Ben sat on the gurney and took Alex from the medic. He held him close and sighed, feeling everything that happened over the last fifteen minutes hit him hard. Tears welled in his eyes as relief swept through him. Kate and Alex were alive and safe.
“Take them to the hospital. Check out Alex and Ben. Ben was shot twice. I bet his ribs need to be X-rayed. Make sure nothing is broken.” Sam closed one of the ambulance doors and stood in the opening of the other. “I’ll take care of things here with Detective Raynott. I’ll be by to check on you and Kate in a little while. She’ll be in surgery for a couple hours, so don’t stress.”
“Yeah, right.” All he did was think about Kate and the desperate need gnawing at his insides to get to her. Holding Alex helped keep him calm. He wouldn’t stop worrying until he had his whole family back in his arms.
Chapter Thirty
KATE WOKE UP by degrees, aware of the whir and beep of machines, a dull pain in her shoulder that radiated through to her back, light on her face, and someone holding her hand. Alex cooed nearby. Her heart eased just hearing his tiny voice.
The nightmare that plagued her last night came back, filling her mind with the sound of gunshots and Ben falling to the floor. Her eyes flew open. She stared at Ben beside her bed, Alex in his arms against his chest, his hand covering hers on the bed. The connection she felt to that man pulsed through her in a wave of relief and love that filled her heart. She exhaled, holding her breath when that made the pain in her chest shoot out like a starburst.
“Breathe, Kate. You’re okay.” Ben leaned forward and brought her hand to his warm lips, kissing it. He pressed her hand to his beard-roughened cheek and stared down at her. “Hey, you finally awake?”
She let her gaze drop from his gorgeous face to his chest. “Are you hurt? I saw you get shot.”
He raised his hand and traced her forehead. “I’m fine. Sam made me wear a bulletproof vest before I went into the house. I’ve got several severely bruised ribs and muscles. Nothing some painkillers and having you back can’t cure.”
“How did you find me?”
“I put a tracking device in your phone and purse.”
“What?”
“You refused to let the authorities handle things and stay out of it. You provoked Evan and Christina at every turn. I needed to protect you. I needed to be able to find you if they took you.”
“You saved my life.”
His eyes filled with a fear she never thought she’d see in him. His gaze narrowed with a touch of anger. “You died on me, Kate. Don’t ever do that again.”
She reached up and touched his scruffy jaw, laying her hand against his face. His warmth seeped into her skin. “I’ll try.” She pressed her hand to Alex’s back. “I have so much to live for.”
“I can’t wait to take you home.”
“I hate hospitals. How long have I been here?”
“Two days. You lost a lot of blood. Surgery took seven hours to repair your shoulder.”
She ignored the pain and focused on Ben and Alex. “When can I go home?”
“Two more days. My apartment and Margo’s house are crime scenes. Haven House is under construction. We’ll have to stay at your place.”
Kate hated all the destruction left in her path since she and Ben started this journey to protect Alex’s inheritance and get justice for Margo and Donald. Ben’s life had been turned upside down.
“I’m sorry, Ben. You must regret the day you ever agreed to help me.”
“Never. None of this is your fault. I don’t care what’s happened or where we stay as long as we’re together, Kate. I love you.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I love you too.”
“Good, then marry me. I can’t live without you. Those seconds I thought you were dead and gone forever were the worst of my life. I promise to love you and make you happy the rest of your life. I promise to be the father you want for Alex. I love him like my own. Say yes, Kate. Say yes to that happy life Margo wanted for you. Make that life a reality with me by your side. Will you marry me?”
“I never thought I’d want a family, but I do. So much. I always thought something was missing from life, but I had no idea what it was until now. It was you. I thought I had everything I wanted. You and Alex are what I need. Yes, I will marry you.”
Epilogue
KATE STARED UP at Ben and said the words she never thought she’d say to any man. “I do.”
