“Ryder—” Gene said.
Ryder stopped and glanced back, shaking his head and letting a rare rage boil to the surface. “Ten fucking years of this shit,” he growled under his breath, and fired a piercing glare at Gene and the vacant puppets looking to the big boss for guidance. “I’m done. I quit.”
“Ryder, wait. You can’t quit. Your contract—”
“I can quit. And I did. Just now.”
“If you quit now, you won’t get your quarterly profit-share—”
“Goodbye,” Ryder said with a sneer lifting both sides of his lips, turned, and stalked out of the room before Gene could come up with a fresh rant, before the jaws from the spoiled followers around the table could un-drop.
Heads peeked out of every cubicle like prairie dogs.
Ryder took a breath and kept up the quick pace.
Murmurs and whispers flooded the room, rising to shocked cacophony.
As he neared the elevators, he heard a whistle.
Then a shout, “Fuck yeah, man.”
“You go Ryder.”
“We miss you already.”
“Send baby pics.”
He turned as the elevator doors opened and waved at his favorite faces, then ducked out.
Slowest damn elevator in the history of elevators. Cheeks puffed out, pulse firing at dangerously high levels, he checked for another text.
In the chaos, Zoe had texted again and he hadn’t felt it.Let me know when you’re on the plane. Miss you.
He palmed the phone and closed his eyes for the rest of the ride down. The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and he took off.
16
Push
“Sonofabitching…grrr,” Zoe growled as another one squeezed her entire uterus. How was one tiny organ so freaking strong? After all those Braxton-Hicks the past few months, she figured she’d have the equivalent of soccer player quads for a uterus.
“Good one?” Evan asked, cringing as he smiled hesitantly at her from the driver’s seat of his Jeep.
It gripped her solid and she grabbed the armrest. Words impossible, she glared at her brother.
“Breathe, Zoe, breathe,” he said, half-laughing and Zoe almost appreciated his attempt to be helpful. Almost.
She squeaked as the contraction started to let up. “What are we at?”
“Seven minutes. Making progress.”
The ride seemed interminable, bend after bend and so damn many trees. Foothills shared the regional hospital instead of a smaller local hospital, thus anything big necessitated a stupidly long drive. Contractions whilst buckled up and stuck sitting sucked.
Her phone buzzed again.
“Ryder on the plane yet?” Evan asked.
Found a flight out. Taking off in twenty minutes.
