COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) by Glenna Sinclair Read Free Book Online Page B

might drop the baby.
    “Cole…”
    The world grew dark around the edges. I heard Cole say my name, but I couldn’t answer him. I was floating away into oblivion, and it felt really, really good.

Chapter 7
     
    Cole
    The car tires screamed as I pulled to a stop outside the emergency room. I had the baby in one arm and was driving with the other, trying to rouse Amber with just the sound of my voice. But she was gone, completely unconscious. I should have stopped; I should have done something more than take the baby from her slack arms. But she needed the hospital and pulling over would have just delayed that moment longer than necessary.
    I opened the car door and the dome light suddenly flooded the car with illumination. That’s when I saw it, all the blood. I’d smelled it, but I thought it was because it was on my hands… oh, God, that was a lot of blood!
    I ran inside, screaming for someone, anyone. A nurse rushed up.
    “She’s bleeding!”
    “The baby? Let me see…”
    “No. The mother. She’s out in my car. She’s bleeding.”
    The nurse took one look at me and immediately jumped into action. Several other nurses came to her call and they pulled Amber out of the car, setting her on a gurney. I followed as they rushed her into a curtained off room behind the main entrance, but another nurse cut me off before I could go inside.
    “Let’s have a look at this one,” she said, her eyes weary as she met mine.
    “Will she be okay?”
    “We have to let the doctor take a look. Right now, we need to check out the baby, okay?”
    I followed her to another room, my ears perked to every sound, every call for more help. The nurse was just beginning to peel my shirt off the baby when I saw them rushing the gurney down the hall, Amber’s lifeless body on it.
    “What’s going on? Where are they taking her?”
    The nurse went to the door and watched for a second. Then she closed to door to the exam room and came back.
    “Your wife is hemorrhaging. It’s not uncommon after giving birth, especially in unusual circumstances.”
    “Will she be okay?”
    “They’re doing the best they can.”
    “But will she—?”
    The woman touched my arm lightly. “Let’s take a look at the baby, okay? Clean him up a little?”
    I reluctantly allowed her to take the baby from my arms. She carried him to a little plastic bed thing and carefully removed the t-shirt. The baby began to cry quite loudly as she carefully wiped away the blood and mess that was stuck to his tiny body. Once he was clean, she diapered him and pulled a little t-shirt over him, slipping a teeny hat onto his head.
    “He looks good. Do you know how far along your wife was?”
    “She had like three more weeks till her due date.”
    The nurse nodded. “We consider a birth at thirty-eight weeks full term, so this one wasn’t that far off.” She smiled at me as she came toward me with a plastic hospital band. “I’m going to put this on you so that everyone knows that you belong with the baby. Then we’ll walk him upstairs together so that the on-call pediatrician can look at him.”
    I followed her, feeling like I was in some sort of daze. I kept going over it all, the birth and the moments afterward. Had I forgotten to do something? Had I done something to cause Amber to bleed like that? I had no idea. I didn’t know what I was doing. The baby came out, I caught him. I thought that was all there was to it. But there was so much blood.
    If she died…
    I wouldn’t let myself go there. Instead, I watched the doctor examine the baby. I was seeing him in full light for the first time. It was a little overwhelming. He had blond hair that was so thin that it might as well not have been there. And his features…all babies look basically the same to me. But his hands. I knew it earlier and I knew it now. The baby had the same funny turn to his right pinky finger that all the Bradford men had.
    This baby was Peter’s. There was no doubt in my mind.
    “The