The smile that spread across his handsome face lit her from within. She felt his love in that smile and the twinkle in his eyes. The love between them grew each and every day over the last six months.
Ben held Alex wearing his tiny tux to his chest, bouncing him up and down. At one, Alex had changed so much and was starting to walk. “Da,” he said, staring up at Ben. It warmed her heart each time she heard him call Ben that, because Alex had the perfect dad. A man who would always protect and love him. Ben would show Alex how to be a good man.
“Do you have the ring?” the preacher asked Ben.
Alex clutched the red velvet box in his hands. Ben pried it open, despite Alex not wanting to give it up. Kate smiled when she saw the sparkling diamond eternity band that perfectly complemented the enormous diamond engagement ring Ben gave her a week after she got out of the hospital and they escaped for a weekend getaway. Morgan and Tyler babysat Alex, who became Noah’s new best friend. The babies loved being together. She, Ben, Morgan, and Tyler had become quite close these last months, which is why they ended up here, in Morgan’s sprawling garden for their wedding.
Kate held her hand up. Ben slipped the ring on her finger and recited the vow. He’d truly outdone himself. She still wore her sister’s ring. One day, she’d give it to Alex to propose to the woman he loved. A symbol of the love that blessed Margo and Donald’s lives entwined with hers that brought them Alex.
“And your ring for Ben,” the preacher said.
Kate pulled the gold ring from her thumb and held it up for Ben to see. She repeated the vows and slid the ring onto Ben’s hand and traced the two bands woven together encircling his finger, adding, “My life is tied to yours. Without you, I’m incomplete. My love for you is endless.”
Ben reached out and slid his hand along her cheek and held her face. He glanced at Morgan, standing behind her as her matron of honor, then met Kate’s gaze again. “You were meant for me.”
She finally knew what Morgan predicted for Ben and smiled. Nothing Morgan said anymore surprised her. She’d gotten used to the cryptic messages, the visions she shared about Tyler’s work and the family.
“You were meant for me,” she said back to him.
Ben leaned in and kissed her softly. They lost themselves in the simple but emotion-filled moment.
“I guess you can kiss your bride,” the preacher teased, ending the ceremony.
The crowd of over a hundred guests, mostly Ben’s “family,” including his mother and her husband, and his colleagues and friends, along with the few people she’d worked with at social services and now at Haven House, cheered when the preacher pronounced them husband and wife and introduced them. “I present . . . Mr. and Mrs. Knight.”
Funny how it hit her all at once. She was Mrs. Knight. His wife. She had a husband. A son. The family she never had but always wanted even if she had tucked that dream away deep in her heart. She had happiness and love like she’d never experienced in her life. She’d lost so much, but gained infinitely more when her life shattered and Ben helped her put the pieces back together and opened her heart to a life filled with joy.
Ben held his wife close and kissed her on top of the head. He held his son in his arms and couldn’t wait to have more children with Kate. He used to fear being a husband and father, thinking that someday his father’s bad blood running through his veins would turn him into a monster. That fear evaporated when he fell in love with Kate.
His future once seemed dark, filled with nothing but work to satisfy him and get him through each day. He loved what he did helping others, but it didn’t compare to being with Kate and Alex. They filled his life with a deeper meaning than he ever thought possible.
Love saved them from the loneliness engulfing their lives. Love made them see the truth. They were meant for each other. Love entwined them and made their lives brighter.
Keep reading for a peek at
New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Ryan’s
next book in her sexy and suspenseful Montana Men series,
STONE COLD COWBOY
With their hearts’ desires on the line
Nothing can stop the Montana Men
Sadie Higgins has a bad habit of bailing her brother out of trouble.
But when he rustles a herd of cattle from the tough, honorable Kendrick brothers, it’s Sadie who’s in for it. Because the cowboy tracking them down is big, silent, and forbidding as hell.
Rory Kendrick is on the hunt to find out who’s been stealing from him.
