Page 36 of Unleashed
I’m shaping a snarl, ready to tell him he doesn’t know a goddamn thing about me when my phone vibrates against the stone.
The number flashing on the screen makes my gut seize. My tail. My man on her. I snatch it up. “Talk.”
“She’s at the hospital,” he says, steady and clipped, the way I trained him to be. Usually, that tone anchors me. Not now. Not when the words slam straight into my chest like a bullet. “ER first. Now upstairs.”
Every muscle locks. Ice crawls my spine; fire follows. “What the fuck happened?”
“She had a medical emergency. Paladino had her rushed to the hospital.”
My heart stops. The world slips sideways, and I lurch to my feet, bottle still in my fist. “Is she okay?”
The pause is long enough to kill.
Then, “She’s pregnant, sir.”
For a second, I swear I misheard. My knees nearly give. “Say that again.”
“She’s pregnant. According to my source, she started bleeding, which is why Paladino took her to the ER.”
The bottle explodes when it hits the marble, bourbon bleeding like amber blood over my boots.
Pregnant.
I can’t process it. Can’t fucking breathe around it. My body forgets how. My chest seizes so tight I clutch at it, fingers digginginto muscle and bone, desperate for air that won’t come. My vision narrows to nothing but her—Everly’s body, Everly’s tears, Everly’s hand pressed to her stomach. My baby.Ourbaby. Mine.
The world blurs. My skin goes cold, then fever-hot, adrenaline snapping through my veins until I’m shaking. My chest crushes inward, ribs caging a heart that can’t slow down. I can’t catch a breath, like the air itself refuses to stay in my lungs.
“Tell me she’s okay.”
“She’s fine, sir.”
“And the…” I choke on the word. “The baby?”
There’s a long pause. Too long. “The baby’s fine. For now. They’re keeping her overnight for observation.”
“Jesus Christ.” I crouch, roughing a hand through my hair, my thoughts a complete mess. “And he’s there with her?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Fuck!” The thought knifes through me so hard I choke on it. My stomach twists, bile scorching my throat. I picture her in a hospital bed, pale, broken, crying out for me—and I’m not there. Paladino is. That motherfucker is there taking up space meant for me.
Fear floods me, so sharp it burns. Fear, like when I was a boy locked out in the dark, pounding on a door that never opened. Fear, like every time a gun shook in my hands, and my father told me I wasn’t enough. Except this time, it isn’t about me. It’s her. It’s the baby. It’s everything I can’t lose.
“Stay put. I’m on my way.” I hang up and start running, faintly hearing Nicoli calling after me, but I don’t stop. I can’t. I need toget to her. I need to fucking be there. Fuck trying to be a better man. Fuck trying to give her space. She needs me, and by God, I’ll be there.
“Isaia! Wait!”
My feet hit the gravel, and I don’t slow. The Ferrari gleams under the weak moonlight, low and sleek, waiting for me like the weapon it is. I yank the door open, the dash lights blink like a pulse I can’t catch, when Nicoli’s hand slams the frame.
“Isaia! For fuck’s sake, stop.”
“Get your hand off my car.” My voice is pure menace, scraped raw.
“You’re not thinking?—”
“The fuck I’m not.” I whip on him, chest heaving, vision blurred with rage and panic. “She’s in a hospital bed withmy babyinside her. She fucking needs me. I’ve never thought clearer in my goddamn life.”
He doesn’t move, his stare nailed into mine. “You walk in there, you put her at risk.”
