1. Loves Labor （Hannah）

1

Love's Labor (Hannah)

T his baby wasn't coming easy. An hour must've passed since the last labor pain. More than twenty minutes since the small medical team gathered around me stepped outside for a break.

Long enough to wonder how the hell I'd gotten myself into this.

Like I had the luxury of dwelling on the past. Right now, through the pain and confusion, a bigger question weighed on my mind.

I had to know how I'd get myself and my new born bundle of joy out safely.

We were so close. Just another day or two of driving from Texas to the West Coast, where I had a cargo ship waiting to take us away from everything I knew.

New Zealand. That's where I wanted to raise my son. Somewhere stable, safe, and far, far away from every crushing debt Hannah Davis ever owed.

I'd lived under a new name for seven months. New career. Brand new life.

A more normal one, happier than anything I ever had in Tennessee, or wherever my coding skills took me.

Somewhere I'd never have to hear Dom breathing his threats in my ear, or watch my back for anyone wearing a Sicilian mafia tattoo.

Somewhere I'd never have to think about Dust again. Did such a place exist on this planet?

Even now, the bastard wouldn't leave my mind.

He was there every time I closed my eyes.

There, every time our son shifted deep inside me, eager to see the world for the first time.

There, when I looked into the empty room surrounding me, knowing he was about to miss his first born's entrance into the world.

There, there, and there, whenever I thought I'd hold it together just a little while longer, to get this baby out of me so I could heal and hit the road.

Some men don't know the meaning of leave. They're with you in your dreams, your nightmares, and the taste of their lips lingers on yours when there's nothing except bittersweet loss in your heart.

My fingers stretched down, flexed, clenching the edge of the bed. The cold, clinic metal in my fist was a terrible substitute for his hand – the manly, reassuring grip I knew he'd have on me right now if I hadn't taken off months ago, leaving him behind.

It wasn't like I wanted to. I did the right thing, took the only option I had under the gun.

By abandoning him, I'd saved his life, and so many others .

Winding up in this bed alone, about to give birth, was proof positive that I wanted to save everyone in that stupid motorcycle club, including my lover, my brother, my precious little niece.

They wouldn't die thanks to my mess.

I wouldn't force the Deadly Pistols into protecting me, and sinking their teeth into more than any little Smoky Mountain biker club could chew. Nobody stood a chance against the monsters waiting for my blood. They were bigger, stronger, easily able to decapitate entire rival groups overseas without a trace, and take everything they had.

Maybe someday, they'd overplay their hand, and a bigger, meaner beast would chew the Sicilian Brotherhood apart. Maybe Dom and his men would just be a bitter memory then. Maybe I'd be able to send a secret note to Knoxville, telling Dusty his son was happy and healthy in a new country, and that he'd always have a piece of my heart.

Yeah, maybe .

Hey, maybe a unicorn would come crashing through the wall and spirit us both away to an all-you-can-eat chocolate buffet in the next ten minutes.

Magic horses were a lot safer than those loud, growling Harleys that used to get me hot for the man who'd gotten me pregnant, anyway. I laid back, more painkillers flooding my system, letting them soak in before I had to force my early baby out.

I was still seeing unicorns and motorcycles in my head when the door swung open.

The doctor and the nurses were back, thank God. Then I looked up, and saw hell itself on two legs and a leather jacket.

Dom paused to smile before stepping forward, wiping his switchblade on his jeans. The stuff staining it was too thick and red to be juice from the pomegranates he always plucked at in front of me.

Blood. Lots of fresh, dark blood, leaving a rust-colored stain on his grey trousers. As if I needed another reminder this man can murder without having to be careful with the evidence.

“Fuck, peach, thought we'd never find you.”

We? The door swung open again, and three more goons entered. All of them bigger, balding, and not nearly as happy to be here as their boss.

“Took us on a damned road trip we really didn't have time for. I'll add it to your tab. You can thank me later, bitch,” he said, flashing his teeth, before his smile disappeared into a dark scowl.

Crying wasn't even a choice. When I brought one hand to my cheek, it was already wet.

Hot, glassy tears came for Dust, for my son, for the future I'd feared, staring me in the face. I mourned the lonely, safe ones I'd never have, now that the monster had tracked me down.

