Taken For His Own

by Tara Fox Hall

  “What did you want to be?”

  “A commander of men, either soldiers or police.”

  I was surprised that Devlin would want to uphold the law or spend his life guarding others. Yet it made sense. When he’d taken me from my house years ago, he’d insisted on taking me to Danial, because I wore the choker. He was here putting himself in danger now to keep me safe.

  “I knew something had attacked a few people on that road in that last month,” he continued. “I knew that there was a chance we might be attacked transporting the prisoner. But the road was the quickest way to our destination. I’d been assured that if I made the journey in good time, I’d get the promotion I wanted, and Danial would get my old position.”

  “You aren’t at fault for what you did. It wasn’t for an evil reason.”

  “Yes, I am,” he said despondently. “It was my greed and pride that doomed us.”

  Carefully, I reached for Devlin and put my arms around him. He tensed at my touch, then relaxed.

  “You did the best you could. You aren’t damned.”

  “Yes, I am. You have no idea what I’ve done.”

  I shifted uneasily.

  “And I wouldn’t want you to,” Devlin added, his arms snaking around me loosely. “My ends have always justified the means, no matter what they were. I’ve done great evil in the hope of averting worse evil. Sometimes it worked and sometimes not. Still, it’s likely that given the chance to do my life over, I’d do the same things, make the same choices. I’d find myself here, at this same point in time, a fallen king.”

  “In case you’re wondering,” I said deliberately. “I’m waiting for you to add into your speech somewhere that you regret everything you did to me while you were king...um, ruler.”

  “I regret hurting you,” Devlin said quickly. “Yet I don’t regret coming for you that night or taking you to Danial.” He looked up at me. “You might not have gone back to Danial after Theo went missing, if I hadn’t. Theoron might not be here. I can’t regret any action of mine that led to him being born.”

  I didn’t reply, considering his words.

  Devlin laid his head against my chest, and his arms tightened on me slightly. We lay there like that for a few moments, not speaking, then I slipped into sleep.

  I woke sometime later when Devlin stirred. According to the bedside clock, it was almost dusk.

  “I have only one regret,” Devlin said finally, propping himself up on his elbow, his expression intent.

  “What’s that?” I said, covering my yawn with my hand.

  “That it wasn’t me you found in your quarry that night,” Devlin said, kissing the back of my hand with cool lips. His golden eyes locked on mine, transfixing me, as he drew my hand away from my face.

  He was going to kiss me. My lips parted as my breath caught in my throat.

  Devlin leaned in close, then froze.

  There was a soft click. Both dogs leapt to their feet, growling. The door burst open, and the dogs fled behind the far side of the bed, still growling as Devlin dropped his weight onto me, clutching me tightly.

  A brown haired man dressed in a suit and tie ran into the room. He turned quickly toward the bed and fired, the semiautomatic in his hand flashing. Before I could scream, bullets hit Devlin, thudding into his back in rapid succession, the impact twisting him around on the bed. He grunted in pain, gritting his teeth. The dogs began barking loudly, but hung back, afraid of the loud noise and the smell of gunpowder.

  The man turned and dashed out. The dogs scrambled out from under the table and ran after him, barking. I let out a scream for them to stop. The door slammed hard, and both dogs pulled up short, growling at the closed door.

  “This is why I told you not to go out,” Devlin groaned with effort.

  Chapter Eight

  I eased myself out from under him. “Hold still. I’ve got to get your shirt off.”

  I removed it, tearing the bloody cloth. His back was a mass of bloodied flesh. I wadded up the shirt pieces and tried to soak up some of the blood oozing from his many wounds.

  “I’m healing,” Devlin grunted painfully. “The bullets were normal hollow points, thank God. You don’t have to do that.”

  If he hadn’t been here to shield me, I’d be dead. He’d saved my life. I grabbed him in my arms and held him, shaking.

  “You’re bleeding,” Devlin said suddenly. He sat up with effort, then grabbed my arm, extending it in front of me. Sudden pain made me gasp, and tears came to my eyes.

