The Right Bride: Book Three: The Hunted Series

by Jennifer Ryan

  Happy to be rid of her, all he’d wanted to do was hold Marti and Emma while they slept.

  His mind came up with any excuse it could conjure for Shelly’s behavior. Because things couldn’t be this bad. They just couldn’t. “The rocking ship made her unsteady on her feet. That’s all. I tried to get her to lie down and things got out of hand, but I reined it in. She was not drunk.”

  “Sure. She’s pregnant, and she’s not a lush. I must be crazy. We all must be crazy. Except for you.”

  Sam walked away and left Cameron to think about what he’d said. Maybe he’d come up with the right answer this time, instead of inventing excuses.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  * * *

  MARTI BARELY GOT her eyes open before the pounding in her head beat twice as fast as her heart. The light struck her in the eyes and straight through to her brain like lightning.

  Jack sat in the chair, reading a magazine next to the bed.

  “Hi, Jack.” Her voice came out weak and soft.

  “Hey, welcome back to the living.”

  She held up her hand over her eyes to block out the light. Jack closed the drapes and shut off the overhead light above her head. She cautiously opened her eyes again and winced with pain.

  “Do you want me to get the doctor?”

  “Is someone sick?”

  “You are, sweetheart. You had one hell of a concussion. You scared the hell out of everyone.” He picked up the phone by the bed and made a call. “She’s awake.” He hung up without saying anything else.

  She didn’t care who he called, she just wanted the splitting headache to go away.

  “So how’d you know I was Jack and not Sam?”

  “No gun. Then again, I’m not positive. Maybe you are Sam. Take off your shirt, and I’ll reconsider.” She gave him a half smile and rubbed at her forehead.

  Jack cracked up laughing.

  “I’m Jack. You’ve got your sense of humor to go with a nasty bump on the back of your head.”

  “At least I got something. Cameron brought me twins, and I couldn’t even keep them.” She smiled, but it died on her lips when everything that happened came back into focus in her mind. “How’s Emma?”

  “She’s hanging in there. She thought she killed you and it was her fault.”

  “It was that bitch’s fault. She’s going to wish she killed me.” Marti winced. The sound of her own voice hurt.

  “I think Cameron wishes he could kill her. She’s still claiming she’s pregnant. And I mean adamantly. She’s been trying to play caring stepmother to Emma, but Emma isn’t having any of it.”

  “I hope Cameron didn’t leave her alone with Emma again.”

  “Nope. Cameron tries to avoid her at all costs. She placed an announcement in the newspaper about their engagement. He’s getting nonstop congratulations calls. He stopped answering his phone because he can’t stand to be congratulated once more on a marriage he doesn’t want. Shelly is doing everything she can to make it happen.”

  “Wait. How long have I been here?”

  “Going on four days. Cameron has been going nuts. He spends every night here with you, and one of us takes a shift during the day. He makes sure someone is here with you all the time.”

  “You drew the short straw today?”

  “Not really. We all volunteered. Even Jenna sat with you. She can’t wait to actually talk to you when you can answer her.”

  “I’d like to meet her too. Did someone call George? I’ve been staying with him.”

  “Cameron talked to him. George contacted your uncle. Your uncle contacted the hospital and gave them your information and you’ve been treated like royalty ever since.”

  Marti was surprised her uncle had helped. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been furious with her. They weren’t close, but it was nice to know he’d come through for her.

  “I don’t feel like royalty. I feel like someone dropped an anvil on my brain.”

  “It’ll pass soon. So tell me, Marti, who are you? Everyone around here jumps every time your heart monitor increases a beat.”

  She loved the intrigued look on Jack’s face. She didn’t answer his question, but gave him a reasonable explanation. “My uncle has a way of getting what he wants, when he wants it. He must have put on quite a show for whomever he talked to. He has a certain way about him. I’m sure you know people like that.”

  The door flew open and Cameron rushed in with Emma in his arms.

