Free Seeking Vengeance: Callaghan Brothers, Book 4 by Abbie Zanders

If she’s really as good as Nick says, I’d be stupid not to.  But I don’t know, there’s a lot of testosterone in the garage.  I might have to kill one or more of my guys.  And I really don’t know if it’s a good idea to work with someone I’d like to get involved with.”
    “Yeah.... Could be a problem.  Sean?”
    “Yeah, Mags?”
    “ Hurry .”
    He pressed the gas pedal to the floor and engaged all twelve cylinders of the sleek black Jag.  Sean whipped up to the Emergency Room entrance in a perfect horizontal slide to where Michael was waiting with his preferred team.  The door was opening before he even came to a complete stop. 
    “How are we doing, sweetheart?” Michael asked, his calm, soothing voice at odds with the quick, efficient way he moved.  Incapable of answering, she looked at him with wide eyes, her knuckles white from where they gripped the seat. 
    “There’s hardly any time between them now,” Sean said, his voice also holding the unshakable calm of his brother’s, though his body was tense, coiled.  “She didn’t tell me she was in labor, Mick,” he added on.
    “Why am I not surprised?” Michael muttered.  As Maggie gasped for breath, he placed his hands gently along her belly.  “That’s a big one,” he said as another intense contraction ripped through her.  With his big body blocking her from view, he slipped his hand beneath the cotton dress she wore and gave a tight smile.  “You do like to test me, don’t you, baby?”
    She clenched her teeth, stubbornly refusing to cry out against the pain that was ripping her apart from the inside.  “Wasn’t ... bad...  till... now.... Had... time.”
    “Well, sweetheart, we’re out of time.  This baby is coming now, and I mean right now.  Look at me, Maggie, look at me.  Breathe.  Don’t push yet, no matter what, got it?”
    She nodded, her face growing paler by the second as she fought against her body’s natural need to push.  Michael looked over his shoulder at the staff awaiting his orders.  “After this one, we get her into the first open room in the ER, got it?  We’re not going to make it up to OB....”
    ––––––––
    S ean paced the waiting room with the others, who’d been arriving non-stop as the news spread.  They’d already received word that Maggie delivered within minutes of arriving, a ten pound, six ounce strapping baby boy, and were anxiously awaiting further information.  They had yet to speak with Michael; he insisted that both Maggie and the baby undergo thorough examinations afterward under his watchful eye, and was unwilling to compromise in the slightest. 
    A somewhat harried looking nurse came in finally and told them that Maggie and the baby were relocated to the sixth floor maternity ward and would be able to have visitors shortly.  The relief on the nurse’s face was apparent. 
    Within the hour they were fighting back their grins as they neared the room en masse.  Maggie’s voice was clearly audible in the hallway.
    “But why not?” Maggie was saying, exhaustion coloring her voice.  “I’m fine, the baby’s fine.”
    “Maggie,” Michael said patiently, “it’s just one night, just as a precaution.”
    “It’s ridiculous, that’s what it is,” she answered.
    “This from the woman who almost gave birth in a car because she was too damn stubborn to get to the hospital like a reasonable woman.”
    “It’s a natural process, Michael.  Women were giving birth for thousands of years before modern medical centers.  It wasn’t uncommon for women to give birth in the fields and get right back to work.”
    “You don’t work in the fields, Maggie.  And this is not the Middle Ages.” 
    “We’ve been here nearly three hours already.  Please, Michael, take us home.”
    Maggie’s total and complete dislike of hospitals and the medical community in general – her husband excluded – was well-known, so it surprised no one.  Several of them