Way of the Warrior (Troubleshooters #17.5)(110)
“In four-billion-degree heat?” Eden shot back, gesturing around them to a landscape that looked like the surface of the moon. “With a bottle and a half of water between the two of us…?”
Jenn looked down the empty road, in both directions. Nothing moved. Nothing real, that is. It was unnaturally hot for January, and heat mirages shimmered and danced. “This is California. Someone’ll drive by. We’ll flag ’em down—”
“No one passed us on this road when we were heading north,” Eden dourly pointed out. “The only traffic was down on Route 78, which is at least five miles in that direction.”
Which meant that Obsidian Springs, with its single still-open gas station, was five miles back in the other direction.
“Well, they say you’re supposed to walk while in labor…?” But not even Jenn could manage to sound optimistic about a five mile hike in this heat.
“Yeah,” Eden said. “To make the baby come faster. I don’t think that’s what we want here.”
“Maybe this was just a freak thing,” Jenn said. “I know the fact that my water broke is not good and I need to get to a hospital relatively soon, but there was only just that one contraction—” As she said it, her body proved her to be a liar, another pain hitting her so hard that she had to sit down, right there in the dusty road.
“Come on.” Eden looped Jenn’s arm around her neck and lifted the larger woman up. “Let’s start by getting you back into the car and out of the sun.”
“Oh, my God,” Jenn gasped again. She knew from experience that Eden was much stronger and tougher than she looked, with her skinny jeans, her clingy pink top, and her high-heeled sandals.
Eden had, after all, just identified the body of Greg Fortune, her wicked stepfather, at the Obsidian Springs morgue. What the man had been doing in the ghost-town-ish “resort” was unclear, but he’d had a massive heart attack while watching porn on pay-per-view at the Lantern Inn Motor Lodge.
Eden hadn’t flinched as the woman in the white lab coat pulled back the sheet to reveal her stepfather’s mottled face. She’d just quietly nodded and signed the paperwork. She’d even settled up his motel bill—which was more than Jenn would’ve done, had their roles been reversed.
“I love you dearly,” Eden told her now as she checked both her and Jenn’s phones for a signal, “but I am not delivering your baby all alone in the back of my car, in the middle of nowhere. How did Danny’s call come through…? I’ve tried calling Tracy, I’ve tried calling Jay, I’ve tried calling Ben”—all of whom were in San Diego—“I’ve tried the county sheriff in Obsidian Springs, I just tried 9-1-1, but I get nothing. Even my texts won’t send. Maybe an overseas call uses a different cell tower or satellite…?”
“No! I love you dearly, too,” Jenn said, reaching out to grab Eden’s arm, her fingers tightening as yet another contraction ripped through her—God, that last one hadn’t even ended and a new one was starting. It didn’t seem fair. She tried to talk through it, and her words came out half-shout, half-snarl, “but you are not calling Dan. Or Izzy. They are. Mission. Ready!”
Eden gazed back at Jenn with those movie-star gorgeous dark brown eyes that were so like Dan’s—except for the fact that she was remarkably unperturbed by Jenn’s outburst. It was possible that with everything Eden had been through in her short life, she was incapable of being frightened by anything or anyone.
She was, after all, married to Izzy Zanella.
“I’m not calling either of them,” she informed Jenn matter-of-factly as she finished dialing a number and brought her phone up to her ear. “I’m trying the senior chief. Maybe he can call Jay Lopez, who can then call Obsidian Springs to get you an ambulance to the nearest hospital.”
Where was the nearest hospital, Jenn wanted to ask, but as the contraction gripped her harder, all she could do was moan, “Don’t let him tell Dan! I’m gonna be fine…”
CHAPTER 2
Izzy
“I’m having your baby!” Navy SEAL Izzy Zanella sang in his best falsetto. “I’m a woman in love, and I love what it’s doing to me!”
Dan and Jenk were both on their burner cell phones, talking to their wives—both of whom were pregnant. Mark Jenkins gave Izzy a rueful eye-roll before turning away. Danny just completely ignored him, instead frowning down at his phone as if he’d maybe lost his connection.
And although Danny’s wife, Jenn, was farther along in her baby-making journey, it was Marky-Mark’s wife, Lindsey, who was the biggest cause for concern. She’d miscarried last year and was playing this current pregnancy super-safe, at least while still in her first trimester.
And, yeah, the fact that words like trimester were front and center in Izzy’s working vocabulary was proof that conversations with both Danny and Jenk had become rather narrowly focused of late.
Izzy knew that Jenn’s biggest issue was backaches and swollen ankles, while Lindsey was still actively riding the morning sickness train. Like it or not, he and his other SEAL teammates were getting a crash course in Pregnant Wife 101.
Most of it was not new to Iz, who’d been the youngest in his family. He’d grown up with a pack of much older brothers who’d regularly knocked up their girlfriends and/or wives. Starting in his tweens, there was nearly always someone pregnant in the house, sifting through his fridge, searching for the pickles to top her mint chocolate chip ice cream.