Chapter 3
Royce stopped. “Boss, Salcedo won’t take this well.”
Cormack stared at the maternity doors. “Nobody takes anything well in our world.”
“And the woman?”
Cormack’s voice broke so quietly only Royce heard it.
“Her name is Brin.”
A doctor emerged ten minutes later, mask hanging under his chin, exhaustion and urgency written across his face.
“Mr. Hale?”
Cormack stepped forward so fast the nurse rose from her chair.
“I’m Dr. Amani Reyes, maternal-fetal medicine. Brin Holloway is in severe cardiac distress. We believe she has peripartum cardiomyopathy. Her heart is struggling to pump effectively, and the baby is showing signs of distress.”
Cormack felt the hall tilt.
“What does that mean?”
“It means we need to deliver the baby now. Emergency C-section. Then we stabilize her heart.”
“Will she survive?”
Dr. Reyes did not answer fast enough.
That delay became the cruelest sound Cormack had ever heard.
“We’re doing everything possible.”
Cormack grabbed the edge of the counter. “Does she know I’m here?”
The doctor hesitated. “She was conscious for a moment.”
“And?”
“She asked us not to let you in.”
Cormack closed his eyes.
Of all the punishments waiting for him, that one was deserved.
“What else did she say?”
Dr. Reyes looked at him carefully.
“She said, ‘Tell him the baby isn’t a bargaining chip.’”
Cormack opened his eyes.
Something inside him folded, then shattered.
“She thought I’d use the child.”
“She was afraid,” the doctor said.
Cormack nodded slowly. “She had reason to be.”
Dr. Reyes softened. “There is one more thing. She has no listed family in Chicago. No emergency contact. If complications arise after delivery, decisions may need to be made quickly.”
“I’ll sign whatever you need.”
“That may not be legally simple.”
Cormack laughed once, without humor. “Nothing about me is simple, Doctor.”
“No,” Reyes said, studying him. “But in that room, none of your power matters. Only what’s best for Brin and the baby.”
Cormack swallowed.
“Then make that the law.”
Behind the doors, alarms began to sound.
A nurse shouted.
Dr. Reyes turned instantly.
Cormack took one step forward.
The nurse at the station blocked him with a raised hand.
“No farther.”
Through the glass, he saw only motion—someone running, a curtain pulled, a red light flashing over a door.
Then, faintly, impossibly, he heard Brin scream.
Not in anger.
Not in accusation.
In terror.
May you like
Cormack Hale, king of Chicago’s shadows, stood helpless in the corridor while the woman he abandoned fought death for the child he never knew existed.
And for the first time in his life, he prayed without knowing who he was praying to.
