by Marla Monroe
Cole agreed with him but didn’t say anything. He stuck his hands in his front pockets and walked over to the bank of windows to stare outside. It was going to be a long night and he needed to be able to handle whatever they found out about Tina. The bastard was known for raping and torturing his victims. He held out hope that she’d been spared at least the torture. He could tell that Zack had all but lost hope that she was going to be fine. Having not said anything about the brown van following them that day, he was wallowing in self-disgust. It had to stop for Tina’s sake.
“Zack, look at me, man.” He walked over and stood in front of his best friend.
“What?”
“You’ve got to get hold of yourself. When they let us see Tina, I don’t want you frowning at her. She’s going to need all the help we can give her to recover from this. I need to know that you’re with me on this.”
“How can you want me anywhere near her when I could have stopped this from happening?” Zack snapped.
“You couldn’t have done a damn thing about it, Zack. I couldn’t have done anything about it. Even knowing the brown van was following her for a week, we wouldn’t have been able to stop her from going to work or coming home. If he hadn’t have gotten her at the house, he would have grabbed her when she got off work at the hospital. There is not a fucking thing we could have done. Do you understand?” He had grabbed Zack by the shoulders and was shaking him.
“Yeah, I get it,” Zack finally admitted and hung his head.
“No matter what, she’s ours, right?” Cole asked him.
“Hell yeah.”
The emergency room door opened and Todd walked through it. His face was grim but not any more so than when he’d left them.
“What?” Zack demanded.
“She’s going to be fine. They want to keep her overnight just to monitor her, but she’s good,” he told them.
“What did the bastard do to her?”
“Other than knock her out with chloroform, let her get banged up rolling around in the back of his van, and cutting her arms up trying to get away,” he said, “not a damn thing to her.”
“What?” Cole asked still not sure he heard the man right.
“She woke up sick as a dog from the chloroform he used on her. It disgusted him so much she kept throwing up whenever he came near her. He gagged when she did, so he couldn’t get near her. It was the smartest damn thing I’ve ever heard of.”
Zack and Cole looked at each other and started laughing until there were tears running down their faces. Cole shook his head wiping the tears from his eyes.
“That’s our Tina,” Zack said.
“They had to put two stitches in one of her wrists where she cut it trying to cut through the rope, and she got a tetanus booster. The rest are just bruises. She’s one lucky woman. She escaped him twice,” Todd said with a shake of his head. “Those are pretty high odds. I think you two have a lot to be thankful for.”
“Don’t worry. We know.” Cole and Zack shook his hand and watched the man walk out the ER door.
“Who is going to go get her clothes?” Cole asked.
“I will. After I see her.” Zack grinned like an idiot. “She’s okay.”
“Yeah, she’s better than okay. She’s safe.”
Chapter Sixteen
Tina was dozing on the gurney when the sound of cursing outside her door awakened her. She knew immediately who the one cursing was. Cole couldn’t stand being told what to do.
Finally, both men walked in and immediately she was engulfed by tight hugs and hungry kisses.
“Um, excuse me,” a voice said behind them.
Tina looked between her men to see Emily standing there with Doug right behind her. Evidently she had said something about her men after all. The other nurse looked aggravated.
“We need to move her to a room now. You can follow us.” Emily smiled at them.
Cole and Zack both stood aside but kept a hand on her at all times as the two nurses prepared to transport her to the floor.
Despite Doug being an ass about it, Emily flirted outrageously with her men, but they didn’t seem to notice. They were totally focused on her. Tina didn’t doubt their sincerity one bit anymore. She was sure she’d heard the word love several times from each man. If they truly loved her, then what? How would they make it work?
Like you already have been, stupid. Nothing changes.
Only that was wrong. Everything had changed. She didn’t want to travel anymore. She wanted a home with roots. She wanted to know where she would be from one day to the next and be able to plant flowers in a flowerbed if she wanted to and know she would be there to see them bloom.
It didn’t mean that they would feel the same way, though. She began to doubt their declarations of love now. Maybe she’d been wrong and misunderstood them. Or, maybe they said them in the heat of the moment, like after sex. She sighed and instantly one of them grabbed her hand.
“You okay, baby?”
She smiled and nodded, not trusting herself to speak yet. She was getting all emotional now that everything was over. Real tears spilled from her eyes as they settled her into the room. Emily bent over and whispered in her ear.
“It’s all going to be okay now. Let them take care of you.” Then the other woman left, dragging a scowling Doug after her.
“Baby, can we get you anything?” Cole asked.
Zack sat on one side of the bed and smoothed her hair back from her face.
“I’m okay,” she managed to get out around the tears despite her throat being raw.
“We love you, Tina. We want you with us always,” Zack said out of the blue.
Cole shook his head and chuckled. “Couldn’t hold off until she felt better could you.”
“I didn’t want her to think we were only saying it because she was hurt. I want her to know we love her regardless of what happened.” Zack didn’t take his eyes off of hers.
“I love you both, too.” She whispered.
“Will you marry us?” Cole asked holding her hand in both of his.
“Both of you? How are you going to manage that?” she teased through tears.
“You’ll marry Cole for the ceremony, then you’ll pledge yourself to both of us with a few of our friends over. You’ll be married to both of us.” Zack bent over the bed and kissed her.
“How does that sound to you?” Cole asked.
“It sounds like a proposal to me.” Tina turned and looked at Zack. “I’ll marry you both. On one condition.”
“We know. You still want to travel nurse. We’ll work it out somehow,” Cole said.
“No. I want to work here in Dallas all the time. Maybe we can do some trips when you really want to go somewhere, but I want to stay in one place now. Can we do that?” she asked, afraid to hold her breath.
The two men looked at each other. Then Cole looked down at her. “Baby, whatever makes you happy, we’ll do.”
Tina threw open her arms and both men went to her. She wrapped one arm around Cole and the other around Zack and held onto them as long as she could. When the nurse from the floor walked in, they came apart, looking guilty.
“I’ll have none of that in here. You’ll both be out on your rear ends if you keep her from getting the rest she needs.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they both said in unison.
Tina smiled and knew everything would be fine. She might even get rid of her bike and get a SUV. She could be a biker babe and ride behind her men just fine. She yawned and the two men instantly covered her up with the blanket and kissed her cheek.
“Get some sleep, baby,” Cole said.
“We’ll be right here when you wake up,” Zack promised.
“I love you, Zack. I love you Cole.”
“We love you too, baby,” they said together.
THE END
MARLAMONROE.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marla Monroe lives in the southern part of the United States. She writes sexy romance fro
m the heart and often puts a twist of suspense in her books. She is a nurse and works in a busy hospital, but finds plenty of time to follow her two passions, reading and writing. You can find her in a book store or a library at any given time when she’s not at work or writing. Marla would love for you to visit her at her blog at themarlamonroe.blogspot.com and leave a comment. You can also reach her at [email protected], or go to her webpage www.marlamonroe.com.
Also by Marla Monroe
Ménage Everlasting: The Dirty Dozen 1: Brandy’s Bikers
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