Love Resisted (Entwined Hearts #2) (18 page)

“Ooof!” I grunt as Con smacks the left side of my jaw. Gaining my balance again, I swing for him and connect with his ribs, then duck down missing his next jab only to get caught out by his follow on kick.

“What’s wrong with you? Get your head in the game,” he shouts at me and I’m done. I rip off the gloves with my teeth and jump out of the ring.

“Where are you going?” Con shouts again, but I ignore him, marching toward the changing rooms. Once inside the slightly damp and sweaty smelling room, I sit on a bench and lean my head back against the wall taking a few deep breaths. Con storms in seconds later, the door bouncing off the wall as he does.

“What the fuck, Saul?” he asks his eyes narrowed at me.

I blow out another breath. “Sorry man, I can’t keep my head in the game.”

At my truth, Con sits down next to me and sighs. “Something else happened?” he asks and I nod yes.

“What now?” I tug my bag up from the floor and dig around inside trying to locate the latest threating letter. Once I have it in my hand, I pass it to him and he opens it reading it aloud.

“Cherry pie,

“I’m not sure if you’re getting these letters, so let me just say to whoever is reading this. I will get her. I will get her and I will take what I want from her, and once I do she won’t ever want you again. Because she’ll want me, or because I’ll break her so badly that nothing and nobody will ever be able to piece her back together. And Cherry Pie, if you are reading this, then I want to tell you my patience is running out. Time is ticking away for you. Either you come to me or I’ll get you. And if any of your precious family gets hurt in the crossfire then so be it,” Con say’s the last bit sucking in a breath.

“He’s actively threatening Pea now? I’ll kill the fucker.” He starts pacing.

“He’s threatening us all brother. I just don’t know what else to do.” A million thoughts run through my head. “The worse thing is that Soph doesn’t know because if she did she’d avoid us all and I can’t have that.”

Con looks at me for a moment then nods. “I’d like to say keep her away from Pea. Not trying to be a dick, I just want to keep Pea and my baby safe. But I know it would be futile ‘cause Pea wouldn’t have it. Damn woman!” he grunts.

“No, that’s okay. I get it. I’d be the same with Soph, but we picked women that you can’t control brother,” I tell him with a wink, my worry momentarily forgotten.

“Ain’t that the truth,” Con replies running his hand down his face.

“What have the police said?” he asks.

“Huh! Not a lot. Their investigation continues, but they don’t seem to be any closer to figuring anything out,” I tell him.

“Shit,” he moans.

“Yep,”

“Come on, there’s no point in being here worrying while the girls are with Dane,” he tells me. At that moment, my phone blasts out Hoobastank's ‘The Reason’ and I know Soph’s calling.

“Hey babe,” I answer already smiling.

“Honey, we can’t get hold of Con. We’re on our way to the hospital,” she rushes out.

“What? Why? What’s happened?” I ask my eyes slipping to Con, who’s on full alert at my tone.

“Pea, she’s bleeding. She’s bleeding from down there. The baby…” she tails off with a sob and a hiccup.

“Babe, calm down. We’re on our way,” I tell her sounding more confident than I feel, but also knowing Con is going to lose it when I tell him. Someone needs to take charge and right now that’s me.

“What hospital,” I ask and Con’s body rocks back like he’s been punched in the stomach.

“Chelsea and Westminster,” she whispers barely holding it together.

“We’ll be there soon,” I tell her disconnecting the phone.

“Tell me,” Con demands.

“They’re on their way to Chelsea and Westminster hospital. Pea’s bleeding. Let’s go,” I reply grabbing his car keys before he can.

“Fuck!”
he shouts kicking a locker.

“Do what you need to now, Con, ‘cause when we get there, you’ll need to rein it in for her.”

I drive us there. Con doesn’t argue, his head’s not in it, and the last thing Pea needs is us getting into an accident or being pulled by the police because of his driving. Not that I don’t drive fast. I’m not keeping to the speed limit. Con may even find he has a speeding ticket coming his way, but I don’t think he cares right now. We park and run inside, Con rushes up to the desk.

“Pearson Amberry,” he demands without so much as a hi. The women the other side of the desk looks up at him over her glasses, with her eyes narrowed and an altogether unimpressed look. I decide to smooth things over before she decides to become purposely awkward.

“Hi, sorry. He’s in a hurry as his pregnant fiancée was brought in by an ambulance bleeding. Please, can you tell us where Pearson Amberry is?” I ask.

She nods at me and taps on her keyboard. “She’s being assessed, she was brought in by ambulance, so I’m afraid I don’t know much else.”

I nod to her and grab Con. “Come on,” I tell him, trying to direct him to some seats away from other people because I’m not sure he can hold his shit together much longer. Before he has a chance to argue, I see Dane.

“Dane?” Con says in question.

“I don’t know what to say, man, they haven’t told me anything. Pea went in the ambulance with Soph and I came in the car. I haven’t spoken to anyone since we got here. Nobody will talk to me,” Dane replies

Con’s jaw ticks. “But you’re her brother,” he replies and Dane nods.

