Unbroken (Fighter Erotic Romance #4) Read online

  “You’re not fat, and you’re beautiful. I’d fuck you, Vee,” I smiled as I reached for her shoulder.

  “Awe, thanks Kace, I’d fuck you to,” she sobbed as she hugged me.

  Vee was a special woman for sure. She was as nice as a person as I had ever met. In the courtroom, she was an animal. At home or in public, she was as kind and as considerate as anyone could ever be. During her first six and a half months of pregnancy she worked every day. While Shane was gone, I went to a few of her trials just to see her in action. Watching her in the courtroom proves to me women aren’t doormats. We have minds of our own, and we’re intelligent. It takes time to convince some men we’re actually equal, especially here in Texas. Vee does her share, one court case at a time. She’s been an inspiration to me through this entire process of pregnancy, and I’m sure she will be in the future. Now, having her available every day has been a true blessing.

  “Do you think not working gives you too much time to think, maybe?” I asked.

  As she pulled away from me arms, she wiped her face, “I suppose so. But I don’t want to work, I want to relax and make it easy on the baby.”

  “Me too,” I smiled as I rubbed my belly.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Vee said as she wiped her face again.

  “Frozen yogurt?”

  “Ooh, sounds perfect. Almost as good as sex,” she laughed.

  As we walked through the store, toward the entrance, I began to feel strange. My stomach started to feel as if it was being twisted from the inside out. Deep down, I began to ache. As the pain worsened, I stopped walking and moaned.

  “Are you okay?” Vee asked.

  “I’m not sure, I feel weird, it’s hurting,” I groaned as we walked through the clothing aisle.

  I tried to be strong and tell myself it didn’t hurt as much as it did. Truthfully, I felt as if I was going to pass out. I began to sweat as I pushed against my lower stomach and wished I could move my hands to my face and wipe my face clean. As the pain became more piercing, and worsened to a point I couldn’t take it any longer, my vision blurred.

  “Kace? You’re all sweaty honey. Are you okay?” Vee whispered.

  I backed against a rack of clothes and lowered myself to the floor. I opened my eyes and attempted to focus, but only saw fuzzy shapes. I felt Vee’s hand clutching mine.

  “Kace? Kace?” she squealed.

  I took a shallow breath and groaned in pain, “Call…”

  “An ambulance…”

  “Please.”

  SHANE. As I was lacing up my boots I heard screaming from inside the gym. From what little I could understand, Ripp was frantically trying to find me; hollering my name throughout the gym. With Ripp, you never knew what he might consider an emergency. Sometimes simply feeling as if he were a few minutes late for his afternoon beer was enough to get him excited. I shook my head as I heard someone explain I was in the locker room. As I heard his footsteps become increasingly closer, I stood from the bench and grabbed my hoodie from the hook on my locker.

  “Dekk, come on. It’s Kace,” he screamed, motioning into the gym.

  “What?” I asked; feeling a little confused on why Kace would be in the gym.

  “Dekk, Vee called me, they been texting you and calling for a bit. Kace’s in the hospital and it ain’t lookin’ good. Come on, I got the Chevelle.” He hollered.

  As he turned and began running for the door, I followed right behind him. Kelsey’s voice came clearly over all of the other noise in the gym as we were within a few feet of the door.

  “Where the fuck you two dip-shits going?” he hollered.

  “Fuck you old man,” Ripp said as he pulled the door open, “Kace’s in the hospital.”

  “I’ll follow you in the truck,” Kelsey screamed.

  Our feet barely touching the ground, we ran through the lot and to the Chevelle. I no more than had the door open and Ripp was revving the engine. As soon as I dropped into the passenger seat, smoke bellowed from the rear fenders as he screeched out of the lot and onto the frontage road.

  “Vee said,” he paused as he snapped the gear shifter into another gear.

  “She collapsed in the store. Got real hot and started crampin’. Damn, bro, this shit scares me. I just want all of this to be over with. I’m excited as hell, but,” he glanced to over his left shoulder as he merged into traffic.

