Along Came Trouble(112)

“Nothing.”

He stared at her until she started to squirm. “It aches. But I’ve been laying in bed all the time. Of course I’m going to have some aches and pains.”

He stood up and peeled back the covers from her feet.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Caleb wrapped his hand around her bare ankle and pressed his thumb against her skin for a few seconds. When he took it away, the imprint remained in her swollen skin. Edema.

“You need to go to the hospital. Don’t move.”

She swung her legs over to the side of the bed, and he pointed a finger at her and raised his voice. “Don’t even think about it. For once in your life, you’re going to listen, and you’re going to keep your ass right there.”

Carly’s eyes widened with the first flash of panic.

“You’ll be fine,” he said, more gently. “The baby will be fine. But you need to go to the hospital. I’ll handle it.” He left the room.

“Callahan,” he called as he took the stairs two at a time. “Can you pick her up?”

“Carly?”

“Yes, Carly. Can you carry her, or do I have to do it?”

Jamie gave him a blank look.

“She needs to go to the hospital. She has a headache, shoulder pain, edema, and a stomachache. Those are all signs of preeclampsia. Can you pick her up or not?”

“Yes.”

“Get her and carry her down to my car.” Caleb tossed him the keys. “I’ll meet you out there. Tell Nana to stay put. I’m going to send Ellen over for her.”

He walked out of the house, through the yard, and straight up to Ellen’s side door, where he pounded for what seemed like a long time before she opened it. For half a second, he thought he saw something in her eyes. Something good, like hope. Delight. But whatever it was, she killed it off quickly and fixed her lawyer expression in place.

“I’m taking Carly and your brother to the hospital. I need your help. Can you and Henry go over and pack up some of Carly’s stuff and drive Nana over? The quicker, the better. I don’t know where to find Carly’s purse with her insurance card or any of that, but Nana should know. She can’t handle it by herself, though.”

“What’s wrong with Carly?”

“Nothing, I hope.”

“I don’t understand. You said—”

He wanted to touch her, but he stopped himself. She’d asked him to back off. “Ellen. Focus. Can you do it?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.”

As he walked away, he heard Henry ask, “Cabe doin’?”

Ellen said, “Caleb is taking care of Carly now, Peanut, and you and I are going to grab your diaper bag and go for an outing to the hospital . . .”

Her voice faded as he crossed back to Carly’s driveway. He didn’t think about it. Refused to think about anything except the mission at hand.

“Eric!” he called, jogging to the SUV. “We’re taking Short to the hospital. Callahan’s going to be with us. I need you to call ahead to hospital security and tell them what’s happening. I’ll be pulling up to the ER entrance. Tell them to let us through and Ellen’s car, but nobody else. It’s going to be a madhouse over there within an hour. They need to be ready for it. Tell them we can loan them men, and have them call me if they need to. Then call Katie and tell her what’s going on. Tell her I want Sean with me, and I might need her at the hospital too. You stay put and keep the show running here. Nobody gets into either house. You understand?”

“Got it.”

Caleb glanced up to see Jamie putting Carly into the backseat of the car. “All right. Clear the barricades for me. We’re out of here in one minute.”

By the time he reached the car, Jamie had Carly inside and buckled in. He was leaning close, holding her hand and speaking soothing words in her ear, and Carly looked a little less scared than she had in her room.

“Okay, Short Round,” Caleb said as he pulled out onto Burgess and a dozen camera flashes went off. “Here’s where all your years of reckless driving pay off. Tell me again what the fastest route to the hospital is.”





Chapter Twenty-eight



Carly threw up in Caleb’s nice car, and then she threw up in the wheelchair on the way to Labor and Delivery. Her headache got so bad, she wished someone would take pity on her and lop off the top of her skull. Instead, the nurses hustled her into a hospital gown and stuck her in a bed with an IV in her arm.