Designated (Book 2): Designated Quarantined Read Online Free Page A

for the phone as it slid past his feet. Glancing down, he dove for it, the slim casing slipping in his grasp as he glanced up again, looking through the steering wheel at the set of lights shooting towards him.
     
    Yanking the wheel left with a panicked curse, he slewed across three lanes of traffic before managing to gain control again. Horns blared as Baker's Jeep roared onwards, the phone clutched loosely between his thumb and forefinger.
 
    ****
     
    Janet screamed while nurses hurried around her. Her hair hung lank down her sweat-soaked face as she struggled against the rapidly shortening contractions.
 
    Davies stood with the phone to his ear, unsure of what to do while Anna sat next to Janet's bed.
 
    'Where the bloody hell is he?'
     
    Davies shrugged as he stared at Anna, unsure of what to say.
     
    'About fucking time you sorted that out. What the hell are you doing? That refresher course was supposed to be done at twelve so you were back here in case this actually happened, which it is by the way, and can I say staring at the growler of my boss' wife ain't exactly something I had in mind to do today.'
 
    Baker's harried reply made Davies wince as he pulled the phone away from his ear; his eyes danced between Janet and Anna while a nurse rapidly pulled the thin cotton sheet back over Janet's legs. Her withering glance at Davies made him shrink away slightly as Anna smirked at him.
 
    'Look, buddy, just hurry up, okay...?'
 
    Davies was cut short. Janet screamed as the contractions hit her full force.
 
    ****
     
    Baker tossed the phone back on the dashboard and turned off onto the M25, aiming his violently shaking Jeep at the M4 towards Heathrow Airport.
 
    'Fuck it all. Come on… fucking move, you twat.'
 
    Baker swerved round the truck and veered off onto the M4.
 
    'I'm coming, baby. I'm coming.'
 
    ****
     
    'He's on the M4, so I don't know what else to tell you.'
 
    Janet groaned again, the pain shooting through her as the midwife scribbled on the clipboard in her hands.
     
    Janet's knuckles turned white as she clutched at the railings of her bed, her words muffled as she tried to talk through the Entenox tube in her mouth. The potent mix of gas and air dulled her pain-frazzled senses to the point of uselessness.
 
    A sharp spike of searing pain lanced through her as her contractions flared once more. Tears rolled down Janet's face while she slumped back into the sweat-soaked pillows, sobbing softly to herself.
     
    'I don't know how much more of this I can take; if he doesn't get here soon, I'm going to divorce the bald bastard—baby or not.'
 
    ****
     
    Baker's Jeep tyres squealed against the wet tarmac as he pressed the brake pedal into the floor. His weight and momentum drove him against the seatbelt, causing a vicious red weal to rise from the skin along the side of his neck.
 
    With an energy born of fear and excitement, he dragged the seatbelt from its clip, all but ripping it from its mounts in an overzealous attempt to extricate himself.
 
    The door crashed against the frame as he slammed it shut, and he sprinted through the lightning-streaked deluge. He felt the water seep down his legs, soaking through the heavy woollen socks that clung to his feet like a second skin as they slid along his sole, bunching below the instep of his foot as he skidded over the ridged and buckled paving slabs around the entrance to the hospital.
 
    He flew through the hospital's doors, his feet sliding under him as he slammed into the reception desk. He dragged himself from the floor, pulled his hand over his bald scalp and forehead, and wiped the rainwater from his eyes then looked at the bewildered girl in front of him.
 
    'My baby's having a wife.'
 
    His words tumbled in a sodden stream of babbled confusion as he tried to drag his thoughts into order. His mind sagged into a pile of wet mush when the girl in front of him giggled.
 
    'Sorry, my wife is having our baby.'