“Please,” McDuff said, slurring his words. “I’ll do anything. Just don’t kill me.”
“Is that what my woman said to you? Did she beg you not to kill her and my child?”
Horror reflected in McDuff’s eyes, and the sniffling coward began to cry. The acrid smell of ammonia rose, and Drake and his men looked at McDuff in disgust. He was pissing himself.
“I didn’t know she was pregnant!” McDuff shrieked. “I swear to you. I didn’t know! I didn’t hurt her.”
“Oh?” Drake asked in a deadly voice. “You didn’t hit her in the head with the butt of your gun when you yanked her off the street? I didn’t just see you slap her in the face?”
McDuff was crying and babbling in earnest now, and as much as Drake wanted to prolong the little bastard’s agony, Drake only wanted to get to Evangeline so he could reassure himself that she—and their child—were all right.
With a twist of his hands, it was finished. McDuff sagged and Drake dropped him to the floor, turning away immediately to bark orders at his men.
He found Justice and lifted his eyebrows in silent question.
“Silas and Maddox took her to the clinic. Go to her, Drake. The rest of us will make sure the scene is secure and everything is wiped down.”
Zander was waiting to drive him when he strode out of the building, but Drake held his hands out for the keys. “You stay here and help Justice oversee cleanup. I’ll drive.”
Zander cocked his head and studied Drake for a long moment. “You going to be okay to drive, man? You’ve been dealt some pretty heavy shit today.”
“Not nearly as much as she has,” he snapped. “Give me the fucking keys.”
Zander handed them over with no further comment.
But when he was about to get in the car, Zander’s question stopped him in his tracks.
“Are you happy about it? No one asked. But are you happy about the baby?”
There was an underlying warning in Zander’s question. One that said if Drake so much as hinted he wasn’t happy about Evangeline’s pregnancy, any number of his men would step up to take care of both Evangeline and his child.
Over his dead body.
“I’m happier than you could possibly imagine,” Drake said in an even tone. “But my first priority is Evangeline and making sure she isn’t hurt. And hope that she’ll forgive the unforgivable.”
Zander winced and nodded. “She’s a good woman, Drake. The best.”
“Yeah, I know,” he returned softly.
• • •
When Drake arrived at the clinic, he found Maddox and Silas pacing outside the exam room. When they saw him, they both stopped and waited for him to approach.
“How is she?” Drake demanded, his pulse racing with fear and worry.
Silas shrugged. “Don’t know yet. She was out of it the entire way. She opened her eyes when the doctor came in, but it was like . . . I dunno, man. She was here but she wasn’t here. She wasn’t aware of anything or anyone. If she knew who we were, she didn’t acknowledge us. She hasn’t said a single word since we left the butchery to bring her here.”
“Christ,” Drake said, ramming his fist into the wall. “Any idea if the baby is okay?”
“No, sorry,” Maddox said quietly. “We told the doc and he said he’d do some blood work, check her HCG levels and confirm that there is a pregnancy, since all we have to go on is a fading store-bought pregnancy test.”
Drake went still. It hadn’t occurred to him that she might not be pregnant. As soon as he’d seen the test, their child had become all too real to him. The idea of losing their baby or Evangeline was more than he could bear. If she lost their baby, she’d never forgive him. She might not forgive him regardless of whether there was a child, and who could blame her?
“How long has she been back?” Drake croaked out. “I need to see her.”
“Don’t know why you couldn’t go in,” Silas offered. “Maddox and I were just trying to give her as much privacy as possible.”
Not waiting for more, Drake opened the door and strode in, pulling up short when he saw Evangeline’s pale face. She was lying on a hospital bed, rails up, covered lightly with a thin sheet. She wore a hospital gown and her eyelashes rested on her cheeks.
His gaze quickly found the doctor, who was standing to the side looking at lab results. He glanced up when he saw Drake.
“How is she?” Drake asked anxiously.
“She’ll be just fine,” the doctor soothed. “Got a little banged up. She’s going to have one hell of a headache for a couple of days, but otherwise she appears to be unharmed.”
“The baby?” Drake asked fearfully.
The doctor smiled. “Everything appears to be normal in the lab results. Her HCG levels are appropriate for someone six to eight weeks pregnant. She hasn’t been awake for me to question her regarding her last menstrual cycle, but my guess is she’s not very far along.”