They were going to get there in time. They had to.
“I can’t believe that fucker wasn’t there,” Nick said.
“A timer,” Declan said. “The light in the living room is on a timer.”
He couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid. They should have confirmed that Ferguson was inside the house. The fact that the man had so far been a slave to routine was no excuse.
Declan had dropped the ball, and it might cost Kate and Griff their lives.
No. That was impossible. He wouldn’t allow it.
He hit the private road leading to the Walsh estate, the stretch of asphalt leading almost to the water before it stopped at the gate.
Almost there…
But as soon as he hit the brakes he knew they were too late.
“Fuck,” Ronan said, removing his weapon from its holster.
Declan was out of the car, his own weapon drawn, before Ronan could open the door.
Rain pelted his face and body as he advanced, gun at the ready, on the SUV parked near the gate. One of the doors was open. The man in the driver’s seat had his head tipped back like he was resting, a dark round wound on his temple.
“Where’s the other one?” Declan asked.
“Over here.”
Declan stepped away from the car and moved to join Nick, standing over a body face down on the pavement.
Nick bent to hold a finger to the man’s neck. “Dead,” he said a few seconds later.
Declan hardly heard him. His eyes were on the gate leading to the Walsh house.
It was open.
“Mom! Mom…” Kate shook her mom awake.
Her mom’s eyes flew open. She was instantly alert. “What’s happening?”
“Someone’s in the house,” Kate whispered, Griffin sleepy at her side. “You have to hide with Griff.”
Her mom almost leapt out of bed, her face calm. “Have you called Declan?”
“No time. And I don’t want to make noise. But I think he knows. I think he’s on the way.” She was already leading her mom to the walk-in closet between the master bedroom and bathroom.
“Mommy…” Griffin said softly.
Kate bent so that she was at eye level with him. “Shhhh, buddy. Remember what I said? We have to be quiet. We have to hide until Daddy gets here.”
She opened the closet door and pushed her mom and Griff inside.
“Hide as best you can.” Kate shoved Griffin toward her mother, her throat closing with emotion. “Block the door if you can. I’ll keep them away until Declan gets here.”
Her mom clutched at Kate’s arm. “Katie…?”
“I’ll be back. I have to get Beth.”
Her mom hesitated, then dropped her hand.
Kate held Griffin’s face in her hands. Declan’s eyes stared back at her. “Stay with Gran. Stay quiet and do everything she says. Do you understand?” He nodded and she bent to kiss him. “I love you buddy. Don’t be afraid. Everything’s going to be okay. I’m going to get Aunt Beth, and Daddy will be here soon.”
She stepped out of the closet and shut the door, not trusting herself to say more, not trusting herself to leave them if she didn’t go now.
Turning away was the hardest thing she’d ever done. She did it anyway, hurrying for Beth’s room.
Declan expected the house to show signs of forced entry, but whoever had breached the gate had been more careful here. It looked like it always did, a hulking mass of glass and painted cedar, looming through the storm that bent trees almost in half, the wind a living thing that roared from the jaws of the sea.
The under-cabinet lights that stayed on in the kitchen barely registered through the driving rain.
“At the front,” Declan said, glad they’d brought the comms system even though they hadn’t thought they’d need it at Ferguson’s.
They’d been right, but they needed it now.
“Just hit the terrace,” Ronan said through Declan’s earpiece. “One of the guards is here. Dead.”
Declan didn’t have time to think about that, about what it meant for Kate and Griff, for Beth and Kate’s mom.
Fucking Beth. It wasn’t productive to be angry but he couldn’t help it. Ferguson’s men were here because Beth was here, because she could tie him to Neil.
He couldn’t afford to think about that now. He opened the front door and stepped into the foyer, his eyes immediately dropping to the dead man on the floor at the side of the staircase.
The man’s booted leg was flung out in front of the bottom tread. Declan stepped over it and started up the stairs. Ronan and Nick would have to clear the first floor.
Declan was getting his family.
Adrenaline flooded Kate’s body as she woke up Beth. “Someone’s in the house. We have to hide.”
The man who’d been coming up the stairs was in the hall. She could hear the slow movement of his footsteps as he traversed the wood floors, and relief flooded her body when the footsteps continued past the master bedroom.
He wasn’t here for Griffin, for Kate’s mother.
Not yet.
Kate had locked the door when she’d entered Beth’s bedroom, but it was flimsy, nothing more than a privacy lock, and there was no time to move the dresser in front of the door.
Better to stay quiet.
Hide.
Beth’s eyes were wild and Kate pulled her to her feet. “Hurry up.”
Beth stumbled after Kate, moving toward the closet. It was too obvious a hiding place, but they were out of options.
Please hurry, Declan.
She knew he was coming. She just hoped it would be in time.
They were almost to the closet when the door flew open with a crash. The man standing in its frame was nothing more than a shadow as he stepped over the threshold, raised his gun, and pointed it at Beth.
Kate didn’t even think before stepping in front of her sister.
The gun in the man’s hand exploded in a burst of fire as more gunfire sounded from somewhere else in the house. Kate had time to register with relief that it was coming from the first floor.
