by Abby Blake
* * * *
It wasn’t every day that military helicopters landed in the park next to the setup for a garden wedding, but then Zane figured this wasn’t exactly a run-of-the-mill day. Caleb had called in a huge favor from one of his contacts, and within fifteen minutes two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters touched down on the lawn while two more hovered in the sky.
Rick and Zane climbed into the troop area to find seven heavily armored military personnel already onboard. “Turns out we’re not the only ones who want to shut down this particular terrorist,” Theresa yelled into his ear as she climbed onto the helicopter behind him. Zane was doing up the restraints just as Ethan hauled his massive frame onto the platform. He shook hands with one of the soldiers, checked Theresa’s restraint, and took his own seat.
The helicopter lifted into the air, and then they were traveling faster than Zane had realized one of these things could go.
“This is a military operation. Our job is to get Jenna, Hailey, and Kara to safety. Nothing more. The military will handle the rest,” Theresa said telepathically. “Understood?”
Rick and Zane both nodded agreement. They’d save their family first and then think about revenge. Zane just hoped they could rescue the girls and get to Jenna before the Professor did anything to her.
As the Black Hawk approached its destination, Zane kept trying to contact Jenna. He could feel her presence close by, but couldn’t pinpoint her location. And for some reason she still wasn’t answering his telepathic call.
Chapter Twelve
“Rick and Zane are here. They just landed in a big helicopter with lots of soldiers with them.” Hailey’s excited telepathic words filled her head. “Mommy, you need to move now. The Professor drugged you, so your telekinesis won’t work very well, but the room next to you is empty and unlocked. If you can get through the wall of your room, you can get out that way.”
Jenna’s mind filled with a million questions. How did her daughter know these things? Where was she getting her information? “Mommy, go now!” a frightened young voice ordered.
Uncertain how her daughter got her information but willing to trust her regardless, Jenna turned her telekinetic power against the wall. The panel wobbled slightly but didn’t budge. She was about to try kicking it out when she remembered the dainty, high-heeled sandals she was wearing. She glanced down at the lace and satin dress with its intricate beadwork and laughed quietly. For more than twenty years, she’d worn fatigues and army boots. It figured that the day she would truly need comfortable clothes and big boots would be the one day she went without them.
She concentrated harder, trying to focus all of her energy on this one task.
* * * *
Rick, Zane, Ethan, and Theresa worked their way through the facility, careful to stay out of the military’s way as all hell broke loose. The staccato sound of automatic weapons fire filled the air, yet Rick’s only thought was to get to his daughters and keep them safe.
“Wait, Rick,” a small voice said in his head. “There are three men with big guns on the other side of the door you’re about to open.”
Rick glanced at the others, realizing that they’d heard Hailey’s warning, too.
Ethan smiled confidently, nodded to Theresa, and stood back as she opened the door. Rick was ready to pull her back when the most amazing thing happened. Three armed men fired automatic weapons directly at her, but none hit. Every single bullet seemed to bounce off or be stopped by an invisible wall.
“Shields?” Zane asked incredulously. “You’ve got fucking shields?”
“Not exactly. I can push the air with my telekinesis, which creates friction that slows the bullets.” Theresa shrugged. “But I suppose the effect is the same.”
A small movement of her hand and all three men went flying through the air. They hit the back wall quite hard. Still shaking their heads, Zane and Rick moved forward to search the men and relieve them of all their weapons.
“We’re in here,” Kara’s excited voice called through the door off the left of the room.
“There aren’t any guards in here, but there are two more coming down the hallway behind you,” Hailey sent telepathically.
Ethan motioned for them to get the girls as he and Theresa turned and waited for more of the enemy to arrive.
* * * *
Jenna slammed her telekinesis into the wall over and over, almost crying in relief as the panel buckled enough for her to push her way through. She gathered the material of her wedding dress, trying hard to not damage the fabric. Silly as it seemed at the time, she didn’t want to ruin the only dress she’d ever owned.
Making certain that her presence was hidden from anyone with empathic senses, Jenna opened the door quietly and peered into the empty hallway. She heard the Professor’s outraged voice as he approached her room from the left hallway.
“Get her on the yacht. If I can’t have Kara and Hailey, then we’ll just have to make more babies,” he ordered angrily.
Jenna lifted her skirt in a most unladylike manner and ran quickly in the opposite direction. “Left,” she heard her daughter’s soft voice say in her head.
She turned down the left turn of the hallway, not checking first, just trusting her daughter to guide her to safety.