  “See, sweetheart, she’s just fine.” Cameron set Emma on the bed next to Marti and leaned over and kissed her forehead. Relief like he’d never felt washed over him. “I’m so happy to see you.”

  Marti wanted to cry. She loved this man and he was going to marry someone else. She wanted to grab him and hold onto him and beg him not to marry Shelly.

  She couldn’t bring herself to do it, so she grabbed Emma and pulled her down to her and held her close. She kissed the little girl on the cheek and wiped away her tears.

  “It’s all right, Sugar Bug. I’m just fine. I was just sleepy after that long swim in the ocean.”

  “The doctor said you knocked your noggin and it made you sleep like Sleeping Beauty.”

  “Well, the doctor would know.” Marti appreciated the doctor’s attempt to make things easier for Emma.

  “I made Daddy kiss you, but you didn’t wake up like Sleeping Beauty. He said he wasn’t your Prince Charming.” Emma frowned.

  He’s Shelly’s. Marti wanted to cry.

  Cameron rubbed the back of his neck. She wouldn’t even look at him, and he knew what she was thinking. He wasn’t her Prince Charming because he was a stupid idiot, and he was marrying Shelly.

  He had kissed her. It had been the sweetest torture to kiss her, even if she was unconscious. He’d touched her every chance he got and watched her for long hours while she slept.

  He dreamed about sleeping with her and waking up every morning to her face. He wanted to be able to touch her and kiss her whenever he wanted.

  “Sugar Bug, I want to talk to you about something.”

  “Am I in trouble because you got hurt?”

  “No. No, Sugar Bug. You are not in trouble. You didn’t do anything wrong. Do you understand me? This is not your fault. I just banged my head on the boat. It was an accident. Okay?”

  “Okay. Daddy said it wasn’t my fault, but I thought it was because you had to jump off the boat and get me. I lost the fishing pole, too.”

  “I don’t care about the fishing pole.”

  “Shelly said it was really expensive and I would have to buy you a new one.”

  Marti glared at Cameron. He winced and rubbed the back of his neck.

  “I don’t care about the fishing pole getting lost. I care about you. I love you, sweetheart, and I would jump off my boat a million times to make sure you were safe.”

  “You would? Even with the sharks?”

  Marti glared at Cameron again. “Let me guess, Shelly. She took a bad situation and used it to scare a little girl.”

  “She said you were an idiot for jumping in the water with the sharks.” Emma’s lips trembled and tears filled her eyes.

  “Did she now? Well you know what? I don’t want to talk about Shelly anymore.”

  She didn’t want to think about Cameron kissing and touching that woman, and she didn’t want to think about him marrying her. She didn’t want to think about any of those things, and yet they were circling her cloudy, heart-banging mind. Tears threatened and she needed to move onto something else, or cry right there in front of everyone.

  “Tell me what you’ve been doing for the last couple of days, Sugar Bug.”

  “Daddy let me have dessert before dinner when I came home from the hospital. I was real sad we had to leave you here, and you didn’t have anyone to be with you. You don’t have a mom or dad, and your grandparents are gone too. No one came to see you but us. Captain Finn gave Daddy your cell phone, but no one called you.”

  Leave it to a
five-year-old to spell it out as plain as day. She didn’t have anyone in her life, no family, no friends, no one to come and see her in the hospital. No one had called her cell phone because everything had been solved with the lawyers and her uncle knew she was in the hospital. He’d done what he could, and that was fine. Her editor gave her a week to submit her work. She wasn’t expecting any calls and she hadn’t gotten any. Who would call? The closest people she had in her life were Cameron, Emma, and his friends.

  Unable to stop the tide, the tears fell. Jack and Cameron saw her crying, but she didn’t care. Her head hurt. Most of all, her heart hurt. The special people she wanted in her life were Cameron and Emma and she couldn’t have them.

  Cameron was stunned by Emma’s insight. He hadn’t realized just how alone Marti was. He carried her phone with him for three days, hoping someone would call and he could tell them about her, or perhaps get some information about her.