When he stumbles upon Sadie in the woods, he barely recognizes the quiet, vulnerable beauty who has always taken his breath away. His mission shifts in an instant:
He will do anything it takes to keep her safe . . . and make her his.
Sadie has always protected her family—no matter the price. But when Rory ropes her heart, she’s forced to take a look at her life and make a dangerous choice—
one that could cost, or gain, her everything.
Available February 2016!
An Excerpt from
STONE COLD COWBOY
SADIE CRESTED THE rolling hill and spotted her target: her missing horses and a herd of cattle that didn’t belong to her reckless brother. She didn’t waste a hope he was saving them from some predator. Not with two of his miscreant cohorts right beside him pushing the mooing and bawling animals further along the valley. Leave it to her brother to make trouble with no regard for the consequences. If he got caught rustling cattle, he’d expect her to get him out of it. She’d been saving his butt since he hit a rebellious stage at thirteen that turned into his way of life, escalating from pranks to petty theft and drug dealing. What happened to the sweet boy who loved to swing the highest at the playground? The one who cried at their mother’s funeral and brushed his hand over Sadie’s hair that same night while they cried themselves to sleep on their mother’s side of the bed. At twenty-one Connor had changed from a sensitive boy into nothing short of a hoodlum numbed by drugs with no regard for anyone else. One day she feared he’d end up in jail for the rest of his life . . . or dead.
If whoever owned those cattle didn’t kill him, she might.
A soft pat on the neck and a nudge with her heels sent her horse, Sugar, down the hill in a trot. Sadie loved to ride, but chasing after her brother took the pleasure right out of it. The cold wind scented with pine, grass, and rain from the storm last night that had left the ground muddy whipped her hair out behind her and burned her cheeks. Her lips dried and cracked in the bitter cold.
Her horse’s fast approach startled several cattle. They broke off from the herd and scattered. She rode straight up the middle and split the herd in two, hoping to discourage the animals from following the rider up front and the two flanking them. Her brother spotted her and reined his horse around to meet hers. She pulled up short and stopped beside him, glaring at his ruddy face, red from the cold. His intense gaze collided with hers. His pupils were the size of saucers. High. Irritated he’d been caught, his eyes narrowed on her.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Her lips drew into a grim line. “Saving your ass from making another mistake.”
“Get out of here before you get hurt.” Connor scanned the area, avoiding looking at the two guys with him, who closed in on them. “You have to go now.”
Sadie sighed out her frustration. The cows had stopped walking down the valley and milled around them, chomping at the new grass just beginning to grow after the last of the snow melted. The cold temps remained even as spring pushed in to take winter’s place. She stared at the poor, tired animals. Her brother and his buddies had pushed them hard and brought them a long way. One steer turned and she caught a glimpse of the brand on his hide.
She sucked in a surprised breath. “These are Kendrick cattle. Are you crazy? Those guys will hunt you down and beat the living shit out of you. If Rory comes after you, you’ll wish you were never born.”
She’d gone to school with Colt Kendrick, but didn’t really know him. The last time she saw him, he’d been sitting around a table with his two older brothers at the bar. She’d gone to drag her brother home after the bartender called to let her know Connor was playing pool and looking for a fight. He’d nearly got one when he stumbled into Colt and dumped beer down his front. Sadie stepped in just in time, blocking her brother from the punch Colt threw and almost landed straight in her face, until Rory grasped his brother’s wrist and stopped his swing inches from her nose. When her brother tried to go after Colt, she’d tried to hold him off, but he got around her. Rory grabbed him by the shirt and held him off the ground in front of him like he didn’t weigh more than a puppy. He’d looked her brother in the eyes and shook him hard to get his attention. He didn’t speak. Didn’t have to. The ominous look in his eyes made her brother quake in his boots. Rory set her brother down with a thud, and Connor ran for the door. Sadie chased after him, but not before she turned back and caught the feral look in Rory’s eyes. The same kind of look she’d seen weeks earlier when she plowed into Rory’s big, solid body in the feed store. The man was hard and unyielding, physically and mentally. You did not go up against a Kendrick, and especially him. Her stupid brother got off free and clear that time.