Dom waited about thirty seconds before snatching at my hair, jerking my face hideously close to his. “You really thought you could run? That I wouldn't fucking find you?” His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed, fixing on me like an eagle about to have lunch. “Used to think you were smart, back when we first cut our deal. I thought you'd work smart, work fast, and make us all some money. I'm never this stupid. You made a fucking fool of me, Hannah.”

He sighed, his fingers shaking angrily. “After I'm through with you, I'll be kicking my own ass for being blind. Believe me. Still, you're a bigger fool than me if you think you'll get away with wasting our time, unpunished. Stop shaking, bitch. Don't scream, or you'll get another one of those sweet little nurses killed on the way out.”

Another nurse? As in, he'd already murdered one?

Jesus.

The goon on my right lifted my arm, pulling the IV out of it. Shaking my head, I stared into his deep, dark eyes, desperate to see something human.

“Please. Just let me have my baby first. I'll do anything you say after, if you'll just –“

“What'd I tell you, peach?” His blade moved against my throat, telling me I'd made a huge mistake trying to reason with him. “The time to shut the fuck up was sixty seconds ago. You've pissed away enough of my time, and I'm not letting you take no more. We're walking, while we've got this ward blocked the fuck off, before all those assholes bust in here and call the cops. Let's do this easy. Last thing I wanna do is rip that brat out of your guts and handcuff you to the nearest laptop so you can pay me my fucking coin, all right?”

My tongue pushed hard against the brutal lump forming in my throat. It wouldn't go down.

That rock was my grief, my anger, my self-loathing for failing my poor baby son and myself.

Christ, for getting an innocent woman killed. The blood on his knife didn't lie. He'd killed her to get to me, taken her life like it was nothing, just like he'd murder anyone else in his path if I didn't shut my mouth and play along.

So, I did. I listened like a good girl through the pain, the regret, the terror. Allowed them to help me up, lifting me away, wincing when another contraction came.

I followed him in a haze with his men's rough arms holding me by the shoulders, escorting me out to the van waiting past the nearest exit. Its windows were so dark they might've been black holes.

I laid down inside on the crappy mattress, trying my damnedest not to completely lose it.

The van's loud engine growled, and the vehicle jerked forward, just as loud Italian rock started blasting from the speakers. The human bulldogs sitting next to me never looked up, messing with their phones, as casually as if they were waiting for drinks at a busy restaurant.

“Told you I'd get everything I'm owed. Every fucking cent, Hannah,” Dom rumbled back at me from the front passenger seat. “You're gonna work those precious little fingers to the bone. Don't give a shit if you have to type with that kid on a leash. We both know why you're here. And if you act dumb, give me some shit about playing innocent, you're gonna feel the back of my hand straight through that morphine. The fact that you owe me in the first place means you're guilty as sin.”

Innocent? The hot, red tears streaming out my eyes wouldn't stop coming as the harsh word rolled over in my mind.

If there's one thing I knew, I'd brought this on myself.

I took their loan. Used money I couldn't pay back fast enough to live it up, pretending I had it all, trying to force the premature success I should have earned honestly. I let Dusty take my heart, pull me in deeper, and put a baby in me who didn't deserve to suffer any of my mistakes.

Too bad that didn't matter to the bastards around me, driving me off to nowhere. Too bad some mistakes were so big they chewed a woman up and spat her back out in pieces, little bits she'd never stitch together again because the damage was irreparable.

My belly twitched, and I put my hand over it. I owed the entire world an apology for how naive and selfish I'd been, but nobody more than this poor, sweet babe, and the man who'd helped make him.

It didn't matter now. The karma train rolled on, loud and furious, heading straight for me.

I'd let her plow through, ruin the last black scrap of a heart beating wildly in my ribs. In her collision, I'd pay for what I'd done.

But I had to keep her away from everybody else. My family didn't deserve to die for my mistakes.

I wasn't giving up, even if Dom's bastards rolled me up in chains. They'd ruined my escape, but they wouldn't stop the hateful, lunatic determination scorching my eyes each time my tears worked their way out, rolling onto the beat up mattress under me on the van's floor .

I couldn't run anymore. I couldn't keep making the same mistake.

I had to stand my ground. Fearless, honest, and alive.

I swore, with only God as my witness, I'd bring my baby into the world, and keep myself breathing.

Opportunity would come, if I just sunk my nails in, and held on.

I'd send these animals back to hell, and give my son a life where the only monsters were make believe.