Page 60 of Dark As Coal

But that wasn’t the only thing that was happening that day.

Because not even two minutes later something else happened.

I couldn’t fucking believe it.

Could never fucking believe it.

The man that was getting off his bike… it better be high time to rip that Nomad patch from his kutte.

And now that I had Adeline in my life.

My light.

It was okay for me to admit this.

I fucking missed the hell out of Creature.

However, that wasn’t what had my full attention.

No, it was the whiteness in Adeline’s face when she grabbed her stomach.

It was time.

Adeline

“Umm, your husband knows there’s a bathroom in here, right?” The nurse asked as I started to feel another contraction.

“He’s fine. He just needed five minutes. He’ll be back.”

“I swear, men. It’s the women that experience childbirth. Not them. Like we can get up and move around when we have a seven-pound ball being shoved out of our vaginas.”

I bit my tongue, wanting to tell her to send me another nurse.

I wouldn’t stand for anyone to say one thing bad about Coal.

But then I was in the throes of another contraction, which took my breath away, but only for a few moments.

I didn’t hear the door open.

I tilted my head and looked at the woman, “Are you married?”

She nodded.

“Would you trust him with your life?”

She nodded.

“Would your man kill for you?”

She hesitated, unsure, but nodded.

“Would your man torture someone but flaying the skin off their bones? And he would do that simply because someone scared you?”

Her face went pale.

I smiled, “Yeah. My man would do all of that. And he has done all of that. So, if he needs five minutes while I’m in labor because he’s seconds from killing everyone in this hospital because I’m in pain and he can’t do anything about it… then he’s allowed all the time he needs.”

The nurse didn’t say anything, not when Coal appeared at my side, wrapped his hand around my throat, his fingers placed just so, so he could feel my pulse, and then he whispered, “I can’t take you out in public.”