HIS SWEETNESS

by Leah Sharelle

  I was proud but not surprised. She would die for Shiloh. This was something I knew for certain. Something that very well nearly fucking happened today.

  Following Lincoln, he led us to a curtained-off area. Immediately, we heard Shiloh’s pitiful cries and Stella doing her best to comfort her. I pushed my way forward and burst through the curtain first. My eyes searched for my girl. Her tiny little arm was encased in a pink cast, and she had white gauze over her forehead where a small amount of blood seeped through it. My calm was dissolving just looking at her.

  “Oh, fuck me. Shiloh.” On the bed and sitting in Stella’s lap was Shiloh, her body tightly wrapped in Stella’s arms. I took my first real breath since this nightmare had started.

  “Daddy.” Shiloh sobbed. Her little body was scrambling out of Stella’s hold, desperate to get to me.

  But she stopped abruptly, wincing as she did.

  “Shit, baby, be careful.”

  I hurried over to the bed, then sat at Stella’s feet and carefully took my daughter into my arms.

  It was a little awkward. On top of one arm being in a cast, her other had an intravenous drip, containing what I could only assume was a painkiller.

  “Shh, Squirt, Daddy is here. It’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” I repeated over and over, soothing not just her but me as well. And my brothers, too, who had crowded into the small cubicle after all of them totally ignored the request of one of the nurses to wait out in the waiting area. Now I thought I remembered hearing Darth mutter a ‘fuck you’ as he made his way right behind me. No force in the universe would keep him from seeing Shiloh for himself.

  “Daddy, they won’t let me go wif Mummy.” Her little wails cut straight to my heart. I ran my hand over her curls and held her close to my chest.

  “Stella, where did they take Charlie?” For the first time since getting my daughter into my arms, I looked at Stella, and I was taken back by what I saw. I gasped, and I wasn’t the only one. I could hear Booth growling behind me.

  “Oh, fuck me, Stella. Honey, are you okay?”

  Her face was black and blue. Both eyes were black, and one was swollen shut. Her nose was swollen as was her top lip. A small cut just above her eyebrow had been stitched.

  Her eyes were on Booth. He was standing behind Darth, and his face was unreadable to those who didn’t know him, but to those of us who did, he was fucking livid. His whole body was one big ball of tension. His narrowed gaze was honing in on Stella’s battered face. I knew he was blaming himself for this as well.

  Giving a slight nod, she winced from the movement.

  “I’m fine. Charlotte was hurt the worst. She covered Shiloh with her body and took the brunt of the impact. They took her away a few minutes before you arrived in here. They wouldn’t let Shiloh go with her.”

  Taking a much-needed pause, Stella reached out and stroked my little girl’s back.

  “You should have heard her, Deck. Charlotte refused to go without Shiloh. She was fighting the nurses and the ER doctors like a real mamma bear.” Her giggle broke some of the tension in the room.

  “Daddy, Mummy said a bad word,” Shiloh piped up without her usual enthusiasm, which was partly due to the painkillers they were giving her and partly due to the shock of the day’s events.

  Each time someone mentioned Charlie, my heart constricted.

  I fucking needed to get to her, needed to put eyes on her. Her voice said those three words I lived for, and I needed to see her and check her injuries for myself.

  “Brother, I will go and see what I can find out about Teach,” Darth offered, his eyes moving over Shiloh one more time. His teeth clenched when he scanned her cast.

  “No, no, no, Darf. Yous stays wif me, please,” Shiloh protested as soon as Darth made for the curtain.

  He turned around and looked at her. “Hey, hey, Squirt, if you don’t want me to go, I won’t, okay? Now calm down, kiddo.” The big man sat down next to me on the small hospital bed, and even though it was a little too cosy, we made it work. Shiloh and keeping her calm was our main focus here. I felt so fucking torn. I didn’t want to leave my daughter, who was obviously distressed, but I needed to find out where my fiancée was.

  “Hey, little-bit, it’s okay. Daddy and Darth will stay here with you, and I will go check on your mummy,” Creed said, giving me a chin lift.

