Chantal, Jillian - Surfer Bride (BookStrand Publishing Romance)

by Jillian Chantal

  Percy stopped and stared at her then nodded. “Yeah. That sounds good. And then, the bridegroom who thought he’d been jilted comes across the bodies and finds out he hadn’t been run out on. But, sadly, he also learns that his bride was a real criminal.” He patted her head. “So, no need to fret too much over the cop. You’ll be joining him soon.”

  He knelt in front of her and looked her in the eyes. He still had the gun in his hand. “But first a goodbye kiss, my darling.” He leaned in and kissed her on the lips. She bit his bottom lip. Blood poured from the wound.

  Shocked at her brazenness, he shoved her in the chest, and she took advantage of him being off balance and kicked him in the chest with both feet. Her years of training on a surfboard made her legs powerful, and he fell backward, hard. His head smacked the concrete floor, and his gun discharged. The bullet came back from the recoil and hit the floor beside him.

  Quincy screamed, and then three things happened at once. The door broke in, and a series of law enforcement officers streamed into the room. One of them shot Percy in the shoulder, and he howled in pain. Another of the policemen grabbed Percy and held him down on the floor, where he continued to howl and then protest his innocence.

  Quincy yelled, “Get an ambulance. Special Agent Fennimore Smith is down. That’s him in the pool of blood over there.” She nodded toward Finn’s body.

  Avery, Mark, and Craig came running in. Avery stopped and kneeled beside Finn. Craig and Mark rushed over to untie Quincy’s hands.

  As soon as she was free, Quincy stumbled over to Finn. Her hands burned and stung from the circulation returning to them, but she ignored the pain. All her anguish and pain was focused on her broken heart. Her broken Finn. “Oh, Avery, Avery, I’ve lost him. He died trying to save me. Oh, God, how will I live without him?” Quincy’s tears fell on Finn’s face as she leaned over him.

  He opened his eyes and looked at her. “I’m not dead yet, babe.”

  She gaped at him, stunned. “What the hell?”

  He tried to sit up, but an ambulance attendant pushed him back down. “Sir, sit still. We have to check you out.”

  Finn waved off the attendant. “Give me a second.”

  Quincy said, “I thought you were dead. Look at all that blood. And you were so still.”

  He took her hand and rubbed it. “You sound disappointed, darling.”

  “First of all, never call me darling.” She looked over at Percy who was in handcuffs and being held by two policemen. “I never want to hear the word darling again.”

  “And second?”

  “Huh? What second?” She looked down at him.

  “You said first of all; usually when someone says first of all, there’s a second of all.”

  “Oh, that. Yes. Second of all, no, I’m not disappointed. I’m thrilled you’re not dead. I adore you, and I couldn’t bear it if you were dead.” She leaned in and kissed him.

  “Ma’am, we need to take him to the hospital. It looks like the bullet just grazed him and knocked him out, but we have to be sure.” The ambulance tech looked at her. “And you don’t look so good yourself.”

  Finn said, “She can come, too. I’ll even volunteer to share my bed.”

  The tech said to his partner, “Let’s get a body board in here for this one.” He tilted his head toward Finn. “And this one,” he pointed at Quincy, “can walk to the ambulance on her own.

  Craig came over and helped Quincy to her feet while Finn was attached to a body board and loaded on a gurney.

  Craig took off his jacket and wrapped it around Quincy. “Sorry your dress got torn, luv. Use my coat to cover up. No need in these guys getting any more of a free show.”

  Both Quincy and Finn said, “Thanks, mate.”

  Craig said, “You do belong together, don’t you?”

  “Yep,” they both said again.

  Craig laughed. “Can’t wait to go on a double date with you two to see if you can keep this up.”

  The ambulance tech tapped his foot. “Can we go? Sometime today?”

  Quincy laughed in relief that her love was alive and her former fiancé was in custody.

  * * * *

  The medical technicians pulled the gurney Finn was on toward the door. Quincy and Avery followed behind. When they got outside the warehouse, Quincy was stunned to see the number of people gathered around. It seemed like there were a hundred photographers along with a large crowd of spectators. A man rushed over to the gurney and said, “I called the police for you, mister. I thought you were brave to rescue the lady, but you might need help. Which is your lady?”

