Page 4 of Risk
“Oh, shit?” Demi asks, tilting to the side and staring down at Luna’s feet. “That’s all you’ve got to say, sis?”
“No,” Luna whispers, “How about this. Fucking hell, this shit hurts! 911! Everyone rally, it’s time for this baby to make an entrance. Demi, what are you waiting for, call Marcum for fuck’s sake. What’s taking you so long?”
Her yelled ramblings and directives get us all up and on our feet. Rev and Regulator run into each other as they try to sprint in opposite directions. Midas’s feet slip out from beneath him and he lands flat on his ass. Hemi starts hollering out orders and I get assigned the job to head to the hall closet and grab her go-bag. Luna had one stashed at her house and one here to make things easier for when the time came.
As I come back into the main room, Demi is holding her phone out with the speaker on. “Luna!” I hear my pres scream her name with heavy panting in the background. He must be running to his bike as he tries to talk.
“Don’t shout at me, Marcum! Today is not the day for you to raise your voice at me, mister.”
“I’m not shouting at you, baby,” Kodiak reasons. I shake my head because if he could see her right now, he’d adjust his volume and zip it. I watch her intently, waiting for her head to spin because she’s that green.
“She’s gonna blow!” Tritan screams as he jumps over the bar and grabs the trash can, hurling it through the air and everyone in the room gasps as it slams into the back of Demi’s head.
Brooklynn, still in her adopted mother’s arms, turns her head slowly, pinning Tritan with a menacing glare. Then she lifts her finger and starts waving it at him, and even though we don’t understand gibberish, we get the point. Tritan better watch his back because that tiny tot is going to take him out at the knees.
Demi glances over her shoulder staring down at the can that landed a few inches behind her, then gently plucks it off the ground and sits it in Luna’s lap, turns and tells Tritan, “I’ll deal with you later.”
“It was an accident!” Tritan sputters.
“Not the point,” she hisses. “You could’ve hit Brooklynn or Luna. Have you never played ball, Tritan? You are supposed to look before you toss things all willy-nilly! Asshole.”
“Ashhole,” Brooklynn parrots, still waving her finger at the man of the hour.
“What’s going on!” Kodiak screams through the receiver. “Why are y’all still sitting around? Get my woman to the damn hospital already!”
“On it,” I shout, lifting Luna’s bag in the air so she sees it. “Ready when you are.”
“No time better than the present,” she mumbles, clutching the plastic can in her arms as Demi helps lift her to where she’s standing upright. “Should’ve invested in one that lifted me.”
“We’ll do that next time,” Demi says, placating her sister.
“Next time?” Luna harrumphs. “Hate to break it to you, but I’m a one and done woman. This is it, do you hear me, Marcum!”
“Loud and clear, Moon. One and done, but could you maybe go to the car so we can have this one?”
As he asks her that, she turns to me and probes, “Did he really just say us? I know he didn’t because I don’t see him having contractions that make him want to double over. He doesn’t have any wet, sticky substance trailing down his legs. I think I’ve done my part, if he wants to push this baby out I’ll happily tag him in.”
“I’m sure if he could, he’d take your place, Luna,” I say softly in an effort to pacify her. “No man likes seeing his woman in pain.”
“I can help with that,” she tells me.
Even though I’m scared to ask, I do anyway. “How?”
“By putting his balls in a vice grip,” she grumbles as I open the passenger side door and help lift her up.
“I’ll get the kids and meet you there!” Demi shouts as I round the car.
Luna waves at her friend. “Hurry, Demi! Otherwise, I’ll be wearing cuffs the second I push this kid out.”
“Do I want to know?” I ask Luna as I fire up the engine.
“No. Wouldn’t want to make you an accomplice,” she says, her words strong and steady.
I make a mental note to give Kodiak a heads up. That’s if I can catch him as he comes stumbling through the maternity ward doors.
Their poor baby is going to be born to a mom trying to emasculate its father. This birth may go down in the history books.
CHAPTER
