Page 118 of Bully for Sale
Ned stepped down from the witness stand feeling anxious and cored out. Having his past faults exposed had been embarrassing, but, more importantly, he saw how much more he needed to grow. His humiliation was nothing compared to what Ezer had suffered. Ezer was the victim, and his words should have counted for as much as Ned’s and Heath’s, but that wasn’t how the system worked.
Sitting in the courtroom next to his uncle, he watched as the judge lifted piece after piece of paper, considering them, and making notes. Ned wondered if there would be a verdict announced today—unlikely—and hoped that whatever the Tenmeter family had offered wasn’t enough to tempt the judge into a miscarriage of justice. The man was an alpha himself after all; he had to consider the implications for his own omega if someone had done to him something as violating as what Braden had done to Ezer.
The minutes crept by, and Braden shifted uneasily in his seat next to his attorney. Heath bent over, whispering, “This is good. The judge is giving it a lot of thought. Whatever Tenmeter tried to bribe him with, hopefully won’t be enough.”
The back door to the courtroom opened and a clerk walked in. The judge’s brows lifted in surprise but he waited for the young man to hustle up to the bench. He leaned forward, whispered something, and the judge nodded before waving him off.
The clerk caught Ned’s gaze with a strained expression as he headed out. Ned’s stomach tightened and his fists clenched. Something was wrong. He wasn’t sure what, but there was no mistaking that look from the clerk. He cast his mind over everything related to the case but could find no bombshell the clerk could have handed to the judge that would affect the outcome one way or another.
“Mr. Clearwater—the younger Mr. Clearwater,” the judge clarified, glancing up from the papers he continued to sort. “You’ll want to get home. Your omega has gone into labor there and cannot be transported by ambulance as was planned.” The cold, easy speech hit Ned in the stomach, and he rose, sweat breaking over him at once.
Heath rose as well. The judge ignored the impropriety and returned to his papers. Ned shoved his way past the attorneys and ran down the aisle to the door of the courtroom.
Heath grabbed his arm outside the door of the courtroom. “Let me drive you.”
Ned nodded. There was no time for a bus. Thank God his uncle was here.
“Why won’t the ambulance take him?” Ned asked, fumbling for his phone and other belongings from another courthouse clerk. He looked at his messages. There were many from Yissan, none from Ezer.
As Heath hustled him out of the courthouse, the sun spilling around them like gold, as if there was nothing terrifying or urgent happening, like it was just another spring day, Ned put a call through to Ezer—no answer—and then to Yissan.
“Are you coming?” Yissan asked, breathlessly. “He’s asking for you.”
“On my way. Why wasn’t he taken to the hospital?”
“The EMTs refused. They claimed they couldn’t without his alpha’s permission.”
“I had written permission drawn up weeks ago.”
“I can’t remember where you put it! I searched the whole nest!”
Ned’s stomach twisted. “It’s on my father’s desk upstairs. I told you and Earl where to find it the day it was done.”
“Earl’s not here, and, fuck, I panicked and couldn’t remember what you’d said, and I’m so sorry.Fuck.”
“Fuck,” Ned echoed.
The drive took forever, and the whole way there Ned jittered in his seat, feeling sick and miserable. Was Ezer already dead? Had the children survived? What was he going to find when he got to his house? To their nest? Why did everything about this have to be so hard, so painful, so bitter?
“You’re spiraling,” Heath said. “Understandable. But only acceptable until you walk in that door. He’s going to need your presence of mind, your peace. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve got to be courageous for him. This will be—” Heath swallowed. “Incredibly difficult.”
The understatement was evident.
“Did you fear you’d lose Adrien?”
“Every alpha fears that, but I admit Adrien was never as at risk as Ezer is.” Heath put his hand on the back of Ned’s seat and then slid it down to his shoulder to squeeze reassuringly. “There’s nothing to do now but hope and tell him it’s going to be all right. You must pretend for all you’re worth.”
When Ned reached the house, he raced through the living area and down to the nest. The room was stuffed with people. Yissan was there, of course, and several EMTs. Someone had called Dr. Savage as well, because he was kneeling at Ezer’s side, his hand around back, doing something where the babies would exit.
Amos Elson was there, too, holding his son and cooing. There was another alpha in the room, a small man, standing off to the side, who raised his hands instinctively when Ned’s gaze landed on him. Clearly aware that strange alphas weren’t welcome in a pregnant omega’s vicinity, much less a laboring one, fear glinted in his eyes—but then Ned took in the sharp angles of his face, the way he looked so much like Ezer…
Ned turned away from Finn and moved toward Ezer, tugging his shirt open at the collar, and rolling up his sleeves. Ezer squatted in a corner, trembling all over, and his head lolling back as a scream ripped from him.
Spots swam in Ned’s vision, but this was it. This was his time to be brave. There was no turning back now. It was too late for an ambulance, even he could see that. It was too late the take the babies. They were doing this.
