Chapter 8

Few minutes later Lion drove into a gas station with an attached utility shop.The place looked remote and Sunny would have given anything to know their location but she didn't dare ask.

Lion jumped out of their jeep and jogged into the shop.He came out with a small carrier bag and a packet of energy drink cans.He didn't say a word as he sped off again.

"Okay,stop the car."Sunny spoke after Lion drove for a good thirty minutes.She wasn't new to the art of producing a life but from her scarce knowledge,she couldn't wait another second.Lion must have been thinking the same thing because he was at her side unstrapping her.He retrieved a mat from the back and spread it down on the dry shanty grass before helping her down.

Sunny's worn out dress rode up in the process and Lion caught a glimpse of the fresh cuts spelling his name.His hand hovered over it and Sunny's mind flashed back to the day he deflowered her.He had been drunk and pissed which made fighting him impossible.And he had also ignited a flame in her that she'd thought impossible task for another man other than Josef to light.

"What do you want me to do?"Lion asked dragging her back to the moment.

"Stand guard or something...?"Lion obediently stood up and as usual,he had a pistol tucked in his belt buckle.And for once Sunny appreciated the sight because it signified security.She was about to give birth in the middle of nowhere with demented Federal men after them.

Sunny closed her eyes briefly to focus her thoughts on the task at hand.

"Breath in..."She counted to ten before pushing with all her might.She could feel her baby close.She breathed in again, counted to ten and pushed.The second push earned her baby's head.She repeated the breath and push pattern two more times but nothing changed.

Lion showed up then.

"I think the baby is stuck."Sunny breathed."Lion,please save him."He looked nervous anxious,like an expectant father.

Lion dropped on his knees between her legs.

"Okay,just breath and give me a good push.In three,two..."Sunny focused on Lion's coffee brown eyes and used all the pain and anger she felt to push.She fueled the anger as she recalled how she devil had tortured her.She balled up all the pain of Josef not finding her and used it to drive herself.All those haunted months.

She finished with a sob as she got rewarded by the baby's cry.

"It's a boy!"Lion sounded excited,how a new father is supposed to feel.He moved to kneel beside her and supported her up.He held the baby boy in his military jacket.

"My baby."Sunny sighed too overwhelmed and weak to hold the tiny bundle of joy.

"It's our baby."Lion corrected cuddling her."I know you have a man waiting for you back home but I don't want you to ever forget me."His request wouldn't be a problem considering she had his name graffiti on her thigh.She knew he had seen it,she-devil had strategically curved it on the upper side.

And Sunny also wanted to tell him every ordeal she went through.She looked up into his coffee eyes but before she said anything,Lion leaned in and gently kissed her.The warmth of his lips travelled from her lips and absorbed into her bloodstream and spread over her body.Then she fell into blank darkness.