  She could have died, and the only person they notified was an uncle, who couldn’t be bothered to come and see his niece.

  He remembered again what she’d said to him in the shower.

  She has everything I want. You’ll all be a family, and I’ll be alone again. I won’t have Emma, and I won’t have you.

  The people she wanted in her life, who cared about whether or not she lived or died, would never be hers. When he married Shelly, he wouldn’t be able to see Marti. Once George passed away, Marti wouldn’t live at his home and Cameron would lose touch with her. She’d live her own life, find someone to love, get married, have a family, and be happy with someone else, someone who wasn’t him and Emma.

  He rubbed the back of his neck and hung his head.

  Jack decided to save Marti, since Cameron seemed lost in thought. “Emma, how about you and I give your dad a minute with Marti? She’s got a killer headache and should probably get some sleep. I’ll buy you a candy bar at the vending machine.”

  “Any kind I want?” Emma asked and stood on the bed to jump into her Uncle Jack’s arms.

  “Absolutely.”

  Cameron nodded his thanks to Jack and waited for them to leave the room before he approached Marti.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  * * *

  CAMERON SAT NEXT to the bed in the chair Jack vacated and waited for Marti to turn and face him. It took a minute, but she finally did. The tears had stopped, but her damp cheeks mocked him with how much he’d hurt her. His gut tightened and his heart tore painfully in two.

  “I thought I’d lost you. You scared the hell out of me, sweetheart.” He took her hand from the bed and held it and savored the warm feel of her skin against his. He thanked God he could still hold her hand, and he hadn’t lost her forever. The bruises on her arm where she’d grabbed the rope to haul Emma and herself back onto the boat were black and blue. He gently traced them with his fingertips. She probably hurt everywhere from using so much effort to save his daughter.

  “Which part scared you? When I jumped off the ship to save your daughter after Shelly left her alone? When I had to let a ship come barreling toward me and grab a rope or risk Emma and I being pulled under the ship? When I told you I want you and Emma to be mine? I’m sure that’s pretty scary for a guy,” she said sarcastically. “Or maybe it was when I apparently fell asleep for four days?”

  “All of those things, except the part where you told me you want Emma and me. That part just . . .”

  “Just what? Made you feel sorry for me. Poor Marti has no one in her life. She wants a man who is engaged to marry someone else because of a lie.”

  “It isn’t a lie. She gave me the test results on Monday.”

  He’d stared at the form for hours and the damning word spelled out in black and white: POSITIVE.

  “She’s having my baby and I can’t turn my back on them. And I don’t feel sorry for you. It breaks my heart to know I’m hurting you. I feel the same way about you, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  “There’s a big difference between not being able to do something and not being willing to do something.”

  She held on to his hand. He pressed it to his cheek and leaned his head into her palm. The pain etched in the lines on his forehead and dark circles under his eyes told her how much he’d suffered the last few days. It helped ease the ache in her heart, but only one thing could make it go away. The one thing he refused to give her. She’d tried to give him every reason to see the lies Shelly told him and choose her.

  With a deep breath, she put everything on the line and gave him the only truth that meant everything. “Cameron, please, I—”

  Love you, died on the tip of her tongue. Shelly glided into the room.

  “Darling, there you are. You can’t keep me waiting in the car forever, you know. If we don’t leave now, we’ll be late for our appointment at the bakery to pick out our wedding cake.”

  Cameron released Marti, the pain in her eyes too much to bear. He loved this woman and every time he turned around he put that look on her face and broke her heart. It killed him.

  “Oh, hi, Marti. I hope you’re feeling better.”

  She really didn’t, but she’d say it to score points with Cameron. She didn’t like seeing him holding Marti’s hand and looking at her that way. He wanted Marti, but so long as she had the baby, she would keep Cameron. Once they were married, she’d have everything.

  Marti choked back the tirade bubbling inside of her, ready to explode in a torrent of scathing words. She didn’t turn around to even acknowledge the bitch. Cameron had come to see her and brought Shelly with him. Her heart shattered even more.

