Page 65 of Penalty Kill

“If I tip you really well, would you take my bag back to the house you picked me up at?” I held up two hundred-dollar bills.

He eyed them for a second and nodded. “Sure. Take care of your friend.”

“Thank you!” I grabbed my backpack and ran inside. I had no idea where the labor and delivery wing was.

I called Emma and she answered on the first ring. “Are you here?”

“Yeah, where do I go?”

She walked me through the hospital until I found her at the entrance to admissions.

“You just have to sign in.” I did and received a visitor’s pass.

“How is she?”

“She’s scared. I’ve never seen her like this. Reese can’t calm her down, and Erik is spiraling just as much as she is.”

“That’s not what she needs.”

Emma gave me a look that said she agreed. She looked exhausted. “How long have you been here?”

“Just an hour or so, but Jackson was up all night. He’s teething again and just cries all the time.”

The poor woman was dead on her feet but was still here because her friend needed her. Iceland could wait. I could wait.

“How long has she been here?”

“They came in last night around seven.”

I wasn’t sure what I was about to walk into, but Emma opened the door and led us in.

“There you are.” Chloe was crying when we walked into the room. I went to her and took her hand.

“I’m sorry. I got here as soon as I could. Tell me what’s going on?”

She sniffed. “I wasn’t feeling right. My chest was pounding, and I have this horrible headache. And look.” She held up her other hand. It was swollen like someone had pumped air into it. I looked at the hand I was holding and tried not to react. None of this was normal.

“So, the doctor said it was preeclampsia?” I looked to Reese and Emma for confirmation. I wasn’t positive what that was, but I’d heard it mentioned before. “What does that mean?”

“Hers is pretty serious. They should have caught it when she went for her checkup two weeks ago, but according to the tests, she didn’t have high blood pressure or protein in her urine. It’s like it just happened overnight.” Reese sounded like he was still in shock.

Erik made a sound, and I glanced over to see Madi rubbing his back. She looked just as distraught as him.

“So, can you go on bed rest or something?” There had to be a way to help her. To delay the birth.

“In some cases, but she’s too high risk already. They’re hoping to let the baby’s lungs grow as much as possible, but if they don’t deliver soon, she could have seizures or liver damage. The placenta could detach. The baby is at risk,” Reese explained.

He didn’t have to say anything else. I got it. Somehow Chloe went from a perfect example of a healthy pregnancy to a life or death situation.

“How long do they want to give the baby?” I asked Reese.

“The steroid takes forty-eight hours, but they don’t think we can wait that long. They’ll monitor to give him as long as possible, but the doctor said it will probably be in the next six hours.”

That would be almost twenty hours since they came in. Hopefully their little boy was strong enough. If he was anything like his mom, he was a fighter. Too stubborn to let something like an early birth stop him.

I looked back down at Chloe and wiped away her tears. “You can do this. Your baby has the most incredible woman I know as his mom. He’s going to be okay.”

She sniffed. “I’m scared.”