“We’re heading your way now then.”
* * *
It only tooka few minutes to round up the guys and give the green light to the others who would be joining us. In a pack of screaming hogs, fifteen of us pulled into my gravel driveway.
Allie rushed out the front door to greet us, smiling and waving with excitement. Just as she got one foot onto the first step, the house erupted into a ball of flames, sending all of us cascading to the ground.
Searing pain shot through me as I tried to scramble to my feet to no avail. The overwhelming sound of ringing crashed into my ears as I inched toward my wife. The heat from the roaring flames was overpowering once I got close enough to Allie.
Her body was sprawled face down on the front lawn, motionless.
Rolling her over, I shouted for her to wake up.
Abel appeared at my side. “Is she alive?”
I could barely hear his words as I pulled Allie’s body into my arms. Resting my hand on her stomach, I prayed for a kick that never came from my little girl.
Everything was a blur. Everything was spinning. My body was screaming.
I didn’t snap back into focus until I was running next to her as the gurney was wheeled into the emergency room.
“You have to save her,” I bawled as doctors and nurses rushed over to us.
“Sir, we need to get her stabilized and into labor and delivery,” a nurse stated, pulling me away from Allie’s side. “We need to check you out, too. You’re bleeding.”
“I don’t care. I’ll be fine. I can’t leave her,” I cried. “She has to be all right. The baby has to be all right. I can’t lose them.”
“Your wife and baby are in the best of hands.” The nurse tried to comfort me, but there was no way that was going to work. I watched my whole world get rolled away from me, and there was nothing I could do about it. My heart was breaking as I fell to my knees right there in the middle of intake.
Rave’s strong hands gripped me, yanking me back up. “You have to stay strong right now.”
His weathered face was bloody and torn from the blast.
“I can’t.” I could feel every part of me breaking into a million pieces—there was no way I would be able to put them back together without Allie.
“You don’t have a choice, son.” Glaring at me, he shook me hard. “You have to be a president, husband, and father all at the same time right now. You can do this. Let the nurse check you out then go wait for your wife and that precious baby girl of yours. Show your men that you can be strong.”
I felt my knees getting weak again. “I don’t know how to do this.”
Rave quickly steadied me, shoving me against the wall for balance. “Do you know why you have the reputation of being unkillable, Maccon?”
His question took me by surprise. After rolling the words over in my brain for a few seconds, I shook my head.
“Because you fucking are,” he continued. “It’s not that you’re immortal—we’re all going to meet our maker someday. It’s because through all the shit you’ve had to do, all the crap you’ve waded through, your spirit has never died. You’re fierce and determined. You need to remember that. You need to feel it, believe it, and revel in it at times like these. That is what is going to make you the best damn president this chapter has ever seen.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “Thank you, Rave.”
I didn’t know if I believed him, but his words sank in deep. I had to suck it up and be the leader my men needed and my wife deserved. I was about to become a father. I refused to have the first moments of my daughter’s life be while I was weak and falling apart.
I straightened up, clapped Rave on the back, and walked to the waiting area just outside my wife’s room.
* * *
Sittingin the waiting room with all my brothers around me was sheer torture.
Finally, a doctor came out of Allie’s room. I scrambled to my feet as he walked over to me with a tiny baby wrapped in a pink blanket.
“Mr. Allred?” the doctor asked as I nodded feverishly. “I’d like for you to meet your daughter.”