Protecting Braden (Custos Securities Series Book 2)

by Luna, David

  Cade shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry about. You’re not to stress. Leave that for me.” He rubbed her knee. “Tell me how I can help.”

  She shook her head, took a deep breath, tears still coursed their way down her face, “It’s already better. Thank you, really.”

  “Where’s your bag? Let’s get your music on, at least.”

  Her tears, which had slowed, began full force again and she wailed. “I was out on a date! What the hell was I thinking? I don’t have my bag. I don’t have anything! I’m not prepared! It’s probably just Braxton Hicks, or something I ate. I haven’t had any contractions in a while. I’m so stupid, I probably don’t even need to be here!”

  Cade untucked the blankets from around her feet, pulled her foot closer to him and began massaging it. Braden knew from a lot of experience how good his hands were. He watched Maya’s face relax and heard her sigh as Cade spoke. “Maya, look at me. That’s it. Take a deep breath and let it out for me. Is the bag packed in our guest room, by the door?”

  Maya nodded and indelicately wiped her nose with the back of her hand, causing Vaughn to offer her a handkerchief from his pocket, which she took and played with in her lap. Cade continued to massage her foot with one hand as he pulled out his phone with the other and dialed. “Coop, where are you? Turn around and go back for her bag at our place. I’ll have someone bring it down to you so you don’t have to get out. Yeah. OK. Bye.”

  He dialed again and waited. “Brody, can you spare a few minutes, or are you working a job right now? Good. I need you to go upstairs to our place. Braden’s unlocking the elevator for you right now.”

  Braden sat up and pulled out his phone to disarm the elevator security and then nodded back to Cade. “Head up to the guest bedroom and grab Maya’s go bag. It’s right by the door.” He pulled the phone away. “Anything else you need, sweetheart?”

  Maya sniffled. “My pillow, my Kindle and its charger, and my phone’s charger, too. Oh, and my slippers that are at the foot of the bed and the robe that’s there, too.”

  Cade smiled and nodded, the phone back at his ear. “Did you catch all that? Yeah, thanks. Take it all down to the front. Cooper is on his way back to get it and I don’t want him to have to get out of the car for it. Yeah. Thanks, man.”

  He hung up the phone and resumed massaging her foot with both hands. She settled back into her pillow, both her hands held by Vaughn and Braden, and took a relaxed breath that caught the second the door swung open. A tall, extremely handsome, African American man walked in, an iPad in his hand that he was focused on, and a surgical cap covering his head. He looked up and gave them a smile and then tipped his head to the side. “Vaughn.”

  Vaughn smiled and stood, hand stretched out as the doctor approached. “Hey, Trey, nice to see you, man. I didn’t know you were at this hospital. Maya, this is Dr. Trey Woods. He’s been a member of the gym for years.”

  Trey smiled down at Maya. “Maya, how are you feeling?”

  “Better, now.”

  “I understand that there’s been a misunderstanding about your birth plan?”

  Cade stood up, held out his hand. “Zavier McCade, and this is my husband, Braden McCade. It’s nice to meet you. Her birth plan was ignored. The nurses that were in here left to talk to the head nurse.”

  Trey nodded and smiled. “I’ve got Sabrina coming in to work with you. She’s great, you’ll love her. So, Maya, you look beautiful, but how are you feeling? Sounds like you came in with contractions, but haven’t had any in the last thirty minutes. Is that accurate?”

  Maya smiled. “I like you.”

  “I like you too, gorgeous.”

  Vaughn grumbled. “Don’t even think about it.”

  Trey laughed, tipping his head toward Braden and Cade. “She’s safe from me. I play on their team, not yours.”

  Vaughn blushed and stammered. “Oh. Fine then. Good.”

  Trey chuckled and glanced back at Maya. “So, no more contractions?”

  Maya sighed. “I’m sorry. No. Maybe it was Braxton Hicks, or something I ate.”

  “Well, you’re here, so why don’t we check you out and see?”

  Maya nodded. A woman entered their room, a bright smile on her face. “Hey, Doc, looks like I’m working with Maya.” She turned and grinned at everyone in the room. “Hi everyone, I’m Sabrina. Doc, you want to run some tests?”

