression on that doctor she works with, and he’s not all that thrilled with her involvement with you.”

  “Oh for fuck’s sake.” I was standing outside the exact hospital we were talking about and I knew which dick head she was referring to. “Don’t worry about any of that. You tell her to take a few days off, she needs to rest.”

  Stephanie sighed. “Why don’t you fucking tell her?”

  “She made it pretty clear what she wants, and it’s not me. I’m giving her space.”

  “Since when do you quit so fucking easy?”

  “Jason should have cured you of that foul mouth a long time ago,” I snapped at her. “I’m not quitting. I’m giving her space.”

  “Right.” Stephanie snorted into the phone. “I wouldn’t give her too much space. She’s gotten herself convinced you’re gone forever.”

  Gone forever? From her? No fucking way. But getting her back wasn’t going to be that easy. What if having her meant I couldn’t have the club, could I walk away? Now with Gray out of the way, the club unanimously put me in the president chair, and Aaron at my side as VP.

  Juan was taking his business back, and we were staying the fuck out of drugs. And as soon as we could get the strip club up and running, we’d be out of the gun runs, too. The club was tired of the bullshit and Gray’s reach in the drug shit only made them all realize exactly how done they were with all that drama.

  We’d be taking a hit financially at first, but by the time the club started turning profits and we put more effort into the body shop, we’d be doing fine again.

  Could I walk away now?

  I noticed the prick doctor stirring all the shit up walk past me and into the hospital. “I’ll take care of it, just keep her fine ass home.” I clicked off before she gave me any more trouble and marched back into the hospital.

  The doctor stood at the nurses’ station dressing down another nurse. She looked both scared and annoyed at the same time. Beth had told me about him and other doctors like him. Even when they were wrong, they couldn’t see it, they only saw that they had MD after their name and the nurses didn’t.

  “Hey, Dr. Wilkins?” I tapped his shoulder. He turned around, looking me over with the same distaste I remembered from the first time I saw the prick in my hospital room.

  “Can I help you?” he asked, glancing over at the main nurses’ station, probably hoping for them to call security.

  I smiled at the young woman he had just been tearing apart. “Honey, I need to have word with Dr. Wilkins, do you mind giving us a second. It won’t take long, I promise.”

  Her throat convulsed when she swallowed and gave the doctor a quick look before she nodded. “Sure thing. I’ll just be over there.”

  “Thanks. Just a second, I promise.” I gave her my best grin. The little blush that covered her cheeks made me smile even wider as I turned my stare on him. “Now.”

  “I don’t know what you could want with me, but those nurses over there can call security at any second.” His thin little lips curled at the edges, as though his puny ass could actually do anything to me at all.

  “They could.” I nodded, folding my arms over my chest and glancing over my shoulder at them with another grin. Three nurses watched us, but not one of them looked overly concerned for the doctor’s safety. They looked more like they wanted him to get a beating, and held some hope that I would give it to him. “But I don’t think they will.”

  “What do you want?” the man demanded, as though he had any control over the situation at all, but I suspected he knew he didn’t and was overcompensating for his fear. His gray, pinpoint eyes were trained on me, while his fingers began curl around a chart he had in his hands.

  “Beth Jamison, you’re gonna leave her alone. Who she’s friends with or associates with are none of your business. You don’t like me. I don’t give a shit. But you give her trouble, and I care. Do you get me?”

  His eyes widened. I hadn’t moved toward him, hadn’t even moved my hands from being tucked under my arms. “It’s men like you who make this town dangerous to live in. Gunshot wounds, knife fights, all because—”

  “I’m talking to you about Beth. You leave her be. She needs a week off to recover from the past few days.”

  “Yes, I heard about what happened.” His eyebrows knitted together. “Because of her association with you.” His snarl didn’t bother me; it was the truth of what he said that struck a nerve.

  “She has the rest of the week off, got me? And when she’s back, you won’t be giving her any shit or I’ll hear about it.” The implications of what would happen should that take place I assumed were implied, and the slight blanching of his face confirmed it. “Got me?”

  “Yes.” He gave a nod.

  “Good boy.” I patted him on the shoulder and smiled. His face tensed and his nostrils flared. I laughed. “Just make sure you don’t forget.”

  “Her supervisor will need to approve her time off.” His clipped voice stopped me as I turned to go.

  I looked over at the nurse’s station. “Is one of you Beth’s supervisor?” The older-looking one, with brown curly hair raised her hand slowly. “Beth’s off for a week.”

  “Okay. Uh…thanks.” She gave a little wave and dropped her hand.