“Two guards with little guns through the door in front of you. If you open the door hard enough, you should knock him out, but I think you might have to punch the other one.” Jenna smiled grimly as the familiar adrenaline flooded her system and she hit the door running. Just as her daughter predicted, the door hit the first guard hard in the face, sending him sprawling onto his back, the second guard raised his handgun and fired just as she stepped closer and punched him in the nose.
She managed to grab his gun as he staggered backward, and she moved through the next door before she noticed the blood.
* * * *
Kara screamed in terror and started crying. Both girls had been quiet the whole time they’d smuggled them out of the facility to safety, so Kara’s cry was very much unexpected.
“Kara?” Rick asked trying to hide his reaction to her distress. The last thing any of them needed was for him to fall apart now. He knew his wife was close, but he just couldn’t pinpoint exactly where.
“A man shot Mommy.”
“Are you sure?” It was a stupid fucking question. The girls had been right about everything so far, and there was no reason for them to exaggerate.
“Kara, do you know where she is?” The little girl lifted her arm and pointed at a building outside of the facility the military was currently raiding. A quick nod from Ethan, and both he and Zane were running full pelt toward the plain brick building.
* * * *
Jenna pushed a fist against the small hole where the bullet had entered. She was pretty sure it had passed right through her abdomen and guessed that the wound on her back was far worse, but she continued moving forward. She was so close to escape, her daughters were safe, her husbands waited for her. No way was she going to fall down now.
Somehow, the floor managed to hit her anyway. She struggled against the never-ending yards of lace of her dress as she pushed herself onto her knees and tried to stand. Her vision swam, and her head spun, but she dug deep for that core strength that had carried her through the last gunshot wound. The ridiculous urge to giggle crossed her mind. How many gunshot wounds was a person allowed to recover from? Was there some sort of cosmic counting system? She sure hoped not.
“Mommy, lie down. Play dead.” Hailey’s panicked words penetrated her brain a moment before her legs gave out and dumped her on the floor again. Strange how much of a relief it was to do as her daughter asked.
The door behind her burst open, and she heard the noise of several booted feet enter the room and then the Professor’s annoyed voice. “Is she alive?” She tried desperately to use her skill to manipulate their thoughts, but she was so tired, so unfocused, she wasn’t sure she managed.
A hand pressed against her neck, moving
several times before a rough, deep voice answered, “No, sir.” She wanted to sigh in relief, but a calloused hand patted her arm affectionately, and then the man moved away. It seemed obvious that he knew she was alive. So why did he lie?
She tried not to breathe as the Professor barked out more orders. “Head back to the lab. Secure as many of the embryos as you can. Meet us on the yacht in five minutes.” Booted feet ran back the way they had come, but the Professor’s shuffling gait moved closer. “Such a shame,” he said wistfully. “She was my only daughter to show that level of potential.”
Jenna tried not to vomit as the man left the room. The Professor was her father?
* * * *
Rick and Zane quickly climbed the simple chain-link fence, dropped to the ground and continued running. Hailey’s terrified voice yelled frantic directions as they got closer to Jenna.
“Rick, the door is locked. Use your telekinesis to break it open.” He was already shaking his head, knowing his gift wasn’t strong enough when she yelled at him again. “Do it!”
He concentrated all of his meager skill on the solid-looking door and almost laughed when it caved in easily, but the urge was quickly swallowed when he saw her.
Collapsed on the floor, surrounded by white lace stained bright red with her blood, lay the woman who meant everything to him. He dropped to his knees, his shaking hand desperately searching for a pulse.
“I knew you’d come,” she said quietly.
“Baby, we’re going to get you out of here, but first we need to see how bad the wound is. I need to cut your dress away so we can stop the bleeding.” His hands fumbled even as he screamed telepathic orders to his boss. “Ethan, we need Jason now! Where the hell is he?”
“Jason is about sixty seconds away. Just don’t let her bleed out.”
Rick showed her the scissors as he rolled her carefully onto her side. She nodded, but he sensed her sadness at the damage to the beautiful dress she should’ve been married in. Right now, though, he didn’t give a fuck about some stupid dress.
“It’s okay, princess,” Zane reassured her. “We’ll buy you another one. We still expect you to walk down that aisle to us. You hear me?”
She grunted as Rick moved her onto her side. “This is going to hurt, baby. I’m sorry.” He cut the material away from the ragged wound in her side. Copious amounts of blood still poured from the wound, and that really worried him.
“Jason, hurry. I think the bullet passed through her liver.”
“I’m coming in the door now,” he said as the door they’d come through flew open. Zane raised his weapon, but quickly lowered it when he realized Jason was alone.
