Mission Delivery (Ex Ops Series) (3 page)

Lucas shrugged a shoulder, trying to act nonchalant. “He moves on, Baker. Life is what it is, and sometimes you don’t get what you want. The world doesn’t end, so he’ll learn to move on with the world.”

I was about to ask him if he was learning to move on with the world when the plane started to move, bringing my attention back to what was waiting for me across the ocean.

Grabbing the arms of my chair tightly, I started praying for speed.

Jaxon walked out of the cockpit and took the seat next to me. “Flight time back to the states is almost twelve hours. Captain Burke says he’ll have us there in eleven. It’s the best he can do.”

I blew out a frustrated breath. “Right. Eleven is better than twelve, so I won’t bitch.”

Jaxon’s lips tipped up in a smile. “You know—”

The look on his face was the one he gave us before he came up with some whacked out motivational story to ‘help’ us somehow. “Sir, you’re not about to tell me some shit about Confucius, are you? Because, frankly, right now, Confucius can go blow it out of his ass.”

My Commander barked out a laugh. “I’m not a Confucius fan, Baker. Sun Tzu, on the other hand… The Art of War should be a mandatory read for every soldier, in my opinion. But, since you bring up Confucius, this reminds me of something he said. ‘
It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop
.’ ”

I was pretty sure my left eye was starting to twitch in frustration. “With all due respect, sir, if you’re going to spend eleven hours quoting dead guys, I might duct tape your mouth shut and stuff you in the bathroom.”

“Don’t get your panties in a wad, Baker. I’m just trying to keep your mind off Belle and your baby since it’s such a long flight.”

I shook my head in disagreement. “Nothing is going to take my mind off them. My little girl is a month early, and I have no idea why. Right now, there’s nothing more important in this world than them. I won’t feel better until I can see for myself that everything is okay.”

Jaxon reached out, clamped a hand on my shoulder, and squeezed. “Have faith, Baker. It’ll be okay.”

“Faith got me through fifteen years without the love of my life. What faith did not get me is the time I lost with my son. I’ll always have faith, sir, but sometimes it’s up to us to make it happen. This is me making damn sure I don’t miss one more second with my family. I’m sure you can understand that.”

A sad look crossed his face. “More than you know, Baker. I understand more than you know.”

Chapter

3

I spent eleven hours repeating a mantra of steps in my head.

One: Make it through the long ass flight without killing anyone.

Two: Get off the fucking plane and to the hospital.

Three: Pray like my life depends on it that I have not missed my daughter’s birth.

Four: Give my woman a kiss.

Five, which was conditional on whether my little girl had arrived or not, and I was sure as hell hoping not: Watch the delivery of my second child.

I had silently dubbed it
Mission Delivery
.

It looked like I was going to successfully complete the first step of my mission by not killing anybody. The plane was on a descent, which was good news. However, if any of the boys cracked another joke about my fidgeting, I was going to give in to my growing annoyance and knock them the fuck out. Jaxon was not helping the situation, either. He kept trying to talk about famous dead guys I knew nothing about and giving advice. Although I thought the world of my commander, I was about to tell him where he could take that advice and shove it.

The second our plane’s wheels touched the runway, I was unbuckling my seat belt. My team members would be hard pressed to keep me from jumping out of the plane before it stopped so I could hurry up and get the hell out of there. If it were not for the knowledge that I would hurt myself, and therefore delay getting to Belle, then that was exactly what I would do. Eleven hours on a plane with nothing except thoughts about my family had me on edge.

I was waiting by the door when the plane finally rolled to a stop. It took me approximately thirty valuable seconds to open the door, and then I was sprinting down the stairs like a madman. I left my gun, my teammates, and my commander behind without a second thought. I was full steam ahead … until I saw who was standing before me.

My son Seth … and Sheriff Charlie Jenkins.

If I had a nemesis, it would be him. The man had warmed Belle’s bed periodically through several years of his friendship with her during the time we were apart. He had also been half in love with her and asked her several times for a committed relationship, which she had turned down every time. If his friends with benefits relationship with my woman was not bad enough, Jenkins had been the closest thing to a father figure my son had when I had not even known Seth existed. I had a million reasons to hate the asshole, but because of two reasons I was stuck with him on the proverbial edges of my life—Belle and Seth.