  “Great.” I winked at the good doctor and stalked out the door. If that asshole gave Beth any trouble at all, I’d be back, and he seemed to know it.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “I think we are done here.” The social worker assigned to Maddie’s kidnapping case closed her file folder and smiled warmly across the play school table at her. “Would you like to go play with the doll house while I talk with your mommy?”

  Maddie’s eyes lit up at the prospect. “Yeah! I mean, yes, please.” She waited for my nod then scooted off the chair and ran off to play.

  “Overall, I think she’s handling things pretty well.” The social worker spoke low enough to keep Maddie from over hearing. “She remembers a lot, but what she remembers most is when you arrived. She remembers you telling her stories, and washing her face with cold air?”

  I gave a little laugh. Not that it was funny at the time. “The room we were in was really hot, no open windows or anything. When the air turned on, I had my face pressed up against the vent, when she woke up she did the same thing, too.”

  “Ah, that explains it.” Cheryl patted my hand. “You handled it all very well, and I think that’s what she’ll remember most. Her abductor didn’t harm her.” Her abductor, that was how Brittany was being referred to now. “Other than being scared about where she was and why you weren’t with them, she wasn’t scared of who she was with.”

  “Well, I suppose that’s a good thing.” My lips scrunched up in concern. Maddie would probably need therapy, someone to help get her through what she remembered.

  “Thankfully, her abductor has made a full confession and won’t be heading to trial.”

  “What?” I sat up straighter. I hadn’t heard anything about that.

  “I’m sorry, I thought you knew. Yes, she did plea out for a deal. She’ll be placed in a mental health facility for three years, but she won’t b
e forcing Maddie here to testify against her in court.”

  My shoulders sagged with the relief. I had been fearing taking her to court for that. In the three days since we both returned home, I focused all of myself on Maddie. I had to. Not just because she needed me, but because if I didn’t, my mind would drift over to Rafe. And he was off limits now. I had seen to that.

  “Can you give me a recommendation for a therapist that I can take Maddie to? I’m sure she’ll need something for a little while.”

  “Yes, of course.” Cheryl dug through her other files and pulled out a sheet of paper, sliding it to me. “Here is a list of practices I recommend.”

  “Thanks.” I folded the list and stuffed it into my purse. “Really, thank you. You’ve really been great with Maddie these past few days.”

  “I’m just glad she’s doing so well. With a little help, I think she’ll come out of this just fine. But what about you?”

  “Me?” The question caught me off guard. Maddie was the one I was concerned about, she needed to get through this crap and come out whole in the end. I would deal with whatever came my way as it did.

  “Yeah, you aren’t made of steel you know.” Her raised brow and quirky smile softened her hard tone enough for me to smile back.

  “I do know. I’ll be okay.” I nodded. “Can I take her home now?”

  She studied me for a long moment then nodded. “Sure.”

  We gathered up the pictures Maddie had drawn and a few of her toys she’d brought with her for her last meeting with Cheryl and headed out. I hated the police station. Too much noise, too many unidentified smells, I just wanted out of there.

  Maddie held on to my hand as we walked out onto the front steps of the station. The sun was already high and the heat was blaring. Sliding my sunglasses down from my head to cover my eyes, I gave Maddie’s hand a little squeeze and started our way down the steps.

  “Beth!” Chrissie ran up the few steps to us with a grim expression. Large dark circles underlined her eyes. I hadn’t called her after everything that happened. She’d sent me a few texts asking about Brittany and if Maddie was okay, and other than returning short responses, I’d broken that tie. Chrissy wasn’t to blame, but I just couldn’t see her yet.

  “Mama.” Maddie whined and yanked on my hand. I could feel the slight tremble in her little hand and again my anger at the situation bubbled to the surface. Sucking it down again for her sake, I bent over and kissed her forehead.

  “It’s okay, Maddie, it’s just Chrissy, baby. Remember Chrissy?” Her eyes widened, but she didn’t pull away anymore. “She won’t hurt you.”

  “Of course I won’t hurt her!” Chrissy waved her hands in the air. “What are you telling her?” The angry tone didn’t help and Maddie scooted further behind me.

  I sighed. “Chrissy, you’re a twin, remember?” I snapped. Brittany hadn’t hurt Maddie, not physically, but she had scared the hell out of my little girl by taking her from her home and putting her in that car with Gray. She heard every horrible thing he said to her, and witnessed her getting smacked around by him before they finally put her in that horrible little room. The first night she was home, she had several nightmares and in each one of them she visualized Brittany’s screams and cries. She heard her begging for him to stop, making Maddie terrified that she would be next. When we tried to talk about it during the day, she didn’t remember much about the dreams. It was only right after waking up that she remembered them. But seeing Chrissy, who was identical to her sister aside from the hair, stirred up the memories for my little girl.

