Page 108 of Forged in Steele

Her father lifted his shoulders and eyed Jared. “Which means, if you hurt my daughter again, I’ll know about it, and I’ll be all over you.”

“Dad,” Bristol warned. “Don’t scare him off before we even have a chance to find out if we have a future.”

“No worries,” Jared said. “I don’t plan to hurt her.”

Her dad kept his gaze fastened to Jared. “See that you don’t.”

“Yes, sir,” Jared said. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a debrief we need to attend.”

Bristol couldn’t be any more thankful for the change in topic. “And you all can go home.”

“We’re headed to your grandparents’ house,” her mom said. “Your gran and grandad are waiting for us, and if I know Gran, she’s making breakfast for everyone.” Her mother looked at Jared. “Will you join us?”

“If Bristol wants me to.”

“Of course.” If she weren’t in uniform and on her way to the debrief she would take his hand.

She started off.

He came alongside her. “I hope you don’t mind me confessing to your family.”

“Not at all.”

“Your dad took it better than I thought he would, but I’m glad to have it over with.”

“Actually,” she looked up at him. “It’s not over. You still have to tell my grandparents, and they’ll be the hardest sell of all.”

Thankfully, Adair took charge of the debrief as Jared couldn’t concentrate. His mind wandered between thanking God for the positive outcome, remembering the sight of Luna snuggled in her mother’s arms, and thinking about Bristol’s last comment about her grandparents.

There would be hours and hours of paperwork to do to close out this investigation, and he would be the one who would compile it all. He could claim that he needed to do the work now, but he also knew Adair would give him time to get some sleep before finalizing the reports that would flood in from every person in this room.

And then there would be questioning of Sonya Pratt and Reya, something Jared would insist on doing himself. He couldn’t allow Bristol to join him when she was an active participant in the altercation with the man. Jared would also have to write his own statement, something he and she should do right away before any facts were forgotten or misremembered.

“No. No,” Piper whispered and grabbed Jared’s arm. “I think my labor has started.”

“C’mon.” Jared stood and took her arm to lead her into the hallway, signaling for Bristol to join them.

By the time Piper reached the hallway, she had her phone to her ear. “It’s time, Nick. The baby is coming. I’ll wait in the lobby for you.” Piper listened. “Love you too.”

She hung up. “This isn’t our hospital. Nick’s on his way to pick me up.”

“Do you have enough time to go somewhere else?” Bristol’s voice rose as if she didn’t want another child to be in jeopardy.

“Contractions are just starting.” Piper grimaced and bent over.

Jared had no clue what to do. He looked at Bristol for help, but she was intently watching Piper until she stood back up. “That seemed really strong. Why not just have someone check things out before getting on the road?”

“I’m fine. We just need to find a place to sit in the lobby and time the contractions. Then I can decide if I stay or go.”

Jared took Piper’s arm again and led her down the hallway. He didn’t know if this was the right thing to do, but she didn’t shake off his hand so he kept moving.

“Over there.” Bristol pointed to a seating group in a secluded alcove.

They made their way across the large space and sat.

“We were taught to follow the 5-1-1 rule in our birthing class,” Piper said. “Labor may be active and we should go to the hospital if contractions happen at least every five minutes, last for one minute each, and have been happening consistently for at least one hour.”

“Were these your first contractions?” Bristol asked.

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