  Finn pointed to Quincy. “That one.” He looked at her, “Q, meet my cab driver. Cab driver, meet my girl.”

  The cabbie held out his hand to Quincy. “Name’s Raul. And you are Q?” He laughed and added, “Sounds very James Bond, doesn’t it?”

  Quincy laughed. “Trust Finn to find the funniest cab driver in London.” She shook Raul’s hand. “I’m Quincy Holt. Thanks for the backup.”

  “Your man gonna be all right?”

  The ambulance tech interrupted, “No. He’s gonna die of old age if we don’t leave soon.”

  Quincy said, “We gotta go. Thanks again.”

  She tried to climb into the back of the ambulance with Finn on the stretcher, but the ambulance driver insisted that Quincy ride in the front. “It’s better. In case he needs some resuscitation.”

  She stared at him, shocked. “He seems fine to me. He’s talking and joking.”

  “Ma’am, he’s been shot in the head. He has to be evaluated. Be sure his brain hasn’t been scrambled or there are any internal injuries that need attention.”

  “So, it could be serious?”

  “Any gunshot is serious. Let’s get him checked out.” He put the ambulance in gear, and they took off down the street toward the closest hospital.

  When they got to the hospital, Quincy got out of the front seat and made her way to the doors of the emergency room. She could barely see the entrance for the number of camera flash bulbs snapping in her face. She heard her name being called. Puzzled, she turned to the closest photographer. “What’s going on?”

  “You tell us. We heard about the raid on Percy Hicks’s auction house and his warehouses. We all know you’re his fiancée. World champion who was arrested a couple of weeks ago now in the news again. Will you give us a statement?”

  “No.” She jogged into the emergency room and to the check in desk. She stopped in front of the woman seated there. “Which way did they take Special Agent Smith?”

  “I can’t say. But you look like you need assistance yourself.”

  She shook her head. “I’m fine.”

  The ambulance tech came back by on his way back out. He stopped at the desk. “Check her out, too. She was a kidnap victim.” He turned to Quincy. “Your hero is back there, demanding you be in his room with him. Go let them check you out. He’ll be in a room in a bit. He’s going to have to stay for observation, but you’ll be able to sit with him. You might as well be checked out. It’s going to be a while for him.”

  “Fine.” She turned to the woman. “I have no ID since I was abducted. Can I still be treated?”

  “Sure. I’ll get the nurse to triage you.”

  Quincy took a seat and before the nurse got to her, Craig, Mark, and Avery came in and sat beside her. Craig said, “I’m going out there to give a statement from you. What do you want to say?”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

  “What have you got to lose? You can tell your side. Get it out there. You’ve already lost your big BongoMongo deal, but we can redeem your reputation here. Right now. Give me permission to go out there and be your spokesperson.”

  She shrugged. “Sure go ahead. Like you said, I’ve got nothing to lose.”

  Craig stood. “I’ll be right back.”

  The nurse came for Quincy. Before she went to the back, she said, “You all go on back to the hotel. I’ll be staying here with Fin
n.”

  Avery said, “See you tomorrow. Maybe you can call us later and let us know how he is.”

  “I will.” Quincy followed the nurse to the back.

  What seemed like hours later, Finn was finally in a room. Quincy came in and looked at him as he leaned back on the pillows. His eyes were closed, and he had a bandage on one side of his head. Her heart clenched as she thought of how close she’d come to losing him.

  He peered out at her. “I heard your shoes. You can’t sneak up on anyone with those.”

  “Yeah, I know. And I plan to leave them here in London when I go home. Along with a wedding dress I’ll never wear.”

  He held his hand out. “Come here, you.”

  Tears in her eyes at the huskiness of his voice, she walked over to his bedside. She took hold of his hand and brought it to her mouth. She kissed it gently and placed it back on the covers. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was so scared when I saw you fall. And the blood. Oh, my God, the blood. I had no idea there was that much blood in someone’s head. And that a person can survive a gunshot to the head.”