  “Get out, Cameron,” she whispered, barely able to get the words she didn’t want to say out.

  “Marti, I . . .”

  “Goodbye.” How could one word hurt so much?

  “I’ll come back and see you later.”

  “Don’t bother. I’m fine now. I’m sure they’ll let me go home soon.”

  “We need to talk.”

  “There’s nothing to say. Leave a few pieces. Please.”

  He knew exactly what she meant. Leave a few pieces of her heart. He’d broken it enough. How much more damage did he expect her to endure because he couldn’t let her go.

  “Marti, I . . .”

  “Go pick out your wedding cake. That says it all, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes, darling. Let’s go. Marti, I’m sure, would like her privacy so she can rest.”

  Marti couldn’t let Shelly leave without a warning. She didn’t turn around, but the tone of her voice said it all. “Shelly, if I find out you hurt Emma in any way, it will be the last thing you ever do.”

  Shelly gaped at Marti’s back. “Emma is a lovely girl. We’re going to get along just fine. Cameron, let’s go.”

  Marti stared out the window, shutting him out. Cameron walked around the bed to follow Shelly out the door. He trailed his fingertips over Marti’s feet, not wanting to leave without one last touch. About to close the door behind him, he heard her sobbing. He would have gone back to her, but Emma and Jack were there, and he didn’t want to make things worse by having Shelly make a scene if he went back to Marti and didn’t leave to get the cake with her. He couldn’t let Emma know Marti was crying because of him either.

  He closed the door softly and leaned back against it for a moment with his eyes closed, every painful sob tearing him to shreds.

  “Want me to just punch you? It might take your mind off the other pain,” Jack whispered so only Cameron heard.

  Jack couldn’t imagine what it was like to love one woman and plan to marry another.

  “I’d rather you get Sam to just shoot me. I’m afraid I’ll feel this way for the rest of my life.”

  “If you marry her, it will only get worse. Imagine what you’ll feel like when you hear Marti is marrying another man.”

  “Thanks, you just put the bow on my present.”

  “Speaking of presents. What should I get you for a wedding gift? Cyanide?”

 
“I couldn’t leave Emma behind,” he said self-mockingly.

  “I meant for you to use on Shelly after the baby arrives.”

  “Do you believe there’s a baby?” He kept an eye on Emma and Shelly standing together just down the hall, waiting for him by the elevator. He didn’t want either of them to overhear.

  “It doesn’t matter what I believe. It only matters what Shelly can prove. Seems to me she hasn’t actually done that.”

  “She gave me the lab report confirming it.”

  “Anything can be faked. Ask Sam. It’ll be months before she starts showing. You’d be wise to wait until there’s an actual baby bump or you see an ultrasound before you actually do get her pregnant.”

  “I already thought of that. I haven’t slept with her since she told me she’s pregnant.”

  “You mean since you met Marti. Doesn’t that tell you something?” Jack glared. “Even you don’t believe Shelly one hundred percent. I think you’re a great dad and it would please you to no end to have another baby. Don’t lose the woman you love because you want a baby and not his mother.”

  Jack decided to change the subject. Cameron had heard nothing but the same arguments against Shelly from him and everyone else over the last four days. None of them had gotten through to him.

  “I’ll take Marti to George’s. The doctor’s going to release her tomorrow morning. He said she’d be fine with some rest and medication.”

  “I wanted to take her home.”

  “Home? Where? To the ship, to George’s, to your place? Where is home for Marti, who has no family or friends to come and see her in the hospital? We’ve all been here for her, but we’re new friends and she hasn’t learned to rely on us yet. You, on the other hand, she wants to build a life with and you’re going off to buy a wedding cake with your bride-to-be. I’d like to take her home myself and adopt her into the Turner family. Between Jenna, Sam, and Elizabeth, plus all the kids, we could be her family.”

  “Are you going to keep rubbing salt in the wound? You’re as bad as Sam. He read me the riot act the other day.”