This is really happening.
“When we pull up, you stay in this car until I tell you,” Ringo demands. “Got it?”
I nod, even though I don’t spare him a glance, my eyes focused ahead as JD slowly idles the van onto the dirt road, stopping in front of the first house.
“Let’s go,” JD barks, and again, some of the guys slip out the side door, while JD cuts off the engine and gets out too, following behind.
It’s eerily quiet inside the van. I can hear Ringo breathing next to me, and glance over my shoulder into the back to see Murf sitting with Daniel, who has been bound and gagged.
Squinting back through the windscreen, I see the dark silhouettes of the Sadists disappear into the front yard of the second house in, and Ringo releases my hands to take his gun out.
“You doing okay?” he whispers, and I glance at him, trying not to cry.
I bob my head, but then shake it, and end up shrugging, because clearly, I’m not doing so well.
His warm hand reaches up, cupping the side of my face as he presses his forehead to mine in that way he loves to do, and his spicy scent, the one that has me feeling like home, envelops me.
“I’m scared,” I whisper.
“I know.”
“I don’t know how to be a mum.”
“I don’t know how to be a dad,” he rasps. “But we’ll figure it out. Together.”
A fat tear bursts from my eye, and his thumb catches it, like he knew it was coming.
“You really want to do this with me?”
“Fuck, yes. Not even an ounce of doubt, Abs.”
Shit, I love it when he calls me Abs.
“I love you,” I whisper past my trembling lips.
“I fucking love you too.” He growls in that raspy way of his, and leans closer, pressing his lips to mine.
I sob into his mouth, hating that, yes, once again, I’m crying, but right now, these are happy tears. Any maybe a few scared tears too, but mostly, happy.
The vibration of Ringo’s phone breaks us apart a moment later, and his bright screen lights up our faces as he opens the text from JD.
Get in here. Now!
19
My gun is raised as I step through the door, my free hand reaching back to my wife, making sure she doesn’t barge past and get herself shot. She clings to the back of my cut, her breathing rapid, desperation clawing at her with the need to see if her daughter really is alive.
“Down there, Sarg.” JD uses my title as he steps out from the hallway that leads to two bedrooms, as Vender keeps his gun pointed at a woman who is trembling with her arms wrapped around her waist, perched on a rickety bar stool by the kitchen bench.
“This the nurse?” I ask, and Vender nods as I feel Abbey shift behind me, before she finally shoves past.
“Where’s my daughter?!”
The woman flinches as Abbey comes charging for her, but my wife doesn’t touch her. She holds herself back, getting in the woman’s face.
“Y-you’re A-Abbey?” the woman trembles, and I can’t hold back the growl that rumbles in my chest.
How could this woman kidnap my wife’s baby?! I want to fucking kill her!