  “I really want to quit worrying about everything. I haven’t slept in the last month,” he paused as he quickly applied the brakes and swerved to the right.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll be there in five,” he said as he downshifted two gears and maneuvered around a truck which was all but stationary in the fast lane.

  As soon as he cleared the rear fender of the truck, he mashed the accelerator to the floor. As the rear tires began to spin, the car slid sideways slightly before the tires gripped the asphalt. After shifting gears twice, we were flying down the highway well in excess of 130 miles per hour.

  Jesus Ripp, slow down,” I demanded.

  He glanced in my direction slightly, his hand still resting on the gear shifter, “When there’s a baby being born there aren’t any speed limits, bro.”

  “We need to make it there alive, Ripp,” I sighed as I watched him swerve around a small SUV.

  He tilted his head my direction, grinned, and responded in typical Ripp fashion, “Dude, I got this.”

  I shook my head and smiled slightly.

  “Vee didn’t say anything else?” I asked.

  “No not really. Vee said she ate a banana, cramped, and dropped to the floor in a puddle of sweat. Maybe a bad nanner, huh? You know you can get bad fruit, Dekk. Sure can. I ate a bad melon once, gimme the drizzlin’ shits,” he shrugged.

  “Hell, I don’t know, Ripp. Maybe. Hurry the fuck up,” I said, completely frustrated at the entire idea of Kace being in the hospital.

  “Just like I said, bro, I got this. Hell you couldn’t get there any quicker if you were in a fucking jet plane. I’m just glad Vee’s okay,” he slowed down, swerved through two lanes, and accelerated toward the exit.

  “Shit that sounded bad, huh?” he glanced in my direction and quickly turned away.

  “Not that Kace isn’t okay. Hell you know what I mean. Kace’s fine. I’m just glad Vee didn’t get one of those bananas. She don’t fuck with bananas, but anyway you know what I mean bro,” he shrugged as he sped down the exit ramp.

  “Hold on,” he hollered as he stomped the gas at the traffic light.

  “Ripp, god damn it,” I screamed as he slid the car sideways through the intersection.

  “Quit screaming, shit you’re scaring me, Dekk. That fucker was red and we’d have been waitin’ for ten minutes,” he said over his right shoulder as he shifted into the next gear.

  “Three blocks, bro. Three more blocks, that’s all. I’ll just pull up to the emergency room entrance like we own that bitch. We’ll storm in the fucker like a couple of cowboys and see just what the fucks going on, huh?” he growled.

  “Just get me there in one piece, Ripp.” I sighed.

  As he sped into the entrance to the emergency room, and ambulance was attempting to park. With the gear shifter in one hand, and his other hand on the horn, he screeched the tires as he sped into the only safe opening right beside the ambulance.

  As soon as the car stopped, he set the brake and we both jumped out and began sprinting for the door.

  “Sir you can’t just leave…” a voice said from where we had parked.

  Upon entering the hospital, Ripp began demanding to se Kace. As I attempted to explain who I was and what we needed in a more specific fashion, Ripp would respond I got this, Dekk. After five minutes of scaring everyone he came in contact with, we were finally directed down the hallway and into another subsection of the facility.

  As we cleared a doorway leading into a waiting room, I heard Vee’s familiar voice shout, “Shane, she’s in there, hurry up.”

  “Ripp, they won’t let you in there,
stay here with me,” Vee said as she stood from her chair.

  “The hell they won’t, they’ll let me in, come on,” Ripp responded rather loudly.

  “Ripp, no. They won’t and it’s private,” she demanded as she tilted her head my direction.

  “Yeah. Okay. Fuck, Dekk keep us posted, we’ll be here, huh?” he shrugged as he glanced toward Vee.

  Vee nodded her head slightly.

  I nodded and turned toward the entrance to the hallway. As I cleared the double doors leading into the other section of the hospital, I was met by a nurse.

  “I’m Shane Dekkar. My wife…”

  “Follow me, Mr. Dekkar,” she responded as she briskly walked down the hallway.