“Hi, Sis,” Jason said as he laid his own weapon aside. “You’re going to have to stop doing this,” he said cheerfully as he poked and prodded the wounds with his gloved fingers. “I’m not sure I can fit you into my schedule next week, so it would be really helpful if you could avoid getting shot when I’m so busy.”
He kept up the nonsense talk as he checked her over for other wounds. “Okay, Jenna, you know the drill,” he said as he stripped off the latex gloves. “Bit of heat, strange tingle, and then the pain is gone. You’ve lost a lot of blood again, so you’re going to need another transfusion. Looks like we’ll be spending some more quality time together.”
He held his hands over the wound, barely touching the skin. The bleeding stopped almost immediately, and the skin knitted together in front of Rick’s eyes. Intellectually, Rick knew that Jason had this skill—Jenna was living proof—but seeing it was something else.
“Okay, the bullet passed straight through, and I’ve repaired the damage, but I want one of your husbands to carry you. The last thing we need is for you to fall on your face.”
“The lab,” she groaned as Rick moved to lift her. “The Professor has embryos stored in the lab. We need to stop them before he can get them.”
“It’s okay,” Zane soothed. “Cody just reported that his team has detained two lab assistants carrying what seems to be a portable cryogenic chamber.”
She nodded and promptly passed out.
* * * *
Three weeks later...
She couldn’t believe how incredibly lucky she felt.
Her daughters had blossomed in the last few weeks. Hailey wasn’t so silent and serious now that that she no longer felt the burden of responsibility for her sister’s welfare, and Kara had settled, no longer feeling the need to cover her sister’s quiet, distracted demeanor with noise. They both looked amazing in their new flower girl dresses—they’d insisted on blue this time—and Jenna felt like a princess in her own replacement wedding dress. It was exactly the same as the first one, and she was determined to get married before anything untoward happened to it.
Rick and Zane stood in the room, their arms crossed over their chests as she went about the business of being the bride. They’d both insisted that this time they would protect her all the way to the altar and beyond.
“You look beautiful,” Rick said as he pulled her into his arms. She wanted desperately to kiss him, but she really didn’t want Alana to have to fix her makeup again. Even though having Alana fuss over her, for both weddings, was quite nice, there was a limit to Jenna’s patience.
“Remember how we promised you we’d take a long, relaxing honeymoon once the Professor was apprehended?” She nodded. Even though the military raids had managed to shut down three of the Professor’s major research facilities, they hadn’t been able to find the Professor. She’d seen no reason to tell anyone about the comment he’d made. Being related by genetics didn’t make that man her father. She saw no reason why her brother and sisters should know either. “How does three weeks on an Australian beach sound?”
It sounded wonderful, and she looked forward to a time when her daughters were safe enough for them all to travel like a normal family—well, maybe not normal in the usual sense of the word—but it would be wonderful to take a vacation like most other families on the planet took for granted. It would be three glorious weeks loving her husbands and watching her daughters have new experiences and...
“Wait, are you saying they caught the Professor?” Rick and Zane both smiled widely and nodded in unison. “We can go on a honeymoon right now?”
“Well, I thought we should probably get the wedding done first,” Zane teased until she growled low in her throat. “But yes, the tickets are booked. We leave tomorrow.” She lifted her face to Rick’s, not caring that her lipstick would be ruined. She needed to kiss both her husbands right now.
Rick kissed her passionately until Zane pulled her from his arms. He lifted her into the air and spun her in circles before kissing her like she was more important to him than breathing.
“Baby,” Rick said, a laugh in his voice. “Are you wearing army boots?”
She smiled. The sandals had been pretty but extremely uncomfortable, and, well, there were some mistakes a girl just didn’t make twice.
THE END
HTTP://WWW.ABBYBLAKE.WEBS.COM/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abby Blake prefers to read or write romance over just about everything else—except maybe chocolate. Most days she can be found hurrying to do what needs to be done so that she can curl up with her laptop and her latest bunch of heroes.
Also by Abby Blake
Siren LoveXtreme Forever: A Bride for Eight Brothers 1:
Mikayla’s Men
Siren LoveXtreme Forever: A Bride for Eight Brothers 2:
Sweet Captivation
Siren LoveXtreme Forever: A Bride for Eight Brothers 3:
Wild Fascination
Siren LoveXtreme Forever: A Bride for Eight Brothers 4:
Keen Inclination
Ménage Everlasting: Fire
Ménage Everlasting: Altered Destinies 1: Lost
Ménage Everlasting: Altered Destinies 2: Runner
Ménage Everlasting: Altered Destinies 3: Hidden
Ménage Everlasting: Altered Destinies 4: Stolen
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
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