  “Thank you, Creed. Please, tell her I wanted to be with her.” I stopped myself from saying the rest. I didn’t want Shiloh to feel like she was keeping me from Charlie. And I certainly didn’t want Charlie to think I saw her as my second choice.

  “Deck, Charlotte will understand,” Darth said quietly as if he were reading my mind.

  In some part of my logical side, I knew that. But after what had happened at the park—leaving and forgetting about her when she was injured and making her walk back to the compound in the dark with a bleeding leg—letting her believe even for a while that I didn’t see her as an important part of my life… Jesus, the very fucking thought made me want to crawl into a ball and weep.

  I sat next to Darth on Stella’s hospital bed with Shiloh lying sleepily in my arms while Booth stood by Stella’s head and waited for Creed to see how the other beat of my heart was.

  47

  CHARLOTTE

  Oh, my God. How on earth did this happen? How was I going to tell Deck? I already had some explaining to do about the accident we had. I knew from the phone call in the car before the impact of the accident that he was upset about me taking my belt off and climbing into the back seat. But absolutely nothing would have kept me from getting to Shiloh.

  In all the commotion, the little devil had removed her belt to get to me. The car behind us crashed into us, and the same crazy rogue soldier who had been harassing the club amped up his efforts to get back at the guys by going after Stella, Shiloh, and me. I was unsure how Dundee was or if he was dead. Things hadn’t looked too good for him back there on the road. What we saw looked very bad, and Shiloh had seen some of it. She knew he was on his bike behind our car, and I knew she had heard Stella and me screaming that the prospect was off his bike, so Shiloh, obviously, had been very scared, and her first instinct was to get into my arms. My instinct had been to get to her as quickly as possible. My promise to protect her with my life was not made in vain, nor had I just spoke pretty words to impress her father.

  I meant them.

  I wanted to be with her right then, but the doctors were adamant that she had to stay with Stella in the triage unit.

  The very tall man, who had appeared at the accident scene only minutes after it had happened, turned out to be a former soldier and friend of the Wounded Souls’ men. He had assured us that Deck and the others were on their way to the hospital. So I knew Shiloh was going to be with her daddy soon enough.

  It had broken my heart to hear Shiloh wail and beg for me to take her with me, but when a nurse told Shiloh to grow up, I saw red. So I did something I had never done.

  I cursed.

  Then I came close to punching her. The silly woman needed to pull her head in. Shiloh was only three years old, for heaven’s sake—but I didn’t regret my actions—well, protecting Shiloh I didn’t, but swearing? Maybe a little. At least none of the guys heard me.

  So they took me away to another part of the hospital. They had to do some scans on my back, which had taken much of the impact after being pushed violently against the large seat of Booth’s truck. The pain was excruciating at the time. They gave me a mild painkiller, and it had taken the edge off, but I wasn’t going to lie—it hurt like a female dog. According to the doctor, I had some major bruising on my back and a large gash on the back of my neck. We weren’t sure how that had happened. There must have been something sharp on the back of the seat that got me. I was sure when they looked at the car it would all be figured out.

  I had much bigger problems right now.

  Because…?

  Now, I was in deep dog poo.

  Placing my hand on my flat stomach, I
still couldn’t believe the doctor’s words. I mean, I’d known something might have been up, but my head was happily buried in the sand. And now? With what Deck had said back at the compound… Nope, I couldn’t face this.

  “Miss Jackson, did you know you are pregnant?”

  I argued with him—literally called him a liar. When they said they needed some urine for a test before they performed the CT scan, I’d had no idea it would come back positive.

  “But I can’t be. I’ve had a period since Deck and I have been together. There must be some mistake.”

  “No mistake, Miss Jackson, and since you are only in the very early stages, it is hard to be too accurate, but going by your hormone levels, my best guess is you are no more than a month along. It’s not unusual for a woman to experience a mini-period in the first few months of pregnancy.”

  So there I sat. Pregnant. And Deck, only hours ago, had told me he didn’t want any more children, and that Shiloh was fine. And she was. Completely. I loved and adored that little girl with my whole heart.