Walking up to Seth, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and gave him a hug. “How’s your mom?”

My boy fidgeted from side to side. “She’s good, Dad, but we should hurry up and go. I don’t like being away from the hospital.”

I took the keys from Jenkins’s outstretched hand as I headed towards Belle’s big black pickup truck. Seth was already climbing in the passenger side as I started to round the back end when Jenkins stopped me.

“Baker, wait a minute.”

I turned to face him, noting the leery look on his face. “Listen, I know you’re not my biggest fan—”

I snorted. That was the understatement of the century.

Jenkins ignored me and kept going. “Regardless of what happened between Belle and me, we were always friends first. That’s not something I want to lose. I don’t have any family left except for Belle and Seth. I don’t want to steal your family; I just don’t want to lose them completely, either. I’ll never poach your territory. All it took was one look at you and Belle together, and I knew it had always been you. We don’t have to be best friends, but I’m asking you to not push me out of their lives.”

Damn, I wanted to hate the man. With every fiber of my being. However, he had been there for Belle and Seth when I had not. A part of me appreciated that my family had not been left completely alone. They’d had friends like Jenkins to help them out.

He was right; we would never be close. I would light myself on fire before that ever happened. However, I guessed I could be a little less hostile so my woman and son didn’t lose someone who was obviously important to them.

Reluctantly, I held my hand out to him to shake.

Cautiously, Jenkins reached out and grabbed it.

We shook like two men making a deal that grated on our very nerves, but at least it was a start.

Without saying another word, we separated and climbed up into the truck on our respective sides. Me in the driver’s seat and Jenkins sitting in the back behind Seth.

My son was eyeing us both carefully as I turned the truck to head out of the private section of the airport.

“I hope you’re not mad I called Charlie, Dad.”

I shook my head back in answer. “Don’t worry about Charlie and me getting along, Seth. I understand he’s important to you and your mom. I wouldn’t do anything to take that away from the both of you.”

When my boy stayed quiet, I took a peek at him and saw a mischievous look on his face.

He smirked then asked, “Does this mean we can all go camping now?”

The muscles in my left eye started to twitch again. “Son, do I look like the sort who wants to hold hands and sing Kumbaya?”

Seth laughed. “How about a fishing trip instead?” My boy did like to push his luck.

“Maybe,” I answered grudgingly, and Jenkins snorted a laugh behind me. It was time to change the subject. “What happened to your mom, Seth?”

He wiped his hands down his face. “She was taking a nap, slept for about two hours. When she came out of her room, she told me to call a taxi and get her hospital bag. I knew it was too early, and she seemed sort of freaked, so I asked her what was wrong. Mom said she was leaking, or some shit like that. I didn’t ask any more questions. No offense, Dad, but I don’t really want to know what was leaking, ya know?”

Huffing a laugh, I said, “I get you, buddy. If I were you, I wouldn’t have wanted to know what was leaking, either.”

“Anyways, I grabbed her stuff, we got to the hospital, and Mom kicked me out of the examination room because she said I would be scarred for life. So I stepped out of the room and started making phone calls. First to that emergency number you left me, then Aunt Teagan, and then finally Charlie.”

Not willing to comment on the Jenkins situation, I switched gears. “You get a hold of your Aunt Teagan?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Seth shake his head. “They said they would pass on a message that Mom was in labor. That was all.”

“Okay. Did the doctor come out and tell you what was going on?”

“Yeah. He said Mom and the baby are okay and my little sister decided to poke a hole in her amniotic sac. If Mom doesn’t go into labor naturally within twenty-four hours, they’ll have to induce her because she’ll risk getting an infection that could harm both her and the baby.”

I exhaled a sigh of relief. The situation did not sound nearly as bad as the scenarios my mind had conjured up. “Good job, son. Now, let’s get back to your mom.”

