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I treat her nicely. Buy her things, take her places. I never raise my hand against her. I don’t force her to do anything for me. I do the cooking and the cleaning at the house. I even stay out of her personal space.

To the outside world, I’m a prince.

To her, I’m her captor.

But to me? I’m something else entirely.

I walk up to her, and to her credit, she only takes one step back. As the club’s enforcer, many run when they see me coming. I doubt she knows that. Whenever I need to take care of club business, I leave her at the clubhouse with strict orders for all prospects and full-patch members to watch her.

“Roommate. Kidnapper. Call me what you want. I’ll always consider you a friend.”

“But you can’t.”

I chuckle softly, finally showing her something other than a face she’s known as a kidnapper. Hopefully, one that seems kind. I brush a loose strand, just one that had fallen from her braid, behind her ear, then move my hand away before she could say anything about unwanted touch.

“I can do whatever I want.”

To prove my point, I grab her hand, spin her around, and march us both inside the hospital. General already sent out the exact location the club can wait in while Peaches is in labor, and I take us both down one hallway after the next till we get there. I don’t even let go of her hand when we come up to the packed waiting room and see almost every brother and old lady in attendance.

“Any news?” I ask King, as he’s the closest one to us by the door, continuing to ignore the way Natalie tries to pull her hand free of mine. I barely hold in my smile when I feel her give up and just deal with the fact that I’m not letting her go till I want to.

He shakes his head. “Nothing yet.”

Good.

General notified everyone that Peaches and Kooper were at the hospital about an hour ago. I know they were planning on coming in tomorrow anyway since the kid was already a week late and they were looking to induce labor or something. Not sure how you force labor, but apparently it’s a thing.

Instead, Kooper found his girl in a puddle in their living room. She was pissed that she couldn’t go back to finish her game. Peaches is a big gamer when she’s stressed, and this kid has made her a junkie for online games of late. Most women get food cravings, but all she wanted was another hour on her computer.

We all knew Peaches would be unique in life. I just don’t think any of us figured it would be like this.

“Why is it taking so long?” Law growls as he continues to pace.

“These things take time, honey,” his woman, Babygirl, tries to persuade him. She’s a nurse, after all. Not for labor and delivery, but surely she knows what she’s talking about, right?

But as I look at the large clock on the wall, I can’t help but agree with Law. His daughter has been in here for close to twenty hours. That can’t be good for anyone.

The room is still relatively packed, but a few brothers had to go back to change guard duty, and a few others had kids to take care of. It’s six in the morning, and I’m sure after school drop-off, this place will be filled once more. Those who stayed took turns catching winks on the hard-ass chairs. No clue why hospital chairs can’t be comfortable. Those who are waiting here are never here just for a few moments. It always takes longer than expected. The very least they can do is make us wait in comfort.

I had half a petition mocked up in my mind at three this morning about demanding recliners be put in all waiting rooms when I tried to shut my eyes for more than ten seconds.

I’m exhausted, but I bet it’s nothing like what Peaches and Kooper are going through.

Footsteps on the linoleum have all of us looking up. The first noise we’ve heard in hours coming this way.

Kooper walks in, looking more drained than I’ve ever seen the man.

“What’s going on? How’s my kid?” Law is the first to stand and come over, followed by Casper and Chains.

“She’s good. Tired. We both are.”

“What’s the issue?” Chains crosses his arms.

As the only brother here who’s had a kid recently, he’s the “expert” we have right now. He’s been trying to keep all of us, mostly Law, calm. Law might not remember his daughter, not really, but he’s trying to build back the relationship they had before he lost his memory of both her and her deceased mother. This is kind of a karma moment for him, since Ruby had to deal with the unknown of whether Law was even alive for so long. A sick kind of karma that Law wasn’t aware of, since he was in a coma and the club made that call, but karma nonetheless.

“My kid has his mother’s sense of direction and is turned around or something,” Kooper says. “They’re getting Ruby prepped for an emergency C-section. They say it’s the safest way to get him out right now since she’s been pushing for so long. We’re getting it done now. I just wanted to let you know.”

“Where’s General?” Casper asks.