* * * * *
11:11 A.M.
“You want to go for a walk?” Rylla asked.
Her friend was pacing up and down the cabin and had been for the last hour. Normally Naomi was also a pacer, but right now, at thirty-eight weeks pregnant just waddling around to do the things she had to do was hard enough let alone pacing.
“A walk?” she asked, looking down at her stomach that had just tightened almost painfully. She’d been having Braxton Hicks contractions on and off for the last month. The first time she’d had them Sam had rushed her to the hospital in a panic, terrified their baby was about to come early, now they had both sort of become used to them.
Rylla followed her gaze. “Oh, right.”
“I think it’s probably safer for you to stay indoors anyway,” she reminded her friend.
She really truly understood Rylla’s unease, and that constantly being on the move helped to alleviate that tension. She’d been stalked. By a vicious man who wanted to hurt her by hurting other people. She had been confined to her home, with Sam as her bodyguard, and it had almost sent her insane. In the end, she had believed sacrificing herself to the killer to stop another innocent person getting hurt was the preferable option.
But it was so much easier to be practical about things when it wasn't herself that was the target of a killer. When it was her friend playing things safe was of course the sensible thing to do, she didn't want anything to happen to Rylla. She had lost a lot of people in her life that she had loved and cared about, and she didn't want to lose anymore, especially her best friend.
“I guess,” Rylla agreed, pausing at a window to stare longingly outside.
Naomi knew that her friend suffered from claustrophobia and that being holed up in the small cabin had to be extremely difficult, so she heaved herself to her feet. “We could go for a short walk, we’ll just ask Anton to come with us.” She didn't like having to ask people for help, she was much more comfortable being self-sufficient, or taking care of others, but right now, pregnant as she was, she couldn’t protect Rylla if the killer managed to track her down.
Rylla’s green eyes lit up at the prospect of being out in the fresh air. “You can stay here, we won't be long.”
“Oh, no, I'm not being left behind, besides, I'm so bored that anything—” she broke off as another cramp in her stomach gripped her. The Braxton Hicks contractions were getting more frequent, but she couldn’t be going into labor yet, she still had another two weeks to go, and she wasn't ready to be a mom yet. She needed those last two weeks to prepare herself.
“Naomi?” Rylla came to her. “What's wrong?”
“Nothing,” she assured her friend. “Just let me go to the bathroom and then we can—” again she broke off as she felt a popping sensation in her stomach, and then a trickle of fluid rushed down her leg. Her gaze fell to the floor, as did Rylla’s, whose eyes widened.
“Your water just broke. Have you been having contractions?”
“I thought they were just Braxton Hicks, I've been having those for the last month.”
“You’re going into labor,” Rylla said delightedly. “I’ll call Sam and have him meet us at the hospital. Anton can drive us.”
“No. I'm not in labor,” she protested. “These are just Braxton Hicks, and that’s probably just pee.”
“You're in labor,” Rylla insisted.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No,” she said more insistently.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes—why am I arguing with you about it? We can go to the hospital and let a doctor decide if you’re about to have your baby.”
“No, I'm not ready. I'm not ready to have the baby,” she said desperately. She was terrified about her abilities to be a good mother.
“It’s going to be okay, Naomi.” Rylla put an arm around her shoulders. “You are going to be the best mom ever. Seriously. That little baby in there is the luckiest little girl in the entire world to have you as her mommy. I know you're scared. I was scared too. But we’re going to get you to the hospital, and we’re going to call Sam, and everything is going to be okay.”
She nodded, Rylla was right, she could do this. She just needed Sam. She was going to ask Rylla to call now when another contraction came. This one was much stronger than the others, and she cried out, gripping her stomach as the rolling wave of pain buffeted her.
“You all right?”