“We’re ready to go, Detective,” Edwards, the taller of the two medical attendants, told Murdoch.
Kenzie snapped to attention, shrugging out of her brother’s hold. “I’m coming with him,” she declared. Her tone left no room for argument.
The attendant looked over her head at Murdoch, who nodded his assent.
“I’ll stay here with the prisoner. Backup should be here soon,” he told Kenzie. Belatedly, he glanced at Reese, the man who had brought them into the cabin. “Who’s this?”
“The man who was about to become victim number fourteen,” Kenzie said as she hurried out of the cabin behind the two attendants carrying Hunter out on a gurney.
In the background, she heard Camille laugh. “Number fourteen? There are more than just thirteen dead men buried on this mountain.” Her statement was followed by more hysterical laughter.
The attendants were loading Hunter’s gurney into the helicopter. If they hadn’t been, Kenzie would have rushed back into the cabin and grabbed Camille by the throat, squeezing it until the black widow told her where all the dismembered bodies were buried.
She left that job up to Murdoch.
Nothing else mattered except for saving Hunter.
“I want him taken to Aurora Memorial,” Kenzie told the attendant closest to her, raising her voice again to be heard above the roar of the helicopter blades.
“The chief already called ahead and made those arrangements,” Edwards assured her. “They’re waiting for us.”
“Hear that?” Kenzie asked, bending over Hunter’s gurney and talking into his ear. “You’ve got people waiting for you to arrive. They’re going to fix you up. Even better than new.”
* * *
Less than ten minutes later, the medevac landed on the helicopter pad that had been recently added to Aurora Memorial Hospital’s tower building.
Kenzie felt the wind whipping right through her as she got out of the helicopter. She ran alongside the gurney as the waiting hospital staff took over, taking its precious cargo directly to the elevator.
“Looks like we just can’t get away from riding elevators together, Brannigan,” she told him with a pained smile.
She was holding on to his hand so tightly, she couldn’t feel her own fingers anymore. Except to get on and then off the helicopter, she hadn’t let go of Hunter’s hand during that whole time. She couldn’t shake the feeling that if she broke their connection, Hunter would slip away from her.
In some way she couldn’t begin to explain, she knew that she was anchoring him to life.
Aurora Memorial’s operating rooms were all located on the first floor. It was there, just in front of OR 3’s double doors, where she finally had to let go of Hunter’s hand. But it wasn’t for lack of trying to hold on.
“You can’t come in here, Detective. We need to operate on Detective Brannigan,” Dr. Rogers, a surgeon she vaguely recognized from another lifetime, was telling her. “We’ll take good care of him, Detective,” the doctor added kindly.
She had no choice. Although everything within her screamed “No!” Kenzie finally had to release Hunter’s hand.
“I’ll be right out here, Brannigan. Waiting,” she called after Hunter as the orderlies whisked his gurney into the OR. “Don’t you dare stand me up, you hear me?”
Her voice broke as she uttered the last words.
“He’s going to be fine, Kenzie. This is one of the best hospitals in the country.”
She realized that she was hearing Brian’s calm voice. He was standing right behind her. Wiping the back of her hand across her eyes, she turned around to face him.
“They’ve treated half the police department here at one time or another,” her uncle told her.
Brian hadn’t come alone. He’d brought his older brother, Andrew, and his nephew Shaw with him, as well as her aunt Maeve and several of the younger Cavanaughs.
Glancing toward them now, their faces all blurred and ran together for Kenzie.
“He shouldn’t be the one being operated on,” she told her uncles. “That woman was trying to kill me, not him.” Her voice rose a little as her anxiety heightened. “Hunter took the bullet that was meant for me.”
“There’s no point in going over what happened, Kenzie. Just focus on Hunter getting better, understand?” Maeve instructed.
Unable to speak, Kenzie could only nod. When her aunt took her into her arms, Kenzie just melted into the warmth and support she felt there.
* * *
By the time Hunter’s surgery was over, some two and a half hours later, the floor was jammed with police officers, detectives and, in some cases, their spouses.
Eve Cooper, the head nurse on the floor, surveyed all the bodies that seemed to be jammed into a relatively limited space. She appeared far from pleased.
“Oh Lord, Regina Henderson warned me about this when she retired,” Eve told the young assistant standing next to her. “At the time I thought she was exaggerating. Turns out that she didn’t begin to do justice to this chaos.” Eve pressed her lips together. “She said to just go with the flow, but I can’t let these people act like they’re human roadblocks. People,” she cried, raising her voice.
When she failed to get their attention, Eve tried again, louder this time.
“People!” The noise stopped and heads turned in her direction. “That’s better,” she said with a sigh. “You’ve got to go into the waiting area. You can’t just stand around like this. Better yet, pick a person or two to act as your liaison and convey the patient’s condition when updates are available. The rest of you go home,” she ordered.
Andrew saw the look that came over Kenzie’s face when the head nurse told them to go home. He knew trouble when he saw it and immediately stepped in to avert any problems in the making.