“Yeah they know that, but they just keep saying they don’t know anything and that we have to wait for a doctor to come out and talk to us.” We all sit down sharing the same defeated looks. It feels like hours pass and we watch people come and go in fact it’s probably only about forty minutes. Con must go up to reception another ten times, and Dane and I cast each other curious glances wondering whether we may have to restrain Con at some point. Just as his fidgeting is getting extreme, I see Soph walk out of the electronic doors holding them open and looking for us. My heart stops. I think I literally feel it pumping back to life. The white tank that she had on when I left her this morning is blood red and she has blood on her arms, hands and even on her face. My brain has to tell my body that she’s okay, because for one nightmare of a second all my responses told me she’d been hurt, and that this threat we’ve been living under had come to fruition.

I check myself pretty damn quick, knowing that blood must have come from Pea and I look at Con, who’s gone white while Dane calls to Soph. I look back to see she is motioning us over.

“Con, game face, brother. Whatever has happened, she will need your strength.” He nods at me but says nothing, as we walk over to Soph.

“You can come see her now. She’s okay.”

Con sags at Soph’s words leaning his whole body into me. I support him for the moment it takes before he pulls himself together.

“The baby?” he asks, but Soph just shakes her head. “I don’t know, I’m sorry, Con,” she tells him sadly.

“Can you take me to them?” At his request, Soph turns around and we trail after her.

When we enter Pea’s cubicle, she has her eyes closed and is deathly white. There’s an IV drip in her arm and an oxygen mask over her face. At the sight of her, Con collapses to his knees, his head in his hands and his shoulders shake. Soph has tears streaming down her face and I give my brother a nonverbal,
‘Will you go hug my girl,’
to which he nods. While I get on my knees next to Con and wrap him in my arms telling him they’ll both be fine.

Slowly his breathing evens out and I hear a rasped, “Con?” from above.

I look up and see Pea, her eyes wide, a tear slipping out of one while she gazes at her fiancé, fear and sadness covering her face. I nudge Con and he looks up, realising Pea is looking at him, he jumps to his feet and leans over her holding her in his arms like she might disappear at any moment. She rubs his back, pulls down her oxygen mask and whispers in his ear and whatever she’s saying makes him nod.

The curtain is suddenly pulled back and a doctor walks in. She’s visibly shocked and I can only assume it’s because of the amount of people in here when she says, “Wow, it’s a bit squished in here.” At her comment, we all take a step back, getting out of her way. Well, everyone except Con, who I don’t think would move for the Queen at this point. She smiles and steps up next to Pea. “Okay, the bleeding seems to have stopped for now. Although you lost a fair amount, thankfully we didn’t need to perform a blood transfusion.”

“Do you know what it was?” Pea asks softly.

“We believe it was a partial placental abruption. We don’t know why it happened, which is often the case with this condition. You lose blood and sometimes can also lose some of your placenta. From what we can tell it’s stopped and you’re not having contractions. We’re moving you up to the maternity ward where they’ll assess you further. We’ve checked you over, but we still don’t know the full situation of your baby. I’ve felt movement and as you’re not contracting they are all good signs. But they will do a scan and make sure the baby is not in distress.”

Pea looks thoughtful then asks, “And if our baby is in distress?”

“Well, depending on the severity they will sometimes induce labour or give you a caesarean section,” she answers the question.

Pea shakes her head. “But…it’s…I’m only...t…twenty-seven w...weeks pregnant,” she says trembling.

Fuck that’s not good!

The doctor looks at her with pity swirling in her eyes and replies, “I know Ms. Amberry, but hopefully that won’t be needed. Let’s wait before we panic as we don’t want to make things worse. A Porter will be here in the next few minutes to take you to the maternity wing so you can have a scan and a doctor will decide what the best course of action will be. Good luck.” Then she leaves us all standing there not knowing what to do or say. I walk over and hold Soph as she steps toward me out of Dane’s embrace.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through all this, babe, but I’m so glad you were there for Pea.” She nods into my chest and lets out a sniffle. Soph isn’t a crier, but I’m glad she feels comfortable enough to cry when she’s with me, knowing I’ll pick up the slack and be strong for her.

Twenty minutes later and Soph, Dane and me are sitting in some chairs in a waiting room on the maternity unit. Pea and Con are with the doctors.

“You were incredible, Soph,” Dane says and Soph looks at him bringing her head off my shoulder where it was resting

“No, I was a mess,” she replies.

“Soph, when Pea started bleeding and freaking out you made her stay still. You laid her down, raised her legs, and called me from the kitchen to call an ambulance. You were so calm and in control,” he reminds her with pride coating his voice.

“I fell apart,” she tells him again and he asks, “Where?”

Her eyebrows pull in. “Where what?” she says confused.

“Where did you fall apart?”

“Oh, in the ambulance,” she replies and he nods.

“Exactly, in the ambulance when the paramedics were there and had taken over, and you could let your emotions go. Until that point? Rock solid,” he states and I feel a bundle of emotions flow through me. Pride swelling above the rest, but also the compassion that she had to go through that, thinking she was going to lose her best friend and having to be the pillar of strength, but mostly the overwhelming emotion is love. What can I say, she brings out the sappy in me.