Operation Swift Mercy (27 page)

A few minutes later, she returned but she wasn’t smiling. “We’re going to have to wait till it gets dark,”
she said.

“What? Why?” Mercy asked, completely deflated by the news. This couldn’t be happening
. S
he was beginning to feel as though she were on some kind of roller coaster ride of emotions.

“There’s guards patrolling the entire house boundary. We’d never manage to slip away. Besides the only way off this island is by boat and the only boat we have here is the dingy
and
the motor on it is designed for putting around the bay—not crossing the straight between islands.

“Well, it’s our only choice. It’ll have to do,” Mercy said.

“I agree, but there’s no way we’re going to make it while it’s still day light
ou
t
side
, they’d see us from the house—remembering we have two small kids with us—we can’t run as fast with them. We have to wait till it gets dark before we make our move,” Willow said her tone echoing the other two women’s disappointment.
“Look, i
t gets dark just after eight,
and it’s
just after seven now—it won’t be too much longer.”

“What if he come
s
back for us before then?” Mercy asked quietly.

Summer and Willow exchanged worried frowns, and no one bothered to answer. If he came back before it got dark—they were screwed.

Mercy watched Summer with her children and marvelled at how composed she was in front of them. She was a great mother and for a moment her own childhood replayed before her eyes and she realised how ripped off she’d truly been to get a mother like hers. This was how a mother should be—they should be protective of their kids—shelter them from
life’s
cruelty and put on a brave face even when things were tough—not leave the child to fend for themselves.

A
sudden wave of
nausea
rose
in her stomach and her hands felt clammy. Instantly, she was on her feet and running for the bathroom
. Draped over the toilet bowl, feeling sweaty and exhausted by the sudden violent episode of vomiting, Mercy didn’t even look up as
Summer
came in to check on her.

“You poor chook, what brought that on?”
S
he asked.

“I have no idea,” Mercy managed in a weak voice. I’ve been feeling off for a few days, but this is the first time it’s been this bad.”

A cool washer was placed across her forehead, and Summer came to sit on the edge of the bath tub nearby. “I haven’t wanted to sa
y
anything, but do you think there could be something to all this feeling off?”

“Like what?”

Summer stared at her thoughtfully for a moment longer, worrying her bottom lip as though indecisive over something.

“For goodness sake, Summer, What? I feel like I’m dying here—just put me out of my misery.”

“Could you be pregnant by any chance?”

“What!” Mercy gaped at the woman as though she were insane.

“It’s just a thought—I mean you’ve been tired, and feeling sick—I just thought maybe it could be a possibility.”

Mercy managed a weak snort and shook her head. “That can’t be it.”

“It was just a thought—besides it would be too early to show up yet anyway. I mean you and Maloney have only been seeing each other for a few weeks…”she let her sentence trail off and Mercy felt her expression go blank.
It would be too early for symptoms to show up if she were pregnant with Chase’s baby…but not if she were already pregnant to someone else.
Mercy squeezed her eyes shut tight as the
implication sunk
in.
She could be pregnant…with Nikko
s
’s child
…the man who was trying to kill her. She eased away from the bowl and sank to the floor, weak with disbelief.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“Don’t panic just yet—it could also be some kind of travel bug. I shouldn’t have said anything,” Summer quickly added, rubbing Mercy’s back comfortingly.

“Wha
t am I going to do
if I’m pregnant with Nikko
s
’s baby? Oh my God—what on earth will I do?” Mercy asked, feeling as though she were rapidly falling apart and unable to do anything to stop it.

“O
h,”
Summer twisted her fingers anxiously
.
“I wish
we could put your mind at ease—I’m probably wrong.
”

“If
only we had a pregnancy test kit,” Willow said drolly, walking into the room and heading for
the linen
cupboard on the bathroom wall
.
Mercy shut her eyes, too caught up in her own misery to car
e
that the
bathroom had just become G
rand
C
entral
S
tation but she opened them again when she heard Summer gasp.

“Where did you get that?”

Willow walked
over to Mercy
, handing over a long, foil wrapped package
.

“Willow!” Summer demanded, standing in front of her sister, hands on her hips and wearing a frown.

“I bought it before left Brisbane—but I had to bring it down here to hide it. It’s not like Mr observant wouldn’t notice a pregnancy test kit
lying
around in our cabin. Bloody Del’s like my shadow—I can’t get a moment alone and he’s driving me crazy!
”

“But there’s only one test here…does that mean you’ve already taken one?” Summer stared at her sister a small glimmer of excitement beginning to show.

“I have,” she sighed.

“And?”

“And you’re going to be a damn Aunty
,
alright? Happy?”

Summer let out a small squeal and covered her mouth quickly remembering where she was. ”Oh my God, Willow!”

“Yeah—Oh my God,” Willow echoed weakly.

“Does Del know?” Summer asked, still looking somewhat shell shocked by the news.

“Not yet.”

“Why not? You
know he’s
going to be over the moon.”