  I rubbed my hand over my belly and smiled. But I knew I loved this baby, too. I could love them both, equally. But maybe Deck couldn’t.

  My confusion grew the longer I sat there waiting to be released. They said I could go home as long as I rested in bed for the next few days. They couldn’t do an ultrasound of the baby because the hospital was small and they didn’t have a technician on staff full time who could perform the procedure. So I had to go home and have one in the next twenty-four hours. I hadn’t experienced any cramping or spotting, so they were optimistic the baby was still safe inside me.

  I had also asked them about the drinking I’d done the other night. I felt sick knowing I’d put that in my stomach and fed my baby toxins, but the doctor reassured me that as long as I didn’t do it anymore, everything should be okay. It did little to alleviate my guilt.

  “Teach? You in here?” I could hear Creed’s voice coming from somewhere behind the curtains.

  “Creed?” Oh, thank God. If Creed was here, that meant Deck was here, too. He must be with Shiloh. She had been hysterical earlier, and it still brought tears to my eyes. Thank goodness her daddy was with her now.

  Pulling the curtain to the side a bit, Creed walked in, dressed in his usual leather cut, black army pants, and chunky black, lace-up boots. I nearly wept at the sight of him.

  “Oh, Creed, thank goodness. Creed, how is Dundee?” I was desperate to know if the nice prospect was okay.

  I saw something pass over Creed’s face, but as usual, with these men, they were very good at covering up their emotions. And appearing unaffected.

  “Let’s see to you first then check out Dundee, okay, Teach? Now the scary lady out there said you are free to leave, so let’s get you off that bed and with Deck and Shiloh where you belong, yeah?”

  “Oh, that sounds like heaven,” I said just as scary nurse burst through the curtains with a wheelchair, discharge papers, and some promised painkillers.

  “Okay, then, Miss Jackson, here are all the instructions for your doctor at home, what we have observed, and the painkillers we have prescribed. They are safe for baby, but please don’t go over the correct dosage. You really need to get that internal ultrasound as soon as you can tomorrow. Now you must get in the wheelchair, and your lovely husband here can take you home.”

  I didn’t know how to respond to any of the things she’d just spewed out in front of Creed. Should I talk about the fact she had told him I was pregnant? Or the fact that I had to have an internal ultrasound—ewww. Or the fact that she thought Creed was my husband?

  Creed didn’t smile. Ever. But I noticed his eyebrows shot up past his hairline at everything the scary nurse said.

  “Come on, wife, time to get you and junior home,” he said in a deadpan voice. He settled me in the chair, for which I was grateful. I really didn’t think I could walk a metre let alone out of the hospital and to the truck.

  I sighed, then immediately winced at the effort of just sighing. Oh, Lord, this was going to be fun. If I couldn’t sigh, how was I going to work and teach dance? I didn’t have any sick pay left. I had to cash my sick time in to pay my family six months ago, which meant time off without pay. Marvellous.

  “Does Deck know about the bun in the oven, Teach?”

  “No, and don’t tell him,” I warned. I couldn’t turn myself around to scowl or even lift my hand to shake at him, but I did growl the words.

  “Teach.”

  “No, Creed. He has already told me that more children aren’t on his radar, so until I can think this through, I don’t want to talk to him about it. Please, Creed, just let me have a little more time. I only just found out myself, and I need to process everything,” I pleaded.

  Creed didn’t answer, but I felt his hand rest on my uninjured shoulder, and he gave me a gentle squeeze. I hoped this meant he would give me what I’d asked for, but I knew he wouldn’t keep it from Deck too long, their code unbreakable. Brothers to a fault. I nodded my head in thanks.

  “Okay, then, let’s go see my soldier man and our daughter.”

  48

  DECK

  I was toey as fuck. I needed to get eyes on my woman and see her injuries for myself. Creed had left over a half hour ago to find out shit, and I’d expected him back by now.

