Mercy
M ercy woke to the sound of someone humming what sounded like a lullaby and she smiled to herself. After causing quite a scene at check-in, the nurse on duty decided to let both her guys stay with her. It didn’t hurt that she was a friend of ’s and felt bad about the way she was let go. She even joked about finding two men for herself and the guys let their guards down a little. They watched over her and little Katie like two centuries standing guard. Cash didn’t like that they were going to keep her overnight, but Katie had jaundice, and they wanted to keep her for twenty-four hours. was fine with that but a part of her hoped that she wouldn’t run into any of her old co-workers that spoke out against her. She was hoping for an uneventful visit—in and out of the hospital, quickly.
She stretched and noted all the aches and pains that would fade in a few days. She was so thankful that Katie was healthy, especially with her fast entrance into the world. As a maternity nurse, knew of all the complications and problems that could have happened with an early delivery. She opened her eyes to find her two guys huddled in the corner, Cash holding Katie and Callan humming a beautiful melody to her. It was the sexiest, sweetest thing she had ever seen. They were both completely in love with their baby. She knew that her daughter would never want anything, and she’d have her two big daddies watching and protecting her at every turn. The thought made her smile, and she was pretty sure that she had never been so happy in her whole life. But that’s what the guys did for her, made her happy. She wasn’t sure how she had gotten so lucky, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Cash saw that was awake and watching the three of them. He stood and crossed to her bed, handing the baby over to her. “Our princess is getting hungry. I think she’s going to want her mama soon.” She took Katie from Cash and kissed her little face, watching as the newborn squirmed and routed for her dinner. She started nursing Katie and Cash and Callan sat next to her on her hospital bed.
“You two look like hell,” said. Callan barked out his laugh.
“Thanks, baby. We’ve had a long day and we’re a little tired,” he said around a yawn. looked them both over and she was mad at herself for not seeing how exhausted they both were. They needed to keep their strength up as much as she did. thought of the three of them as a team and her teammates were tired and needed to be benched.
“You two need to go home and get some sleep.” Cash started to protest, and she held up her hand, effectively stopping them. “Don’t start with me, Cash. For once, would you just listen to me and do as I ask? I need my rest and Emily said that she was going to come in to check us both out after she finished cleaning up at our place.” Callan shot Cash a look and she didn’t miss the fact that her guys had developed a secret language that they shared. It was almost like they could just look at each other and know exactly what to do or say. Honestly, it was nice to see but it pissed her off not being in on their secret lingo.
“At least let one of us stay with you, little one,” Cash asked. knew that if one of them stayed she wouldn’t get much rest.
“No, you two go home and make sure that everything is set up for Katie and me. You can come back bright and early in the morning and spring me from this joint.” It was a good plan. Her family needed to stick together and stay strong. knew that for that to happen, she was going to have to put her foot down and force both of her guys to get some sleep.
“We’ll go but I want it noted that I’m not all right with this either, baby,” Callan put his two cents in. giggled at how much of a fight they were giving her. From the look of them, they could use some sleep and should be jumping at the chance to lie down in their bed.
“Duly noted, Callan. You and Cash can protest all you want but I need you both rested and ready to go tomorrow when we return home. I’m going to need some time to recover, and I’ll be counting on you both to help with Katie.” They all looked down at their daughter who was making quiet sucking noises, still nursing.
They both bent to kiss her and Katie, “We will be back first thing in the morning, little one,” Cash whispered.
“Good, I can’t wait to get Katie home and into her beautiful nursery. I’m sure she’ll love it, and I know that she already loves both of her daddies.” Her hormones were out of control, leaving her crying once again. She was ready for everything to go back to normal, especially her hormones.
The guys both groaned and she couldn’t help but laugh through her tears. They were never going to get used to her crying either. She did like all the ways that they tried to make her feel better though. finished feeding Katie and got her settled in her little bed next to her own and the guys said their goodbyes, promising to call her later. She was ready for a few hours of sleep before Katie would need to feed again.
woke to the sound of Katie's crying and sighed, knowing that she was going to have to get used to her new alarm. She stretched and sat up in her bed reaching for the baby, but she wasn’t in her little bed. panicked. The nurses weren’t allowed to take Katie from the room without letting her know. She turned on the light above her bed allowing the dim light to fill the tiny room. She shielded her eyes against the light and searched the room, finding her baby crying in Lisa’s arms.
“Lisa, why do you have my baby?” spat. She threw off her covers and put her feet on the floor, stopping at the sight of the gun in Lisa’s hand.
