“Why hasn’t she been arrested yet?” I asked, picking up the picture of what Linda last looked like.
“Nobody can find her. She disappeared the day she got kicked out of the house,” Luke said. “We’ve got a BOLO out on her, but she’s good. Nobody’s seen her at all, even her ex-husband.”
I took the last remaining seat, which happened to be a kitchen chair that was made of old leather.
Once I was situated, I pulled Mercy down onto my lap, and wrapped my arms around her, effectively cocooning her in my strength.
She’d been awfully quiet since she’d learned of Linda’s involvement, and I was worried.
Worried that her head was back in that church, where her whole life had changed in a single instant of time. Where her boyfriend, the man she was supposed to count on above all others, had turned on her. Had taken his hand to her, beaten her senseless, and then raped her for all to see.
She surprised me, though, by asking, “So what are y’all going to do?”
A knock on the door had Foster standing to move towards it.
Astonishingly, the man that came in was Silas.
“Finally, what have you got for us?” Sam asked roughly.
“If you’d chill your tits, he’d be able to talk, big fucking brother,” Sebastian growled as, he too, pushed his way past Silas.
Sam snorted and offered his hand to his brother, and I smiled, seeing a little of myself and Foster in the two of them.
“Move out of the way, this is fucking heavy,” Trance’s voice called from the hallway.
Speaking of brothers…
I looked away from Sebastian and Sam to find Trance walking in with what amounted to a large stack of papers on top of about ten boxes of pizza.
“Happy wedding dinner, big brother,” Trance said as he sat the offerings on the coffee table.
Mercy giggled, snuggling her nose into my neck.
“This wasn’t exactly how I thought our wedding night would go,” she said dryly.
I snorted. “We had a good run. I don’t think I’ll ever be free of these boys. They’re going to be permanent fixtures. Especially those two,” I gestured towards Trance and Foster who were fighting over the same piece of pizza; a more crust than pizza piece, which had a huge bubble of dough on top of it.
“I wish I had brothers like yours,” she whispered.
I squeezed her tightly. “You can have them anytime you want.”***“Some wedding night,” Foster teased once I sat back into my seat.
Mercy had fallen asleep about twenty minutes after eating, and I’d carried her to our room, kissing her on the cheek and tucking her in before I left.
“It wasn’t too bad. She liked the house,” I told them.
“Which house?” Sam asked.
“The old Holmes Homestead,” I explained, grabbing a slice of cold pizza and biting into it.
“I tried to get that land when I first moved here. The old fucker told me to ‘fuck off and eat shit,’” Sam laughed.
“I think,” Luke said, leaning forward to study the papers on the table in front of him. “That she’s here. She’s following Mercy, and since Mercy’s here, Linda won’t be far behind.”
I nodded. “I’d come to that conclusion as well.”
“She couldn’t have been far,” Sam said. “Someone had to help that crazy fuck from this morning get into that bomb. It was strapped to her chest.”
We sobered, thinking again about what could’ve gone wrong.
“You’re a lucky motherfucker, big brother. I’m glad you made it,” Sebastian said into the quiet. “I would’ve taken your wife in, as a concubine, for you, but your kids are fucking crazy. I don’t think they all could’ve come.”
Sam elbowed Sebastian. “At least my kids wear clothes. That’s more than I can say for your son.”
Sebastian smiled. “Yeah, he’s pretty beastly like that.”
“Back to business, boys.”Chapter 22Do not ring this doorbell unless you’re offering me a million dollars and you have it on hand. That or you’re Ryan Reynolds. If you wake me while I’m sleeping, I’ll never let you forget it, and that means you, too, Mr. Mailman.
-Words of wisdom from a pregnant person
Mercy
“Alright, so you believe you’re around ten week’s gestation, is that what you said?” Dr. Mead asked.
I nodded at him. “Yes.”
The door to the room burst open, and Miller, dressed in his SWAT gear, burst through.
“Shit, I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to be late. I didn’t miss it, did I? Luke underestimated the time it’d take to run the course.”
I shook my head, a smile breaking out over my face.
“Nope, the doctor was just about to do an ultrasound,” I answered, holding my hand out to him. “I’d appreciate it if you closed the door, though, so the staff and other patients didn’t see my hoo-hoo.”
He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”
Once the door was closed, he came to my side, eyes focused on the screen instead of the huge mother lovin’ wand about to go up my vagina.
“Are you the man that saved that little girl a few months back?” Dr. Mead asked, holding the wand out to the nurse.
Thankfully, though, the woman that said she’d be there, got there.
Nothing against the doctor, but I really wasn’t looking forward to having him shove that thing inside of me.
I still wasn’t a big fan of men being near me when I was so vulnerable and, lucky for me, I wouldn’t have to go through that.
“Sorry,” she said excitedly. “We had a young woman in a few minutes ago pregnant with triplets. I just had to go get a quick look. Are you ready?”
At my nod
She applied a generous amount of lube, and then eased it inside of me.
I winced, heart starting to race slightly at the invasion, but Miller stopped the panic in its tracks.
Miller kissed my nose, running his bearded jaw over my face.
I giggled, and pushed him away. “You’re so weird.”
He winked at me, those baby blues boring into mine before he turned back to the screen.
“Alright,” the sonographer said, clicking away at something. “This is your baby.”
I looked at the screen. Then squinted. “It looks like a big old blob.”