“Hey, are you on your way home, girl?” she asks when she answers. I fight back a sniffle. The waterworks are threatening again, damn it. I think it’s a pregnancy thing.
“Not quite. I got jumped. The car ended up in a ditch, and I got a ride to the hospital. Just a broken ankle. The baby is fine.”
“What?” Lauren loses her shit on the other end of the phone. I text her the two pictures and give her my room number at the hospital before she rings off.
Dropping my phone onto the nightstand, I sleepily snuggle down in the soft pillows and start to cry again.
CONNOR
Paddy’s phone rings and he pulls it out, a sappy look crossing his face. Lauren. He answers, and his whiskey tumbler smashes on the ground as he surges out of his chair.
“Is everything okay, Paddy?” Seamus glances up at him in surprise from where he’s cradling his son.
“That was Lauren,” Paddy spits, his frantic eyes turning to me. “Someone tried to kidnap Andie.”
I’m on my feet, the chair crashing behind me as I feel hot and cold.
“She fought them off but broke her ankle. She’s at the hospital. Baby is fine,” he assures me as I start to panic.
His phone beeps, and he glances down. “Lauren’s sent a photo of the arsehole and his car and license plate.”
Paddy is fishing his keys out of his pocket while pulling up the number of the dirty cop he knows, who can run the plates and put a BOLO out so we can find the cunt quickly.
He’s striding towards the door, his phone at his ear. “Come on, Lucky. We’ll find the fucker.” He pauses at the door when I don’t move. “Lucky?”
I shake my head. “Take Niall. I’m going to the hospital to be with Andie.”
Paddy studies me for a beat and nods, while Niall stands and slips out of the room, nodding to me as he goes.
“I’ll give ye a lift to the hospital, Lucky.” Ronan stands as well, and Seamus looks over at me.
“Let me know how she is. We’ll keep you updated on all this.”
I nod, following Ronan out of the room.
I don’t know how many laws he breaks, but he gets us to the hospital fucking quickly, leaving his SUV illegally parked as we stride inside.
“Can I help you?” the young man at the reception desk asks.
“Andie Halpern,” I spit out. He blinks as I jab my finger at his computer screen. “What’s her room number.”
He taps around, pulling something up, but his next words aren’t a fucking room number.
“We don’t just let anyone in, especially outside of visiting hours.”
I glare at the fucking cunt. “Do ye know who I am, lad?”
“Uh… no?”
“He’s Connor Fitzpatrick,” Ronan rumbles, his face promising pain. The lad’s eyes dart to the screen.
“The father? Oh, we can take you through.”
Thank fuck for that. An orderly guides us directly to Andie’s room. Ronan sits outside while I let myself in, quietly closing the door behind me when I see she’s asleep.
My breath catches in my throat as I round the end of the bed and take in her tear-streaked face and plastered foot while one of her arms curls protectively around her middle.
Aroundourbaby. Keeping them safe. Jesus fuck. I should have been with her, keeping them both fucking safe.