“Think I’ve not been told that before?” There wasn’t much heat in her words, but her snark was still there. “Lie there and think of England?”
“Something like that. How’s the head?”
“I don’t know. Let me check once she’s finished with the two heads on my right. The two on the left are still spinning. What in the heck happened out there?”
“We caught the guy.”
“Melody? Is she ok?”
“No. She’s in surgery. We just don’t know yet. But she was talking when they wheeled her in. You were not.” He wasn’t going to lie to her. That was neither right nor fair. “Jules is keeping up with her condition.”
“Carrie?”
He fought a curse. He’d forgotten the real reason they’d been at the hospital in the first place. “I’ll have someone check. I’m sure she’s fine.”
“She’s probably freaking out. I told her I’d be there. She needs me.” She looked at the dark-haired guy next to him. “Luc, get me out of here. Do that magic ‘I have billions of dollars, give me what I want’ thing you do…move mountains, damn it.”
It hurt. For some reason it actually wounded him that she looked to her brother for help and not him.
That wasn’t what he wanted from her, not at all.
The doctor finished with her and Paige—stubborn fool that she was—struggled to sit up. “I need to be there for her.”
“Her husband’s with her. You can wait until the doctors say it is ok.” Luc tried to stop her.
Mick could have told him not to bother. He’d seen that determination in her eyes before. This time when she swung her legs around to stand, Mick was there to catch her.
She still had on her black jeans, but they were bloody. The back of the hospital gown was open. He could see the elastic of a flame red silk bra.
Paige in red. Something he hadn’t expected. Her hands tightened around his forearms, and she looked up at him. “Mick…she’s my sister. Wouldn’t you be there for Al?”
Hell, yes, he would.
“Hold still.” Mick sat her down on the bed, then reached behind her. “You need different clothes. Those aren’t decent. If you’re cooperative, I’ll take you to Carrie myself. But first you need to change. You don’t want her seeing you with her half-sister’s blood all over you.”
He turned toward her brother, not missing the amusement on his friend’s face. “Your wife have spare clothes?”
“Of course. She always keeps a bag in the limo.” He pulled his cell out of his pocket and sent a quick text. “My security man will bring her bag up.”
Mick kept his hands on Paige; he told himself it was to keep her on the bed, to keep her from hurting herself. Mick tried not to think of how her skin felt beneath his hands. How soft it was.
How warm and alive she felt. It had been too damned close. Was it always this way with this woman?
Luc stepped out to meet the security guard that went with him almost everywhere. Four long minutes later Luc returned with a duffle. He tossed it on the bed. “Payton’s heading up to help you change.”
When Luc’s wife entered the hospital room Mick lifted Paige back onto the mattress then stepped away.
He walked out of the hospital room, her brother steps behind him.
Luc stopped walking and leaned against the wall, next to Agent Djorn.
Mick prowled around outside the door waiting for Payton to reappear. When she did, he gave an order for Djorn to fetch a wheelchair. She for damned sure wasn’t walking to the elevator.
She fought, of course. He’d known she would—she fought everything at times. At least where he was concerned.
Finally he just lifted her off her feet as gently as he could and sat her in the chair. “Stay. The longer you fight the longer you wait to see your sister.”
She stayed. She looked younger, more vulnerable in the cream sweater and jeans she’d borrowed from her sister-in-law.
She looked almost sweet and definitely very pretty. “Then let’s get moving. This is my first niece. I can’t miss this.”
He took control of the chair from Djorn. “Just call me Jeeves.”
“Oh my god, I think there’s a sense of humor there.” The snark was there, but her words were still pained. She was hurting.
He felt like a complete ass because he couldn’t make that pain go away.
Mick made himself a vow in that moment—whatever that son-of-a-bitch had intended, Mick was going to see to it that the guy rotted in the worst federal prison possible.
It wasn’t what his instincts were telling him to do, but he couldn’t just go in and pound the guy through the floor until he got the answers he wanted. No matter what his gut insisted he should do. He clenched his fists around the handles and started wheeling her toward the elevator.
“You check on the Lorcans, you keep yourself from doing anything stupid, and you can stay in the waiting room with the rest of the million and one PAVAD agents in there. One screw up and I haul your pretty little ass back to your room and cuff you to the bed. Got me?”
“Sounds kinkier than I thought you were capable of. You hiding a wild side I need to know about?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know? I mean it, one screw up and you’re secured.”
“I make my own decisions, Mick.”
“Yeah? So stand up and walk, then. We both know your head feels like shit.” He turned the chair so she could face the elevator door, then pressed the button to the maternity ward.
“It’s certainly felt better. Why did the guy do it? Has anyone said? You’ve got him, right?”
“We got him. We had him down within seconds.”
“I want to see him. Later. I want to talk to him. Ask him why.”
Mick hesitated. He wasn’t about to tell her that the guy had shot Melody Beck because he’d thought she was Carrie. That would send her into complete overprotective overload. He’d seen how she was with Carrie. Knew she’d put her own wellbeing aside if her sister needed it. Paige Daviess was bull-dog stubborn when those she loved were threatened in any way.