“Nurse Cooper,” he said, reading her name tag. “I understand that you have a hospital to run, but these men and women are concerned about one of their own who was shot earlier today while apprehending an extremely dangerous serial killer. They just want to make sure he’s going to make it. You know how nerve-racking it can be, waiting for that phone call to come, the one that lets you find out what’s happening,” he told the head nurse, speaking to her as if they were both on the same side rather than opponents. “I promise you, once Detective Hunter Brannigan is out of surgery and in his room, you won’t see most of us here any longer. We’ll clear out,” he told her.
The head nurse looked at the former police chief. The frown on her lips receded. “I guess I can’t singlehandedly carry you all out of here.”
“No, ma’am, I’m afraid you can’t,” Andrew said, agreeing with her.
Cooper, more than a foot shorter, looked up at him. “And I have your word you’ll clear out once he’s out of surgery?”
“And back in his room,” Andrew added. “Yes, ma’am, you have my word.”
“All right,” the head nurse sighed. “But at least try to cluster together in groups, not just all over the first floor. Could you try to do that, Chief?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Andrew told her. “We can try to do that.”
“Looks like you still have that charm going for you, big brother,” Brian said with a warm laugh, coming over to join Andrew once the head nurse had disappeared from the general area.
“She’s just doing her job as head nurse and I’m just doing mine as head of this family,” Andrew said good-naturedly.
“Head of this family, eh?” Brian echoed. “Don’t let Dad hear you say that,” he warned with a chuckle.
“Don’t worry. I don’t have a death wish,” Andrew told his younger brother.
Over in the corner, Kenzie was standing to one side just next to the operating room doors. For the most part, she hardly heard what anyone had said or was saying. Her brothers and sister had come by, offering their support and encouraging words. She nodded and smiled, b
ut she really hardly heard them either. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the door that had closed, separating her from Hunter an eternity ago.
While having what amounted to her entire extended family here helped her cope, it didn’t, ultimately, erase the icy fear that resided in the pit of her stomach. Only being told that the surgery had been a total success and that Hunter was going to make a complete recovery would return the color to her face.
When the surgeon finally did come out to give them an update, Dr. Rogers was cautiously optimistic.
“We got the bullet out.” He told them the part that Kenzie had somehow known in her heart to be true. “There was a lot of internal bleeding going on, but we managed to stop that, too. I don’t mind telling you that if Detective Brannigan wasn’t in such excellent physical condition, it would’ve been a completely different story.
“As it is,” the surgeon continued, “the next forty-eight hours or so are going to be crucial. But I see no reason why, barring unforeseen complications, that your detective won’t make a full recovery.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Shaw told the man, speaking for the officers and detectives as a group. He shook the surgeon’s hand. “That’s really encouraging news.”
“He’ll be in Recovery another hour, then they’ll take him up to his room,” Rogers concluded. He looked toward Kenzie, whom he recognized as the bloodied detective who’d wanted to come into the OR. He smiled at her encouragingly. He’d learned a long time ago that family and friends played a large part in his patients’ recovery. “You can go see him then,” he told her.
“Thank you, Doctor,” Kenzie whispered, unable to say anything more in a louder voice.
“Why don’t I drive you home so you can change out of those dirty clothes, honey,” Maeve suggested once the surgeon had left.
“No,” Kenzie answered, her voice still hoarse. “I’m not leaving here until Hunter opens his eyes. But thank you for the offer,” she added with a weak smile.
“Oh, honey,” Maeve said, putting her arm around her niece. “You don’t need to thank me. We’re family.” The older woman looked into Kenzie’s face. “And so is he,” she added in a quiet, firm voice that did more to comfort Kenzie than anything else had.
* * *
Although she knew that she looked like someone who had been involved in a heated, bloody battle, Kenzie was as good as her word. She refused to go home until Hunter regained consciousness.
She stubbornly sat in his room and spent endless hours talking to him. When she ran out of things to say, she read to him. And on those few occasions when her energy completely petered out, she fell asleep in the chair she had pulled up next to Hunter’s bed.
But she didn’t sleep long. It was as if she was subconsciously afraid that he would open his eyes and she would miss it.
Her sister went to her house and brought her a change of clothing on the second day she spent keeping vigil next to Hunter’s bed.
“You don’t want to scare anyone in the hospital with that bloodied shirt of yours, Kenz,” she told Kenzie when she brought her the clean apparel.
Nodding, Kenzie took the clothes and went into Hunter’s private bathroom to change. When she came out again, she was carrying the bloodied clothes bunched up in her hands.
“I don’t know if I can get those things clean,” Skylar commented, frowning as she looked over her sister’s clothes.
“Don’t bother trying,” Kenzie told her. “Just throw them away. Seeing them will just remind me how close Hunter came to dying,” she told Skylar grimly.
Her sister nodded. She shoved the bloodied clothing into the shopping bag she’d brought.
“Well, I’ve got to get back. Everyone at the precinct sends their love,” she added as she began to take her leave. Stopping in the doorway, she looked at her sister. She was aware how worried Kenzie was because Hunter hadn’t regained consciousness yet. “He’s going to be okay, Kenz. You’ve got to believe that.”