  “The bullet went through me and into you,” he said. “Hold still.”

  I bit my lip hard. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to pull it out,” he said. “It’s not very deep.”

  “No, I—”

  “You can’t go to the hospital with a gunshot wound,” he said, forcibly laying me back down. “Now hold still.”

  I opened my mouth to protest and let out a scream as he squeezed the wound. Quickly, he put his mouth over it, then came the pressure of intense suction. I whimpered in pain, struggling.

  Devlin removed his mouth and spat out the bullet. Then he brought his mouth to the wound again. The pain lessened. I relaxed in relief.

  Devlin took his mouth away, then grabbed a large piece of his shirt and wrapped it around my arm. “It won’t look like a bullet wound now. Keep pressure on it.” He grabbed one of Theo’s shirts from his duffel, my keys and my purse and then picked me up in his arms.

  “My dogs—”

  “We have to get you to the hospital. You’re going to need stitches.”

  I didn’t argue. I was in too much pain. He carried me outside, then leaned me against Theo’s truck.

  “Hold onto the mirror. I’ll be as fast as I can.” Devlin proceeded to check underneath my older truck quickly. Then he got to his feet and started it.

  “All set,” he said, coming toward me.

  “I’m surprised you know to do that,” I said weakly.

  “Who do you think Danial learned from, Sar?” he said sarcastically, opening the side door for me.

  “Don’t call me Sar,” I said weakly, then began sliding down the side of Theo’s truck.

  Devlin caught me in his arms before I hit the pavement and sat me in the front seat, moving from under me into the driver’s seat. I sagged to lie partly on him and partly on the seat, my movements feeble.

  “Stay down there,” Devlin ordered, pulling out with a squeal of tires. “There may be someone watching. I want them to think that you’re badly injured.”

  His phone rang. He answered it with one hand, using the other to drive

  “Yeah, we’re fine, because I was there—” Devlin paused. “Good. Take off. I’ll be—”

  I blacked out for a second. When I woke up, Devlin was still on the phone.

  “Listen, Theo, she got grazed. I’m taking her to the hospital—” Pause. “Suit and tie, 9 mm, black finish. Mid-thirties, brown hair, brown eyes probably. I didn’t see. About five-eight or nine.”

  He hung up and looked down at me. “Theo is out finally. He’s going to see if he can track down the man who shot us. He’ll meet us at the hospital.”

  “That’s good,” I mumbled. “He should fucking kill him—”

  I blacked out again. Devlin shook me awake with one hand.

  “This is taking forever,” I moaned. “How far is the hospital?”

  “Another block. Lay still.”

  “You’re just enjoying having my head in your lap,” I murmured.

  “You’d know if I was enjoying it,” he said, grinning down at me. “Your mouth—”

  He hit a pothole, jarring me. I cried out, my arm agonizing.

  “Hang on!” he said, holding me with one arm. “We’re here.”

  Devlin parked and helped me out. Picking me up again, he hurried into the hospital’s Emergency Room, slamming through the waiting room doors with his shoulder.

  Devlin went straight to the desk, with me in his arms.

>   “Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter said. She was late forties, with wire-rimmed glasses and very short frosted blonde hair. The set of her mouth was grim

  “She needs emergency help,” Devlin said quickly.

  “Is she pregnant?” she asked.

  Devlin looked down at me in consideration. “Possibly.”

  “I’m not pregnant!” I said irritably. “I’m bleeding. I was—”

  Devlin squeezed me hard.

  I paused. Hospitals had to report gunshot wounds. That nice sheriff who had held Theo would be coming to see me, if I didn’t watch my words.

  “I was burned,” I said more carefully. “I was careless with the grill. We were having a cookout on vacation.” I rummaged in my purse with my good arm and produced my insurance card and driver’s license. “Here.”

  The woman looked at me skeptically as she took them. “Have a seat, please,” she said. “I’ll go tell the attending physician you’re here.”

  We waited patiently for a few minutes, though there was no one else in the waiting room. As the time stretched, Devlin grew more and more angry.