It was one of the few things the two of them had in common. “He’ll wait.”
“How is Melody, Mick? Honestly? Is she going to make it?”
“I don’t have a clue. Jules was going to ask.”
“I won’t have this day ruined for Carrie and her family. It’s already pretty cruddy for her father.”
“Dan’s with him.” Dan Reynolds had been through it before—his elder daughter had been shot in a back alley a year ago. She’d recovered, but it had been a damned shitty experience for all of them. “Beck’s not alone. For whatever happens.”
“I truly hope he doesn’t lose a daughter they day he gets a granddaughter. That would be horrible.”
Mick knew what it would do to her once she realized the woman had been shot because of either her or Carrie Lorcan. Guilt was a nasty kick in the guts when it first hit. And he knew her well enough to know that she would blame herself when it was made clear to her.
She took everything that happened to Carrie Lorcan to heart. This was going to hurt her.
He didn’t think he could tell her.
But did he really want someone else letting it drop?
Mick hit the button to close the door again when it opened on the third floor. He followed by hitting the button for the twelfth floor. “We need to talk.”
She tensed. “What is it? What are you hiding?”
Mick looked at her—pale, pretty, too vulnerable for her own good. Sometimes, it was best to just rip the bandage off and expose the wound quickly. “Guy claims he was coerced to follow you until he saw Lorcan’s wife. Then he was under orders to shoot her. He shot Detective Beck by mistaken identity.”
“Who is he?”
“Don’t know yet. Didn’t stick around to ask. I wanted to make sure you were contained.” He stooped down until they were at eye level. Mick wrapped his fingers around her hands. It surprised him that she didn’t pull away.
The contrast between them was evident with just one look at their hands—hers, smaller, pale, soft. His, big and clumsy. He felt like a stupid ox around her, sometimes.
“I’m not a threat, Mick. I don’t need contained.”
“You know what I mean. I don’t always say the right words, Paige. Here’s the deal—there’s someone out there who was gunning for Carrie Lorcan. And they wanted to get to her through you. I don’t recommend you let her know about that right now.”
“You think there’ll be another attempt?”
“I don’t know. I’m not going to risk it.” What the hell should he say to her? It hurt him to see the pain and fear in her eyes. Far more than it should have. He ran his hands up her arms until he held her shoulders. She winced and he loosened his grip. He’d never meant to hurt her. “Safety measures are already being put into place.”
“Carrie?”
“Sebastian’s being informed. Seth and Al are right outside her room. And every agent of PAVAD in this hospital is on alert. Dennis has people on the perimeter, as well. He pulled Ana McLaughlin’s team to coordinate. She’s safe.”
“I want to see the guy.”
“Hell no. One wrong move and you’ll keel over.” He slipped his hands around her waist and lifted her, adjusting her position in the chair. “I don’t know if you’ve realized it, but you’re about to fall over now.”
“Whatever they gave me…Meds do something to me, since the kidnapping.” She straightened. So did Mick.
He needed to put some space between them, and quick. Before he did something too damned stupid in the heat of the moment.
Kissing her would be the dumbest move he ever made. But that was the one thing his every instinct was telling him to do.
“You need me to lend you a hand, just let me know.”
Chapter 18
HE WAS hovering. Protective. What was she supposed to think of that?
How was she supposed to think at all? Her thoughts were running in a million different directions, and the confusion was compounded by Mick, the pain, and the drugs.
Carrie. Her first thought had to be her sister and the baby. Then she’d focus on what would come next.
They still had to find out who was responsible for the thirteen girls.
For the life of her, she couldn’t remember where they’d left off on that part of the case. But she wasn’t about to say that to Mick.
He might be playing nice right now, but he was still Mick.
Big, abrasive, grouchy-as-hell Mick.
Still, his eyes were oddly reassuring when she’d looked at him. Were they bluer? Or was that the drugs making her crazy?
She didn’t know what to say, so she kept quiet. She so wasn’t used to Nice-Mick.
It had to be the drugs. She pulled what little brain power she still possessed and tried to decide how she was going to go in to see Carrie without freaking Carrie out.
Carrie struggled in hospitals, and she was already afraid.
“I’m ready, Mick.” She looked up at the looming giant. “Thank you, by the way. I know this is against protocol. Both PAVAD and the hospital’s.”
“She’s your family.’’
He really meant that, didn’t he?
She stayed quiet as he pushed her toward the waiting area of the maternity ward. She’d been there a few times before—when Dan’s wife had given birth and when her friend Georgia had.
This time the waiting room was crammed full of people—ninety percent of them PAVAD. All of her team was there, all of Carrie’s. All of Team Two, as well.
The chatter stopped when Mick rolled her in the room. Paige hated that she was in the chair, but she knew better than to even think about standing up. Not because of anything Mick had said, but because her head was preventing it.
She didn’t want to fall over before she got to Carrie. If that happened, he’d probably throw her over his shoulder and haul her right back to that hospital bed.
