Page 169 of Bide

If alarm bells weren’t already ringing, they sure as hell are now. “What happened?”

Caroline’s deep, shaky breath scares the ever-loving shit out of me. “She was in the shop picking out flowers for the guestroom and I told her to let me help but she refused and she fell. Kind of bad.”

“Is she okay?” Three words have Jackson’s confusion shifting to alarm, and I hold up a hand in the universal silent command forhang on a fucking second before you lose it.

“I’m driving her to the hospital now.” Muffled sounds of protest break out in the background that Caroline ignores. “She, uh, says you know.”

Oh, fuck. “Is the baby okay?”

“I think so. She's acting like she's fine but I think she's in real pain.”

“Okay.” Fuck. I rake a hand through my hair, grimacing at the tangles I find. Guess that's what I get for sleeping on it wet. “Okay. Tell her we're on our way.”

“We?” Three voices echo.

“Yes,we,” I reply with a sigh. “I'm with Jackson now, we can be there in a few hours. What hospital are we going to?”

A slight kink in her voice, Caroline relays the name as I snatch my keys off the counter, and I’ve barely hung up before Jackson’s on me. “Who's in the hospital?” he demands, stealing my keys, holding the front door open for me, and ushering me outside in one smooth second.

I wait until we’re a safe distance away from any stairs that shock could possibly send him tumbling down before replying. “Lux.”

Jackson stops in the middle of my building’s parking lot. “What happened?”

“She fell or something, I don't know the details.”

I watch as panic settles into every facet of Jackson’s being. He pales. His eyes become unseeing. His chest rises and falls unevenly, breaths ragged, and God, if it was possible for your heart to break more than once, mine would.

“Hey.” I loop my fingers around his wrist and shake gently. “She’s fine. And we’re gonna go make sure, okay?”

Jackson doesn’t protest when I wrestle my keys from his clenched fist, nor when I guide him to the passenger side of my car. He remains silent, staring at my dashboard with a listless frown, as I stab Serenity Ranch’s address into the GPS.

It’s not until we’re on the road that his head jerks toward me. “Wait, did you say baby?”

* * *

“Alexandra Winona Jackson.”

Jackson's enraged voice bounces off the hospital walls, steam practically pouring from his ears as he barges into Lux's hospital room.

I'm sorry,I mouth at her as I scurry in behind him.I'm so sorry.

“You'repregnant?”

Lux and I wince simultaneously.

“I'm sorry,” I repeat. “So sorry.”

I didn’t mean to tell him. The baby thing just slipped out and then, when he pushed, I couldn’t exactly lie. Just like he couldn’t exactly help himself from making me pull over, swap seats, and attempt the world record of ‘number of speed limits broken in one trip.’

“Don't apologize.” Jackson shoots me a withering yet weirdly hot look that very much contradicts his claims of not being mad at me for withholding vital information.

His expression softens momentarily when he turns back to his sister, reclined in a hospital bed, some kind of monitor strapped to her stomach, ankle wrapped up in a bandage and propped on a pillow. “Are you okay?”

She waves him off. “I'm fine. Just a sprained ankle.” A hand goes to her stomach, smoothing over the round bump that's significantly more prominent than the last time I saw her.We're fine, she seems to say.

“Good.” Jackson nods stiffly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Because I'm gonna kill you.”

“Oscar, relax.”

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