Page 806 of The Tempted

I’ve been poked and prodded and still I can’t hear fucking shit. It feels like someone is holding my head under water and I don’t fucking like it. Not one fucking bit. I need to get to Reina. I need to make sure she and the baby are okay. Without a fuck left to give, I maneuver myself off the stretcher, leaving the plastic surgeon working on my back behind me.

Swiping the curtain back, I stumble out of the cubicle and into the chaos of the emergency room. Doctors try to grab me and usher me back to my stretcher but I push them out of the way.

“Reina!”

I know her name sounds like a scream because of the burn in my throat but to my ears it’s less than a whisper.

Another doctor steps in front of me and before he opens his mouth, I fist his scrubs in my hand and glare at him. Ignoring his moving lips, I shove him to the side as a hand closes around my arm. I go to shrug the person off me, no one will stop me from getting to my woman. Forcefully, I’m spun around and meet Blackie’s worried eyes.

He says some shit I don’t comprehend and I lift my hands to my ears.

“Can’t hear shit. I’m fucking deaf,” I growl, well I think I growl...

I follow his eyes as he glances over his shoulder and points to the cubicle behind him where Lacey is sitting with Reina. My feet take off, leaving Blackie and whatever words he’s blabbing behind me and head straight for my girls. My eyes dart between them and the monitor that Reina is hooked up too. I can’t hear the familiar sound of our baby’s swooshing heart beat but I spot the steady numbers flashing next to an image of a heart. The wedding dress she was wearing has been cut off her and she’s in a hospital gown with a big strap across her belly. Her eyes find mine and I can tell she’s both exhausted and in pain.

Ignoring the burning sensations rippling over my back, I make my way to her bedside. I kiss Lacey’s cheek, trading spots with her and turn my eyes back to Reina.

“Someone tell me what’s going on,” I say, lacing my fingers with Reina’s and turn to my daughter. I draw in a deep breath and try my hardest to remain calm and patient as she speaks and I try to read her lips.

“Slow down,” I tell her as I continue to concentrate on her mouth and each word she enunciates I try to read from her lips.

Stopped labor for now.

Continuing to monitor.

Bedrest.

I lift her hand to my mouth and hiss in agony as the skin on my back feels as if it’s being torn apart. My eyes zero in on the bracelet on her wrist and the name it reads.

DeCarlo, Reina.

That’s not supposed to be.

Turing my eyes back to hers I shake my head.

“We’re supposed to be married,” I say, not giving a fuck if my voice is loud or low. I may not have taken my vows today, but I made a promise to Sunshine, told her there wasn’t anything that would keep me from marrying her.

Some fucking wedding, I gave her.

“Can’t hear shit, Reina. Don’t know if it’s permanent or some fluke shittin’ thing but my heart still works and that thing beats for you, always will. Made you a promise and I like to think I’m a man of my word. If you don’t mind marrying someone who can’t hear you but someone who’ll always love you, then let’s do it.”

She opens her mouth in a perfect little ‘O’ and her eyes widen through their exhaustion and I see the inner struggle she’s battling. She thinks I’m crazy, knows I am but, there’s a piece of her that wants to believe what I’m saying isn’t the crazy talking. She wants to believe this beaten down man’s heart is the one asking her to marry her.

Believe, Sunshine.

Keep believing in me.

Squeezing her hand tight, I turn to Blackie and Lacey.

“Where’s the priest?”

I feel Reina squeeze my hand to bring my attention back to her.

“Jack,” she says slowly.

Blackie rips the curtain next to us down off the clips and the priest Reina hired is in the bed next to her.

“You believe in signs, Sunshine?”

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