Al saw her first. She stepped over to the wheelchair and took over for her brother. “Well, yet another knock on the hardest head in creation.”
“I was afraid I was getting out of practice.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Al touched her shoulder briefly. Paige knew what it meant. Al wasn’t just her partner; next to Carrie, she was Paige’s closest friend. They had each other’s backs. It was all Paige could do not to cry.
Had to be the drugs.
“How’s Carrie?” After Al married Seth Lorcan, she and Carrie would be family. That was a real kicker. She and Al would share a sister.
“She’s freaked out, of course. They haven’t told her about her sister. Just that you took a hit on your case. They didn’t want to stress her out too much. No one has said why the shooting occurred.”
Paige looked up at her friend. “They thought she was Carrie.”
Al leaned down. She kept her voice low. “Tell me the truth, Paige. Are you going to be ok? You look…”
The worry on her friend’s face touched her. Reminded her that there were people out there that cared about her. It was one of the most wonderful things about being in the PAVAD directorate.
She’d made a family there. Yes, she may still be on the fringes of that family, but she did have a place.
She shouldn’t forget that.
“I’m fine, Al. Just hit my head pretty hard. And the bullet grazed my side. They sewed me back together. Has anyone heard about Melody?”
“Jules is going back to check.” Mal stooped down next to his sister, his eyes—identical to his siblings’—just as worried. “What’s the story, baby?”
She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to do this now. Didn’t they get that? “I don’t know, Mal. I just…”
“She’s going in to see her sister. I think that’s enough questioning.” The bark had those around her quieting immediately. Her eyes opened.
Mick. She’d almost forgotten about him. Strange that he was the one voicing what she truly wanted.
He was the one protecting her.
How had that happened?
Chapter 19
Didn’t they see that she was about to fall in on herself? He understood the need for answers—it was what they all did, but just this once they needed to go a bit easier on her.
He hadn’t known she’d been hit by the shots fired. Was it as superficial as she’d said? Was she lying, in order to get to her sister?
He looked down at her—the thin cream sweater she’d borrowed from her sister-in-law made her look so damned soft and feminine. She was slumped over in the chair, and her eyes showed the pain he knew she was feeling.
Dammit, he should have insisted she stay in her hospital bed. “What room?”
He’d take her in to see Carrie Lorcan, then he’d get her back in the hospital bed, resting where she belonged. He meant what he’d said—if he had to cuff her for her own good, he’d do it.
“302.” Al was looking at him, questions and worry on her face, though she didn’t say anything else. “Two visitors at a time.”
“I’ll go run everyone else out,” Mick’s future brother-in-law said. “Give you both some privacy.”
“Thanks, Seth, I appreciate it.”
Five minutes later Mick rolled her into the birthing room. He immediately felt himself tense.
Jules would be in a similar room sometime in the next four weeks. While he was excited to get his first nephew the thought of the woman his brother loved so much going through something as terrifying and barbaric as childbirth scared the shit out of Mick.
He adored his sister-in-law, though he’d never told her that. She was witty, charming, and loving—and his brother loved her more than anything. And she loved his brother enough to have almost died for him. That earned her unwavering loyalty on Mick’s part. And with that connection came the fear that something would happen to her like it had Mara five years ago.
He wouldn’t want Mal to go through that kind of loss.
Carrie Lorcan was snuggled into th
e blanket with a white-noise tape playing in the background, and her husband holding her hand.
Her husband looked sick with worry. Mick felt a rush of sympathy for the poor bastard. Carrie Lorcan—an absolutely beautiful woman, inside and out—was also a lot for a guy to handle. But Lorcan managed, and it was obvious the way the two of them were with one another that the love they felt was deep.
Carrie looked at Mick first, then the woman in the wheelchair. She tried to shift in the bed. Lorcan stopped her with his hands on her shoulders.
Her belly took up most of the space between them. Mick shifted his attention to the monitors beside her. Dual heartbeat monitors were beeping away.
Hard to imagine women ever brought kids into the world without proper medical care all those years ago.
Lorcan looked at Paige. “You look like shit.”
“I feel kind of just like that. But I’ll be ok. Couldn’t miss the arrival of my first niece, now could I?”
“About time you got here,” Carrie said. Mick half feared she would start crying at any moment.
Female tears terrified him, but at least she was Lorcan’s responsibility and not his.
He never wanted responsibility for a woman like her again. Young, beautiful, sweet, passionate—that had been Mara down to her toes.
And it had gotten her nothing but dead.
No, he would not do that again.
That was for guys like Lorcan and his triplet Seth. Like Mal and Hellbrook, and Dan Reynolds. Men who knew how to be husbands and who were far less cowardly than Mick. Men brave enough to take the risk of loving a woman, even with the fear of losing her.
“I’ll leave you guys alone. Let me know when you want to go back to your room.”
His words came out far rougher than he’d intended.
Lorcan looked at him with compassion and speculation on his face.
Mick just nodded, then stepped back out of the room.
There was nothing in there he needed to be a part of.
Chapter 20
NEVER expected him to be taxiing you around.”
Revealing Page 8
