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It physically fucking pained me to look at her.

The image I'd had in my mind, the one that had kept me alive when I was in the compound, hadn't done her justice.

The sight of her clutching her swollen stomachkilled me.

She was nine months' pregnant now.

And I hadn'tbeenthere.

Knowing she'd spent all that time alone, thinking I was dead, going through the pregnancy on her own?

Itbrokeme.

"You're here?" she kept saying over and over, tears streaming down that beautiful face I'd missed so fucking much. She released the hold she had on her mother's arms and waddled towards me, only to stop and quickly back away. "You're reallyhere?"

"Yeah, baby." There were so many things I wanted to say to her, so many things I needed to explain, like how much I loved her, and how sorry I was for leaving her alone in this, or how I felt when I thought I'd see her again, and how fucking much she made my heart race, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was, "Now, who does a guy need to kill to get a kiss around here?"

Hope didn’t kiss me.

Instead, she continued to shake her head and back away from me, chanting something aboutbreathe through itandit would all be over soonbefore howling out a pained grunt.

It broke my heart, but I knew what she meant.

I'd had plenty of those dreams for the past six months.

Dreams where we were back in my apartment together, only to wake up and realize weweren't.

It hurt like nothing else I'd ever experienced, and I was so fucking mad that she had to suffer that kind of pain.

All I had ever tried to do was protect her and keep her safe.

With her back to me and her hands pressed against the wall, Hope continued to grunt and whimper.

"Thank you," Lee whispered, speaking for the first time in minutes. Blinking rapidly, she looked to where a couple of Gonzalez's men had joined him in the clean up before looking back to me. "Thank you," she repeated, voice laced with emotion and sincerity.

Well, shit.

This was a one-eighty from the last conversation I'd had with the woman.

"You're welcome?" I replied, unsure of what the fuck to say to that.

Breaking away from the counter she'd been leaning against, Lee walked straight over and wrapped her arms around my waist.

Stunned, I just stood there with my hands at my sides.

"Thank you for loving my daughter," she choked out, squeezing me tightly. "Thank you for saving her life." Releasing me, she took a small step back before looking up at me and saying, "And thank you for being too damn stubborn to die."

Tears filled her eyes, but she didn’t bat them away, allowing them to fall down her cheeks instead. "I was so very wrong about you and for that, I'll be forever sorry, but we can talk about that later, because right now, I need you to go and take a lightning fast shower and change your clothes."

"What?" My brows narrowed in confusion at her strange request. "Why?"

"Becausemydaughter is about to give birth toyourson or daughter," Lee replied, before turning her attention back to Hope. "And she needs you to take her to the hospital in order to do that."

"The fuck?" I strangled out, feeling panic like I'd never experienced before wash through me.

Fuck panic, it was more like a tsunami of terror.

"Lucky," Lee soothed. "Hope's in labor."

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