Knox held Viper back as they wheeled her from the house.

Winter was in so much agony that all she wanted to do was twist and turn, trying to find some relief from the pain in her back and abdomen.

"Please, G.o.d, help me," she prayed over and over again.

"Hold on, Winter. They're putting you in the ambulance. As soon I can, I'll give you something for the pain." She recognized Dr. Price's voice as she felt the gurney being lifted and then heard the sound of the doors being slammed.

"Where's Viper?" she pleaded.

"I'm here." She felt his hand on her arm. "I'm not leaving your side."

"Dr. Price?" she cried out, feeling the welcoming blackness she had been praying for slipping over her.

"Yes, Winter? We're almost at the hospital," his steady tone rea.s.sured her.

She knew she was losing consciousness, her mind no longer able to handle the misery.

"Is it a boy or girl?" she asked.

She and Viper had wanted the s.e.x of their baby to remain a surprise until the birth. However, she didn't want to die not knowing if it were a boy or a girl.

"You're having a girl, Winter... a beautiful baby girl."

19.

"Your wife is in labor, too?"

Viper didn't take his eyes off the emergency room door. "Yes."

"Mine, too. Megan can't do anything right. I had to miss the end of the baseball game. Treepoint was ahead when I left. You don't happen to know the score, do you?" Curt Dawkins asked, as he switched through the channels of the television on the wall.

Another ambulance had come in at the same time as her, and Viper had seen Megan as the EMTs rushed her inside the same room Winter was in.

"No." Viper kept his replies monosyllabic, hoping the man sitting by the back wall would shut up so he could concentrate.

"You need anything?" Shade asked from his side, also waiting for the doctor to come out to disclose the fate of Viper's wife and child.

"Yes. Shut him the f.u.c.k up before I kill him."

Shade moved away, bringing the silence he needed to concentrate on calming the killing rage inside of him. The one he wanted to kill was beyond his touch, his blood drying on Viper's boots. He prayed for the strength to keep him from knocking down the door that blocked him from seeing his wife.

Shade returned to his position by Viper's side without saying a word. Just as all the Last Riders and friends, who were filling the waiting room, spilling outside to the parking lot.

Shade didn't try to tell him everything was going to be all right. The doctor's face had said it all as the EMTs wheeled the gurney into the delivery room.

The wait was endless. Each minute slowly ticked by as he prayed for his wife and baby girl.

Shade moved some chairs over to where they could see the door when a nurse told them they needed to keep the hallway clear, and Viper finally sat down.

"Have you heard how Killyama and Jackal are doing?"

Viper had known it was bad when Killyama and Jackal's ambulances had taken them to Jamestown, which was twenty minutes away.

"Jackal is being st.i.tched up, and Killyama just came out of surgery. The doctors say they'll both be fine."

Jackal, Fade, and Hennessy had been in Treepoint for three days. The men had been exhausted from their continuous search for Raul since the bombing of their clubhouses and had needed the break, using the opportunity to rest as Shade and Lucky searched for more information.

Raul had slipped so far beneath their net that they hadn't been able to find him. Now they knew why. He had been hiding in plain sight, planning to kill Winter and Viper before going to Jamestown and getting revenge on Fat Louise and Cade.

The murderous b.a.s.t.a.r.d was dead now. That was the only bright spot.

Fat Louise, Cade, Winter, and he were alive thanks to Fade. He had spotted the car Raul had parked at the end of the street and gone to investigate. Raul had shot him in the face. Then, when Jackal had tried to take him down and save Fade, he had almost lost his own life.

Raul had been afraid that Jackal had alerted Viper and gone on the offensive, going inside Aunt Shay's house and planning to force Viper and Cade to come to him. Thank G.o.d Viper hadn't been forced into a decision he wouldn't have wanted to make. He would have made a bargain with the devil to save his wife and child. Still, the sight of Winter covered in blood had made him feel like a failure.

The door to the ER opened, sending Viper to his feet. He locked his knees, not wanting to breakdown in front of his men. He felt Shade moving nearer to him as the nurse called two names.

"Curt Dawkins and Loker James?"

The nurse turned toward him then Curt as he approached.

"I'm Loker James," Viper spoke first, trying to read the woman's impa.s.sive face.

"Curt Dawkins." Curt was holding a soda can, as if he had been enjoying a snack.

"Mr. James, I need you to follow the blue line and go to Consulting Room 1. Mr. Dawkins, I need you to follow the blue line to Consulting Room 2. The doctors will be with you momentarily."

Viper saw the four colored lines that wound through the hospital, stepping on the blue one.

"You want me to come with you?" Shade offered.

"No. Stay here. I'll be back to talk to everyone after I talk to the doctor."

Viper walked the line around a corner. If the news was bad, he would have time to compose himself before talking to them. He had been in the hospital many times during life and death situations and had never been asked to go to a private area to talk.

The room was the size of a small closet. Viper remained standing, seeing Curt go into the room across from him and take a seat, seeming impatient at the doctor's delay.

The time had been an agony of waiting, and now he was dreading the doctor coming in. Each moment that pa.s.sed was another minute he could convince himself Winter and his child were still living, safe in the doctor and staff's hands.

Viper saw Dr. Price and Dr. Matthews giving each other a look before each of them went inside their respective door.

"Sit down. This isn't going to be easy to hear." Dr. Price's face was as impa.s.sive as it had always been.

Viper sat.

