Chapter 49
Travis
“Congratulations, you two, it’s a boy!” Dr. Dupas exclaims from behind her surgical mask as she holds our baby up for me and Alyssia to see.
“H-He’s not crying,” Alyssia pants. “Is something wrong?”
My hand clutches hers tighter, heart hammering. My first reaction is to assure her that everything’s fine. That after everything she’s been through over the past twelve hours, it all worked out in our favor.
But our son isn’t crying.
Dr. Dupas passes our son over to the second doctor in the room while she and the nurses take care of Alyssia.
“What’s wrong?” Alyssia turns to me, sweating and still panting from her delivery. “Is he breathing?”
She pushes me to go check on him.
Hating the thought of letting her hand go, but torn between the need to make sure our son is okay, I reluctantly go in the direction she pushes. Toward the glass crib he’s been placed in.
His eyes are closed, but when the doctor moves his body, I see my baby squirming. A second later, he opens his eyes and lets out a scream-cry that fills the room.
The breath I held releases as a divine energy I’ve never felt overtakes me. It’s the best sound I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
“Would you like to cut the umbilical cord?” Dr. Dupas asks, holding out a small pair of scissors.
I take them from her at the same time I nod and make the cut. Once he’s cleaned up and swaddled, the nurse turns to me.
“Would you like to hold him?”
I don’t hesitate to hold out my hands for my boy, and carry him over to Alyssia.
“Here’s your mommy.”
Unsurprisingly, she bursts into tears.
Once she’s settled, I place our son onto her chest.
Movement and chaos continue to swirl around us. The healthcare staff come in and out, checking on Alyssia and our baby. In the distance I’m aware of my entire family, including Kandace and Alyssia’s uncles who managed to fly in before the birth, in the hallway.
The only thing that holds my attention right now are the two people I can’t take my eyes off of. They’re the only things that matter right now.
I still can’t believe how beautifully Alyssia sailed through labor and delivery. Even while driving from the remote part of the South of France where she’d been taken by that son of a bitch, she didn’t complain, or yell much beyond a few pants and moans when the contractions came on.
Her labor wasn’t a quick one. Once we arrived at the hospital, it took another six hours for her to fully dilate. After two hours of pushing, our son is here.
“You’re amazing. Do you know that?” I tell her over and over, kissing her temple and then our son.
“I’m so sorry I let this happen to you,” I say again after explaining all that transpired.
Our friends and family have already had a chance to visit and have gone home for the evening, to give us time to be alone.
“You’ve apologized enough,” she says, voice hoarse. “I know you would never put me in danger. It’s one of the reasons why I love you.”
My vision blurs and I lean down, kissing her forehead. “I’ll never lie or withhold the truth from you again.”
She gives me a sideways grin that makes my hear skip a beat. Even after hours of labor and delivery, she takes my breath away.
“Do you promise?”
“I swear it.”
If my family’s security hadn’t already been tapped into the building’s security system and was able to pick up the license plate information of the car she was taken in, we might’ve never traced her to that abandoned property in the outskirts of Southern France.
Gus Grant. Skyland’s agent and cousin was the man who kidnapped Alyssia. In the hours since this all happened, my uncle was able to connect Skyland, and by extension, Gus, to all of the notes, threats, and blackmail attempts.
He’d tracked the teens from Vegas down and uncovered, through emails, the fact that the person who sent them information on my hotel room was Gus.
“Good, because I meant what I said on the phone. You’re my safe place. I know my heart, my body, and our child are all safe with you.”
I wipe away the tear that falls from her eye with my thumb.
“You were the first call I made because I knew even though you were far away, you would get to me.” She shakes her head, laughing a little. “It doesn’t make sense, but when I had that phone in my hand, I knew if I could just hear your voice, everything would be okay.”
She looks at me, eyes widening, as if sudden realization has just dawned.
“How did you get there so quickly? You’re supposed to be in the Netherlands.”
“We caught a private flight.”
“You ran out before the race?” she asks as if that’s a sane question.
“Nothing,” I say firmly, “is more important than me being here.”
Alyssia frowns. “Will this cost you the championship? Isn’t that what they wanted? For you to lose?” she asks about Gus and Skyland.
“Winning doesn’t matter right now. I’m not leaving this hospital room until you and our son are discharged.”
The baby stirs in her arms, drawing both of our attention. My gaze moves from our stretching baby to Alyssia smiling down at him. I know the next words I’m about to say are the right ones even if it’ll rip a piece of my heart out to do so.
“Which is why I’m planning to tell my team that I’m done ra—”
“No.” Alyssia shakes her head, but keeps her eyes trained on the baby.
“No,” I repeat.
Alyssia exhales a deep breath. “You’re going stay with us until we’re cleared to go home, and then you’re going to work. To win. Because …” She finally looks up at me with tears in her eyes.
“The one thing Lucky and I want is for you to show us and the world who you are and claim that world championship title.”
My mouth opens and closes a couple of times. Alyssia’s gaze doesn’t waver from mine. I witness the determination in her eyes. She’s made her decision. To love me, to remain by my side, all of me, racing career included.
Most words fail me. All except one.
“Lucky?” I ask.
She nods, laughing. “He was conceived in Vegas, right? And someone once told me he always gets lucky in Vegas.”
We laugh, delirious from lack of sleep, a whole lot of bliss, and way more love than I thought humanly possible.
I sit on the bed, taking him from Alyssia. “How do you like your name, Lucky?”
At that moment he exhales deeply and his lips form a smile. It’s too early for babies to actually smile from happy feelings—I read it in another one of the books I bought—but I take it as a good sign anyway.
Still holding Lucky, I lean in to kiss Alyssia. Then I look down at our son. “Now you just have to tell your mom to give me a date for our wedding.”
Her eyes sparkle anew with unshed tears.
“You know you’re mine forever, right?”
She grins. “After all of this, I better be.”
I give Lucky to Alyssia for a moment so I can remove my shirt and climb into the bed beside her to do some skin-to-skin contact.
The bed of our private room is large enough for all of us to fit comfortably. I take a beat after unswaddling Lucky, to lay him against my chest and wrap my free arm around Alyssia.
She leans her head against my shoulder.
I run my other hand down the length of Lucky’s back until I reach his feet, he makes a little jerky movement with his foot, making me smile.
“Would you look at that?”
Alyssia lifts her head. “What?”
“Ten toes. Five and five on each foot. Maybe you really are telling the truth about not having six toes.”
Groaning, Alyssia buries her head in my shoulder. “As soon as I have the energy, I’m going to kill you.”