  She stepped into ta room and produced a paper suit, hair net, and shoe covers, “I’m sure you’ll need to take your jacket off to get these on. Slip the covers over your boots the best you can, and put on the hair net. Be careful following me, the floor will be slick in those, okay?” she said softly.

  “I can’t take off the hoodie ma’am,” I responded as I pulled the paper pants over my jeans.

  “Well, you’ll need to fit that over it, then,” she responded.

  As I pulled the paper coat over my hoodie, she shrugged and momentarily smiled.

  “Follow me,” she said.

  After a few passed doorways, we stepped into a small room. Kace lie on a bed moaning with two nurses and a doctor over her. Immediately, I felt completely helpless and afraid of what was going on.

  “This is the husband,” the nurse said as we entered.

  Every one continued to focus on Kace, who opened her eyes as soon as the nurse said husband. Standing at the side of the bed, not knowing what, if anything, I could do, I attempted to smile and speak.

  “How you feeling baby?” I asked.

  “It hurts, Shane. It hurts bad,” she groaned.

  As Kace incoherently groaned and moaned, the doctor stepped toward me and smiled.

  “Mr. Dekkar, we’ve done what we can, and I’m afraid we’re going to allow her to give birth. We’ve attempted to slow the process for a more developed and mature baby, but she’s been active for some time now,” the doctor paused.

  “Active? What? What happened? What happened to cause this?” I asked.

  He turned his palms up and spoke softly, “I’ll make this quick. Active labor, she’s been in active labor. She’s in transition now, so there’s no turning back. A normal pregnancy is approximately 40 weeks. Sometimes, labor begins prematurely, naturally. Considering the physical abuse she has seen in the past, this isn’t uncommon – for abuse victims, that is,” he hesitated and looked toward Kace as she moaned loudly.

  “Uterine contractions cause the cervix to open earlier than normal, and consequently, the baby is born premature. There is certainly some additional risk associated with early birth, but she’s now at about 34 weeks or roughly 6 weeks early. There is, however, minimal risk for health problems with the child. Fortunately, research, technology and medicine have helped improve the health of premature babies. I’m sorry, we have no other option,” he sighed.

  “Will. I mean should we…should everything be…?”

  “Everything should be fine,” he smiled as he turned toward Kace.

  “Shane!” Kace screamed.

  “I said I wanted natural. But.” She scrunched her face and began to growl.

  “I want an epidural,” she screamed, her head shifting back and forth, searching the room for someone to assure her they could perform the procedure.

  “Honey, it’ll be okay,” the nurse said as she wiped Kace’s face.

  I stepped to the side of the bed and forced a grin. Truth be known, I would be far more comfortable stepping into the ring with Tyson Brock than standing in the room with these people and witnessing Kace giving birth to a baby. As I held her hand and continued to attempt to smile, Kace moaned.

  The nurse looked up from between Kace’s legs, “She’s full doctor.”

  “Push,’ the nurse said as she looked down.

  I held Kace’s hand as she screamed.

  “Grrrrrrr….” Kace growled and huffed as her eyes went open and closed.

  As she finished pushing, she opened her eyes and stared, “I hate you, Shane. I fucking hate that you did this to me. You should be laying here…”

  “Here we go, let’s push. Do it with me,” the nurse said as she wiped Kace’s face.

  There were far too many people in a much smaller space than I would have ever imagined for birthing a child. I began to feel cramped and claustrophobic as Kace began to push again.

  “Here’s the head,” the doctor said as he looked up toward the nurse and Kace.

  A combination of nerves, the people surrounding me, and a considerable amount of fear of the unknown prevented me from watching the procedure too closely. Part of me didn’t want to know anything until it was completely over.

  “Push, push, push, push,” I heard them continue to say.

