Page 42 of Riot

“You trust me, yeah?”

“With my life.” With Seren’s too. Riot won’t let anything happen to us.

“Then please, baby, let the nurse take her.”

I tear my gaze from him to the red face of my daughter. Silvery tear tracks stain her cheeks, and her eyes are brimming with more. It breaks my heart to see her like this. I would take her pain in a second.

“Come on, Vee,” he cajoles. “Let them do their job.”

A sob breaks out of me as I hand her over to the nearest nurse.

She offers a kind, reassuring smile, but it doesn’t ease the swirling terror in my belly. “I promise we’ll take good care of her. Follow me and I’ll show you where you can wait while the doctor examines her.”

My throat is so clogged, my hand wraps around it as if I can ease the pressure with touch alone.

She moves briskly to the treatment area, and I follow at a jog, unwilling to let my daughter out of my sight.

Riot’s hand is glued to my back as we pass cubicles and medical equipment. Someone is wailing behind a curtain. It shreds my nerves.

The nurse holding Seren rushes into a room while another blocks our path.

“I know you’re worried, but the doctors need to focus on getting your daughter treatment. The best thing you can do is take a seat and let them work.”

She gestures to the chairs behind us, and my body rebels at the idea of not being with my child.

Riot slips his hand into mine, and I cling to him like an anchor. “Come on, Vee.”

My chin wobbles. “Please take care of her,” I beg the nurse.

I’ll get on my knees if it’ll help.

“We will. If you and Dad can take a seat, someone will be out to you soon.”

I don’t correct her assumption that Riot is Seren’s father, and neither does he. All I can focus on is how empty I feel without my daughter.

“She’s gonna be okay,” Riot assures me, but I don’t know how he can say that when he looks so freaked himself.

I press a hand to my stomach as tears burn tracks down my cheeks. I’ve experienced bone-crushing fear in the past, but this… this is a whole new level of hell.

A sob rips from my mouth before I can stop it. And then another.

Then I’m crushed against Riot’s chest, his arms wrapped around me so tight, I couldn’t escape if I tried.

I cling to his shirt, soaking in his warmth and the soft leather of his kutte.

She has to be all right.She has to be.

Acid torches my throat, and my lungs ache as I struggle to get in air.

What if…

Shit, don’t think like that.

Riot leads me over to the chairs and eases me into the nearest one. He squeezes my knee, and I lean into the heat of his touch, my body frozen to the core. I don’t think I’ll ever be warm again.

“You need anything?”

I shake my head, because the one thing I need, I can’t have. “What if there’s something really wrong?”

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