  “Yeah, let’s do that. Thanks, Sabrina.”

  As they set about getting ready to run their tests, Maya asked to use the restroom and the fetal and heart monitors attached to her were removed. She stood up with the help of Braden and Cade and was headed toward the bathroom when she squeaked as she felt a tiny pop and looked down to see water trickling down her leg and onto the floor. She looked up, a shocked look on her face, just as Cooper walked in with a huge smile and her stuff in his hands. He took one look at her expression and they both looked down at the floor. His eyes widened comically. “Shit, Sunshine, let’s get you back in bed.”

  She blushed, but shook her head. “No. I have to pee.” She turned around to face the doctor, who’d come up behind her. “Can I still use the bathroom?”

  He smiled. “Yes, of course. Contractions could start any minute or they could take hours yet, requiring Pitocin to get you going. We’ll get this cleaned up, you can get right back in bed, and we’ll check and see how you’re doing.”

  Maya blushed again. “I’m sorry for the mess.”

  Trey laughed. “Gorgeous, that’s the least of the mess this room has seen. Don’t worry about it. Take your time, and we’ll be ready for you when you get back.”

  She hurried into the bathroom to do her business. When she came back out, she was feeling much better, more herself. She was helped back into the bed and when monitors were placed back on her, she took a deep breath and glanced around. “Where’s Sabrina? There’s altogether too many penises in this room and not nearly enough vaginas. Cooper, where’s Mom? Doc, where’s my OB?”

  Trey laughed. “Feeling better, I see. Sabrina went to page Dr. Thomas, but she should be here any minute. Do you really want to get rid of me and my penis that badly?”

  She laughed despite herself. “No, I quite like you. You can stick around.”

  Cooper put down his phone. “Dad’s parking the car. They should be up here soon.”

  Maya took a deep breath, happy her parents chose this week for an impromptu visit north. “OK.”

  Trey smiled as Sabrina walked back in the room. “Dr. Thomas just arrived. She was at a dinner party, apparently, and needs to change, so she’ll be here in a few minutes.”

  Trey smiled warmly at Maya. “As your contractions haven’t started up again, would you like to wait for Dr. Thomas to get here, so that she can check your cervix and run any tests she feels are necessary?”

  Maya bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

  “No need. She’s your OB and you’ve been seeing her for the duration of your pregnancy. I’ll go check on some other patients and come back to check on you in a bit. Dr. Thomas may pull me in for the birth. Rest easy and ring the call button if she doesn’t arrive in the next few minutes and you need anything.”

  Maya smiled shyly. “Thanks for helping with the nurses.”

  Trey winked at her and made his way to the door. Braden felt the tension leave her body. He was grateful that she’d found a good OB that she felt comfortable with. Cooper and Cade went about setting up her music, got her comfortable in her own slippers and robe, and propped her up on her own pillow. In no time, she was much more at ease.

  When her mom flew into the room and gave her a hug, both women got teary-eyed and had a whispered conversation. When Sylvia saw that her daughter’s hand was caught up in Vaughn’s, she raised her eyebrow at her daughter and made her way around to the other side of the bed and sat by Maya as she extended her hand. “Hello there, I’m Sylvia Sullivan, Maya’s mom. Who might you be?”

  Vaughn smiled and clasped her tiny hand in his f
ree one. “Mrs. Sullivan, it’s an honor to meet you. I’m Vaughn Bowman.”

  “Please, call me Syl, or if you must, Sylvia. Vaughn, from the gym in Cooper and Cade’s building?”

  “Yes, Ma’am, The Knockout is mine.”

  Sylvia sighed. “I must look dreadfully old to you.”

  A mortified expression passed across Vaughn’s face. “What? NO! You’re beautiful, Ma’am. I can see where Maya gets her good looks.”

  Sylvia grinned unabashedly. “Oh good, so you won’t insult me any longer by calling me Ma’am, right?”

  Vaughn blushed. “No, Ma… Uh, no, Mrs… Sylvia.”

  Sylvia grinned again and patted the back of his hand. “Good man. So, are you dating my daughter?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “And you chose now, when she’s thirty five weeks pregnant, to take her out?”

  “Technically, no. I began asking her out well over a year ago. I think I just finally wore her down. But now is as good a time as any. And she’s never been more beautiful.”

