Page 49 of Strip for Me

“You can do this and I’m right here. Let’s see our little girl and . . . I love you, Ellie,” Dom whispers to me, and I can’t reply to him as tears fill my eyes.

“I love you, too,” I say eventually, just before another contraction comes.

“I can see the head, Ellie. Now push,” the midwife demands, and I look up into Dominic’s eyes just as the contraction comes, and I do just that.

Forty-One

ANDRE

“Get Annie,”Todd shouts at me as I run into the club. I stop in my tracks when I see Annie is on the stage struggling out of the chair she’s tied to, and the backstage is on fire. The fire seems to be coming from the changing room, and it’s spreading across the ceiling as the room fills with thick, black smoke. I glance over to see Todd lifting Kaiden, who is bleeding from his stomach, and the whole of his white shirt is covered in blood. Todd has Kaiden’s blood all over his hands and is struggling to pick him up without hurting him. I see Todd look back at Annie with panic, not wanting to leave his sister, but Kaiden needs to get to the hospital. I have no doubt that Drew shot him and then tried to leave with Ellie. I don’t feel bad at all for beating the shit out of him.

“Get him out of here, and I’ll get Annie,” I shout at Todd, snapping him out of staring at Annie, and he nods, looking at his sister once more before running out carrying Kaiden. I push the chairs out of my way as I get to the stage and jump up. I fall to my knees behind the chair, seeing that he tied her hands up as well as wrapping the thick rope around her. It isn’t done up too tightly, I notice as I undo the knots.

“Annie, hold still,” I say as she wriggles against the rope as a piece of wood from above the stage lands on the floor next to us. I pull the rope when I get the final knot undone and I hold a hand over my mouth as I cough from the smoke. The smoke is starting to become blinding as I finally get the rope undone, and it falls to the ground.

Annie instantly gets up and says, “We have to get out of here.”

I nod, and she jumps off the stage, running towards the door with a glance behind her at me to make sure I’m following her. I follow her, coughing as more smoke fills the room, and I can hear the sound of sirens in the distance. I glance down at Drew as I run up the steps, he’s still passed out and I look back at the fire before looking down at him. His face is covered in blood, his nose looks broken, and he is bleeding from his foot where Ellie shot him. Just thinking about him with that gun and holding Ellie tightly in his grip makes me want to leave him here and let him die for what he did tonight.For what he did to Ellie.But, I know I’m not that kind of man, I’m not a murderer and I won’t have him on my conscious. I won’t murder him on the day my little girl is born. I pick him up and throw him over my shoulder, walking up the steps and out the door. There are three police cars pulled up outside, and I watch as an ambulance turns its lights on and drives away. I hope Kaiden and Todd are in there. I cough as the cold, clean air hits my lungs, and I walk straight over to the other side of the street. People try to help me with Drew, but I just drop him on the ground and look around as I cough some more. Two police officers run over to me, through the crowds of people that have turned up to help. They aren’t helping much by the looks of it. The police are mainly trying to get them to move away.

“There’s another ambulance on the way, sir,” he says, kneeling to check on Drew. I throw Drew a disgusted look, notwanting him to have the help I know he must need. I glance down at my broken knuckles and his blood mixed with mine on them and know I have to get to Ellie and Kaiden. Ellie is only thirty-six weeks, and it’s too early for her to go into labour. My baby has to be ok, there isn’t anything else that could happen. I briefly remember her standing in Drew’s grip, the front of her dress soaking wet, pain rippling across her face. I don’t think it’s a memory I can ever forget, the sight of her like that, so scared. She was so brave when she grabbed that gun and pulled the trigger, braver than I ever knew she was. I’m a lucky man, a very lucky man to have met her that night. To have fallen in love with her.

“This is Drew, he set the place on fire, tried to kill two people in there and tried to kidnap my pregnant girlfriend. Make sure you keep an eye on him and arrest him when he wakes up,” I tell them, and the officer nods, his eyes widening in shock. The people around us go silent and many of them move away after hearing my words. They don’t want to help him, and I don’t blame them.

“Did the ambulance take a blond man?” I ask the officer as I see Annie walking over to me. She looks terrible, with tears filling her eyes, and she’s holding a cloth of some kind against her head where it’s bleeding.

“Yes, he wasn’t in a good way, I’m sorry,” he tells me sadly, and I nod, ignoring the look he gives me, and walk away. Kaiden will make it through this.

“Wait, you have to be checked over by a paramedic and answer some questions. You can’t leave, sir,” the officer shouts behind me.

