Page 83 of Stay Little Fighter

THEN

TEN YEARS AGO

Iwake with a start, my heart beating too hard in my chest as I desperately try to convince my mind it was just a dream.

The unfamiliar surroundings and uncontrollable beeping only make things worse, and when I realize I’m in a hospital, panic like I hoped I would never feel again hits me.

They’re going to find me, and everything would have been for nothing.

“Mama,” a familiar voice rumbles, and I glance over to find dark brown eyes watching my every move with a furrowed brow. “You’re safe, Chloe. I promise, you’re safe.”

I shake my head. “They’ll find me.”

“No, they won’t,” he assures me. “I admitted you under a different name. They won’t start looking at medical records in a different state with a different name until they confirm you’re no longer in Miami, and by then you’ll be well and truly discharged.”

He sandwiches my hand in both of his, and after a few moments the beeping I now realize is my heart rate settles down.

“I won’t let them find you, Mama. Trust me to take care of everything. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

My eyes wander around the room again, and I try to remember how I got here. The doctor visited me at the penthouse, but I don’t remember her saying anything about going to a hospital. After that there’s nothing. Not until I just woke up.

“Why am I here?” I ask as I drag my attention back to Kingston. He’s dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a Henley that fits him almost too well, but it’s the agony on his face that makes my stomach sink.

He sucks in a breath and squeezes my hand in quiet support. “I woke you up when I noticed you had a fever, and you told me you didn’t feel well. I pulled the blankets back and you were bleeding.” He swallows as the color drains from his face. “There was so much blood, Chlo. I got you here as quickly as I could, but by the time I did, you had to be rushed into surgery.”

“The baby,” I croak, resting my hand over my lower stomach but I already know what he’s going to say. He’s about to tell me they’re gone. That the little piece of me and Ronan was taken from me just like everything else.

“I’m sorry, Mama. I’m so fucking sorry.” Tears gather in his eyes, and my chest tightens with the need to comfort him right alongside my own shattered heart.

The pain in my chest is worse than any physical pain I can imagine. It’s like my heart is being torn from my body and ripped apart, and I don’t know how I can ever come back from this, how anyone could.

“The doctor said it’s just one of those things. The pregnancy was early, which makes it hard to know what caused it. They said there’s no reason that you wouldn’t be able to carry a healthy baby in the future, if that’s what you want.”

I press my eyes closed, the idea of ever putting myself through this kind of pain again making me sick to my stomach.

My doctors told me over and over again that it was unlikely I would ever fall pregnant naturally, and I thought this baby was a sign that I was exactly where I was meant to be.

Instead, it seems like just one more thing to hurt me.

Tears roll down my cheeks as a violent sob tears through my chest, and when Kingston envelops me in his arms, I can’t help but lean into his comfort.

What if this was my only chance to be a mom and now it’s gone?

CHAPTER FIFTY

RYKER

NOW

“Absolutely not,” I snap when Chloe steps into the room wearing black cargo pants and a matching long-sleeve shirt, complete with combat boots.

There is no chance she’s coming with us. Over my dead fucking body.

She sighs. “Kingston already said I could come.”

“He what?” I growl. I know I promised to stop trying to kill them whenever they pissed me off, but surely this is extenuating circumstances.

“It’s better that we don’t split up,” the man himself answers as he steps off the bottom step. “Leaving Chloe and Ronan here could leave them open to an ambush. This way all of our resources will be in one place.”