  I looked down as I saw the doctor begin to stand, his arms and chest covered in bloody matter, “Mr. and Mrs. Dekkar, we have…”

  SHANE. There are times in our lives when we aren’t certain of what God’s will is for us. Although I pray almost daily, I never have a complete understanding of God’s will entirely. I often ask for the ability to understand, but maintain fear I fall short of just what it is he either expects or wants of me. I live in somewhat of a constant state of worry, wondering if I am making mistakes I will have to pay for later in my life. My self-imposed shortcomings, although I’ve always been uncertain God sees them as so, were all brought into an oddly clear perspective as the doctor stood; his arms holding something small and smeared with bloody matter. I now believe I am a good man; and good will come to me.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Dekkar we have a little boy. You’re the proud parents of a little boy,” he smiled.

  “Shane…” Kace sighed in an almost inaudible tone.

  “Is he okay?” she asked.

  I looked down as the doctor held my son in front of me.

  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

  I swallowed and smiled, “He uhhm. He has all his toes.”

  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

  Eight, nine, and there is number ten.

  “He’s got all his little fingers, baby. He’s fine.” I said.

  And I immediately broke down and began to cry. As I wept, I began to pray.

  Thank you Lord for providing Kace and me the greatest gift we could have ever hoped to receive from you. Please be with us and the baby through this first little bit while we’re adjusting to what is new to all of us. You keep him healthy, Lord, and I’ll keep him safe. I promise.

  “Shane?” Kace whispered.

  “I’m fine, babe. I’m just happy,” I sniffed.

  To attempt to explain the emotion one goes through during the birth of a child would be absolutely impossible. I now know to see the results of a love as deep as Kace’s and I have can only be done in one way – through seeing our newborn child. For anyone who may question the love we have for each other, resolution may be found in the eyes of our son.

  I reached for Kace’s hand.

  Woman, I love you with all that I am.

  “I love you,” I cried.

  “Congratulations. You can hold him for a moment – we’re going to need to take him for testing – it’s procedure for premature babies,” the nurse said as she handed Kace the small blanket covered baby.

  “Shane, he’s just,” she tilted her head toward me as she held the blanket against her chest.

  “Perfect,” she sighed.

  “He sure is, babe,” I grinned as I wiped tears from my eyes.

  She stared down at the baby and her eyes glistened with a newfound fire. As she grinned and held him, she didn’t speak, nor did she need to. Her face told a story a million words could not. A mother’s love for her child was clearly defined on her face. After absorbing the magic
of the child for a long while, she looked up and smiled.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “Have you chosen a name?” the nurse asked.

  We both smiled and nodded.

  “Babe, I need to go tell Ripp and Vee everything’s okay. How long have I been in here, anyway?” I asked.

  The nurse looked up at the clock on the wall.

  “It’s been a little over an hour and a half,” she smiled.

  “I need to take him back now,” the nurse said.

  Kace reluctantly handed the nurse our son and began to cry.

  “Babe?” I asked.

  “Happy tears, Shane. Happy tears. I love you so very much,” she said.

  “I love you, babe,” I responded.

  “I’m going to go tell them, I’ll be right back,” I said as I kissed her.

  She nodded and closed her eyes.

  As I walked down the hall, I removed the hair net and the booties, but left on the rest of the attire the nurse had provided. In opening the doors to the corridor which led to the waiting room, I stopped looked down at my boots, and inhaled a deep breath. As I exhaled and looked up, I smiled.

  Thank you.

  Again.

  Vee jumped to her feet, “Is everything…”

  “Fuck, dude, I didn’t even see you walk up. Is she…” Ripp interrupted.

  I opened my mouth and attempted to speak. Overcome with emotion and excitement, I blubbered as I tried to talk.

  “Just a minute,” I whispered as I raised my hand to my face.

  As I watched Ripp and Vee’s faces conform to a look of worry, I attempted to speak again.

  “She’s fine. He’s fine. He’s premature, but we knew that. They said he’s going to be alright,” I nodded.

  “Is he…” Ripp began.

  “He’s perfect,” I responded.

  “Oh my God, I’m so happy for both of you,” Vee said as she waddled over and hugged me.

  “Name?” Vee asked.