“My best friend is on his way to the hospital and fighting for his life. My pregnant girlfriend is having my baby right now. I’m not staying. My name is Andre Courture, and I will be at the hospital,” I say, and he nods, seeming to come to the conclusionthat letting me go is the best way. There was no way I’m staying for a moment more, anyway, my family needs me.

“My car is around the corner, I have my keys,” Annie says, holding out her keys for me. I take them and look at the club, watching as the whole building collapses in on itself and smoke blasts out of the door. When I turn around and walk away from the club, I realise straight away that the club means nothing, only my friends, Ellie, and our baby do. That’s all I need to worry about. The club is what once saved me from a life that wasn’t worth living, got me off the streets, and gave me the guys who are like family to me.

Forty-Two

TODD

“Please sit back sir,let us do our job,” The paramedic says as I lean over Kaiden. The events of tonight are running through my head like a bad movie. When I got that text from Ellie, saying Annie asked her to come to the club, I knew something was wrong. I didn’t expect to walk in on her ex-husband dragging her like a doll up the steps of the club. Everything else that happened after that seemed like a blur. Ellie shooting Drew in the foot, her being in labour, walking into the club to see the fire and my sister tied to a chair on the stage. Then, there was Kaiden, lying unconscious on the floor and just about alive. I use the wipes the paramedic gave me and wipe his blood off my hands. I can’t even think about Ellie right now, I can only pray she and the baby are safe and Dominic got her to the hospital in time.I know he will look after her.

“How long until we get there?” I ask in anger. My voice comes out chipped and annoyed. I’m not annoyed with the paramedic, just that I can’t lose Kaiden. Fucking hell, he has to make it.

“Not long,” he replies as he holds a hand over Kaiden’s stomach, applying pressure. The bullet went straight through, but they won’t know anything more until they get him intosurgery. I’m no idiot, I can see the amount of blood he has lost. The ambulance finally stops, and I open the doors just as a doctor jumps into the ambulance with a nurse following. I glance over as they lift the bed and pull the ramp down, Kaiden is still unconscious and looking very pale. We can’t lose him, not now. He needs to meet the baby, and I seriously wouldn’t know what to do without my slightly annoying friend, who is like a brother to me. I walk behind them as they rush him into the A&E, and they all start talking quickly about his condition. I don’t take my eyes off his blond hair that needs a cut and how his skin is getting paler by the second.Fucking hell, how did we get here?

“Please wait in the waiting room, over there, sir. We are taking him straight into surgery,” a nurse says as I try to follow them into a room where they take Kaiden, but she stops me.

“How long is he going to be in surgery? How long until we know he is going to be okay?” I ask her, watching through the glass window of the doors as they start stripping him of his clothes.

“About four hours I think, but it could be anytime. There is really nothing you can do, why don’t you go and sit down. I can make you a cup of tea?” she asks. As much as a hot cup of tea usually makes things better, I know it won’t this time.

“No, thank you. Where is the maternity ward?” I ask, knowing I can’t do much, and Kaiden would want me to make sure Ellie is okay. She gives me a strange look, but once she sees how annoyed I’m getting she answers.

“It’s upstairs, on the third floor but sir, there is spare clothes in the nurse’s office. They won’t let you in the maternity ward with blood on you.” She tells me and I nod, following her into the nurse’s room and changing my shirt. I wipe my face with some wipes she gives me.

“Where is the ward?” I ask, chucking the wipes into the bin.

“Take the lift and then follow the signs. Please remember the surgery is going to be a few hours at least, so don’t rush back.” the nurse tells me, and I nod. I glance at Kaiden as I walk past the room he is in as they start sticking needles into him and watch all the people running around.He will make it.I turn around, knowing if I don’t look away and find Ellie, I’m going to lose it. I want to go and find Drew and kick the shit out of him for this. I press the button for the elevator, waiting for it to come and getting inside with the other people. It takes me a while to find the delivery room on the third floor, with all the dead ends and lack of useful signs. I walk up to the locked doors and press the buzzer for them to let me in. I have to wait for them to ask Ellie before they let me in at all as they said it’s a security thing. The midwife leads me down a quiet corridor, and points at a room with the number eight on it. I knock once before I walk in, and Ellie greets me with a big smile. She is sitting in bed, leaning against some pillows and wearing a hospital gown. Her brown hair is up in a bun, and her beautiful, hazel eyes look tired but happy to see me. She doesn’t look like she just had a baby, she looks amazing.

“You okay?” I ask, rushing over to her, and she nods, lifting her hand and sliding it into mine. I lift her hand and kiss the back, watching as she traces her eyes all over me, checking that I’m okay, I bet. The slight sound of a baby’s cry makes me turn toward the window where Dominic is holding the baby, bundled up in a white blanket.The baby is okay.

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