Twenty minutes later, I pulled up to the hospital and parked. When we reached the entrance, my heart was thumping so hard in my chest I could feel it. By the time we were getting off the elevator on the labor and delivery floor, my hands had a slight tremor to them. My breath froze in my chest as I walked down the hall to her door, and I didn’t breathe again until Seth opened her door. I walked through to see her lying there, beaming at me.

I headed straight to her side, covered her mouth with my own, and kissed the living daylights out of her. When she moaned into my mouth, I pulled away and rested my forehead against hers.

“Hey, baby. Looks like I got here in time, huh?” My hand roamed down to cover her bulging belly where I stroked circles. A little bump hit my palm, and I laughed. “Looks like our girl is still tryin’ to kick her way out of there.”

Belle laughed. “Something like that. I’m guessing you came straight here.”

Pulling back from her, I murmured, “Of course. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

She scrunched her nose. “I love to hear that honey, but your uniform is covered in stuff that I don’t want to identify at the moment. Maybe you should go take a quick shower before somebody else gets a good look at you.

Looking down at my clothes, I cursed. In my race to get to her, I hadn’t thought about what I was wearing or what might be on it. Belle was right; there were some splatters on it from Russia. I refused to leave her side, though, so what the hell was I going to change into? I refused to wear one of those stupid hospital gowns with my ass hanging out of the back.

“You think they would give me a pair of scrubs to wear?” I asked hopefully.

Belle rolled her eyes and shook her head at me. “I put a change of clothes for you in my bag, just in case.” She pointed to the other closed door in my room. “That’s the bathroom, and there is a shower in it. Go use it, mister. I refuse to let you hold our little girl if you’re covered in questionable substances.”

I chuckled at her command while giving her a kiss. “Be right back, sweetheart.”

Grabbing the clothes Seth was holding out to me, I went into the bathroom and took a shower so fast I possibly set some world record. It sort of reminded me of my boot camp days. Then I bagged up my uniform in a trash bag I found in a compartment under the sink and set it on the floor while I got dressed. Emerging from the bathroom in worn jeans and a gray Army T-shirt, my boy handed me socks and tennis shoes then took my trash bag, shoving it in a side compartment on his mom’s bag.

Just as I was about to sit in the chair and put my socks and shoes on, the nurse came into the room. I watched surreptitiously as she checked some of the machines attached to Belle, jotted down notes on her clipboard, and then shuffled out of the door.

Looking up, I scanned the room. Both Seth and Jenkins were sitting in chairs on the opposite side from me, watching some crime drama on the television, while Belle was napping. The room was much larger than I had expected. Belle had told me this new hospital had what was called ‘birth room suites,’ but I had never imagined it would be anything like this.

Silently scooting my chair closer to her bed, I sat down and laced my fingers through hers. I might be a little nervous about Belle pushing the baby out and what Lucas had said on the plane, but I figured, since women had been doing this since the dawn of time, everything was going to be okay.

Right?

Chapter

4

Hell hath no fury like a woman induced into labor.

“You super sperm carrying mother fucker! Get your ass over here so I can rip your balls off!”

Belle was screaming every obscenity invented by man and few I was pretty sure she had come up with on her own. My beautiful, serene, glowing fiancée had been replaced by a woman who could make the toughest men stand across the room to protect their assets.

The nurse slowly side-stepped from the room’s doorway over to me, keeping her wary gaze on the woman who was screeching like a banshee on the bed. “Sir, should I call a priest in to perform an exorcism?”

I turned my head to consider the nervous nurse’s suggestion. Short of Belle turning her head three hundred sixty degrees and vomiting green shit, I had to admit she was sort of acting like a demonically possessed hellion.

Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I managed to grab the nurse’s shoulder, forcing her to duck down with me as the object flew over our heads, hit the wall with a bang, and then clattered to the floor.

Hesitantly, I looked over at the now still projectile to see what it was and shuddered. Belle’s bedpan. Sweet mother of God, the woman really was possessed.

“Hey! Assholes! Stop gossiping like little girls and get over here and get this kid out of me!” Her eyes were blazing with pain and fury, her blonde hair was a messy halo around her head, and she didn’t have a lick of make-up on. She looked like she had marched through war and back.