  Booth and Darth had taken Stella and Shiloh down to the cafeteria for some food. Shiloh didn’t want to leave me, but Darth convinced her there would be some hot chips and gravy down there for her. I couldn’t help but laugh about my girl’s devotion to hot chips and gravy.

  “Brother,” I heard Creed from the other end of the hallway. I spun around to see him pushing my fiancée in a wheelchair. She looked fucking amazing.

  “Sweetness.” I ran the short distance to them and dropped to my knees in front of her as I let my eyes sweep over her body. No cast, so nothing was broken. I could see some bruising on her shoulder, and from how she was holding herself rigid, there had to be a lot of soreness.

  “Jesus, fuck, Charlie, baby, are you okay?” My hands roamed over her, making sure there were no more injuries and calming myself in the process.

  “She has a deep gash on the back of her neck—which they stitched up—her back is completely covered in bruises, and a few other things here and there,” Creed added cryptically, but my focus zeroed in on the cut on the back of her neck.

  “Sweetness?” I prompted, noticing she hadn’t said a word yet.

  “Are Shiloh and Stella okay?” she whispered. I could see tears forming in her eyes.

  “Oh, Sweetness, Shiloh is fine, a fractured arm and some scratches and bruises. Stella has a nasty bump on her head from hitting the driver’s window, but nothing that won’t heal.” I got as close to her as the wheelchair would allow and reached out to lift her chin with my fingers. I needed to see her eyes. Something was up, and Charlie could sometimes hide behind words, but she couldn’t hide her eyes. “Talk to me, Charlie,” I demanded softly.

  Her eyes showed torment, holding in pain and… something else I couldn’t figure out. The tears were falling then, her cheeks wet as they fell. Fucking hell! Was there something else wrong with her? Something I couldn’t see? Reaching out, I wiped away her tears with my thumb, then rested my hands against her cheeks and waited for the answers I desperately needed.

  “Take me home, honey, please. I just want to go home,” Charlie begged me. Her hands covered mine, but I noticed she winced at the movement.

  “Be careful, Sweetness.” I took her hands and laid them gently down in her lap.

  “I love you so much, honey,” Charlie whispered as she laced her fingers through mine on both hands. Her grip was tight. I knew there really was something else going on with her.

  Being careful not to move her shoulder too much, I brought her hands up to my mouth and kissed her knuckles hungrily. I needed the contact. I didn’t think I could ever let either of my girls out of my sight again. We were going to find that fucking rogue soldier, and when w
e did, I would be first in line to mess him the fuck up. Twice now, he had been after my girls, and this time, he’d succeeded in hurting them. He would not get another opportunity.

  “I love you, too, Charlie. I love you so fucking much. You saved our girl, and for that, I will be forever grateful,” I said to her without taking my eyes from hers. “I just hate that you three got hurt because of that fucking prick.”

  “You will find out who is and stop him.” Christ, she had so much faith in me still.

  “You can bet on that, Sweetness,” I promised as I pressed my lips to hers. I didn’t deepen the kiss, not yet. She needed to heal, and I needed to get my girls home and safe in our room.

  The rest of this clusterfuck of a day could wait until morning.

  ————

  What in the actual fuck was going on?

  I’d woken up to find only myself in my bed. Shiloh was still out of it, and Darth was still asleep on the floor in her room. He’d refused to leave her last night, so I didn’t bother to fight him. I never did when it came to him and Shiloh.

  But Charlie wasn’t in any of the rooms in our suite. Where in the fuck was she? Jesus, she should have been sleeping. I saw what her back looked like when I helped her change into her nightie last night, and it fucking rocked me to my fucking knees. It could easily have gone so much worse for the girls in the truck. It did my head in every time I thought about it. She’d held onto me in bed last night so fucking tight that it had broken my heart. Her sobs wet my bare chest for half the night until she’d finally nodded off around two. She would not take any more painkillers no matter how hard I’d tried to convince her otherwise.

  Actually, now that I thought about it, the way she’d refused made me wonder why.

  Searching around the room, I looked for the little yellow bottle she put in her nightstand drawer. She was pretty cagey about it, too.

  What are you hiding, Sweetness?