  “Why is this taking so long?” he said in fury after a half hour. “We have an emergency, and we’re being made to wait. What is that bitch woman’s problem?”

  “This is nothing,” I said weakly. “If more people were here, we might have to wait for hours—”

  Bitch Woman came striding toward us. “Follow me.” She led us into one of the cubicle type emergency rooms, and Devlin helped me lay down on the bed.

  “Your name is Sarelle McGarran?” she said, looking at a clipboard.

  I opened my mouth to tell her it was O’Connor now, but she cut me off. “This is your husband, Brennan McGarran? The insurance is through him, right?”

  Devlin cut me off. “That’s right,” he said, sliding his hand onto my thigh. “She’s mine. Now get a doctor in here to see her.”

  The woman raised her eyebrows, annoyed. “I’ll be right back,” she said, glaring at both of us.

  “What were you thinking?” I said irritably when she’d left. “If the marriage certificate was filed, they’ll know I’m married to Theo.”

  “Then they might delay in treating you,” Devlin retorted. “Theo likely doesn’t have any insurance.”

  “They have to treat emergencies, insured or not. Anyway, they are going to know you aren’t Brennan. He died years ago, Devlin. Not to mention you look nothing like him—”

  “I wanted her to help you. I don’t care what I have to say to get it done—”

  A female doctor came into the room. She gave Devlin an appreciative glance, then quickly came to my side. “Hi, I’m Dr. Brenda Hanyr. You have a burn? Let’s see.”

  I gingerly unwrapped my arm for her. Devlin stood up and looked over her shoulder.

  “This isn’t too bad,” Brenda said, turning my arm this way and that as I grimaced. “You shouldn’t need stitches. I’ll give you some ointment for it, though. You’ll need to put it on for a week. You should also follow up with your doctor.”

  I nodded assent.

  Bitch Woman yanked back the curtain. “We need to deny services to them,” she said haughtily. “This is a fraud case.”

  “What is the problem?” Dr. Brenda said, concerned but not unduly worried.

  “He,” she said, pointing at Devlin, “said that he was her husband, Brennan McGarran. Sarelle was once insured under him as his spouse. According to this, though, her husband Brennan is dead, and her current husband is a man named Theo O’Connor—”

  “That would be me!” a voice said loudly.

  Suddenly Theo was there, pushing his way past Bitch Woman. I reached out for him gratefully. He hugged me eagerly, letting out a deep breath of relief.

  “You’re her husband?” Bitch Woman said snottily.

  “Yes,” he said coldly, turning to face her. “The one and only.”

  She opened her mouth to say something else, and he extended his hand to her, holding a credit card in two fingers. “Put whatever charges there are on this,” Theo said smoothly. “My brother here was just being a prankster.”

  Clearly angry, Bitch Woman took his card and left as Brenda repeated to Theo what she’d said about my arm, spreading ointment on it as she talked.

  “I’ll make sure it’s was taken care of. Thank you.” Theo put his arm around me. “Let’s go.”

  We walked to the parking lot. After some discussion, Devlin agreed to drive my truck back to the hotel and then home, and Theo would drive his truck. I was uncomfortable letting Devlin drive my dogs home, but in my condition, there wasn’t another option. We got into our vehicles and pulled out of the parking lot, Devlin in the lead in my truck.

  “Sar, tell me what happened,” Theo said. “Someone attacked the room?”

  “You first,” I said angrily, crossing my arms.

  “I was in jail, like Danial told you. The sheriff here knows me, back from a job I did for Danial—”

  “Someone you killed for him?” I said, glancing at him.

  He looked squarely at me, then back at the road. “Yes,” he said coolly.

  I didn’t reply.

  “He was waiting in the parking lot when I came out in the morning. He wanted to know why I was there, if I was going to rack up the bodies again. So I told him to go and fuck himself, it’s a free country, I can go where I like—”

  I shut my eyes. In my pining over Theo, I’d edited out some of his flaws, like this arrogance and ardent dislike of human authority figures. Belatedly, I remembered Terian had also been on Theo’s Do Not Get Along With List. Hopefully that would change if they had to work together.

