Page 15 of Rescuing Mary

“Lie down,” Casey ordered, already helping the other woman to the floor.

Rayne and Mary moved to her side. Mary grabbed one of her hands and Rayne grasped Emily’s leg. “Deep breaths,” Rayne ordered. “Try to relax.”

“I think I’m okay,” Emily said. “It was just a twinge. I’ve still got two months to go. I’m not in labor.”

“Damn straight you’re not,” Mary said. “I am not delivering Annie’s brother in the middle of a bank robbery in this cave of a room.”

“You don’t know it’s a boy,” Emily said.

“It is. Annie wants a brother, so it’s a boy.”

Emily rolled her eyes, but quickly looked up at Mary. “Thank you for not distancing yourself from Annie. She loves you so much, and she wouldn’t have understood.”

Mary nodded. “Annie is my soul sister. She’s precious and can be snarky, just like me. Do you…will you forgive me?” Mary hadn’t ever been so unsure in all her life. Usually she didn’t give a damn what people thought about her, but this was too important to be flippant.

“Of course I do,” Emily said immediately. “I was upset because Rayne was upset. But I never hated you.”

“Thank you,” Mary told her softly.

“And I’m too new to even know what all the hub-bub was about,” Casey piped in. “So I forgive you too.”

Rayne laughed. “Girl, you never even took sides. In fact, you constantly bugged me to talk to Mary and mend our rift.”

“True,” Casey said cheerfully. “And now you have. I can’t wait to call Wendy, Kassie, and Harley, and tell them all is well.”

Mary grimaced. “I need to talk to them too. To explain.”

Rayne put her hand on Mary’s arm. “I’ll do it.”

“Thanks. But that’s not cool. Maybe we could both do it? Take them to lunch or something?”

“That sounds awesome. And we can call Bryn together too.”

Mary shuddered. “That woman. I love her, but jeez, you know she’ll analyze the situation to death and then get sidetracked and want to know all about my cancer, what it’s like to have no boobs, and what the doctors said…in detail.”

Everyone chuckled. They all knew Bryn, and knew she’d do exactly that. Her curiosity was voracious and typically their phone calls always went off on a weird tangent because of the way Bryn’s mind worked. But she was refreshing and didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

“How long has it been?” Emily asked, one of her hands resting on her rounded tummy protectively. “What do you think is going on?”

Mary looked at her watch. “About fifteen minutes. I’m gonna call Truck back.” She stood and went over to the phone on the wall. She knew it was a risk. If he was in the middle of doing his Delta Force thing, he wouldn’t be able to answer, and she could even take his attention away from what he was doing, but she needed to know what was happening on the other side of the wall.

Besides, she was worried about Emily. Even if the other woman thought she was okay, she needed to see a doctor to make sure. Mary hadn’t been kidding when she said that she didn’t want to deliver a baby.

She dialed Truck’s number and he answered on the second ring.

“Mary?”

“Yeah, what’s happening?”

“Are you guys all right?”

“Yeah. We can’t hear a thing though. And Emily’s having some pain.”

“Shit. The cops are clearing the scene now. We should be able to get to you guys in about five minutes. Will she be okay until then?”

“Yeah. I think so. She seems to be all right at the moment. She’s lying down. Clearing the scene? So everyone is safe?”

Truck’s voice lowered, his tone calming her again, just as it had earlier. “Yeah. We got here at the same time as the cops, and luckily we knew them. They let us take point. Trigger’s team breached through the back door and we came in through the front. Those assholes didn’t even resist, simply dropped their weapons when they saw they were surrounded.”