“Come on,” Lily says, taking me by the wrists to help me up. “We’re wasting time. We really need to get to Sunshine.”
She helps me to my feet, but I shake her off when I get my balance.
“Hey, I’m just trying to help you,” she says.
“Lady, if you want to help me, then you’ll get me out the front door.”
“I can’t.”
“Why? You afraid your daddy will ground you?”
Her jaw tightens, and her eyes sharpen. “I’m afraid of Max, period. And if you have any sense, you will be too.”
Something in the way she says it makes me pause.
“Fine,” I growl, hating that she has lips I have an urge to kiss. “Let’s go and meet fucking Sunshine.”
DOC
Reluctantly, I follow Lily to the room next door to meet Sunshine. She’s the woman on the bed groaning with early labor pains. In her early twenties, she’s at least thirty years younger than her husband, Max, who is standing by the bed holding her hand.
Despite my own predicament, my inner doctor takes over.
“How long has she been in labor?”
“Since about an hour before you were brought here, so four hours,” Lily replies. I don’t know why, but I have a sneaky suspicion she knows a thing or two about medicine. She gives me a pair of latex gloves from a box by the bed, and I get to work. At least Lucien had the sense to pick up my medical bag after knocking me out.
I check on Sunshine, and it doesn’t take me long to determine she’s in the early stages of labor.
We could be here for a while.
I push back my nausea with a deep breath. I still don’t feel right, and I kind of wish I’d taken those pills now because my head is pounding like a motherfucker.
“The baby is breech,” I say to no one in particular. “She’s also only a centimeter dilated. We could be in for a long night.”
I stand and walk over to where Max is standing with Lily and adopt a low, quiet voice so Sunshine can’t hear. “Your wife should be in a hospital.”
“If it were as simple as that, we wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of bringing you here, now would we, Doc?”
“She might need a C-section, or she and the baby could die.”
“Can you perform one of those?” Max asks.
“In a hospital with a gun to my head, perhaps. But I’m not a surgeon, and this is not a hospital, and I’m hoping I don’t get a gun to the head either.”
“I can get you what you need.”
“She needs a proper operating room… in a hospital. Why won’t you take her?”
“Because I’m a wanted woman,” Sunshine says.
I look at her, surprised she overheard me.
She smiles, and I notice her front tooth is chipped. “They’ll slap on a pair of handcuffs the moment I push this little one out.”
I turn back to Max, who nods and explains, “It was a complete misunderstanding. But the law is the law, and my darling wife is correct. The moment she gives birth, they will arrest her. This is why you’re here… she needs medical attention, but we can’t risk taking her to the hospital.”
“Are you telling me she hasn’t had any checkups throughout her pregnancy?”
“On the contrary, we used to have a doctor who lived with us, but he passed away recently.”
“How?” I ask because I need to know if he was brought here like me and died because he didn’t comply with their demands, or if he died from something else.
“Relax, doctor. Jerimiah died from old age.”
My eyes go to Lily, who’s watching us.
She nods, and for some reason, I believe her.
Max, on the other hand?
I’d believe a con man selling snake oil before I believed anything Max Stonecypher said to me.
“Now, tell me what you need to deliver my son,” Max demands. “Lucien brought your medical bag. Is there anything else you require?”
“How do you know the sex of the baby?” I ask, hoping the previous doctor had an ultrasound machine.
“Sunshine suspects it’s a boy,” Max replies.
“And Rain confirmed it with her crystal readings,” Sunshine adds, panting through a mild contraction.
Right.
“So no ultrasound machine?”
“Hardly,” Lily mutters.
I rake my fingers down my face.
“If you need one, we can get you one,” Max says.
I don’t want to know how he plans to make that happen, but it would help to have one.
“How long will it take you to get me the things I need?” I ask.
“A day or maybe two,” Max replies.
Sunshine doesn’t have two days. If labor progresses quickly, she could need the baby out as soon as possible. I’m going to have to do this blind.
I look to Lily, who appears to understand what I’m thinking.
“I can help you. Whatever you need,” she says.
“You have medical training?”
She nods. “I’m a nurse.”
Relief fills me. At least I’ll have some help.