“Of course he’ll be over the moon—it’s not his life that’s going to be turned upside down,”
Willow snapped, then sighed. “Sorry—I didn’t mean to sound like a cow
.”

Seeing such unexpected vulnerability from a woman who was usually so self-assured touched Mercy, making her momentarily forget her own problems.

“I haven’t told him yet because
I’m
still
getting used to the idea myself.
Sum
, I
don’t know if I’m ready for a baby yet! We
ke
p
t
putting off agreeing on a time, because the thought of
that much responsibility scared
the crap out of me,” she said in an uncertain, very un-Willow like voice
.
 

“Willow,
no one
is ever ready for a baby—and even the ones who plan it all out and
think
they are—aren’t! There’s no way anyone can prepare themselves for that. It’s the greatest gift you can ever imagine and it’s
bloody
hard. My God if they actually told you how hard parenthood was no one would ever procreate!”

“Not
exactly helping, S
is,”
Willow drawled
.

“But there’s amazing, wonderful,
beautiful
moment
s
that more than make up for it, too. You’re stronger than you think, and trust me, everyone feels as inadequate and hopeless as you’re feeling.”

“Even you?”
H
er tone suggested she wasn’t buying that one.

“Even me. Do you know, that even before Ruby was born, I was still freaking out wondering what on earth I was going to do? It doesn’t change—even once you’ve had a baby, you
still
worry that you’re not ready for another one, and what if you’ve already somehow ruined the first kid—and now you’re about to have a second one? It’s the toughest job there is, so it makes sense that you worry about being ready all the time—but you’ll be fine. You’ll cope, just like everyone else does. You kinda
’
don’t get much
choice;
it’
s on the job training
.”

Summers words seemed to give her sister something to think about, Mercy saw Willow’s expression melt from distraught to mildly accepting. She envied Willow having a sister like Summer nearby
. W
ho was going to ease hers? She didn’t even know
where
she would be going after this…
t
hen it hit her like a slap across the face
.
N
one
of them may
ever
be leaving. Nikkos was on the othe
r side of their locked door, and maybe he needed her alive to testify and clear his name—but she knew once she’d served her purpose, he’d kill her. She’d always be a liability to him while she was still alive.

“So here,
you may as well
take the damn test—at least you find out one way or the other,”
Willow
said
, breaking into Mercy’s troubled thoughts.

Oh great, she thought, seeing as
how thrilled
it apparently made Willow to find out
! There was
a lot
to be said for living in denial right now
.

“
I can’t believe y
ou only did
one
test
,
”
Summer said eyeing the remaining unused test in what had once been a twin pack,
dubiously. “
You?
Queen of over analysing and never taking anyone’s word for anything, took
one test
and believed it?”

They watched as
W
illow
crossed to the
bin and dug out a small parcel wrapped in newspaper hidden at the
very bottom
. Five used pregnancy tests toppled to the floor in
a waterfall
of blue plus signs. “
The last one, I gave
the
benefit of the doubt,
”
she said dryly.

Mercy looked down at the test in her hand and let out a resigned sig
h
,
Que sera sera,
she whispered.

A bright blue plus sign lit up almost instantly, the vision blurring as tears filled her eyes, overflowing and falling to the cold tiles beneath her.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

A little after eight, Willow once more crept down the stairs to check on the guard situation. They were ready to go as soon as they had the word.

Willow stuck her head back inside the room, waving them over quickly. “It’s now or never—let’s do this.”

The
corridor
was dark, once they shut the door behind them in order to buy them a fraction more time before they may be discovered by anyone entering the shelter
.
Summer murmured to her children, making a game of the whole thing and turning what would have been a terrifying and uncertain
occurrence
to a small child, into one big adventure.

“And we’ll find
D
addy, soon?” Emily asked in her sweet little voice, innocently.

“Sure will, we’re going on a night time ri
d
e in the boat! Remember how you’ve always wanted to go fishing with Daddy and
U
ncle
D
el? Well tonight, just because you’ve been such a brave and good girl for
M
ummy, we’re going out in the boat at night!”

Willow pushed the door open and they waited quietly for the signal to slip outside. Once out they would have to move as fast as
possible to
the beach, where the little dingy was tied beneath the jetty.

Thankfully there were clouds in the sky tonight and the moon wasn’t the luminous glow that it had been a few nights before. They made good progress from the house to the beach, and with a sigh of relief, found the little boat bobbing merrily in its little berth spot, beneath the jetty, sheltered from the elements.

They hurried along the jetty and down two steps, to where the boat was tied. She passed Emily in to Summer once she was settled and then handed over the baby, her chubby arms waving in the air contentedly, despite the disruptive evening she’d had so far. Mercy ran a
finger lightly across the baby’s
cheek but
it was
caught in
a
tight
-
fisted chubby hold. For a moment, Mercy stared into
R
uby
’s big
brown eyes and felt something change inside her as she handed the child across to its mother.
She was having a baby
. Until this very moment, she hadn’t truly understood what that meant. Suddenly, now she did. She had to fight for her baby and she had to protect Summer and her children.