  Sylvia’s smile grew wider and she looked at Maya who had a shy smile on her face and a nice pink blush on her cheeks. “Darling, I like this one.”

  Maya narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, he grows on you.”

  Sylvia laughed at that and hugged her daughter tight. She got up and made her way around to her son. After giving Cooper a hug, she made her way over to Braden and Cade. “How is my favorite couple doing?”

  Braden smiled and pulled her into a hug. “We’re doing really well, thanks, Syl. Kinda serendipitous that you’re here visiting this weekend! Where’s Jon?”

  “Oh, you know Jon, he doesn’t trust anyone with his baby, so he dropped me in front and is parking himself, instead of making use of the valet. He’s probably parked as high up in the parking structure as he can get, with no cars near Eleanor.”

  Everyone nodded, as if this was not news. Vaughn spoke up, unable to hide his amusement. “Eleanor?”

  Cooper replied, “Oh, yeah! Eleanor is a beauty. She’s a mint condition 1969 Mustang. My love of cars comes from my dad.”

  As if the discussion conjured him up, a man that was the spitting image of Cooper, only with a full head of gorgeous, wavy silver hair, walked in. “How’s my baby girl?”

  Maya raised both her arms and wiggled her fingers for a hug, happy to see her father. “Hi, Daddy.”

  “Hey, Sugarplum. How are you? How’s the baby? Everything good?”

  They hugged while she answered, “Yeah, I think so. My water just broke, so maybe things will get going here soon. No turning back now!”

  “That’s my girl.” He turned and gave his son a hug and then did the same with Braden and Cade. “How are all my boys?”

  He got positive responses all around and then turned back to Maya, which is when he saw her hand engulfed in Vaughn’s much larger one. He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. “And who are you?”

  Maya, exasperated, chastised, “Daddy! Be nice. This is Vaughn. We were on a first date tonight, and I started having contractions, so he brought me right in.”

  “A first date? Sugarplum, you’re about to have a baby, is this really the time to be dating?”

  “I wore her down, sir. I’ve been asking her out for over a year now, damn near the first time I met her, through Cade and Cooper.”

  Jon harrumphed. “How do you know my boys?”

  “Your boys rescued my daughter, Mikayla, from her kidnapper and brought her back to me, safe and whole. I’ll be forever in their debt.”

  Cade stepped up to Jon and put an arm around his shoulders. “Jon, this is the man who owns The Knockout, the fighter’s gym that’s located in our building.”

  “Wait, you’re Vaughn Bowman? The boys have told me a lot about you.”

  Vaughn chuckled good naturedly. “All good I hope, Sir. Your daughter is one of a kind, and I’m doing my best to win her over.”

  At that point, Maya blushed furiously, covered her face with her hands. “Please, can we not talk about….” She stopped mid-sentence, curled into herself and grabbed her swollen belly as she groaned in agony. She rode the contraction out, breathing deeply. When it ended, she let out a whoosh and gasped. “Oh, my holy hell. That’s much worse than the ones from earlier!”

  At that, the door opened yet again and there was Dr. Thomas, right on time. Maya saw her and exclaimed, “Oh, thank god! I’m so glad you’re here. My water broke, and I just had a contraction. It was awful, Dr. T. You need to get that anesthesiologist in here, stat! I want drugs. And on top of those drugs, I want more. I want to be floating in bliss and I need you to make that happen.”

  Dr. Thomas’s eyebrows rose and she smiled at her patient. “Maya, we’ll get you an epidural in time. Let’s do an exam and see what we’re dealing with and get you hooked up to a contraction monitor, in addition to the fetal and heartbeat monitors they’ve got on you.”

  Maya grumbled something and her doctor had to ask her what she’d said. She turned scarlet in embarrassment and whispered, “I’m still leaking.”

  Dr. Thomas chuckled. “Maya, there’s no need to be embarrassed. Your water broke and your body is trying to tell you that it’s ready.”

  A scared look crossed Maya’s face. “It shouldn’t be ready though. It’s too early.”