“Not another step!” Lisa’s loud whisper sent a shiver down her spine. She watched as her old boss shoved Katie’s pacifier into her mouth, effectively calming her. “You don’t deserve such a gift,” Lisa sobbed. “None of you do and yet, she’s here while my sister rots in her grave. This should be my sister’s baby, not yours. You were just the little slut that crawled into bed with two men. You don’t deserve any of this.” Lisa waved the gun around and was scared to death that she was accidentally going to shoot Katie. She knew that if she didn’t keep Lisa calm there was no chance of her or Katie getting out of there alive.
“Lisa, please give me Katie, she’s hungry.” held her arms out for her daughter and Lisa barked out a mean laugh. She knew that Lisa wasn’t going to just hand over the baby, but she didn’t know what else to do.
“There is no way that I’m giving this baby back to you. I tried to warn you, to tell you that you shouldn’t be with the two of them. I even thought that losing your job at the only hospital in town would have you moving away to never see either of them again. You just couldn’t listen, could you?” Katie had fallen back to sleep, oblivious to having a crazy woman holding her or waving a gun at her mother. Still, knew that she needed to act quickly if she hoped to get Katie away from her crazy ex-boss.
“It’s a shame really because if you had just left town you wouldn’t have to go through the pain of losing your baby. But you weren’t smart enough to listen to me, to heed my warnings. Cash is bad news. This is what he does, you know? He takes innocent women and turns them into his playthings, sharing them with other men and then throwing them away. He did that to my sister, and she paid the ultimate price.” shook her head, trying to process Lisa’s words. She wasn’t making any sense and how the hell did she know Cash?
“Who is your sister, Lisa? What does she have to do with me and my family?” was almost afraid to ask but the longer Lisa held Katie, the more feared that she was going to be able to just walk away with her daughter and that couldn’t happen. Maybe if she could just get Lisa talking she’d buy herself some time to come up with a plan.
“My sister’s name was Jasmine. She was with Cash and his friend Slade until they got tired of playing with her and threw her out like garbage,” Lisa spat, causing Katie to squirm in her arms.
gasped, finally putting all the puzzle pieces together. “Your sister was Jasmine, and she killed herself.” Lisa barked out her laugh, jolting Katie and making her fuss again. ached to take her daughter back from the crazy woman that stood before her. She had worked for Lisa for the two years that she was at the hospital. thought she knew her old boss pretty well, she never would have guessed that Lisa had such a tormented past. Sure, she wasn’t always the nicest person on the maternity floor, but she didn’t pass for crazy enough to steal someone’s baby either.
“Jasmine didn’t kill herself,” Lisa said, shoving Katie’s pacifier back into her open mouth. “Cash killed her. He rejected her and she couldn’t take the pain that he inflicted on her. He even admitted to the authorities that he was at fault on the day of her funeral. I read the fucking police report. He took the only person that I had left in this world from me. Now, you’ll know what that pain feels like, to lose someone that you love.”
shook her head, “Cash didn’t shove pills down your sister’s throat Lisa. She did that all on her own. He was just honest with his feelings. Would you have rather he pretended to be in love with her? What kind of relationship would that have been?” gingerly placed her feet on the cold hospital floor again, carefully pushing the call button for the nurse on her way out of bed. She needed to get her daughter back from Lisa, gun or no gun. She wouldn’t let Lisa leave the room with her baby. If she did, the possibility of getting her back was slim and that thought scared her to death.
“Not another move, .” Lisa pointed the gun directly at her chest and she knew that if the gun went off, her daughter would grow up without a mom. knew all too well how losing a parent felt and she wouldn’t let Katie know that pain. “Cash is a monster, and I won’t let this precious baby grow up with a murderer.”
“Please Lisa,” begged, holding out her arms for her baby. The doorknob turned, startling Lisa enough that she turned to see who was trying to come into the room. was relieved that Lisa didn’t think of locking the door, but she worried about the person who was about to enter the room.
“She’s got a gun,” screamed. Lisa spun on her heel and as she turned to face , the gun went off. hit the floor, her ears ringing from the loud noise of the shot in the small hospital room. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as she looked up to find Lisa pointing her gun at the new nurse that had called in. The young nurse had the good sense to run in the opposite direction but that gave Lisa a direct path to escape with Katie. Her baby girl was screaming in Lisa’s arms, and all could do was lay sobbing on the floor holding her leg that now had blood trickling down it. And just like that, Lisa was gone taking ’s world with her. The sound of her baby girl screaming down the hallway and Lisa warning everyone to stay back were the last sounds she remembered before her world went dark.