Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 74641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Not one single thing had happened, thank God.
But Michael must’ve been trying to provoke the woman.
Whatever his reason, he’d done it.
I could see the usually sweet tempered woman losing her cool before my eyes, so I’d put a stop to the questions and smiled apologetically at her before I’d left.
“Well, I am a doctor. There’s no reason you can’t listen to my directions,” he said sarcastically.
I shrugged and hopped up onto the table, leaning back and exposing my belly.
“Michael, today we’re doing a scan to make sure the baby is growing alright. Come stand right here,” she said, indicating a spot near my head. “You’ll be able to see this screen or that one.”
She pointed at the large flat screen on the wall, and Michael took them both in before he looked down at me.
“Does he know what you’re having?” Memphis asked happily, squirting a generous amount of lube on my belly before she started to run the wand over my belly.
I looked at the screen where the black and white grainy picture filled it.
“Yeah, he knows,” I informed her. “He still wants a boy.”
Memphis laughed.
“Weellllll, it’s most definitely a girl!” Memphis said, gesturing to a point on the screen. “Hamburger means girl. And she wants you to see that she is.”
Michael became transfixed with the screen as Memphis went along taking measurements, and showing us different parts of the baby’s anatomy.
Then they showed the face, and I looked up to Michael to see his face avidly focused on the screen.
His eyes scrutinizing her every feature.
“She’s perfect,” he mumbled, knowing I was looking at him.
He looked down, and I could tell he was on the verge of something big.
Some huge emotion had a hold of him, and I had a feeling it was joy.
“Well, let’s turn it to 3D,” Memphis said excitedly. “I can’t wait until mine’s big enough to see like this…oh shit!”
Memphis eyes were wide. “Don’t tell Downy! I haven’t told him yet!”
Michael laughed.
“He already knows. He’s told everyone he can that you’re expecting again, darlin’,” Michael teased.
Memphis’ eyes narrowed. “You’re kidding.”
Michael shook his head. “No, we’ve known for weeks.”
She turned back to the screen, clicked a few buttons, and then replaced the wand to my belly. “Oh, I’ll be getting him back. He’s such a shit!”
Michael snorted, and I burst out laughing, making the screen flip with my belly’s movement.
When I finally settled down, she ran the wand over my belly once more.
The orange screen was captivating as we saw our child in more detail.
“It looks like an alien,” I surmised. “Like a weird alien.”
Michael’s mouth met mine, and I couldn’t help the butterflies that filled my insides at his unexpected touch.
I was happy that he was happy.
And right now, that was all that mattered.
Thirty minutes later, we were out the door, with Memphis in tow.
“I can’t believe you’re making me come,” Memphis said in awe. “I didn’t think anybody but Downy was that stubborn.”
Michael, who was driving, pulled into the police station’s parking lot and parked in the back of the lot near the rear exit.
“Believe it. This is beyond your capacity. And I have a feeling I’m about to be ripped a new asshole for not sharing this information before,” he muttered grumpily.
Now that the excitement at seeing our baby had worn off, Michael was in protect mode.
His sole focus was on the two of us, and what was about to come.
He’d practically taken Memphis by force, and when Downy met us at the back door; I knew Dr. Mead had called him.
Just like he’d said he would.
Although Memphis had assured him that everything was alright, Dr. Mead still wanted to follow up just in case.
Which was another reason I knew he was a good guy.
I slid out of the seat, bending my knees to help with the impact as I dropped out of Michael’s massive truck, and landed on the balls of my feet.
That wouldn’t work for much longer.
I could just see myself now falling on my ass when I had another twenty pounds of baby added to my frame.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Downy asked, holding out his arm for Memphis.
Memphis walked into his arms, burrowing her face into his neck and hugging him tightly.
Michael had given her the bare minimum of what’d been going on to get her to leave with him, and she was obviously freaked way the hell out about the prospect of her employer being involved in something so vicious.
“Inside. To home base,” Michael ordered.
Downy’s brows rose, but nonetheless turned and followed Michael and I to what I later learned was the SWAT team’s shared offices.
The first person I saw was my brother with his legs propped up on the long table in the middle of the room.
I walked up behind him and hugged him hard around the neck.
“I love you,” I said to him.
He raised his arm up and circled it around my back as best he could do from his current position.
“Love you,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
I gestured to Michael.
“They’re killing our women.”
Chapter 18
Whiskey is my spirit animal.
-T-shirt
Nikki
That announcement dropped like a bomb in the quiet room.
“I need to call Trance. And we need to get Sam in here,” Michael announced.
Trance was a police officer for Benton, Louisiana. And Sam was an ex- Army Ranger who lived in Kilgore with the rest of us. He was a badass, as was Trance. I couldn’t figure out why they needed to be here, though.
“How about you tell us how they’re killing our women, and then we’ll go from there?” Downy asked shortly, curling Memphis into his body.
I sighed and took a seat.
I was sort of interested in hearing what Michael had to say.
I’d gotten bits and pieces, but I still wasn’t fully up to par with what Michael knew.
And apparently, the boys in front of me weren’t either.
Which pissed them off.
Greatly.
Michael started talking, and by the time he was done, not just Downy was fuming.
They all were.
“What the fuck, man? My woman works there!” Downy roared.
I reeled back.