by Lexi Blake
There was a banging noise that came from that direction and a crash as something broke.
Jones’s head whipped around. “What was that?”
Seth spit blood before talking. “That was very likely a priceless antique. Your men don’t seem to appreciate the value of fine vases. If they destroyed the one I think it was, it was from China. Ming dynasty. Or they might have smashed a couple of Fabergé eggs. Idiots.”
There was nothing like that back in the bedroom. It was tastefully decorated, but not with antiques. What was Seth doing?
A light hit his eyes even though he was in rough shape. He gave her a wink.
Logan was coming for them, and Seth knew it. She had to be ready.
She put a hand on Jones’s chest. “He’s not lying. He’s got some seriously amazing stuff back there. We don’t want to leave without it. There’s a fortune sitting there and collecting dust. And I have the code to his safe.”
She looked over at the hall that led to the secondary bedrooms. The man who was leaning there so negligently didn’t see Nell Flanders’s husband walking up behind him. What was he doing here? God, she hoped he didn’t get hurt. Nell was such a sweetheart.
And then he very casually and with utter silence slit the man’s throat and got him to the ground and was out of sight before anyone could look his way. It had been like one of those nature videos she’d watched. The lion had taken down the rather unattractive and mean gazelle without breaking a sweat.
Wow. That explained a whole lot.
So Henry was John Bishop. Yeah. She hadn’t guessed that.
Jones spoke in rapid-fire Spanish and another of his goons stalked down the hallway, rushing off to the master bedroom. “Sometimes these guys from down south get distracted by shiny things. I think it’s about time we finish up here and take this party somewhere else. No matter how quiet we are, we’re not isolated enough to fire up the chainsaw and start hacking off Stark’s body parts here.”
Henry was suddenly back in the hallway. Kent had been right. He moved like a ghost. He caught her eyes and nodded to a place behind her.
“Where are we going to go?” Georgia asked the question like she couldn’t care less. She yawned and turned her head.
And her heart nearly stopped. Logan was walking down the hall. His shirt was ripped and completely covered in blood. His hair was wild as though he’d been in a fight. His eyes, oh, his eyes were focused on one thing and one thing only.
Her.
He was a magnificent beast, and he wasn’t going to allow anyone to take his mate. He’d killed both men who had walked back there. They were dead on the floor because they’d threatened her. She had no doubt about that.
He was so getting sex tonight.
But between Logan and Henry, they still only had two against three as the guard outside walked back in. She needed to even up those odds. She wasn’t going to sit back idly. Logan and Seth needed her. Her magnificent beast and her Prince Charming were getting help from her.
“Someone is coming,” he said in slow, deliberate English. “Two cars. I think it is the police. No sirens, though.”
They needed a distraction because someone was about to get shot and it wasn’t going to be her men. Luckily, she was damn good at distractions, but she was done playing a role.
As quickly as she could, she brought her knee back and up, catching that fucker right in the erection. It was a move she’d perfected on LA casting directors who got too handsy. It was also probably why she’d never been cast. She was okay with that now.
“Son of a bitch!” Jones yelled as he doubled over. His gun dropped to the ground with a clatter. “Kill them.”
But Logan and Henry were already on the move. Shots began raining around her, and she ducked, her hand going straight for that gun. She sent a silent prayer of gratitude to her brothers, who were gun nuts and wouldn’t allow their baby sis to walk around in blissful ignorance. Oh, no, they’d taken her to gun ranges. She’d looked ridiculous shooting at targets in designer heels and the full Chanel treatment, but she knew what to do with the one in her hand.
She lifted it and fired the minute she got a good aim. Jones was reaching for her when the bullet hit. His chest pounded with metal as she got three shots off in rapid fire.
His eyes went glassy as he looked down at the mess she’d made of his chest. He slumped to the side like a marionette with his strings cut.
Her hands shook as she clutched the gun and thought about emptying the clip.
“Georgia, baby. He’s dead. They’re all dead. It’s all right.” Logan eased the gun out of her hand and then helped her up. She shook, trying to get her arms up so she could touch him. God, she needed to be between them. “Baby, I’m covered in blood.”
