28. Az
— ? —
Az
Three hours since my water broke.
Three hours of contractions that feel like my body is trying to tear itself apart from the inside, and I’m still tied to this chair, and Brynn is humming lullabies while she folds baby clothes on the kitchen counter, and Cody is pacing by the window with my phone in his hand, waiting for a signal that keeps cutting in and out.
He has tried the porch and the clearing, but every time Brynn reaches for me he comes back inside, yelling at her to leave me alone. Neither trusts the other out of sight.
“Come on, come on,” he mutters, holding the phone up like he can catch a better connection through sheer willpower. “Just need thirty seconds. Just one call-”
“Even if you get through,” I gasp between contractions, “he’s not going to negotiate. He’s going to trace it.”
“Shut up.”
“You watch too many movies. You think he’s going to show up at a drop point with a briefcase full of cash? He’s got security. He’s got lawyers. He’s got people who do this for a living-”
“I said shut up!” Cody whirls on me, and his face is red, sweaty, desperate. “One more word out of you and I swear to God-”
The phone buzzes in his hand.
He looks down at it, startled, and then a slow smile spreads across his face. “Got a signal. Finally.”
He dials, Eli’s number, I realize, because he’s scrolling through my contacts, and puts it on speaker, and my heart is pounding so hard I can barely hear over it.
One ring, then two, then three.
“Az?” Eli’s voice, ragged and raw and beautiful, and I almost sob just hearing it. “Az, where are you, baby, I’ve been going out of my mind-”
“Not Az,” Cody says, and the silence on the other end is deafening. “But close. She’s right here. Say hi, Azalea.”
He holds the phone toward me, and I take a breath. “Eli-”
“Are you hurt?” His voice is different now, flat, controlled, terrifying in its calm. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“Not hurt. I’m-” Another contraction hits and I can’t stop the groan that comes out of me, and I hear Eli make a sound on the other end like someone just put a knife in his gut.
“What was that? What’s happening to her?”
“Relax,” Cody says, pulling the phone back. “She’s fine. Just in labor, apparently. Which means we need to move fast, so let’s talk numbers.”
“Put my wife on.”
“I just did.”
“Put her on and leave her on.” The calm is cracking now, something wild underneath. “If you want money, you’ll do what I say. You’ll put her on the phone and you’ll let me talk to her, and then we’ll discuss terms.”
Cody hesitates, glancing at me, and then holds the phone up again.
“Az.” Eli’s voice, just for me. “I need you to tell me you’re okay. Really okay.”
“I’m okay.” My voice breaks. “I’m scared, but I’m okay. The contractions are… they’re getting closer. I think… I think she’s coming.”
“She’s not coming yet. We’ve got time.” He says it like he can make it true by saying it hard enough. “Where are you? What can you see?”
“A cabin. In the hills. Cody’s uncle’s hunting cabin. There’s… there’s trees everywhere, I can’t see any other buildings-”
Cody snatches the phone away. “That’s enough. Let’s talk money.”
“Name your price,” Eli says immediately. “Tell me what you want and where-”
“Two million.” Cody’s smile is back, greedy and relieved. “Cash. Unmarked bills-”
“Done.”
“And I need a car waiting at the state line-”
“Tell me which road. Where does the car need to wait? I need to get the cash together. Keep Az on the line while we sort it out.”
For several minutes, he keeps Cody talking, the drop point, the car, how long it will take to get cash, and I watch Cody’s face shift from suspicious to eager. Eli sounds desperate and compliant. He is buying time.
And then I hear it.
Tires on gravel. Distant at first, then closer. Engines cutting off. Doors, multiple doors.
Cody hears it too. His face goes white.
“How-” He looks at the phone in his hand, at me, at the window. “There’s no signal up here, how did-”
“Deputies!” A shout from outside. “Open the door! We have the cabin surrounded!”
The door crashes inward, wood splintering, and two deputies come through, weapons drawn. “Down on the ground! Now!”
Cody lunges. Not toward the deputies. Toward me.
He doesn’t make it.
Eli comes through the doorway behind the deputies, too fast, ignoring someone shouting his name, and he tackles Cody mid-stride.
They hit the floor hard. Eli’s got a bandage on his head, fresh stitches visible at the edge, and he moves like it hurts, but he doesn’t stop, gets Cody pinned beneath him.