  “—then he put his hands on me and said he was going to escort me to the county line. I lightly shoved him off me, and he pulled his gun and arrested me for disturbing the peace.”

  Lightly was likely a relative term. “He threw you in jail for shoving him?”

  “He took me to jail, threw me in a cell and refused to give me a phone call. Danial’s lawyer called shortly afterwards, and although feet were dragged, they finally released me. They couldn’t hold me over twenty-four hours anyway, not without charging me.”

  “You sound like you have some experience with jail.”

  “Sar, if you’re trying to say something, why don’t you just say it?”

  I didn’t reply. When we got back to the hotel, I got out without a word, Devlin and Theo following me inside.

  Devlin paused in the doorway. “Theo, Sarelle, I’ve got to go feed. Now.”

  “Take your time,” Theo said irritably. “We won’t leave until you get back.”

  As Devlin turned to leave, I went to him, grabbing his arm. He turned back in surprise.

  “Thank you,” I said, squeezing his hand.

  He smiled faintly. “Don’t forget your lunch is still in the fridge.” Then he left, the door shutting quietly behind him.

  “What was that all about, Sar?” Theo said, jealously coating his words like syrup.

  “Check the bed and see for yourself,” I said angrily, sitting down on one of the chairs and stroking the dogs.

  “There are two bullet holes in the mattress. Devlin’s blood is here, and so is your blood,” Theo said, his voice shaking. He opened his hand, letting a handful of mushroomed bullets fall glittering back on the bed.

  “Come and walk with me,” I said, grabbing his hand and the dog’s leashes.

  “Sar, I’m so sorry,” Theo said suddenly, trying to hug me. “I thought we were safe. I thought that—”

  “No,” I said accusingly, pulling away from him and heading out the door. “You didn’t think. You got angry, and you shot your mouth off, and you didn’t care that what you said might have consequences, both for you and me. If Devlin hadn’t taken those bullets for me, I’d be dead, Theo.” I snapped on the leashes, both dogs already whining to get going.

  “I understand that,” he said, his shoulders slumping. He shut the motel door and took my hand,
walking outside with me and the dogs. “I’m grateful to him. If I’d known what he did for you, I’d have offered to feed him myself. I won’t fail you again.”

  “Theo, you didn’t fail—”

  “Yes, I did. I wasn’t there that night they bit you together. You almost died—”

  “That isn’t like this—”

  “Isn’t it? You needed me, and I wasn’t there. I’m zero for two. I can’t let that happen again.”

  “Then don’t.”

  “I have to admit that you were safer with Danial,” Theo said reluctantly. “He protected you for the two years I was away. He never left you in a situation where your life was in danger—”

  “Who says I’d leave you even if you told me to?” I interrupted, giving him a kiss.

  Theo kissed me back with a groan, his tongue sliding between my parted lips. Quickly, he began to back me against a tree, grinding into me with his hips.

  I broke away. “Stop,” I said, softening my word with a smile. “We’ve got to get going.”

  “You’re right. It’s not safe here in the open,” he said reluctantly. “Come on.”

  When we got back to the room, Devlin was there.

  “Are you guys ready to leave?” he said, looking at his watch. His skin was shining with that luster that meant he’d fed well. “We need to go. The night is wasting.”

  How had he gotten blood so quickly? Did Devlin seduce women as Danial sometimes had for blood and leave them with nothing but a few kisses? Even if he had regular donors, being what he had been, with his looks, he likely had many admirers ... I dropped my eyes, not wanting him to catch me staring.

  Theo had already given his assent to Devlin and was cleaning up the evidence that there’d been gunplay in the room, as Devlin carried the bags to the car and checked us out. Before long, we were back on the road.

  The trip back was interminable. Happily I slept through a good portion of it, waking finally just outside Binghamton, New York.

  “We’re almost home,” Theo said, glancing at me when I awoke. “Danial called.”

  “I didn’t hear a call,” I said groggily. “What did he say?”