Not her mother’s room.
She didn’t register the pain of hitting the floor, only a burning sensation in her chest, and then, more gunfire, this time coming from right outside the bedroom.
The man who’d fired on Beth hit the floor with a heavy thud, and then Declan and Beth were leaning over her.
“Oh my god… oh my god… Kate…” Beth was looking with horror at Kate’s chest.
“I’m okay,” Kate croaked. And she was. A comforting numbness had settled over her limbs. It was like the moment right before sleep, the moment when everything else dropped away and you knew peace was on its way.
“Call 9-1-1,” Declan ordered.
Beth’s face disappeared from view.
Declan lifted Kate’s head onto his lap. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m here. You’re going to be okay. The ambulance is coming.”
“Griff… my mom…”
“Shhhh… they’re fine. Save your energy,” he said.
She struggled to get the next words out of her mouth. “Don’t shhhh me.”
He laughed and it caught on something like a sob. “I love you. I love you so much.”
“I love you. Tell Griff I love him too.”
She closed her eyes. Everything was okay. Her family was safe.
She was loved. She had loved.
As she lost consciousness, she realized that was all that had ever mattered.
20
Declan paced the hospital waiting room, his mind churning, panic still twisting in his gut hours after he’d climbed into the ambulance with Kate. Ronan sat next to Julia, John Thomas asleep in his stroller, while Alexa dozed on Nick’s shoulder. Nick was saying something Declan couldn’t hear to Elise, who sat on his other side.
Aiden hadn’t left Annie’s side, both of them pale, faces drawn with worry, while Beth paced the other side of the room, a manic light in her eyes.
Griffin sat with Declan’s dad, his small head leaning on Thomas Murphy’s shoulder. Declan had soothed Griff’s fear when he arrived at the hospital with Annie, reassuring him that Kate would be okay, but they were words Declan hated to say.
It was the one and only time he could remember making a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep. Looking into his son’s eyes, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to say anything else.
Thomas Murphy and Griffin stood. “We’re going to get some drinks and snacks for everyone,” he said to Declan. “Any requests?”
“Whatever you get is fine.” He rested his hand on Griff’s head. “You doing okay, buddy?”
“When can I see Mommy?”
“Soon,” Declan said. “We have to wait for the doctor to say it’s okay.”
“Let’s see if we can get something for your mom too,” Declan’s dad said, taking Griff’s hand in his. “I think she’d like that, don’t you?”
Griffin nodded.
Declan’s dad placed a hand on Declan’s shoulder as they passed. He’d never been more grateful for his father’s quiet, steady presence. He’d been dealt a shitty hand with the death of Declan’s mother followed by Erin’s overdose. He and Declan had had their differences over the years — that tended to happen when you worked for the police department and had sons who were criminals — but he’d always been there.
And it was obvious his dad wasn’t the only one. The overflowing waiting room was proof that Declan and Kate weren’t alone, that there were people to catch their fall. It was a privilege he didn’t take lightly after the dark years when he’d felt so alone, when he and Ronan and Nick had gone days without speaking to each other, when they’d gone weeks without speaking to their father.
It was a responsibility too. He loved every one of the people in this room, and he realized everything he did impacted them in some way or another. Everything he did had the potential to hurt or harm them.
It wasn’t something he could think too hard about with Kate fighting for her life.
Images flashed in his mind: the empty brownstone in Beacon Hill, the frantic drive to Marblehead, the dead guards in front of the gate, the one at the foot of the stairs.
He’d reached the top of the staircase just as the shadowed figure at the end of the hall turned into Beth’s bedroom. His body had been flooded with terror unlike anything he’d ever known when gunfire sounded from inside the room a second later.
After that it was a blur — the rush to the bedroom, the man advancing into the room, the shot Declan had fired into the man’s skull.
And Kate, on the floor, bleeding from her sternum, Beth bent over Kate’s prone body.
His attention was brought to Kate’s mom as she stood, her eyes focused on something behind Declan.
A doctor in scrubs was approaching down the long, sterile hall.
Annie hurried toward the doctor. She took Declan’s hand in hers and squeezed, and in that moment Declan had never been more grateful for Annie Walsh. It had been a long time since a woman had grasped his hand with motherly reassurance.
“How is she?” Kate’s mom asked the doctor.
“Are you Ann Walsh, Kate’s medical proxy?” the doctor asked.
She nodded. “But this is Kate’s brother and her… husband. You can tell me everything in front of them.”
The word husband — likely used by Annie to simplify the exchange with the doctor — was a beacon of hope in Declan’s chest.
That’s what I want. To be Kate Walsh’s husband. To make her my wife. To live with her every day of my life and make sure no one ever hurts her again.
“She was very lucky,” the doctor said. “The bullet wound was within two millimeters of her right lung. There was some internal bleeding, but we managed to stop it and remove the bullet.”
“Thank god,” Annie said.
“So she’ll be okay?” Aiden asked.
The doctor nodded. “And the baby’s okay too.”
Declan’s heart stuttered in his chest. “The… baby?”