  “Maddie knows me!” She tried to peek behind me, but I moved over to block her.

  “Just leave her be. What do you want?” I was exhausted. Between making sure Maddie was okay every second of the day and not getting much sleep from her kicking me in the bed all night, and worrying about what Rafe was up to and if I would ever see him again, my mental and physical capacities were drained.

  The first night we were home, Maddie asked me a dozen times if Rafe was coming home. When I told her he wasn’t, she looked as heartbroken as I felt. The second day she asked a few more times and when I said he wasn’t going to be coming around anymore she just shook her head and told me I was wrong. “We are his girls,” she’d proclaimed. “I heard him say that. We’re his girls and he won’t leave us alone. Got it?” She had pointed her finger at me in much the same way he would when he was being stubborn. I decided to leave it be, even when Stephanie started again to tell me that all I had to do was call him. That he was just giving me space, and all I had to do was reach out. That wasn’t happening.

  “They are sending Brittany to the crazy house. You can’t let them do that, Beth. You have to help her.” I stared at her with an opened mouth. The three of us had been friends since we were kids, and before all of this shit, I would have done anything to help Brittany. That loyalty was severed the moment she took my daughter to a warehouse and let some nutjob lock in her a room.

  “She kidnapped my daughter, Chrissy. If you think for one second I’m helping her, maybe you should go with her.” I tried to keep my voice down so Maddie couldn’t hear exactly what we were saying. The anger over what she asked of me, anger at what her sister did to my daughter shook my voice.

  “This is all that biker guy’s fault. Not hers. She got all twisted up with him, like you are with Rafe. You can talk to Rafe, make him help.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Not only had I lost the man I loved, I had lost both of my friends. Maddie and I were completely alone now. I didn’t respond to her, I just shook my head, hoisted Maddie onto my hip and stalked off toward my car.

  If she said anything to my back, I wasn’t listening. I returned my focus to Maddie, who was more than happy to forget all about Chrissy and Brittany.

  As we drove home, a motorcycle ran past us and Maddie clapped while she pointed at it. “Is that Rafe?” she asked excitedly. I groaned. I should have known better to bring him around her, now she was attached and I would have to break her heart. Wasn’t it enough I’d managed to get mine broken again?

  “No, baby,” I said, and made our turn onto my street. Being late afternoon, the sun was already behind the trees of our block giving us plenty of shade when I rolled up to my house.

  “That’s Rafe!” Maddie squealed. In our driveway sat his bike, all shined up and looking no worse for wear. Leaning against it with his arms crossed and his eyebrows knitted in what I understood to be mild irritation was Rafe.

  Maddie undid her belt, a feat I had only seen once before when she thought she saw a puppy sitting on our porch, and scooted to her door. The lock was on so she couldn’t open it. “Hold on, baby girl.” I sat back in my seat, staring at him through the windshield.

  He didn’t move. Rafe just kept his eyes on me, watching me to see what I would do. Did he think I’d run? A part of me wanted to back out and drive away. He was dangerous. The last week couldn’t be clearer about the danger he brought to our lives. So why the hell did seeing him there, looking all pissed and hot, make my stomach flutter like some teenage girl?

  “Mamma!” Maddie whined. “Open my door!”

  “Hey, now.” I looked at her in the rearview mirror and she shied away, but only slightly.

  “I’m sorry. Can you please open my door?”

  I went back to glowering at Rafe as I shoved open my door and went to hers. “Maddie, you can say hi but then you have to go inside okay? I need to talk to him.”

  “Okay, okay.’” She jumped out of the car, landing on both feet before she took off in a dead sprint towards Rafe.

  His face instantly softened when he saw her coming at him, and a wide grin broke out across his lips. Bending down he scooped her up in his arms and tossed her over his head. She wiggled and screeched, gripping onto his neck once he caught her again. Something that looked so touching shouldn’t have been ripping my chest open so damn much.

  “Hey there, sweet thing.” He gave her a hug. “How’s it
going?” He asked her the question, but his eyes drifted over to me for an answer.

  “I got to play with a doll house today!” Madison proclaimed. “They were real Barbies!” Another twist in my gut.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Maddie, how about you go watch some TV while I talk with Rafe.” I didn’t look at him yet; I wasn’t ready for that much of a connection.

  “That sounds like a good plan. You go watch some cartoons, then when we’re done out here, I’ll take you both for dinner.”