eople who trusted you,” Pilar spat.
“I can help you,” Mimi panted. “I know how to help you get to the…oh!” She doubled over in pain.
“Oh my God,” Pilar said. “Mimi’s going into labor.” She gave Jenna a look. Jenna gave her a little nod back.
“This can’t be happening!” Mimi cried dramatically in a very un-Mimi-like way. “The twins aren’t due for another two months!”
“Doug,” Pilar pleaded, “please. You have to let Mimi out of here. She can’t have the babies this early. She needs to get to a hospital so they can stop her labor.”
“You two must think I’m a complete idiot to fall for that trick,” he said, but he looked uncertain.
“Babies born at thirty-two weeks gestation, especially twins, have a much higher incidence of time spent in the neonatal intensive care unit,” said Jenna. “A baby’s lungs are one of the last organs to develop. They won’t be able to breathe on their own for long once they’re born. Not if they don’t get expert medical care.”
“Shut up!” he screamed. “I can’t think with you yapping those idiotic facts in my face.”
“That does it, Wentworth,” said Pilar. “You better let us out of here right now or there’ll be hell to pay. If anything happens to these babies, Zeke Grant won’t rest till you’re locked up for life.”
Doug looked like he was about to be sick.
“Look, Doug, how about we do this,” Jenna suggested. “We’ll all go to the storage room, all four of us. You can hold the gun to my back if you want. Once we’re in there, you can get the cash out of your desk, then leave. We don’t care where you go or what you do, as long as we can get Mimi and her babies the medical attention she needs.”
“Okay, okay. That’ll work. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want my cash so I can get out of this stinking town. Now all three of you, single file so I can see you. Go down the hallway away from the receptionist’s desk. And, listen, no funny business. You got it?”
“We got it,” Jenna said.
Pilar went first, with Mimi in the middle and Jenna behind them. Doug followed. He shoved the gun in her side and whispered in her ear, “You’ll be the one getting it if anything goes wrong. Understand?”
Jenna nodded.
They walked slowly down the hallway. They were just a foot or so away from the employee break room when Mimi suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. “Oh no!” She glanced down at the floor in horror. Their gazes followed to the large puddle of clear fluid by her shoe. “My water just broke!”
Water was everywhere making it impossible to walk in any direction without getting the bottom of their shoes wet. Doug recoiled in horror. “Gross! Can’t you control that shit?”
It was just the distraction Jenna needed to grab Mimi by the arm. “Run!” All three women dashed into the open room, leaving Doug in the hallway. They slammed the door shut then locked it. Pilar picked up a phone and dialed the front desk. “Darlene! Doug Wentworth is in the building and he has a gun. Get out of here now!”
Chapter Thirty
Luckily, Zeke and his deputies already had city hall surrounded when the call from Darlene came through. It took them about three minutes to rush the building and another three to disarm Doug.
“Looks like we gotcha, Doug!” Jenna yelled as he was led away in handcuffs. “Sorry,” she said to Mimi and Pilar, who both rolled their eyes and giggled, “I just couldn’t help myself.”
“Hey! Watch my head!” Doug screamed as Zeke personally took it upon himself to put him in the squad car.
Then Zeke gave the okay for the anxiously waiting family members to come inside the building to reunite with their loved ones. Ben had somehow managed to get himself included in the group.
“Are you all right?” he asked searching Jenna’s face. He put his arms out and she automatically went straight into them.
“I’m okay,” she said against his chest.
“I’ve never been so scared in my life. Between you and Rachel, I’ve aged ten years in the past few weeks,” he said tenderly.
Mimi and Pilar were recounting the afternoon’s events back to Zeke and Pilar’s husband, Nick, for the third time. “Are you sure you aren’t having contractions?” Zeke asked his wife.
“Positive.”
“And your water really hasn’t broken?” he asked again.
“Nope.”