Page 18 of Guarded

He carried her into the bathroom, set her carefully down on the toilet. More blood rushed into the bowl. Bright red. Fear clutched at her throat.Oh my God.

“I’m calling 911,” Matt said, phone already in hand as he dialed.

“No,” she said sharply, making him stop and look at her. “It’ll take forever for the ambulance to get here. You can get me to the hospital way faster. Just call my doctor and tell her what’s going on, so someone there is ready for me.”

For a moment it looked like he would argue, but he did as she said, talking to the doctor while she did her best to clean up and put a pad in her new panties. She was in the process of pulling the dress over her head when Matt reached his arms around her again.

“She said to go straight to maternity,” he said, lifting her carefully. “They’re waiting for you and she’s on her way up.”

“Okay.” Shit, her heart was fucking pounding.

Stop, she ordered herself. The faster her heart beat, the more blood she would lose. She had to calm herself somehow.

Putting a hand to her distended belly, she sent silent messages to the baby.You’re going to be fine. Just hang on. Stay in there.

Matt rushed down the stairs with her, paused only to shove his feet into his shoes and grab his keys by the door, then carried her into the garage. As soon as he put her in the front seat Briar immediately leaned it back, raising her feet onto the dashboard in an effort to elevate her hips and hopefully slow the bleeding. There were no pains or contractions. What was happening?

Matt hopped in behind the wheel and fired up the engine. “It’s gonna be okay,” he told her as he reversed fast out of the garage.

Briar didn’t answer, too lost in her thoughts, afraid to move… And far more afraid that their baby had already died.

****

Matt drove as fast as he could without putting them at serious risk of getting into an accident as he raced them to the hospital. Part of him thought it was a mistake not to call an ambulance, but Briar was right. They couldn’t wait. He could have her to the hospital in a matter of minutes.

He glanced over at her. She was silent, rigid in her seat, her face pale, one hand pressed to her belly. Streaks of drying blood marked the insides of her thighs and calves. What the fuck had happened? Was it the sex? Had he done this?

A car pulled out in front of him. Matt automatically flung an arm out across Briar’s chest to keep her from jerking forward as he hit the brakes, then laid on the horn.

Cursing under his breath, ignoring the flung up middle finger from the elderly driver in front of him, Matt kept on the horn until the jackass pulled over. The truck’s tires squealed as he hit the gas and raced past the car.

A dark wave of fear rose inside him, threatening to swallow him whole. He pictured Lisa poised on the end of their diving board, sharing a secret smile with him before she jumped into the pool with their nieces.

She had floated to the surface facedown moments later. Already gone, though Matt hadn’t known it. Even though he had done everything humanly possible to save her and their baby. Now Briar was bleeding heavily…

He shoved the thought aside, forced back the icy wave of dread flooding his veins. He would not lose Briar or the baby. He couldn’t. And he couldn’t let her see how fucking scared he was. She needed him to be her rock. He had to hold his shit together, no matter what happened.

She stared unblinkingly through the windshield, her expression anxious. He needed to reassure her.

Reaching over, he pried her left hand free of her belly and squeezed tight. Her skin was cold and clammy. “Halfway there. Not long now.”

She gave a distracted half-nod. “Don’t talk. Just hurry.”

He was going as fast as he dared already. But with the lives of his wife and child on the line, it didn’t feel nearly fucking fast enough.

Chapter Five

Briar had tried every trick she knew to calm down, and nothing was working. She could handle pain. Stress. Hunger. Cold. Sleep deprivation. She had been trained to combat all that a long time ago.

But she wasn’t the only one at risk here. She was terrified she had lost the baby. That would devastate her, and maybe Matt even more after all he’d already lost.

She lay on her back on the hospital bed in one of the maternity treatment rooms, a fresh pad wedged between her legs as a nurse came in with a Doppler ultrasound. Matt was waiting out in the hallway. The staff wouldn’t let him in right now and Briar didn’t want to cause any delays by arguing about it. She could get through this by herself.

Her anxiety spiked when the nurse readied the machine. They already had her hooked up to an IV and were getting ready for a transfusion if necessary. “Let’s take a listen,” the woman said, squeezing some cold gel onto Briar’s abdomen.

Briar held her breath as the nurse placed the probe on her belly and began moving it around.

A strong whooshing noise came through the speaker.

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