She didn’t care. She threw her arms around him, reveling in how tightly he held her. Now that the danger had passed, she was shaking, unable to control her hands, her tears, the way her heart pounded. “Seth.”
Oh, god, Seth. She let go of Logan, but the scary dude she’d formerly thought of as a mild granola was slicing through Seth’s bonds. She got to her knees and caught Seth as he fell forward. She would have dropped to the floor, but Logan was there, a strong body, holding her up. Seth’s arms went around her, his head slumping forward onto her shoulder.
“You did so good, Georgia. Logan, she was so good,” Seth managed to say.
She let her hands find his hair, pulling him close, trying to lend him whatever strength she had left. She breathed in. She breathed out. Her men were alive, and that was all that mattered.
Chapter Eighteen
Seth didn’t want to move. Moving hurt. Everything fucking hurt, but Georgia surrounded him. Georgia had moved onto the couch with him and snuggled close. She’d been so strong. She’d taken the burden off him. If he’d had to watch that man put a gun to her head, he wasn’t sure what he would have done. He likely would have spilled everything the minute they’d started to hurt her and then they would both be dead. She’d been smart and fast on her feet.
“Marry me.” She was everything he wanted in a woman. He’d known it before, but he couldn’t wait any longer to claim her. Screw his timelines. Screw his plans. The only plan that mattered was sitting right here with him. He felt Logan’s hand gingerly touch down on his shoulder, a simple sign that he was there with them. They were together.
“He’s a little loopy in the head, baby,” Logan said. “What he meant to say was marry us.”
“Marry us.” It was all he’d wanted since he was a kid, a family with his best friend in his hometown.
A brilliant smile crossed Georgia’s face. “Yes. I’ll marry you. I love you both so much.”
Seth stifled a groan when Georgia hugged him tight. It wasn’t the most romantic proposal, and he would fix that by giving her the wedding of her dreams. After he regrew all the organs that had been pounded to dust inside his body cavity.
The front door swung open and Nate Wright moved into the room, his gun drawn. He looked around and then sighed. “You can come on in, Ty. It’s all corpses. Henry, that look is so not vegan. Fuck all. I’m going to owe Caleb and Gemma some serious cash, aren’t I?”
Fuck. Henry was here. Henry had been forced to take out a bunch of dudes. Henry, who just wanted to live his life in peace, had a whole cartel coming after him.
Seth forced himself to bring his head up, finding Henry standing in the middle of a bunch of dead bodies, covered in blood. It dripped off his hands. Seth knew he’d finished the job with a gun, but it looked like he’d done some knife play somewhere in there because a big-ass butcher knife was in his hands, the one he’d used to cut through Seth’s bindings. It wasn’t clean. It was coated in blood, and obviously not his. Henry stared down at his hand as though he couldn’t believe there was a knife there.
Seth wasn’t the only one who’d gotten the shit kicked out of him. Henry’s whole world had ground to a halt. The cartel knew he was alive. They would come after him. Even if that Jones asshole
hadn’t told anyone what he was planning, they wouldn’t give up.
“Holy shit.” A man in blue pants and a white shirt walked in carrying a huge medical bag. “That is a lot of corpses. Caleb is going to be pissed. Is there anyone left alive for me to treat?”
Seth held his hand up weakly, gesturing the guy over. “I will take any drugs you will give me. Logan, dude, all is forgiven. This shit hurts and I only had to survive it for like ten minutes. Motherfucker, I think I felt my spleen go.” Georgia’s blue eyes went wide with terror. Seth shook his head. “I’m joking. I’m fine, baby.”
He let the EMT help him lie down. He so wasn’t fine. He was pretty sure he was about to spend some time in the hospital, but he didn’t want to scare Georgia.
“Are you going to get as fucked up as this one did?” Nate asked, proving he could joke even in the worst of circumstances. He pointed to Logan, who was helping Georgia up.
Seth managed a grin and shook his head, which also hurt. “Nope. I already knew the world kind of sucked. This is no surprise to me.”
