Page 13 of One Hellion of a Christmas

Had Sancho…touched Hellion?

Why else would the exam be too private for us, her life partners?

On either side of the door stood Vaughn and Elias. Vaughn had Amala in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder, asleep and ignorant of the chaos that was brewing in the corridor. Eliaswas running interference with Emmie and Anya, keeping them away.

That wasn’t an easy task, especially when it came to the fire-breather that was Emmie Armstrong. But with a little help from Poppy, Elias had been successful so far. Thankfully, Lucy and Kin had needed to finish up their own shopping with their husbands. They still weren’t aware of Hayat’s adventure with Sancho.

Vaughn had taken up a sentinel stance as soon as Abi had whispered something to him. Not ten seconds later, the doctor was asking us to step out of the room so she could better examine Hayat.

The squeak of Jamie’s shoes on the floor was white noise. Sparks’s prayers became more vehement the longer he kept his eyes closed, his Spanish rapid-fire as he asked God to forgive him and punish him all in the same breath. Whatever it took to exchange places with Hayat.

“How long has it been?” Jamie growled as he passed in front of the door again, his glare on Vaughn. But it was Elias who answered.

“Two minutes since you last asked,” he told Jamie patiently, ignoring the vibrating of his phone as he adjusted his cut over his black button-up. Without the leather vest proclaiming him a member of the Angel’s Halo MC, no one would have suspected he was a biker. He spent most of his days behind a desk, sketching blueprints for the projects his family’s construction firm built.

“What are they doing in there?” Jamie stopped in front of the two other men on his next pass. He finger-combed his thick blond hair back from his face, his eyes wild in a way that Elias recognized. Jamie was seconds away from releasing his full-on crazy. “Just tell us! Was she…hurt?”

His voice cracked, causing Sparks’s prayer to cut off abruptly, his eyes snapping open.

I stood there, my heart beating so hard and fast I could barely hear Elias attempt to soothe Jamie’s fears. What had Sancho done to her? Why couldn’t we be in there with her, but Abi and Samara could?

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

It should have been us in there. No one but us. Why couldn’t we be in there?

Suddenly, Elias was struggling to hold me back. I didn’t remember moving from the spot where I’d been watching the door. But I couldn’t stop myself. I needed to be in that room with Hayat. I needed to see her and touch her and hear her fucking breathing.

“Ky, you have to calm down, man. Don’t make me be the one who has to tell Hayat that Vaughn put a bullet in your head.” Elias was breathing hard as he tried to keep me from opening the door. “Come on. Just a little longer and then you can see your girl. I swear. A few more minutes, brother.”

Sparks and Jamie each grabbed one of my arms, jerking me back. But it was the feel of the cold metal of Vaughn’s Glock pressed to my head that had my feral side shutting down long enough to take a step back. Elias hadn’t been exaggerating. Vaughn wouldn’t have hesitated to put a bullet in me.

I noticed the silencer on the weapon, the way he hadn’t even jostled Amala as he’d pulled the gun from wherever he kept it holstered. His eyes didn’t flicker from my face. His expression didn’t alter. There was no emotion in him. None of what he gave to his wife and child, and sometimes Samara, was visible. Abi had given him a command. Keep us out. And he would ensure we remained fucking out.

The door opened abruptly, but Vaughn didn’t rush to lower the gun. Instead, he took a few seconds, slowly exhaling before he stepped aside.

Abi stood there, rubbing her hands over her belly, shaking her head. “I probably should have worded my request for privacy a little better,” she said with an apologetic half smile.

“Probably,” Elias agreed while Vaughn carefully replaced the gun in the holster, never once disturbing his daughter’s sleep. “Are we good now? Can they go back in?”

Abi bit her lip and glanced over her shoulder. “Sammy, let’s give them a minute.”

Samara and the doctor exited the room. As soon as Abi was out of the way, I was through the door. Hayat was sitting up in the hospital bed, her hair in tangled knots around her as she tucked the blanket up under her arms, watching us with hooded eyes when we surrounded her.

“What the fuck was that about?” Jamie demanded, slamming the door behind him.

“I just needed to be sure everything was okay.” She glanced from him to Sparks and, finally, to me. But as soon as our eyes connected, she was back to looking at the other two.

Swallowing the knot of emotions trying to choke me, I attempted to control my breathing so I didn’t scare her. She looked small in that bed. A bandage covered the wound on her cheek, her lip was split in two places but hadn’t been stitched, and there were so many bruises on her face.

She rubbed at her wrists a few times before groaning, and she forced herself to stop.

“Sure of what?” Jamie snapped, his usual patience with her shot to hell after the scare of almost losing her. “What aren’t you telling us, Hellion?”

“I…” She ducked her chin. “This isn’t how I thought I would tell you. I don’t even know how I was going to announce it. Everything has been so confusing, and then today…”

Pausing her rambling, she locked gazes with me again, but this time, she didn’t immediately look away. I grasped her hands carefully in mine, lifting them to my lips. “Whatever is going on, we don’t care. All that matters is we love you. Always.”

“Goddess.” Sparks bent so he could brush a kiss over her forehead. “I’m so sorry.”

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