Connor scratched at a scab on his chin. “If you keep your fucking mouth shut and get lost, they’ll never know.”
“You don’t think they’re going to know an entire herd of cattle is missing? You’ve lost your mind, little brother.”
He puffed out his thin chest, his bony shoulders going back. “I’m not little. I can take care of myself,” he whined like the child he acted like most of the time.
“You have yet to prove that in any capacity. If it weren’t for me, you’d have been locked up in juvy at fourteen. All these years later, you’re not proving to be any smarter than that punk kid who cried and begged me to save him. You promised me on our mother’s grave you’d do better, you’d quit drinking and doing drugs. But you didn’t keep that promise to me, or her.”
“I warned you.” The words belied the sad, resigned look that came into his eyes.
A split second later, she had the blink of an eye to understand what he meant. A fist slammed into her face, sending her off her horse and into the mud, grass, and darkness.
“STOP TOUCHING HER. Let’s just go and get the damn cattle to the trailers before we get caught.” Connor stared down at her, lying on the ground practically naked.
What the hell? Her gaze locked on the man crouched beside her, his hand gripped around her upper arm, keeping her from scrambling away. Fear tore through her body. The cold bit into her skin and froze her bones. She clamped her aching jaw down tight to keep her teeth from chattering. She pushed up to sitting, her knees drawn up, and covered herself with her hands. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment. She scanned the area for her missing coat, jeans, and shirt. At least the asshole hadn’t gotten her out of her panties and bra; still, it wasn’t enough coverage to make her feel safe, or keep her warm.
“Give me back my clothes.” Her sharp words didn’t hide the fear shaking her voice.
“Shut up, or I’ll clock you again.”
Scott and Tony, Connor’s so-called friends, stood over her smoking cigarettes. The three of them collectively added up to one brain. None of them came up with a good idea, but they sure could turn a bad one worse
one-upping each other. Now that she was awake, their gazes shot from her breasts to her face, then off to the scattered clouds overhead.
Connor pushed away the guy beside her, someone she didn’t know. “You don’t need to strip her. You fucking lay another hand on her and I’ll kill you.”
She appreciated her brother’s bravado, but the big dude with long greasy dark hair, devil tat on his neck, and the wicked knife in his hand he whipped out from behind him could probably kill her brother with a look from his cold eyes. Her throbbing jaw attested to the guy’s powerful right hook. If he’d hit a woman, no telling what he’d do to her brother.
The devil dude, as she immediately thought of him, stood and took a menacing step closer to her brother. “Your sister has one hot body. She’d look damn good in lace.” He raked his gaze over her prone figure, grimacing at her cotton bra and panties. “I say we teach her a lesson about butting into my business.” The devil dude smacked Scott on the shoulder, trying to get his agreement.
Scott and Tony continued to look uncomfortable, shaking their heads and toeing at the dirt, avoiding looking the devil dude right in the eye. They probably needed another hit of whatever they were on. Despite the cold, sweat broke out on their faces. Her brother didn’t look much better.
“She’s not going to say anything. The last thing she wants to do is get me in trouble.” The assurance her brother tried to put into his words fell short, making him sound more like a sniveling child.
“You do that all on your own,” she snapped, glaring at all of them. She stood up, realizing too late she didn’t quite have her head on straight yet. Dizzy, she stumbled a step, then caught herself. She spotted her clothes tossed a few feet away and rushed toward them, hoping to grab them, her horse, and get the hell out of there before things got worse. She definitely didn’t want to get hit again. The fear building in her gut that the devil dude might make good on his ominous threats both spoken and unspoken made bile rise to the back of her throat. She needed to get away now before it was too late.
Everything She Wanted Page 30