One hit. Cody’s head snaps back.
“That’s enough!” A deputy grabs Eli’s shoulder, hauls him off. Another is already on Cody, knee in his back, cuffs clicking. “Sir, we’ve got him. Stand down.”
Eli’s chest is heaving. He looks unsteady, pale, but his eyes find mine.
“Az-”
Movement. Brynn, unfrozen from the kitchen counter, coming toward me, reaching for my belly.
“She’s mine,” Brynn says, high and strange. “She was always supposed to be-”
I’ve been working my thumb free for the past ten minutes, the zip tie cutting into skin but giving just enough slack. My hand comes loose and I grab the lamp from the table beside me and smash it over Brynn’s head with everything I have.
Glass shatters. Brynn crumples.
The feeling is pure. Bright. Satisfying.
Fucking FINALLY.
Bitch.
Eli stares at me, panting, and awe crosses his face. “Holy shit.”
“She had it coming.” My voice is steady even though my hand is shaking. “Months.”
“Baby, you’re-”
“In labor, yes, we’ve established that.” Another contraction rips through me and I grip the chair arm, trying to breathe. “Untie me. Please.”
Then he’s there, on his knees, cutting the remaining zip ties with a knife from his pocket. “I’ve got you. I’m here.”
“How did you find me?”
“Pendant pinged your location at the house, then again on the mountain access road when he drove you up here. Deputies were already checking his uncle’s properties.
They’d found this place off that road, and we were on the way up when he called.
Hearing you say cabin confirmed you were still inside.
” He cuts the last tie free. “That second alert gave them somewhere to look.”
More people coming through the door. Paramedics with a stretcher. Someone kneeling by Brynn, who’s starting to groan.
“She’s mine,” Brynn slurs, blood running down her face. “She was always-”
“Ma’am, stay down.” A deputy pulls her hands behind her back and Brynn starts screaming, high and wordless. They drag her out, and I watch her go.
I feel nothing but satisfaction.
Good.
Let her scream.
Eli cups my face in his bloody hands, and his eyes are searching me everywhere, my face, my body, my belly. “Are you hurt? Did they hurt you? Did he touch you?”
“I’m okay. I’m okay. Just-” I gasp as another contraction builds, and they’re closer now, too close, no more than three minutes apart. “I’m really in labor, Eli. Like really really.”
“I know. I know. The ambulance is right outside, we’re going to get you to a hospital-”
“I don’t think we have time.”
His face goes pale. “What do you mean you don’t think we have time?”
“I mean I’ve been having contractions for hours and my water broke and she’s coming, Eli, she’s coming now-”
“Okay.” His voice cracks. “Okay, we need to… I can carry you, I’ll-”
“Sir.” The paramedic, calm and firm. “We need to get her on the stretcher. Help me with the transfer.”
Eli’s hands are shaking but he does what they ask, supporting my shoulders while the other medic takes my legs, easing me onto the gurney with a gentleness that makes me want to sob.
The straps go across my chest, my thighs.
Another contraction tears through me and I grab Eli’s hand so hard I feel his bones grind together.
“I’m here.” He’s keeping pace beside the stretcher as they wheel me out. “I’m right here, Az.”
“Your head.” I can see the bandage, the blood dried dark on his collar. “Eli, your-”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not-”
“They checked me at the hospital. I’ll let them check me again. Right now, let them help you, okay?”
The ambulance doors open. The night air hits my face, cool and sharp. They load me in and Eli climbs up beside me, never letting go of my hand. His face is pale in the overhead lights.
“How far apart?” the paramedic asks.
“I don’t… three minutes? Maybe less?”
“And your water broke when?”
“Hours ago. I don’t know. I lost track.”
Another contraction. I bite down on a scream.
“You’re doing great, Mrs. Jackson. Just breathe.”
The doors close. The siren wails to life.
Eli lifts my hand to his mouth, presses his lips to my knuckles. His eyes are wet.
“I thought-” His voice breaks. “When I woke up and you were gone, I thought-”
“I’m here.” I squeeze his hand through another wave of pain. “We’re both here.”
The ambulance lurches into motion. Through the small back window, I watch the cabin lights disappear.