  “It was a graze, baby. That’s all. I dodged it in time, or it might have done me in. Instead, it just skidded across my scalp.” He laughed, “I’ll probably have a gash on my head where hair won’t grow. I’ll look like a freak.”

  “But I’ll still love you.”

  He tilted his head. “You do love me, don’t you?”

  “I do. Always have.” She nodded as she leaned against the side of the bed.

  “Then why did you agree to marry Hicks?”

  “You know I’ve wanted a family since I lost my folks. I’d lost them, met you, and then lost you. I decided to settle with Percy since he seemed to love me. Seemed to want to have a family. I wanted so much to belong somewhere. I was stupid. Blind.”

  He patted the empty space on the bed beside him. “Come sit up here with me.”

  She took a seat on the edge of the bed and took his hand again. “I’d never have agreed to marry Percy if I thought you and I had a chance of getting back together.”

  He pulled her face toward him and kissed her lightly on the lips. “I promise to never be such an ass again.”

  She giggled. “Big promises, mister.”

  “Ones I intend to keep.” He leaned forward and pulled her into his arms. He dragged her back with him onto the pillows.

  “Finn, I don’t think I should be up here like this. A nurse will be in here soon to check on you, and she can’t find me like this.”

  “Sure she can.” He kissed her again lightly on the lips.

  He reached into Craig’s jacket that she still had on. He caressed her breast and leaned in to take her nipple into his mouth. His tongue flicked over it. Over and over it.

  Quincy moaned, and he captured her lips in his. His tongue thrust into her mouth as his thumb took the place his lips had just abandoned. He rubbed her nipple, and she moaned again.

  She pulled her mouth away from his. “Finn, we can’t do this. You’ve been shot in the head, you’re in a hospital. We have to stop.”

  “I seem to recall a woman in her hotel room this morning telling me that she was going to break off her engagement today and make love to me all night. Now I may have been shot, but I think I remember something like that.” He scratched the side of his head that wasn’t bandaged in mock confusion.

  She touched his bandage lightly. “Don’t you have a headache?”

  He roared in laughter. “Isn’t that usually a lady’s excuse? Not tonight, dear, I have a headache? I’m afraid that won’t get you out of your earlier promise, sweetheart.”

  “Not that I want to, but I can’t see how we can make love in a hospital bed—”

  “I can make love anywhere, baby.” He bounced on the bed a bit. “And this is a cushier place than many I’ve been.”

  She slapped him in the chest. “What I meant was, we can’t make love in a place where anyone could walk in at anytime to take your temperature or your vitals.”

  “What better way for them to take my vitals than to see me making love with the woman of my dreams?”

  They were interrupted by a knock at the door. Quincy raised an eyebrow. “See? No privacy.” She made a move to get off the bed, and his arms held her like bands of iron.

  “Come on in,” he yelled toward the door.

  The Interpol agent, Franklin Longet, came in the room. He grinned when he saw Quincy on the bed with Finn. “You look pretty comfortable. For a man who’s been shot, that is.”

  Finn laughed. “Yeah, I’m content. What brings you here tonight? I figured I had a little time before the debriefing.”

  Longet pulled up the only chair in the room and sat down. “This isn’t the debrief. We’ll do that when you get released. This is just a courtesy call to let you know what we found.”

  Quincy tried to pull away from Finn again. “I’ll go so you two can talk.”

  Longet waved his hand back and forth. “No. Stay. I want you to hear this, too. You’re a hero yourself in this and have the right to hear it.”

  “I’m no hero. I was just trying to clear my own name.”

  “Regardless. I’m not making you leave.”

  “So what did you find?” Finn asked.

  “We hit the mother lode. Found the one warehouse that your friends found, Ms. Holt, and then found additional paperwork to lead us to four more. They had rifles, handguns, automatics, semi-automatics, all kinds of ammo, extra barrels, Kevlar vests, and other items. It was like an all purpose shopping mall for terrorists and gangs.”

