Chapter 18
Alyssia felt a wave of pain gripping her belly as if it were clamped in a vice.
Maria and Douglas had left the room, presumably to discuss what to do with her, but that had been ages ago and they hadn’t returned.
Her contractions were still far enough apart that she didn’t need to go to the hospital immediately, but she knew that they would only get closer and closer until the baby was born.
“Hello?” she called, gritting her teeth against the pain. “Is anyone there? Hello?”
The door banged open and Douglas strode in, his eyes full of pity and anger.
He shook his head and gestured for her to stay quiet, as if trying to protect her.
Maria stalked in after him, with what appeared to be a midwife in tow.
The woman looked absolutely terrified, her eyes wide and her hands twisting around themselves nervously, but Alyssia tried to reassure her with a smile.
“Examine her,” Maria snapped, pointing at Alyssia. The midwife nodded silently and helped Alyssia to lie down on the floor before gently examining her. The floor wasn’t uncomfortable, but she would have preferred a bed, or at the very least a cushion.
“OK, you are about five centimetres dilated,” the woman said. “Baby appears to be breech, too, so you do need to go to the hospital, I’m afraid.”
“Can’t you deliver it here?” Maria asked.
The midwife shook her head, gently feeling the baby’s movements.
The baby kicked hard, as if trying to throw her hands away, and she laughed a little.
“It’s possible, but not advisable.” her reply was brief, watching as another contraction gripped Alyssia’s body.
“There’s a chance the baby could go into distress unless it turns.
If that happens, she’ll need a caesarean, and I am not going to perform surgery outside of a hospital.
“So be it,” Maria said tersely, shaking her head in frustration. “Douglas, take her and the midwife to hospital. She’s to be checked in as Emily Fountain, you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Douglas said, nodding his head briefly at the midwife.
With that, he helped Alyssia to stand and gently walked her to the car, although every step felt like agony. Soon, they were speeding down the freeway towards the nearest hospital, Alyssia trying not to scream in pain.
“Where’s the nearest hospital?” he asked the midwife, who was sitting on the back seat next to Alyssia.
“Englewood Hospital’s nearest. Drive there,” she replied briefly. “How are your contractions?”
“Incredibly painful!” Alyssia shrieked, throwing her head back and panting. “It's like having my stomach ripped out from the inside!”
“That's completely normal,” the midwife soothed her. “My name’s Susan, by the way. You can call me Susie, if you like.”
“Thank you, Susie. I’m … Emily. You can check my licence if you don’t believe me.” she said, praying the midwife would understand what she meant. “It’s … in my notes ?”
Another wave of pain rippled through her, and she had to grit her teeth so as not to scream at the top of her lungs. The midwife nodded and quickly looked through her maternity notes, which had thankfully not been taken from her.
“OK … Emily … just hold my hand and breathe,” she said, winking at her. “We’re about five minutes away from the hospital now, so don’t worry. We’ll get you sorted, I promise.”
Antonio was fielding phone call after phone call from his brothers-in-law and father-in-law, each one more concerned than the last. Damon in particular was practically frothing at the mouth, incandescent at the fact that his sister was somewhere in the state, possibly in labour, and he was unable to help her.
“I promise you, I am doing everything possible to find her,” Antonio told Damon, waving his father over to him. “My dad and I are about to follow the route that she and Douglas would have taken to Ricky’s, see if they broke down or something.”
“Broke down? Without calling someone? Have you completely lost what remains of your brain cells?” Damon spluttered, barely forcing the words out. “Fuck that, Blackwood. Sit tight, I’m coming over. Then we can go find my sister.”
“Damon, there’s nothing more you can do.”
“Screw you,” was all Damon could say, before hanging up the phone.
Antonio gripped the phone tightly, closing his eyes and cursing the fact that his brother-in-law was just as hot-tempered as he was. Most of the time, it was a good thing, but when both he and his brother-in-law lost their cool, the mix of Italian and Spanish fire made for some explosive fireworks.
“Bloody Spaniards,” he grumbled, shaking his head at his father, who smiled sympathetically.
“Spanish and Italian,” David corrected him. “Two of the most hot-tempered people on the planet. And you wonder why we all sat a respectable distance apart at your wedding!”
“You don’t have to remind me,” Antonio smiled wryly. “Damon’s on his way, says he and I are going to look for Alyssia.”
“Well, a better set of eyes can’t hurt – mine aren’t anywhere near what they were, and I’m probably more use here anyway.”
“I know, but having my cognato in the car when he wants to murder someone isn’t exactly my idea of a fun time. I mean, what’s to stop him from pointing the gun at me?”
“Probably the fact that he’s more interested in rescuing his sister than in killing you, son. He’ll be fine, don’t you worry..”
The door shook with the force of someone knocking, and Antonio went to open it.
