Taken (Dark Desires 1)

“Who do you think you are talking to? You bitch! I’ll get you! I’ll get you good!” he yelled and paced back and forth. “Natasha! You’re going to pay for this!” he said it over and over again but I knew. The front door had opened up and Marty had walked in. It would be okay. Marty was there.

I looked at Diamond who was yawning.

“Are you kidding? It’s only about 10:00 in the morning and you’re yawning already?” I said, a yawn escaping me, too.

“You better get back to your own room. They’re going want to check on little junior there to make sure everything is going okay.”

“He’s okay. I can feel it.” I said smiling. “He already takes after his Auntie Diamond. Toughest thing on Earth.”

“You got that right.” I said, wrapping my hand around the pole of my moveable IV and began to head back to my room. Marty had arranged for us to have rooms next door to one another. We were both in for observation for another few days and to be quite honest it was like a spa more than a hospital. Except for the memory of what brought us there it really was a nice place to recuperate.

“Is Ray going to stop by tonight, again?” I asked, giving Diamond my best come hither look. She smiled and blushed a little.

“He’s old enough to be my father.”

“Since when has that become an issue?” I teased.

“Yeah, he did say he’d be by. We actually have a lot in common. Books. Movies.”

“Oh, sure. And the humping of the flesh?”

“I never heard that term so please never say it again.”

“A little boogety-giggety.”

“You’re scaring me.

“Never say never.”

“I don’t think it will go that way. I think we are just good buddies.”

“If you say so. I’m just trying to make sure that if Marty and I get married you won’t be all single and free-wheeling for long, that’s all. Who am I going to complain to about my husband if you aren’t there to tell me what is wrong with your husband?”

“In the weird world in your head I know that makes sense.” Diamond said, crossing her eyes for a second.

“I guess…that is just my way of saying I don’t ever want to be without you.” I said, again feeling tears in my eyes. Diamond burst into tears, too.

“I don’t ever want to be without you, either!” she cried.

“Okay!” I sobbed and laughed. “I’m glad we got that cleared up.”

“Me, too.” Diamond wiped her eyes and blew her nose in a tissue. “See you at lunch time?”

I nodded my head, waved and walked out of Diamond’s hospital room and into mine that was directly next door. Climbing into bed, listening to the monitor that tracked my baby’s heartbeat, I smiled and fell asleep.

MARTY

“So, you’re sure she’s going to say yes?” Ray asked me as I was getting ready to go to the hospital to visit Natasha and Diamond. I had been going there since Natasha was admitted just forty-eight short hours ago. It felt like weeks.

She was expected to stay there for another two maybe three days just to make sure the baby and she was all right. I thought of the baby and felt my eyes burn with tears again for the hundredth time since I learned about the pregnancy.

“Do you think she’ll say no?” I asked Ray as he handed me a tie from a small waterfall of them hanging from the tie rack in my closet.

“Well, I don’t know. What I do know is that the brother of the man who loves her nearly killed her. That might give a girl pause.” He shrugged.

I knew that Ray was just being that voice of reason. He was making sure I was braced for the worst even though he, like me, was hoping for the best. Still, I didn’t pursue the topic. I wanted to enjoy the preparation, the thought of Natasha maybe saying yes to marriage to me and raising this baby together in a house full of love. The feelings swirling around inside me were all new, scary, but exhilarating.

“Diamond seems to be recuperating pretty well. When I stopped in to see her yesterday she had already fallen asleep for the night.” I said, changing the subject.