  “So Percy’s going down for all that? Will he be in jail a long time?” Quincy asked.

  “Oh, yeah, Ms. Holt. He’s not only going down for the munitions, he’s going down for your abduction and the attempted murder of Special Agent Smith. He’ll never see daylight again.”

  Quincy’s grin lit up the room. “Good. And I hope he ends up in a cell with a man as big and mean as the woman that attacked me in Bali, and I hope he’s terrified to take a shower like I was.”

  Finn looked at her with concern. “We need to talk about all that, sweetheart.”

  She smiled. “We will. I have lots to tell you about Bali.”

  Franklin Longet stood. “I’m going to let you both rest. You’ve had a long day. I’ll see you when you get out, Finn.” He shook hands with them both and turned to leave the room.

  Before he got to the door, Finn said, “Franklin?”

  Franklin turned around. “Yeah?”

  “Ask the nurse to stay away for at least an hour. Unless she wants to see an X-rated show.”

  At the same time Quincy slapped Finn’s chest, Franklin laughed. “Will do, mon ami, will do. Enjoy.” He went through the door, and they could hear him laugh all the way to the nurses’ station. Then they heard the nurses laugh.

  Quincy hit Finn again. “Great, now the whole floor knows what we’re doing.”

  Finn took hold of her hand she’d hit him with and whispered, “Just what are we doing, my love?” He pulled her hand toward him and kissed her palm. His tongue slid slowly down her wrist and up to her elbow.

  He pulled her on top of him and ran his hands over her bottom. She started kissing his chest, tugged at the front of the neck of the gown he wore, then reached around to the back of his neck and slid her hand up to his hairline. She scraped her fingernail gently down the nape of his neck, flicked the string where the hospital gown was tied, then pulled the string loose and murmured, “What do you have on under this dress, mister?”

  He winked. “What do you think I have on, sweetheart?”

  She slid her hand down the inside of the blanket and stopped when she got to his waist. She pinched his side between her thumb and forefinger. “I don’t think they let you keep your boxer shorts, did they?”

  He grinned. “They cut those suckers right off me.” He shook his head. “Don’t know why since I was hit in the head, but I think that cute red-haired nurse wanted to see my package. She wa
s pretty aggressive with those scissors.”

  “Let’s hope she didn’t cut off any necessary parts.” Her hand continued its path down his side to his thigh. Her fingertips glided down his body very slowly, and he tensed. She looked in his eyes and, without turning her face from his, she yanked the blanket off and tugged at the bottom of the gown. She slowly slid the hem up with the flat of her hand. When the gown was above his pelvis, she ran her hand over to his groin and found what she was looking for.

  He was rock hard, and her hand brushed lightly against him. He shuddered and she slid her hand further down and cupped his balls in her hand. When she gently squeezed, he groaned. “Dear God, woman, you drive me over the edge.”

  At his words, she wrapped her hand around him and started to pump. Her hand slid up to the head and back down to the base. He grabbed her hand to stop her. “You have to stop, or I’m going to explode. I don’t want to come in your hand the first time we make love in two years. I want to come inside you.”

  He flipped her over underneath him and tossed off his hospital gown, all in one movement. He slid her dress up around her waist, jerked her panties down and pulled them off. She shivered in anticipation. Her body remembered what she’d forced her conscious to forget. Finn slid down and licked her, his tongue driving her almost to the edge.

  Because he knew her so well, Finn knew when she was ready for him. He whispered, “I don’t have a condom.”

  “It’s fine. I’m clean.”

  “Me, too.” The words were ripped from him as he thrust deep into her.

  Tears flowed from her eyes as she welcomed him back to her. She never thought she would make love with him again, and she was overwhelmed with emotion.

  He stopped moving in her, leaned down and kissed her tears away. “Are you all right? Am I hurting you?”

  “No. These are tears of gladness. I never thought we’d be together again.”

  “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry for all the pain I caused you. I adore you. Always have. I can’t forgive myself for what I’ve put us both through. I’m such an ass.” He kissed her eyes, forehead, and lips.