Page 51 of Strip for Me

“You gotta tell me what it was like to see our daughter born,” Andre says and pulls me into a hug, patting my back. He lets go, and Andre walks straight out of the room in a rush. I don’t blame him, he must want to see his child, and I know Ellie wishes he was there. I know she wishes we all were, but Drew messed that up for us.

“Madam, I’m really going to have to have to look,” I hear, and I look over as Annie nods at her and then looks at me. The nurse gets some paper towels and makes Annie replace the cloth on her head with them.

“Ellie is okay, right?” she asks me gently. Ellie has a good friend with this one. Annie is a good person for Ellie to have around, well, all of Todd’s sisters are. Maybe not Cleo; she’s too young and doesn’t think before she does something.

“Yes, they are both doing really well,” I tell her, and she lets the nurse walk her to the door before stopping and looking back.

“I didn’t know who Drew was. I got a phone call from him pretending to be an electrician you had hired, and he said that you guys couldn’t meet him there, so you gave him my number. When I got there, he held a gun to my head and made me call Kaiden. I don’t think he expected Ellie to answer. I think the plan was to kill Kaiden and me,” she says, her voice cracking a little, and the nurse wraps an arm around her shoulder as she starts to cry.

“It wasn’t your fault, Annie,” I tell her gently when she calms down a little.

“Yeah, I know, but I was stupid. I should have known something was up when I let him into the club. I’m so sorry,” shesays, and I get up walking over to her. I pull her into a hug as she cries, knowing that it’s not her fault, and Ellie wouldn’t blame her. The nurse rubs her back gently, and there’s silence in the room for a long time as Annie gets out what she needs to.

“Ellie will want to see you–when you’ve had your head looked at–and your brother, too. I’ll send him a text to let him know, and your sisters, too,” I tell her, and she nods, wiping her eyes.

“Okay, you’re sure?” she asks.

“Yes, she needs her friend,” I tell her.

“The club is gone, it collapsed. I’m so sorry, I know what it meant to all of you,” She tells me.

“The club meant something, it gave us all a home when we didn’t have one. But, all our family is safe, that’s the only thing that matters,” I say, and she nods before she walks out with the nurse, looking a little more relaxed. I sit back down, leaning my head against the seat and think back to the moment the baby was born. Ellie only had to push a little bit before the baby came out, she was in a hurry to meet us all. Seeing Ellie holding her little girl for the first time is a mental picture I know I will never forget. I helped clean the baby up and put on her first nappy. I took some pictures so that Ellie has some photos to keep of the baby’s birth. She does look a lot like Ellie when I picture our little girl in my head. I pull my phone out and send some texts to Jude and Todd. The next few hours are filled with me pacing the room, asking the nurses for any news, and panicking about Kaiden.

“Are you a relative of Mr. Mitchells?” a doctor asks, coming into the room a few hours later and closing the door behind him. I stand up, and he waves a hand for me to sit down as he takes the seat next to me.

“Yes, I’m his brother,” I answer automatically. We might not be blood related, but he’s like a brother to me and that’s all thatmatters. I know they won’t tell me much if I’m not a relative of his.

“Mr. Mitchells is a very lucky man, the bullet missed anything too severe. There is a slight swelling on his head, where I assume it was hit when he fell, and it knocked him out. It will take several weeks for him to recover, but he is through the worst of it. If you would like to see him, I can take you?” he asks, and I nod. I start running my hand through my hair, and I have to take my glasses off for a second to rub my eyes.Fucking hell.

“Let’s go,” I say standing up. I pull my phone out of my pocket and ring Andre as I follow the doctor down the corridor and towards Kaiden.

“Kaiden is good, they said the bullet missed anything important, and I’m going to see him now,” I say, and Andre sighs down the phone.

I hear the baby crying in the background, and Ellie shout out, “Holy ducks, I’m so relieved. Tell Kaiden I love him, and I’m coming to see him soon.”

“Did you get that?” Andre asks, and I laugh.

“Yes, I’ll tell him, tell Ellie to get some rest,” I say, and Andre agrees with me before putting down the phone. Kaiden is on the second floor in his own private room which has bright lights and a large window.

“Here you go, but be aware that he is on a lot of pain relief and will be for a few days. It tends to make them sleepy and a little confused,” the doctor says as he waves at the door, “Thank you,” I say as I walk in.

Kaiden is plugged up to some machines, he looks pale and is still sleeping, but I’m so fucking glad to see him. I walk over and pull a chair close to the bed before sitting down.

“Wake up, before I go and get a book and start reading it to you. I know this great one on the history of politics in the eighteen hundred–” I say, knowing he hates when I talk aboutmy books or attempt to make him read. If anything is going to wake him up, it’s going to be that.

“Don’t do that, fucker,” Kaiden says, moving a little on the bed and blinking his eyes open. There’s a tube in his nose and a load of wires in his arms, but he doesn’t move much.

“You scared the shit out of all of us,” I say, and he grumbles something, but it’s hard to understand him. I wait for a while as he seems to drift off a little, but then something wakes him up as he looks at me.

“Is Ellie okay?” he asks.

“Safe, she and the baby are safe. Everything is finally right, now,” I tell him, and he nods, closing his eyes and drifting back off to sleep.

Forty-Four

ELLIE

“Ellie,”Andre says as he walks into the room, and I look over at him. Our daughter is in my arms, fast asleep. Todd has gone to the shop downstairs to get some things and call Jude, to see if she can pop to our house and get my bag I packed for the hospital, full of baby clothes and things for me.

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