The Strength of the Pack (Suncoast Society #30)(69)

It wouldn’t do any good to deny it, so Eva started out by fudging that she had an argument on the phone with her mom about her father, and then listing her physical symptoms.

Instead of blowing it off, Tilly sat up, scowling. “Say what? Why didn’t you say something before?”

“I’m fine.”

“Wait here.”

Tilly nearly mowed down a few more people as she bolted across the dungeon, interrupting Landry, where he was scening with Cris, to go through Landry’s pants pockets herself in search of something before heading out the door to the office.

Marcia walked over. “Where’d she run off to?”

Eva shrugged despite a bad feeling starting to take form in her gut. Or maybe that was the growing backache she was feeling. “I dunno.”

Tilly returned moments later, carrying a bag. She didn’t sit down next to Eva, though. She sat the bag on the sofa and opened it. “Left arm. Sleeve up.” She pulled out a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. “Did I speak Klingon? Sleeve up, lady.”

Eva rolled her sleeve up and obediently let Tilly take her blood pressure.

Tilly frowned and took it again.

And one more time.

“What?” Eva asked.

Tilly’s face was now an unreadable mask as she made a notation on a small notepad she’d pulled from the bag. “Do you remember what your BP reading was when you saw your OB last week?” She took Eva’s pulse.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It was like 110/70, I think. Why?”

“What is it usually, do you know?” Tilly noted her pulse on the notepad.

“Why?”

“Curiosity.”

“I don’t know. Is there a problem?”

“What’s your weight?”

“One seventy-five this morning. What’s going on?”

“How’s your eyes? You said your vision’s blurry?” Tilly shined a light in her eyes, checking them.

“I just need glasses.” Eva’s back twinged again. “And I think I need to pee again.” Nate was in the middle of working with the person on his table, his back turned to them. Fortunately, she didn’t think he’d seen what was going on.

If he had, she knew he would have been racing over to find out what was wrong.

Tilly dumped everything into her bag, except for the notepad, which she tucked into the back pocket of her slacks, and the pen, which she stuck over her ear. She shouldered the bag before grabbing an arm to help Eva up off the couch.

“I’ll go with you.”

“I can pee by myself.” Another pain hit Eva, making her wince. “So what was my blood pressure, anyway? Why’d you check it so many times?”

Tilly bird-dogged her all the way into the bathroom. “It’s probably nothing. We’ll check it again in a little bit, and before you leave tonight. You said you had iced tea with dinner. Well, caffeine can spike your BP. Make sure you drink nothing but water tonight. You also said you had sushi for dinner, right? Soy sauce? All that sodium can help raise your blood pressure, too.”

“And I think it’s not settling well with my stomach,” she said as they entered the bathroom.

“You feel sick?”

“I…I don’t know.” She didn’t feel good, that was for sure. And she was starting to feel worse by the minute.

“How’s the baby doing?” Tilly asked. “More active than normal? Less?”

Eva stopped walking, thinking. “Less than normal. It’s getting big, though. That happens.”

She felt warmth between her legs. “Dammit.” She waddled into the wheelchair accessible stall, mentally cursing that she’d just pissed herself as she slid the lock and crossed over to the toilet. As she squatted to go, she got a look at her underwear, the dark stain on the black fabric. Yep, she’d peed.

Dammit.

Then, when she finished, she wiped herself and froze.

She could hear Tilly still there in the bathroom, the sound of her heels on the floor as she shifted position.

“Til?” she softly called out.

“Yeah, sweetie?”

“Can you please go get Nate for me?”

“What’s wrong, honey.”

“Just…please go get him.”

“Fuck that noise, you tell me what’s wrong!”

Eva winced as a stronger, sharp pain slammed into her.

She must have made a noise, because there came Tilly, kicking her medical bag under the door ahead of her before she dropped onto her back and shimmied under the stall door.

When she stood and turned, she immediately saw the problem. “Fuck.” She unlocked the stall door, running out and yelling for Marcia. She returned immediately, pulling on nitrile gloves she’d taken from her pocket before helping Eva up off the toilet. “Okay, sweetie. You’re going to the hospital.”

The toilet bowl was full of bright red blood. “Tilly?” Her vision was worse than ever. “My eyes.”

Tilly looked grim as she reached over and flushed the toilet. “I know, sweetie. That’s part of it. I probably should have gotten you out of here as soon as I took your BP.”

Marcia burst into the bathroom. “Tilly?”

“In here.”

Marcia pushed into the stall and gasped as she saw the blood on Tilly’s gloves. “Oh, f*ck. I’ll call—”