Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Linc looked at her like she was crazy. “I’m supposed to offer you my arm,” he pointed out.
My lips quirked.
“Well, except for going out with Sean for awhile, I haven’t had a ‘man on my arm’ for a lot of years. Sorry, I forgot how that etiquette works,” she murmured, dropping her arm.
Linc offered her his arm, and she placed her fingers delicately along the toned muscles of my boy’s biceps.
My gut tightened at the mention of her not having a man, and I growled low in my throat.
“Ellen?”
Ellen stopped and turned, and I crooked my finger at her.
Her brows lowered, and she headed toward me with a curious look on her face.
“Yes?” she asked, looking at me nervously.
“I’ll have to show you what it’s like to have a man,” I informed her. “I’ll be back later. Let Linc take you to my place. Keep an eye on him, and if his fuckin’ mother tries to call, you tell her to call me.”
She stared at me wide-eyed and had been since I’d practically told her I would be her man.
So, without wasting any more time, I placed a chaste kiss—as chaste as I could do when it came to this particular woman—on her mouth and backed away.
She nodded, then started backing away without taking her eyes from me.
I grinned, then, without another word, turned on my heels and headed straight into the ER with anger a steady staccato at the back of my mind.
How could she? How fucking dare she? She’s a mother, for Christ’s sake. She seriously couldn’t do this shit when she had my son with her!
I walked up to the front desk, and stopped in front of a man that looked like he belonged there.
“I’m here to see Margot Tulane.”
The man behind the computer jumped, obviously startled, and placed his hand over his chest.
“You frightened me,” he murmured. “Let me look her up and see if she’s able to receive visitors.”
I waited, albeit impatiently, for him to type the info into the computer.
When his brows furrowed, he got up and walked to the door that separated him from the main part of the ER.
He pushed the door open and disappeared inside, but not far enough for me not to hear what was being said.
“You got that overdose stabilized yet?”
“Yes and no,” came the reply.
“Is she stable enough for visitors?”
“Yes. For now. But if she gets upset, they’ll be asked to leave.”
“10-4.”
“Is it the father?” I heard another person reply.
“I don’t know,” the man I’d spoken with said. “He’s fuckin’ scary. So maybe.”
I snorted.
Then the words that were said finally penetrated my angry mind.
“Sir?”
I looked up as my thoughts swirled inside my brain, and stared blankly at the man I’d walked up on earlier. “Yeah?”
“You can follow me.” He nodded his head in the direction of the room beyond him.
I nodded and fell in step behind him, my eyes taking in the large ER.
I’d never been back here before, thank God.
I’d been in the waiting room, but I’d never needed to be back here in the treatment area.
“She’s right through here,” he pointed to the blue curtain that was shielding what lay beyond it from the rest of the room.
I gave him a head nod and reached for the curtain.
The sight beyond it didn’t surprise me. Didn’t affect me in any way as it once would have.
Margot was lying in the bed, her bony body encased in a large beige and blue hospital gown that had some fucked up pattern on it that whomever made the damn thing obviously thought was nice. I didn’t know what the hell they were thinking, because it absolutely was not nice.
All it did was make the patient who was wearing it look pale as fuck.
Margot’s eyes were closed, and her head was facing away from where I’d entered through the curtain.
“You awake?” I barked.
Margot’s head whipped around, and she stared at me blankly for a few long seconds before her mouth turned up into a semblance of a smile. “You came.”
I snorted.
“Not really,” I grunted. “I came to make sure my kid was okay. It was only after I made sure that he was and then sent him home with my woman that I even gave you a second thought.”
Margot flinched.
“You shot up in the fucking car in between eating dinner with my boy and watching a fucking movie?” I didn’t beat around the bush, sickened that she would do something like that so close to our son.
She turned her head away.
I continued, not missing a beat.
“And you’re pregnant?”
The disgust in my words was evident, and she turned back toward me, her eyes filling up with tears.
“How did you know?”
My lip curled in revulsion.
“The nurse was kind enough to let me know.”
“It’s yours.”
Her heartbeat monitor started to beep faster.
I wanted to laugh at her.