Page 1 of Never Wed an Outlaw

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Love's Labor (Hannah)

This baby wasn't coming easy. An hour must've passed since the last labor pain. More than twenty minutes since the small medical team gathered around me stepped outside for a break.

Long enough to wonder how thehellI'd gotten myself into this.

Like I had the luxury of dwelling on the past. Right now, through the pain and confusion, a bigger question weighed on my mind.

I had to know how I'd get myself and my new born bundle of joyoutsafely.

We were so close. Just another day or two of driving from Texas to the West Coast, where I had a cargo ship waiting to take us away from everything I knew.

New Zealand. That's where I wanted to raise my son. Somewhere stable, safe, and far, far away from every crushing debt Hannah Davis ever owed.

I'd lived under a new name for seven months. New career. Brand new life.

A more normal one, happier than anything I ever had inTennessee, or wherever my coding skills took me.

Somewhere I'd never have to hear Dom breathing his threats in my ear, or watch my back for anyone wearing a Sicilian mafia tattoo.

Somewhere I'd never have to think about Dust again. Did such a place exist on this planet?

Even now, the bastard wouldn't leave my mind.

He was there every time I closed my eyes.

There, every time our son shifted deep inside me, eager to see the world for the first time.

There, when I looked into the empty room surrounding me, knowing he was about to miss his first born's entrance into the world.

There, there, andthere,whenever I thought I'd hold it together just a little while longer, to get this baby out of me so I could heal and hit the road.

Some men don't know the meaning ofleave.They're with you in your dreams, your nightmares, and the taste of their lips lingers on yours when there's nothing except bittersweet loss in your heart.

My fingers stretched down, flexed, clenching the edge of the bed. The cold, clinic metal in my fist was a terrible substitute for his hand – the manly, reassuring grip I knew he'd have on me right now if I hadn't taken off months ago, leaving him behind.

It wasn't like I wanted to. I did the right thing, took the only option I had under the gun.

By abandoning him, I'd saved his life, and so many others.

Winding up in this bed alone, about to give birth, was proof positive that I wanted to saveeveryonein that stupid motorcycle club, including my lover, my brother, my precious little niece.

They wouldn't die thanks to my mess.

I wouldn't force the Deadly Pistols into protecting me, and sinking their teeth into more than any little Smoky Mountain biker club could chew. Nobody stood a chance against the monsters waiting for my blood. They were bigger, stronger, easily able to decapitate entire rival groups overseas without a trace, and take everything they had.

Maybe someday, they'd overplay their hand, and a bigger, meaner beast would chew the Sicilian Brotherhood apart. Maybe Dom and his men would just be a bitter memory then. Maybe I'd be able to send a secret note to Knoxville, telling Dusty his son was happy and healthy in a new country, and that he'd always have a piece of my heart.

Yeah,maybe.

Hey, maybe a unicorn would come crashing through the wall and spirit us both away to an all-you-can-eat chocolate buffet in the next ten minutes.

Magic horses were a lot safer than those loud, growling Harleys that used to get me hot for the man who'd gotten me pregnant, anyway. I laid back, more painkillers flooding my system, letting them soak in before I had to force my early baby out.

I was still seeing unicorns and motorcycles in my head when the door swung open.

The doctor and the nurses were back, thank God. ThenI looked up, and saw hell itself on two legs and a leather jacket.

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