The doctor’s eyes grew guarded. “I’m sorry. I assumed you knew. She’s about nine weeks pregnant, but like I said, everything looks fine there.”
“The baby…” Declan repeated, shock reverberating through his body.
“Thank you,” Aiden said, shaking the doctor’s hand.
“Can we see her?” Declan asked.
“She’s a bit woozy, but I’ll give you five minutes,” the doctor said. “I’ll send a nurse to show you the way.”
Declan stared at him as he started back down the hall.
“I didn’t know,” Annie said.
Declan shook his head. “Me neither.”
“Thank god she’s going to be okay,” Aiden said.
Declan turned to find his family and Beth watching them. A tall, dark-haired nurse with the beginning of a five o’ clock shadow appeared a few seconds later. “Mr. Walsh?”
Declan looked at Aiden.
“I think he means you,” Aiden said.
A short burst of laughter rose from Declan’s throat and he ran a tired hand over his face. He couldn’t wait to tell Kate the story. She would get a kick out of it.
“I’ll fill everyone in,” Annie said, stretching to kiss his cheek. “You go check on our girl.”
Declan nodded and started down the hall with the nurse.
His heart pounded as they entered through a set of sealed doors. The nurse led Declan past several windowed rooms filled with patients in various states of consciousness, hooked up to various machines.
They finally stopped at a door leading to one of the rooms. “Five minutes,” the nurse said. “She might not be clear-headed. That will get better as the anesthesia works its way out of her system."
“Thank you,” Declan said. “Is she… in pain?” He couldn’t bear the thought.
“Not yet,” the nurse said. “She’s on some pretty heavy meds.”
Declan nodded and opened the door.
The bed was tall with metal guardrails, Kate’s figure surprisingly slight under the covers. When he thought of her, he always saw her as imposing and powerful. It had never stopped him from wanting to protect her, but now the impulse roared to life with a force that almost took his breath away. He understood now that loving her didn’t make him weak or vulnerable.
It made him the strongest person in the world.
Her eyes fluttered open, cloudy in the moment before they cleared, focusing on her face.
She opened her palm, lying next to her body on the bed.
He stepped toward her, not wanting her to try and talk or lift her arm, which he was pretty sure she would do if he didn’t move fast enough.
He pulled a chair close to the bed and took her hand in his. “You gave us a scare.”
“Griffin… Beth…”
“Everyone is fine,” Declan said. “They’re out in the lobby, clamoring to see you, but the doctor says not yet. It was…” He could hardly bring himself to say the words. “It was a close call.”
She nodded a little and squeezed his hand. “What about you? Are you okay?”
“Me?” He shook his head and suppressed a half-crazed burst of laughter. “I’m not the one who was shot.” He wished it had been him, wished it with every fiber of his being. “I’m fine.”
She licked her lips and swallowed. “Watching other people get hurt is worse than getting hurt. At least I got drugs.”
Now he laughed, the sound harsh amid the beeping of machinery monitoring Kate’s vitals. “You’re crazy.”
“Runs in the family,” she said.
“You’re funny when you’re on drugs, you know that?” She smiled, but he could see that she was getting tired. “The doctors told me. About the baby.”
“I was going to tell you when this was all over. Are you… happy?”
“Do you have to ask? It’s all I’ve ever wanted. A chance to do it all again. You and me and Griff and our new baby.”
He wouldn’t take a s
ingle second for granted.
A tear leaked down her temple and into her hair. “For real?”
“For real.”
“Hey, Dec. Do you think you can bring me something from home since I don’t know how long I’m going to be in here?” she asked.
“Anything.”
“I need…” He leaned in to hear as her voice faded, her eyes fluttering closed. “I need my iPad.”
His laughter caught on a sob. He lay his head on her hand and wept.
21
Kate stood next to her brother, waiting for Miguel to walk down the aisle. They’d toyed with several formations, one of the many decisions Aiden had been loathe to make. Should they both stand next to the officiant? Should Aiden walk down the aisle or Miguel? Should they walk together?
They were questions Kate would have asked in her brother’s place too. There was nothing wrong with tradition — as long as it didn’t come at the expense of progress. Like so many things, Kate was learning how to celebrate both.
She didn’t know how Aiden and Miguel had settled on the current arrangement — Aiden standing at the head of the flower-lined aisle created by two groups of chairs, Miguel preparing to meet him at the edge of the cliff overlooking the cove — but somehow, like everything since the shooting, it felt perfect.
Maybe that was the secret, a balance of old and new, a willingness to honor the past and look toward the future, to let go of the things that didn’t work and keep trying for things that did.
Her eyes traveled over the crowd gathered to celebrate her brother’s wedding. Unlike weddings of old, there was no bride’s side, no groom’s sides. Their families were intermingled: Miguel’s parents and grandparents and siblings from Cuba and Florida and Georgia, Beth and their mom and a handful of other Walsh friends and family from around the country, Julia and Ronan (holding a squirming John Thomas on his lap), Nick and Alexa, holding hands and looking happy and hopeful under the early November sun, Thomas Murphy sitting next to Elise, who stared out over the water.
Last Chance (Second Chance Book 3) Page 13