Logan flashed him his middle finger but smiled as he did it.
“Hi, my name is Ty. I’m going to be your paramedic today, but honestly, I think I’m going to be the dude who sits here with you until the ambulance comes. Tell me how this feels.” Ty barely touched his stomach and Seth nearly screamed. Yeah, he wasn’t going to win tough guy of the year.
He left that up to his best friend.
“You’re probably going to need surgery. I think it’s likely you have some internal bleeding.” Ty stood up. “Don’t move. There’s a bus on the way, but I’m going to make sure Caleb knows to stick close to the hospital. He got out of surgery a couple of minutes ago. Gunshot wound. It must be the day for them.”
“Did the patient make it? My brother. Is he alive?” Georgia managed to get the question out even through her tears. Logan wrapped his arms around her as though bracing her for some ugly truth.
Ty smiled. “Yeah, he’s alive. Caleb said he’s going to be fine.”
“Your brother is a tough son of a bitch. He was barking orders at me even as they loaded him into the ambulance. He’s the reason we were already looking for you,” Nate said. “Logan, why don’t we take Georgia outside to wait for the ambulance?”
“I can’t leave Seth,” Georgia argued.
“I’m fine, baby,” Seth replied. There was someone he needed to talk to, and he couldn’t with an audience. “Logan, please?”
Logan nodded, and over her virulent protests, picked her up bodily and hauled her outside. She was cursing him as he carried her out the door.
“Hurricane Georgia,” Seth whispered with a smile. She was awfully pretty when she was pissed.
Nate knelt down. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Seth nodded. “I’ll live. Henry?”
Henry moved quietly, standing over him before kneeling down. “I’m sorry, Seth. I can’t tell you how much.”
He managed to reach out a hand. He could see Henry’s reluctance to take it. “I’m not mad. I think we’ve got time. The asshole in charge said he’d been keeping it all on the down low because his bosses hate leads that don’t pan out. They’re not going to charge in here tomorrow.”
“Henry, I respect a man’s privacy.” Nate’s voice was grim. “You know I do, but if something’s heading into my town, I need to know.”
Henry’s face was a blank, as though he didn’t have an ounce of emotion in him. His words were dead, too, just combinations of letters that came out of his mouth. He could be talking about the weather for all the fire he put into them. “Hell, Sheriff. Hell is coming to Bliss, and I invited it in.”
Nate closed his eyes as though he’d been dreading that very response.
Henry stood up. “I can’t tell my wife. I can’t. She’s pregnant.” Now the emotion seeped through, his face flushing and a hand running across his hair. “Nell is pregnant, and I don’t want her to know the father of her baby has been lying to her for years. I need time.”
“Who are you?” Nate asked.
Henry turned, and there was no blankness to his face now. There was pure will there. “I am Henry Flanders. I am Nell’s husband. I am fucking Henry Flanders because that is who I choose to be.”
“I don’t think they’re going to stop looking.” Seth could hear the distant wail of the ambulance Ty had called. Soon he would be happy with an IV filled with mind-numbing drugs, but he had a few things to say first. “Henry, I can start again and build a whole new scenario. I can place Bishop somewhere else, leave a trail even an idiot could follow. I can do it.”
He’d screwed up once. He was going to make it right this time. He would save Henry and Nell would never have to know.
“You would help me after all this?” Henry asked.
How could he think for a second that Seth wouldn’t? “What’s a ruptured spleen between family? I won’t let you down.”
He could have sworn he saw a sheen of tears hit Henry’s eyes. “I thank you, son. But I know I have to tell her. Just please, not today. After the wedding. She’s so looking forward to Wolf’s wedding. I’ll tell her then. Maybe she’ll be comfortable with the pregnancy at that point.”
Nate shook his head as though he couldn’t quite comprehend everything he was hearing. “I thought you two weren’t planning on having any.”
“She changed her mind because she loves everyone else’s kids so much,” Henry explained. “She decided we could have one. Nate, we’ve been trying for a while. She’s had two miscarriages. God, I can’t tell her. I can’t be the reason we lose another baby. I fucking can’t.”