"Winter is unconscious. She will be for a couple of days. I want to keep her sedated until she can handle the pain. Even then, she will be in immense pain when she wakes. I'll make sure everything is done to help her deal with it."

Viper nodded. "I don't want her in pain."

"She'll have to have another surgery on her hip. The orthopedic surgeon will come to see you tomorrow. How soon she can have surgery will be up to him." The doctor sighed, sitting down across from him at a small, round table. "That was the good news. I had to perform a hysterectomy on Winter. She was bleeding so badly I had no choice. In these situations, the tissue is examined for any abnormalities. It came back positive for ovarian cancer."

Viper almost crumpled, holding back the tears he refused to spill in front of another man.

"It was in the very early stages. Her becoming pregnant probably saved her life. I already have some of the best doctors in their field on standby for her, so you can decide which one you want to oversee her treatment. They'll want to make sure it hasn't metastasized and set Winter up with a treatment plan."

"Thank you," he said huskily.

"I know you; you'll want the best." The doctor almost lost his professional calm. "Winter is a strong woman, possibly the strongest woman I've ever met. She was in pain the last couple of weeks, yet she came into my office with a smile. She refused to take the pain medication, because she was afraid it would affect the baby."

"She is stubborn. I knew she was hurting, but she told me it was a three on a scale of one to ten." His wife's stubbornness made Viper shake his head.

"More like a twelve," Dr. Price said. "She's a fighter like her husband. I'm very confident she will face her challenges and come out on top."

Viper waited expectantly for Dr. Price to discuss his child. When the doctor's eyes went to his hands on the table, Viper could barely get the words out of his mouth. He squared his jaw so his voice wouldn't tremble, preparing himself for the hit he knew was coming.

"What about my daughter?"

Viper was exhausted. He needed sleep, but time wasn't on his side. He wanted to spend the last days with his child before he lost her. He had been sitting by her side in the neonatal unit, watching the respirator breathe for her. Winter was still sedated, and until she came to, he knew she would want him at their daughter's side.

He opened the door to her room, seeing Beth still sitting in the chair by her bed.

"You need to go home and get some sleep."

Wearily, she straightened in the chair. "I'm not leaving her again."

"Beth, you did what s.e.x Piston told you to do when she heard the shots. You helped Holly get Logan and Star over the fence and away from Raul. He would have killed you all if he had the chance."

"s.e.x Piston didn't leave." Beth's guilty conscious had her refusing to leave her bedside.

"That's because she's crazy."

Beth gave a small laugh. "Yes, she is."

"Winter will be furious if she thinks you're blaming yourself, so stop it."

"I'll try."

"Good. Now, I want you to go home to bed. You can come back tomorrow morning. Rachel is going to watch Winter when I go back to the nursery. I want to spend a few minutes alone with her before I go back."

"All right. I'll bring you something to eat when I come back in the morning."

"Thank you, I appreciate it."

Tiredly, he sat down after Beth left, reaching through the bedrails to hold Winter's hand.

"Sleep, pretty girl. You're going to need all your strength when you wake up. And when you do, I want you to remember your promise to me." Viper's voice broke. "That we will get through this together. You're not going to be alone. All the Last Riders will help us get through this, one step at a time."

"Yes, we will," Rachel said from his side.

Viper jerked back. "I didn't hear you come in."

Rachel and Cash stared down at him sympathetically. "We didn't want to disturb you. We stopped by the nursery. She's beautiful, Viper."

"She's so small." Viper released her hand, getting to his feet.

"I wish I could help... I want to-"

"No, Rachel. I don't want you risking your life to save the baby. You already said you think she's too far gone."

Rachel nodded, and Cash placed his arm around her shoulders. Viper understood his worry. Rachel had almost died twice when she had saved Cash's life and his grandmother's. He had sworn never to let her use the power she had been gifted with from her Indian heritage again. Regardless, Viper didn't know if he believed in the miracles Shade had said she was capable of.

"I need to get back to the nursery." The machines were keeping his child alive until Winter could be there and they could say their goodbyes together.

He was moving around them, going toward the door, when Rachel said, "Viper, wait. Can I talk-"

"Security, Code Red," a voice over the speakers sounded in the room. "Code Red. Second Floor."

"Cash, stay here." Viper slammed the door open, running. Winter and the nursery were both on the second floor.

His heart began pounding when he saw a group of nurses outside the nursery, where his daughter was.

"What's going on?" he asked one of the nurses, his eyes going to the gla.s.s window, seeing Megan rocking his child.

"Move!" Viper yelled, flinging two of the nurses out of his way. He began slamming his fist on the gla.s.s.

"You can't break it. It's plastic."

Shade and Knox came out of the elevator as he tried to put his boot through the door.

"Stop!" Megan's voice rang out from the nursery. "You'll wake Tiffany up," she said in a singsong voice that sent chills up his voice.

"Megan, that isn't your child. That's mine and Winter's. Your child died. Please, Megan, put her back. She's on a respirator. Her lungs are too small. She can't breathe on her own. Please, Megan..." Viper begged.

"It was your child who died. Did you think I wouldn't know my own child?"

"Find Curt!" Viper turned to Shade as Knox and the security guard tried to break into the nursery.

"He left the hospital the night she had the baby. He told her she couldn't do anything right. He hasn't been back since."

"Jesus." Viper started to throw his entire body at the gla.s.s blocking him from his daughter.