One More Chance

I nodded.

“The blood transfusion was successful. Harlow still hasn’t opened her eyes. Her brain waves are positive, though. But until she opens her eyes, we can’t be sure how much she was affected. A doctor will be out to speak with you shortly. They’ve gotten word that her father has arrived.”

“Thanks,” I said, holding on to the good news. I needed positive. I also didn’t care if Kiro being here made them more anxious to answer my questions. If Kiro Manning made them jump, then good. I needed them to f**king jump. I didn’t care how it happened.

The fact Nan had offered to give them the blood Harlow needed was still something I couldn’t process. What did she have to gain by doing that? Nan never gave freely without trying to manipulate people. There had to be a reason she did it. But I honestly didn’t care. She did it, and that was all that mattered.

Kiro

Why couldn’t it have been my motherfucking heart? Why did it have to be my baby girl’s? I had been asking this question since the day they told Emmy and me there was an issue with Harlow’s heart. I would have moved heaven and earth to take that from her. But just like I couldn’t save my Emmy, I couldn’t save our daughter.

She was stubborn, and she was so f**king brave. That damn hard head of hers had been something I admired. Until she decided she was gonna have a baby. I knew she’d never abort it. Wasn’t in her nature. She had been trying to save the world since she was three years old. She always put others before herself. She preferred the people she loved over her own wants and needs.

It was one of the things that made her so damn beautiful. Just like my Emmy. And she was all I had of my Emmy. The light in Emmy’s eyes had been gone for so long. Every day I visited her, I hoped to see her eyes light up with understanding and that she would come back to me, but that never happened. Not once.

The only way I could see that light was to look at our Harlow. Our little miracle. And now she was lying back there on some goddamn hospital bed with tubes in her, barely hanging on to life.

All I could think about on the flight to Rosemary Beach was how I was going to wrap my hands around Grant Carter’s neck for doing this to her. He hadn’t thought about her safety; he had thought with his f**king dick. And my sweet Harlow loved the man. She wanted his kid. And he let her go through with it.

Now I was in the waiting room with everyone else. Rush tried to talk to me and calm me down. He didn’t want me agitated when Grant came back from seeing the baby that might have just killed my baby. He said Grant was a wreck. That he had been standing there like a man possessed, watching the door for a sign of Harlow. For any word.

He was scared. Good. Motherfucking good! He should be. Maybe death was too good for him. A life like mine was hell on earth. That was what he deserved. Death would be too easy for him.

I glanced back at Dean, who was sitting with Blaire, then saw that the rest of the band had found places to sit. When I’d gotten the call, they had all shown up at the airport with me. They loved my girl, too. She was their family. There was a good chance they’d kill Grant.

“Kiro,” Grant said, and I jerked my head back around to see the man responsible for this. He was wearing a pair of blue scrubs, and there were dark circles under his eyes. The pale color of his face didn’t make me feel any better.

“You killed my baby,” I snarled, unable not to take out my pain on someone.

Grant tensed, and Rush was there between us immediately. He looked fierce and ready to take me on.

“She’s alive. She’s fighting, because that’s what she does. I don’t give a damn who you are, I will have your ass removed from this hospital if you can’t keep it together. I’m sorry you’re hurting. I know you’ve got to be scared as shit. But so is he,” Rush said, pointing at Grant. “He’s f**king terrified. Losing her would destroy him. He’s already breaking apart. So don’t come in here throwing shit around and accusing him of anything. He stood by the woman he loves when she was determined to have this baby. He couldn’t force her to do something she’d never get over.”

Dean came up beside his son and put a hand on Rush’s shoulder as if to make sure I knew I wasn’t going to be able to attack Rush, either. “The boy looks like he’s been through hell. Harlow wouldn’t want this. She would want you to be here for each other. You know that, Kiro,” Dean said in a stern tone.

They were all on the boy’s side. He could have stopped this. My baby had wanted to give him a baby. She loved that baby because it was his. So hell, yes, I blamed him.

“He didn’t protect her. He could have saved us all this with something as simple as a damn condom.”

Grant closed his eyes, and I saw him tremble. Apparently, he knew that, too. He was taking the blame. Good. He needed to know that if we lost her, he was the one who killed her. Him.

“He didn’t know about her heart until the day she left him. She was pregnant before she left. She just didn’t know it,” Rush explained.

I already knew that. I didn’t care. He still should have used a condom. Respect a girl like Harlow, and protect her from your dick. It’s f**king courtesy.

“Where the f**k is Mase? His ass should be here,” I said, angry that the brother she adored wasn’t here, waiting.

“I’m right here, ass**le.”

Mase

“You did not just call him an ass**le,” Major whispered beside me.

“Watch your mouth,” my mother scolded. Although she knew he was an ass**le.