“Yeah,” Kenzie answered a bit too quickly. “I know.” She glanced down at her new clothes. “Thanks for bringing these.”
“Anytime I can make you look less scary, just let me know,” Skylar said with a grin.
And then she left.
Kenzie moved her chair in closer to Hunter’s bed and she looked at his face. His expression hadn’t changed from the time they had brought him in here. Despite the optimistic words that everyone who came into the room offered, Kenzie couldn’t tamp down the fear that was growing in her chest.
That he wasn’t going to wake up.
“Okay,” she said in a small voice, looking up toward the ceiling, “I was hoping he was going to come around by now, but every day that goes by, he just stays the same. I know I should be more patient, but I’m not. You know that. You made me this way.
“You know that I don’t usually ask for anything. I can’t even remember the last time I did. But I’m asking now. I’m asking you to wake him up for me. I’ll do whatever you want me to.” She tried to think of what people who prayed for miracles offered in exchange. “I’ll make charitable donations. I’ll volunteer at a shelter. I’ll become a nun if that’s what you want, but please, please, please bring him back to me.
“I can’t live in a world without him in it. Please,” Kenzie whispered, her voice breaking. “Please.”
Closing her eyes, she prayed in earnest. Prayed the way she hadn’t prayed since she had been a little girl.
Prayed harder than she had ever prayed before.
Tears seeped through her lashes, sliding down her cheeks.
She prayed until she lost track of time.
“Kenzie? What are you doing?”
Certain she was imagining things, her eyes flew open anyway.
Hunter’s green eyes were open, as well, and he was looking right at her.
Epilogue
Once he regained consciousness, Hunter’s recovery went amazingly fast. So fast that even his surgeon felt he needed to comment on it.
“Never has anyone come around so fast once they opened their eyes after being in a coma for two days,” Dr. Rogers said, making a final notation on Hunter’s chart before having it input on the computer. “You are really amazing.”
Hunter slanted a glance toward Kenzie, who had arrived a little while ago to take him home. “I get that a lot,” he told the doctor.
“Looks like he’s getting delirious again, Doctor,” Kenzie said to the surgeon. “Maybe you should keep him here for another few days for further observation.”
“No, he’s ready to go home. I’ve already signed all the necessary paperwork,” the doctor told her. “Take care of yourself, Detective,” he said, shaking Hunter’s hand. “And stay away from bullets.”
“I’ll do my best,” Hunter promised. And then he grinned at Kenzie as Dr. Rogers left his room. “Looks like I’m going home.”
“Looks like,” she agreed as she pulled out a small traveling case she had brought to the hospital yesterday. It contained a change of clothes for Hunter, including underwear and shoes. The clothes he’d worn when they’d flown him here in the medevac had been cut away in the name of efficiency. There was no saving them and they had been thrown away. “Get dressed, Brannigan. I’m going to be driving you back home.”
As Kenzie went to get his few personal possessions in order to pack them up, Hunter caught her by the hand. She looked at him quizzically.
“Look, while we’re still alone, I need to ask you something,” Hunter said, feeling oddly tongue-tied. This was a completely new feeling for him. Insecurity had never been part of his makeup before.
Kenzie smiled brightly at him. “Yes, I’ll drive your car while you’re recovering.”
“That wasn’t what I was going to ask,” he told her, “but good to know.”
He looked serious, she thought. Uneasiness slipped in. She had no idea what
to expect. “Then what were you going to ask?”
“Well,” Hunter began slowly, measuring each word, “I figure since you’ve seen me at my worst and didn’t go running off, screaming, I thought...I thought maybe we could make it official.” He realized that he was holding his breath as he waited for her reaction.
“Make what official?” she asked.
“Damn it, Kenzie, I’m trying to ask you to marry me before you find someone else a little less damaged to partner up with,” he said, irritated, as he unconsciously glanced down in the general area where he’d gotten shot.
Kenzie pressed her lips together. When she finally answered, she said, “I can’t marry you.”
That stunned Hunter. But then he rallied. “Can you give me a good reason why not? Because I need a good reason. Otherwise, I’m not going to back off or stop asking you until you say yes.”
Kenzie sighed, and then with a straight face, she told him, “I can’t marry you because I made a deal with a higher power. I told him that if he let you live, I’d become a nun.”
Hunter stared at her, not knowing if she was actually being serious or putting him on. She looked so incredibly serious, for a split second he thought she really meant it.
“You’d make a lousy nun,” he finally told Kenzie, hoping against hope that she was pulling his leg.
And then her serious expression gave way to a grin. “Funny, that was what he said when I made the offer. I guess he brought you back as a consolation prize for turning me down.”
“You’re an insane person, MacKenzie Cavanaugh,” he told her, relieved.
She considered his remark. “I guess, then, we’re a good match because no sane man would ever throw himself in front of a bullet like that.”
A ray of hope flashed in his eyes. “Then it’s yes, you’ll marry me?” Hunter asked her.
“No,” she answered. And then she laughed. “It’s hell yes, I’ll marry you.”
“That’s all I wanted to know.”
The next moment, still seated, Hunter pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Hard. He had two days to make up for and he fully intended to start now.
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