Damon stood outside, his face absolutely murderous.
He was dressed in black, carrying a baseball bat, and Antonio thought he also spotted a gun in his waistband, but he couldn’t be sure.
For a moment, nobody spoke, the air so thick with tension you could have cut it with a spoon.
“Alright, who’s driving?” Damon growled.
“I am,” Antonio raised a hand to quash any objections. “You keep an eye out for Alyssia’s car, or Douglas. One of them has got to be somewhere.”
“Agreed,” Damon nodded. “Reynolds says he’s notified every airport, harbour, train station … hell, if there’s a way out of here, he’s covered it. Only way for them to escape would be going underground at this rate.”
Antonio nodded thoughtfully. Reynolds had definitely earned his keep, and he made a mental note to offer the man a raise once his wife was safe.
The thought of Maria keeping his wife and unborn baby hostage stirred an anger inside him unlike anything he’d ever felt before, and it was all he could do to keep from roaring at the injustice of it all.
He knew that if had a prayer of keeping Damon on an even keel, however, he had to remain calm.
“You’d better get going,” David said, jolting him from his thoughts.
He unlocked the car, made sure everyone was inside and safely buckled in, and they were off.
The streets were quiet for a weekend, and he wondered if Reynolds had also managed to somehow control the flow of traffic in and out of the city.
His phone buzzed, and he nodded for Damon to answer it. Damon gave him a disgusted look, but yanked the phone out of its holder, letting out a growl as he saw that the number was withheld. He showed it to Antonio, who took a brief look at it and shrugged.
“Put it on speaker.”
Damon did so and put the phone between them, pressing his lips together.
“Listen up, sunshine,” came a chillingly familiar voice. Antonio gripped the wheel tightly, nearly swerving into the central reservation, and took a deep breath, choking back all the curses he wanted to rain down on her head.
“Where is my wife?” he growled, the anger in his voice so sharp it could have cut through diamond.
Maria laughed, her voice somehow even more maniacal than before.
The two men looked at each other, wondering if she’d finally succumbed to insanity, but didn’t say anything further.
The car slowed as they pulled over, Damon cursing as it started to rain.
“She decided she’d have the baby sooner rather than later, so the dumb bitch had to go to the hospital. Don’t worry, she’s safe – for now.”
“Which hospital?” Damon roared, only to be me with another maniacal laugh. “Answer me, woman!”
Maria ignored the question, and Damon gripped the phone tightly.
Antonio, however, was a lot calmer, mainly because he was working out where the nearest hospitals were.
Not many of them had maternity units, so that narrowed it down a little bit, but not much.
A small part of him held a begrudging respect for the fact that Maria had taken Alyssia to hospital, although he wasn’t about to admit that out loud.
"As soon as that baby’s out of her, you’ll have to decide – your wife and child, or a lifetime of regret,” Maria continued, and he closed his eyes briefly.
Surely Maria knew he’d choose his family over anything?
Or was she hoping he’d still refuse so that she could inflict the worst pain imaginable on him?
It took a moment for him to realise that Maria had hung up, and he rubbed his eyes wearily, staring out at the now torrential rain that was battering the roads.
Damon stared at him, his eyes black with anger, the phone still clenched in his fist. Neither of them knew what to say, although it was obvious that Maria had lost what little of her sanity she’d once possessed.
“So that puta sent my sister into labour? And packed her off to some hospital somewhere?” Damon finally growled, stuffing the phone back into its holder. Antonio nodded, feeling sick to his stomach, and slowly merged back into the traffic.
“Yup.”
“And how exactly do you plan to find her?”
“I don’t know. There’s only a few hospitals nearby with maternity units, but I can’t canvass them all.”
“Where was she supposed to be going?”
“Ricky’s house in New Jersey -”
“Englewood Hospital.”
Antonio stared at his brother-in-law, who shrugged and pointed at the in-car GPS.
“You want me to find the route?”
“I mean, we need to circle back to how you know it’s Englewood at some stage, but sure.”
“Dated a nurse there once. Blonde, blue eyes, great figure -”
“Jenny, right? I thought you guys were still together?”
“Nah, she found some hunky doctor to date. Still owes me a beer, though. Let me call her, double check and see if Alyssia’s been brought there.”
Damon grabbed his phone and dialled a number, waiting until the other person picked up. He skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point, only to hang up again a few minutes later, shaking his head.
“Note to self, never call your ex,” he grumbled. “I asked if she knew where Alyssia was, but apparently nobody’s come in with that name, so she suggested we go to labour and delivery at Englewood and see if anyone’s there. Apparently the emergency room is slammed.”
Antonio slammed on the accelerator, weaving through traffic like a Formula 1 driver. Horns blared all around him, but he no longer cared. All that mattered was Alyssia and their baby.