Nate put a hand on Henry’s shoulder. “Then you won’t. We’ll fix this. I don’t give a shit who you were before. You’re Henry now and you belong to Bliss. So go get cleaned up. I’ll tell Nell you got caught in the crossfire. I’ll make it look good. This was a robbery. Seth is a wealthy man. Everyone will buy it. Go take a shower. She can’t see you like this. And the ambulance is here. Be quick. She’ll be over here in a minute.”
Henry nodded and walked back toward the master bath.
Nate smiled down at him. “So now that you’ve been back for a while, is everything the way you remember it?”
Just the same. “Yep. Gorgeous mountains. Beautiful women. High body count. Some things never change.”
* * * *
Logan looked out over the assembled crowd and wondered how he was going to get through the next few minutes. He hadn’t intended to make his confession today, but Holly and Caleb and Alexei were here. And Jen and Stef were here. When would he get them all in the same place again? And he couldn’t wait any longer. He had to get it out. Something fundamental had changed inside him, and the need to tell the truth had become a fire in his blood.
His moms were here. He wished they didn’t have to know this truth about him. But it was good. Confession was good for the soul. He hoped.
His ma was covering Seth with a quilt she’d made. Hospital blankets weren’t nice enough for Teeny Green. And Momma was watching him with suspicious eyes, as though she knew he had something to say.
“Whoa. Is this what it looks like when you buy a damn hospital, Seth?” Jamie walked in the room followed by Hope and Noah, who carried a tote bag in his right hand, proving he was totally trustworthy. He’d found what Logan had been looking for. Jamie caught sight of Momma and grimaced. “Sorry about the ‘damn,’ Momma Marie.”
“You speak nice around ladies, James Glen,” his momma shot back. Everyone else was giggling at the sight of a grown man with his own ranch flushing like a schoolboy who’d been caught doing something naughty, but Logan understood.
“He didn’t buy the hospital. He merely made a nice-sized donation, since apparently so many of you end up in here,” Georgia explained.
She was sitting on the hospital bed, her hand wrapped in Seth’s. Since he’d come out of his surgery, neither one of them had left the hospital. Two days later and Georgia had managed to grease
the wheels enough to get a double room converted into a nice big suite for all future Bliss patients, courtesy of the new Seth Stark wing of the hospital. Actually, she’d convinced them to make two since gunfights had become a regular occurrence in town. Her brother was quietly recovering in the suite next door. He was grumpy and caustic to the nurses. All of them except Naomi. When Naomi walked in, Logan had noticed that Win was suddenly on his best behavior.
“He seems like he’s trying to buy the whole town,” Stef grumbled.
“Hush, babe.” Jen Talbot had a smile on her face. She pretty much always did, as though the world amused her to no end. She settled her hand on her belly. She looked ready to pop, but someone had told Logan that she still had some time left.
Would she find what he had to say next amusing?
“I think Stef here just likes to be the richest man in town.” Caleb snorted Stef’s way. “Not that he is. My bank account is way bigger.”
Stef rolled his gray eyes. “Yeah, well, you’re also the stingiest man in town.”
Caleb shrugged. “Hey, it’s how I keep being the richest man in town. I don’t go around buying a bunch of crap.”
“Except for the massive cabin, all the new medical equipment, and the brand-spanking-new ambulance,” Holly murmured.
“Do not to be forgetting the new bed. Yes, that was good purchase. That bed is not a California kingdom. It is much bigger. I swear this new bed is from Russia,” Alexei said with a smile and his patented bad English. “It is bed for Russian acrobats.”
Momma looked at the big Russian. “Are you going to start talking nasty around the young’uns, Markov?”
The ex-Russian mobster shook his head. “Oh, no. It is plain to see Miss Georgia here is very innocent.”
Georgia didn’t even blush. “Thank you. I am a delicate flower.”
Holly laughed. “Sorry about that. Neither one of them has a sense of decorum.” She stood up. “Seth, I’m glad to hear they’re letting you go tomorrow. I’m going to take my gorgeous monsters home. I look forward to the makeover party.”