  Dr. Thomas shook her head. “We’ve discussed this. It’s a bit early, but we’re going to handle it.” She looked up at the crowd of family and friends, “If you’re here, you know her well enough to know she wants you all up by her head, not down by her feet, while we’re examining her or while she’s laboring.”

  At that, everyone moved up toward Maya’s head and the doctor did her exam quickly. “Maya you’re 60% effaced and five centimeters dilated. I’m going to give you an hour or so and see where we’re at, when I come and check on you. Technically, you have twenty four hours before the fact that the water breaks becomes an issue, it’s doubtful that’ll be the case here, but everyone is different, so I don’t know how quickly you’ll be ready. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to push the button to call the nurse and they can get in touch with me.”

  Maya took a deep breath, let it out and nodded. As Dr. Thomas left, Sabrina headed back in carrying a pitcher and a cup. “I brought you some water. Also, you don’t have to sit. It often helps move things along if you get up and walk around the halls. We have birthing exercise balls as well, if you’d like one of those. I can show you some exercises that you can do on it, if you want. You can shower in your room, even take a bath if you want. We want to make this as comfortable as possible.”

  Maya nodded, said she’d like to try the ball, and Sabrina left to retrieve one for her. She worked on the ball, took a bath and took a lot of walks, up and down the halls. She’d been having contractions that were spaced pretty far apart for hours and was getting tired. It was another five hours later that her contractions finally started to come faster. She was 80% effaced and seven centimeters dilated when her pain levels increased and her contractions came closer and closer together. At that point, she finally received the epidural she’d been requesting.

  During labor, only four people were allowed in the room. Braden and Cade were there, her mom was there, and Vaughn had refused to leave, which she secretly loved, though she’d huffed and bristled for show when he’d said it. He’d only smiled and kissed her lips, which caused her to grin and relent.

  Dr. Thomas handled Maya with care and they all admired the woman for her competence and rapport with her. Maya handled the pushing like a champ, but she was exhausted after an hour and her frustration was showing. Vaughn wiped her forehead. “You’re doing great, honey. Keep it up.”

  “I’m never doing this again! What the hell was I thinking?”

  Braden smiled. “You can do this.”

  Dr. Thomas leaned to the side to make eye contact with Maya. “I need one more big push from you, Maya. I can see the head, so I just need you to last a little bit longer, alright?”

  Maya gr
owled, but bore down and Sylvia let out a gasp as the baby was finally pushed out. “It’s a girl! Oh, she’s beautiful. She’s just gorgeous.”

  Sylvia had her hands over her mouth and tears coursing down her face. They all heard a tiny noise and one of the nurses came and gathered the crying baby and brought her close for everyone to look. Instead of the nurse handing her over, however, Dr. Thomas explained, “Because she came so early, she will need some NICU time. The nurses are going to run some tests before we can let you hold her, to be sure everything is alright.”

  The room felt supercharged, all of a sudden. It was as if the fact that Maya was only thirty five weeks along had been forgotten and the reality of the moment sunk in. Everyone had eyes on the two nurses that were diligently working to clean up the baby and check her vitals. The silence was broken however when, sharing a secret look with Braden and Maya, Dr. Thomas smiled. “I know you’re tired, but I think someone else wants to make an appearance. Are you ready to go again?”

  Maya smiled tiredly at Braden, who winked at her and leaned over to kiss her on her sweaty forehead. Maya nodded. “Let’s do this.”

  Sylvia’s focus went from the baby being worked on back to her daughter. She looked at Maya and Dr. Thomas in consternation. “Wait…What do you mean, go again?”

  Cade turned to Braden, a shocked look etched itself over his features. When Braden nodded, tears escaping his eyes, Cade gave an excited whoop, picked his husband up in a crushing hug and kissed him with more excitement than finesse. Braden had been keeping this secret for months now and it had been killing him. The bigger Maya’s belly had gotten, the more worried he’d become that they wouldn’t be able to keep their secret. Much to Maya’s chagrin, she’d also gained quite a bit of weight during the pregnancy, so that, combined with the fact that the babies were tiny, kept the questions to a minimum.

  Surprise and joy laced his words as Cade whispered, “Twins, baby.” And then louder, “Wait, is this why you kept telling me you didn’t want to reveal the sex? Every time I went with you two for an ultrasound you had them turn the screen away from us.”