Page 4 of Reckless

Victoria makes a sound somewhere between a laugh and a groan. “As in apparently right now.”

“Jesus Christ,” Koa mumbles, then takes a sip of his beer.

“Don’t bring him into this,” she mutters. “He had one job with immaculate conception, and even that got complicated.”

Under any other circumstances, I would laugh.

Under these, I am too busy watching another contraction rip through her.

Sin sees it coming before the rest of us. One hand drops to Victoria’s waist, the other finding hers just as she doubles over. He’s already there to catch her, his head dipping close as he murmurs so low I can only just hear it. “I’ve got you,” he murmurs. “I’m right here. Breathe with me.”

“If you tell me to breathe through this pain…” she grinds out, “… I’m going to commit a felony.”

“Against who?” He smiles.

“Everyone!”

“That’s my girl.”

Nitro is already rattling off details to the emergency operator at a speed that has to be testing someone’s training. Koa spins toward the main room and bellows for everyone to clear out. Bear doesn’t say a word. He starts steering people out of the doorway like they’re oversized toddlers who wandered somewhere they shouldn’t.

Ro slips in around the edge of the crowd, her eyes sweeping over Victoria with the kind of calm I desperately wish I could borrow.

Marley appears beside me so quietly I nearly jump. She’s already tied her hair back. I have absolutely no idea when she managed it, but if the world ever ended, I’d want Marley on my team. She’d probably coordinate the evacuation, hand out snacks, and tell everyone exactly where to stand without breaking a sweat.

“Okay,” she says, her voice low and even as she touches Victoria’s shoulder. “We need to get her somewhere she can lie down.”

“We need a damn hospital,” Sin dictates.

“Yes,” Marley answers, and there is something careful in the way she says it. “But first, we need to move her before she has this baby standing in the kitchen.” The sentence lands, and for half a second, no one speaks.

Then Deek’s voice rises from the main room, wildly unhelpful. “She is not having a baby in the kitchen. We eat in there.”

“Deek,” Bear grumbles.

“What? I’m being practical. Occupational health and safety matters!”

“You are being removed,” Bear mutters, walking toward his eldest son.

Deek throws his hands in the air. “I’m a road captain, not a midwife.”

“No one thought you were, kid. Let’s go.” Bear grabs Deek by the arm, pulling him away from the scene.

“I just want that on record!” Deek’s protest ends in a strangled noise that suggests Bear has grabbed a fistful of his shirt.

Victoria’s mouth twitches despite the sweat beginning to gather along her hairline. “I hope Deek knows I can still hear him.”

“He knows,” I tell her. “That has never stopped him before.”

Sin is watching her with a focus so fierce it feels almost indecent to witness, his thumb moving over the back of her hand again and again, a small, repeated motion that looks like comfort until I realize it is the only part of him he is allowing to move.

His voice stays steady when he speaks, but his eyes do not. “I’m getting you to the fucking hospital.”

Victoria opens her mouth to answer, but the next contraction slams through her before she has the chance.

This one is different.

Lower.