“Stop!” Megan’s voice rang out from the nursery. “You’ll wake Tiffany up,” she said in a singsong voice that sent chills up his voice.
“Megan, that isn’t your child. That’s mine and Winter’s. Your child died. Please, Megan, put her back. She’s on a respirator. Her lungs are too small. She can’t breathe on her own. Please, Megan…” Viper begged.
“It was your child who died. Did you think I wouldn’t know my own child?”
“Find Curt!” Viper turned to Shade as Knox and the security guard tried to break into the nursery.
“He left the hospital the night she had the baby. He told her she couldn’t do anything right. He hasn’t been back since.”
“Jesus.” Viper started to throw his entire body at the glass blocking him from his daughter.
“What the fuck is going on?” Tate Porter shoved him back toward his brothers Greer and Dustin.
“Megan Dawkins thinks Viper’s child is hers.” Rachel’s pale face looking up at them convinced her brothers to release Viper.
“Sorry, man, I thought you lost your shit. Rachel said your baby isn’t doing well.” Dustin had compassion. As a father himself, he knew the hell Viper was going through.
Knox and the security guard had started using their knives to remove the door hinges.
“Where are the keys to the fucking door?” Knox grunted.
Viper had moved back to the door as Shade knocked on it. “Can I come in? Curt told me he’s on his way and wants me to protect you until he can get here.”
Megan lifted her head. “Curt’s on his way?” She stopped rocking the baby as indecision filled her face. “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
“Hasn’t he told you we’ve been getting beers before he goes home from work? Curt and I are friends. I told him I would watch out for you.”
“You won’t let them come in?”
“I promise. Let me in, Megan. Curt wanted me to say he was sorry for doubting you. He said he can prove the baby is yours.”
“He can?”
“Yes, let me in. Curt will be here any minute. We don’t want to make him mad, do we?”
“No.” Megan walked to the door.
“Everybody get back.” Viper kept his voice low when all he wanted to do was scream at the girl to hurry. The red alarms on the machines had been giving shrill screeches.
As soon as Megan unlocked the door, she turned back to the rocking chair.
Viper wanted Shade to snatch his daughter from her arms, but Shade forestalled him.
“Let me hold her until you sit down. I don’t want you to drop her.” He held out his arms, and she turned to see that no one else had come into the nursery.
“Okay.” She placed the baby in his arms.
As soon as Viper knew Shade had the baby, he and the nurses came running into the room.
“Knox!” Viper grabbed Megan, preventing her from trying to snatch the baby back.
“I got her. You can let her go.” Knox took Megan, leading her away from the nursery.
“I called the doctor. He’s on his way.” A nurse took his daughter from Shade, and Viper anxiously watched as she put the infant back in the incubator, straightening the tubes Megan had twisted loose.
“Wait outside,” one nurse ordered him, as she worked on the baby.
Feeling helpless, he didn’t move. “I’m not leaving my daughter.”
The window outside the nursery was filled with the Last Riders. Cash must have called them when he had run out of Winter’s room.
Shade went outside to join them, leaving Viper inside.
The Last Riders made room for Dr. Price to rush inside. He immediately went to work on her tiny body that was slipping away as Winter still slept, unaware. She was never going to be able to hold her baby and say her goodbyes.
Rachel held the door open as if she were going to convince him to leave. He couldn’t leave before one of her parents told her how much she had meant to them. He remembered how many times he had regretted not saying goodbye to Gavin, and he wasn’t going to have the same regrets with his daughter.
“Please don’t go, sweet girl. You’re going to break your mama’s heart like you’re breaking mine. I haven’t even been able to hold you yet.
“I’m not a nice man, but I was planning on being a good father to you. I would have held you when you cried. I even told your mama I didn’t mind changing your diaper. I would have all the boys afraid of me when they tried to date you, and I would have made an ass of myself when you married. We would have loved you so much. You would have never doubted that God meant for you to belong to us.
“Your mama thinks she’s the jealous one, but I am. I’m jealous of the angels who will hold you and keep you safe until we can join you. I want you to know that every time you hear your name, I’m thinking of you. Aisha, you will be alive in our hearts.” Viper broke, crumbling to his knees, crying.