Chapter 81

Neil and I run to the baby’s room. Mia’s cries are loud through the monitor, but they are even louder in person. I rush to her crib side and peer down.

She threw up on herself. There’s light green goopy vomit down the front of her onesie. Some has spilled over, down onto the crib sheet.

“She got sick,” I say. I rush behind me, toward the changing table and grab a towel.

Neil stays a few feet away from the crib, staring at Mia. He’s still holding the baby monitor. It’s making a weird, delayed echo of Mia’s cries.

Poor girl doesn’t like to be covered in her own sick. I can’t fault her for that one.

Towel in hand, I rush back to start cleaning up the mess.

“Did you burp her after you fed her tonight?” I ask Neil.

“I did,” he says. He sounds different than he normally does, and not in same gruff way he spoke to me not five minutes ago, either. This tone is something else. Something cold. It sends goosebumps prickling over my skin.

And not in a good way.

Is it the mess that’s upsetting him? I know he hates when things are in chaos. Mia’s crying and her sick are certainly not helping the situation.

“Just give me a minute to clean her up,” I say. After wiping away the worst of the sick, I lift Mia up into my arms and carry her over to the changing table.

She curls into me at once, and some of her wailing stifles. She does manage to get some vomit on my shirt, however.

Neil starts to pace. In an instant, he has his phone in his hand. Gods know what he is searching for.

“Why would she get sick?” he asks.

“It happens sometimes,” I said. “She might have a cold bug or something, but it should pass soon enough.”

“Is that normal?”

I shrug. “Everyone gets sick.” I toss the soiled onesie into the laundry hamper and quickly dress her in a clean one.

“Not her,” he says.

I glance over my shoulder to look at him. He’s scrolling through his phone at an alarming rate, his eyes zipping back and forth. Is he speed-reading?

“She’ll be fine,” I say. “Look, she’s already feeling better.”

It’s true. She’s not crying anymore. She’s not quite smiling, but she looks more tired than anything. What she really needs is a good night’s rest.

“We have to take her to the ER,” Neil says.

I blink, unsure I heard him right. “That really doesn’t seem necessary.”

“She could have something seriously wrong with her. She could be fucking dying.” Neil cards a hand through his hair. “I’m not taking that chance. Get her stuff together. We’re going now.”

“We can contact the doctor in the morning, Neil. Dragging her all the way to the hospital in the middle of the night over one throw-up incident is massive overkill.”

Suddenly, Neil is much closer. He’s right by my elbow. If I wasn’t holding Mia on the changing table, I wonder if he would push me up against the wall.

As it is, instead, he lowers his voice to a dangerous level.

“We are going.” The words were a growl, a challenge. He was using his Alpha voice with me. Under it, I was compelled to listen.

I bit against the compulsion. He had no right to boss me around just because he was born an Alpha.

But deeper within me, I knew his impatience and arrogance was borne from a place of worry and fear.

Even without him using his Alpha tone, I would have probably agreed to take Mia to the hospital, if only to ease his obviously out of control stress level.

He didn’t have to be such an asshole about it.

I quickly pack an overnight bag for Mia. Neil takes it from me before I can hoist it over my shoulder and places it over his own shoulder instead.

“Ready?” He’s softened his tone but his voice still isn’t right.

“Yeah.” I hold Mia to me and we start walking. I follow Neil’s lead. I think he might lead me outside where a car would be waiting. Instead, he takes me down, down into an underground garage.

Two dozen cars of various sizes and colors line the room. Some look like older models than others, but all of them sparkle and shine, freshly-waxed. We walk past several two-seater sports car before Neil stops at a sedan with golden trim that probably cost more than what my life is worth.

There’s a car seat already set up in the backseat. I set Mia in there. Her brows of furrowing and she’s fussing. She can’t understand what’s happening. The poor girl probably wants to go back to bed.

“Shhh,” I whisper to her. “It’s alright. Get some sleep on the way. The car seat’s comfortable, isn’t it?”

She peers at me miserably and I feel like a right asshole for dragging her out.

She did get sick though. We should make sure she’s okay. If only so Neil doesn’t have a heart attack.

Neil’s already in the driver’s seat. He turns over the engine.

Quickly, before he can speed off without me, I close the backdoor and plop myself into the passenger seat.

“Seat belt,” Neil says. He’s holding the steering wheel at 10 and 2. Though he’s gripping it so tightly, his knuckles are white.

I fasten my seat belt.

Click.

Zroom.

The car peels forward. Neil turns the wheel masterfully, and guides the car out of the garage with such an ease, it must have come from many, many nights of practice.

I’d feel a hell of a lot better if he would slow down, however.

“Neil…”

He turns out of the driveway and onto a street without looking. No one was coming, but holy shit, I would feel better if he would look!

“Neil…” I say again, with more urgency.

Lightning flashes through the sky, followed by a crackle of roaring thunder. For the length of one breath, nothing happens. Then, all at once, the sky opens up and a torrential downfall begins.

Rain pelts down on the windshield. Neil turns the wipers up as fast as they go, but the visibility is still down to near-zero, between the darkness and the storm.

Neil takes another turn, even faster than before.

I glance back at Mia. She’s still sitting secure in her car seat. Meanwhile, I’m flopping all over mine. My seatbelt will save me from flying through the windshield, but I could still smack my head off the glass right beside me.

I reach for the handlebar over the door and clutch tightly with both hands.

“Neil…!”

Another turn, then Neil accelerates, the engine purring.

Another strike of lightning lights up the sky, blinding as it’s reflected in the raindrops pelting the window.

I squeeze my eyes closed. When I open them again, there are red taillights around us. We must have gotten on the highway.

Neil’s zigzagging through traffic.

This is it. This is how I’m going to die.

“Neil, please!”

He blinks like he was in a trance and he’s starting to come out of it. He side-eyes me, but only for a half-second before his focus returns to the road.

“I’m busy, Chloe.”

“I know that,” I say. “I can see that. Well, what I can see through the rain.”

“Then don’t bother me.”

“You’re worried, I get it. That’s great. I’m glad you care about Mia. But it would be great if we could get to the hospital alive.”

Another glance.

“You are driving like a maniac in the middle of a severe thunderstorm,” I continue. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that it won’t matter how sick Mia is if we die before we even get to the hospital.”

He glances at the speedometer.

His foot starts to ease off the gas.

But then Mia decides to flex her lungs again, and starts wailing.