Got it Bad

by Christi Barth

  Oh.

  She couldn’t feel anything.

  “Mollie!” Kellan screamed as he ran toward her, ripping his shirt over his head. “Mollie, she’s pregnant. Help!” He wadded his shirt against her belly with one hand and he grabbed her hand with the other. “Delaney, just hang on. Look at me,” he ordered. “Don’t close your eyes. Look at mine and hang on.”

  They were such an unusually light shade of blue. It was a pretty color to be the last thing she saw.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  And then everything went black.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Dressed in too-big scrubs that left plenty of room around her thick surgical dressing, Delaney leaned hard on Mollie’s arm as she got out of the car at Sunset Shoals. “I’ve heard of doctors making house calls, but never taking a patient to a house. You’re going way overboard with the TLC.”

  She slowly led her up the walkway of crushed shells. “You almost died protecting my town yesterday. There is no way for me to go overboard.”

  “Whoa, dial back that ‘almost died’ talk. You’ll freak me out.” Mollie had reassured Delaney backward and forward that the bullet narrowly missed hitting any organs. It simply went right through her side. And that—embarrassingly—she’d only lost feeling and blacked out from shock.

  The gunshot wound still earned her a U.S. Marshals Service Purple Heart. But it wasn’t officially serious, and hadn’t endangered the baby. The only reason she’d gotten an overnight stay in the hospital was due to Mollie throwing her weight around.

  “It could’ve been far worse. You’re lucky your baby is the size of a grain of rice. So while I don’t want to scare you and have you pass out again—” Mollie grinned, as she’d teased Delaney mercilessly about her apparent aversion to pain and blood every time they ran tests and even took out her IV “—you’ve got to not rush the healing.”

  “I know. But I only wanted you to call Kellan to give me a ride back to Coos Bay. That wasn’t a plea for you to finagle a free room at your bestie’s five-star resort. I feel guilty.”

  “Hey, I’m your doctor. You have to do what I say. What’s best for my patient is a peaceful view. Listening to the ocean. And, oh, not being forty minutes away from everyone who wants to help you. You’re a part of Bandon, now that you bled for it.” Mollie used a keycard on the private entrance to the Sunset Shoals Inn on the edge of the beach.

  It opened into a large airy room with dark wood floors and whitewashed beams. Two sets of French doors led onto a private patio overlooking the ocean. A giant stone fireplace sat in the middle of the wall, and opposite the bed was a comfy-looking couch and chairs in the resort’s signature driftwood color. It was easily three times as big as any of the hotel rooms she’d called home since last November.

  Which almost made her burst into tears. That people she’d come to know and care about through the—technically—criminals whom she protected cared about her . . . well, that outcome was nothing Delaney would’ve envisioned in her entire career. The tears, though? She’d chalk those up to either hormones or the pain meds.

  “Do you need me to help you into bed?” Mollie smoothed the skirt of her long pink sundress.

  Delaney hated, loathed feeling sick and incapacitated. She took charge. She did things. “I’m headed to the couch. No help.” Standing up straight pulled at her stitches with something substantially sharper than a twinge. But getting there on her own mattered.

  So what if a sigh escaped as she sank into the cushions?

  It was a win. A triumph over the fuckhead who’d shot her.

  “Is Kellan coming soon? I need to talk to him. To all of them, actually.” This living without a cell phone sucked. Yet another reason to stop being a patient and get back to being a person.

  “I’m here.” A door opened to her right. At the same time, Mollie slipped into the bathroom with the bag of Delaney’s meds and extra dressings.

  Carefully turning, Delaney glimpsed another entire room. But only that it existed before Kellan stepped through and shut it behind him. Talk about a sight for sore eyes. No uniform today, but a white shirt and tan slacks that made him look as beachy-elegant as the room itself. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “How are you feeling?”

  “Pretty buzzed still from cheating death.” Delaney clung tight to his hand. “Thanks for saving me.”

  “You were trying to save me. It was just a matter of timing who did it first.”

  “Are you okay?” They’d barely talked since she regained consciousness in the hospital. After being assured she and the baby were fine, he’d had to leave. Kellan and Mateo had the not small matter of tying up loose ends pertaining to the dead mobster. With her out of commission, Mateo had been the go-between to the marshals. And that was all Mollie had relayed. Being out of the loop was driving Delaney crazy.

  Most of all, for not being there while Kellan struggled with his first fatal takedown.

  He ran his knuckles down her cheek with a soft smile. “You’re walking and talking, so I’m fine.”

  So typical of him to deflect and put the focus back on her. “I mean, are you okay with shooting O’Brien? It’s a big deal.”

  “To protect you, the town, my brothers—shooting him was the only course of action. I know it was the right thing. Do I feel bad for his family? Yeah. Will it probably keep me up at night for a while? Yeah.” He dropped to one knee on the plush area rug in front of her. “Being with you will get me through it.”

  Now it was Delaney’s turn to stroke his cheek. Because she’d hoped it would be a long, long time before he ever was forced to make that call. “I’m sorry you had to.”

  “Have you ever? Shot anyone?”

  “Twice.” Something she’d share down the road. Not today. Because Delaney wanted today to be about beginnings, not endings. “How about we save those stories for a rainy night?”

  “Good call. I’ve got something I need to—”

  Delaney cut him off. “Any chance you can hold that thought? I really, really need to tell you and your brothers something. Are they at the festival? Could you call them?”

  Cocking his head to the side, Kellan stared at her, his face unreadable. Finally, he shrugged and said, “No problem.”

  Getting up, he disappeared through the same door and came back almost immediately with Rafe and Flynn. They both wore shirts and slacks that matched Kellan’s. It was odd to see them out of tees and jeans. The three of them packed a visual punch with their dark hair and tans popping out the varying blues of their eyes.

  Mollie reappeared, and opened the French doors to let in a fresh ocean breeze that felt wonderful.

  “What are you guys doing here?”

  “You put your life on the line to protect us, Marshal. We’re here to thank you.” Rafe handed her three pale pink roses held together with a satin bow. Then he dropped a kiss on top of her head.

  Flynn handed over an identical trio of roses. He bent over to awkwardly encircle her shoulders. “You’re a badass, Marshal Evans. Just like us.”

  All she’d done was pull O’Brien’s focus away for a split second. “You know I didn’t actually save you. Your brother did that.” Kellan deserved full credit for stopping O’Brien from hurting anyone else.

  “If we gave him roses, it’d be weird,” Rafe joked. Then he dropped into the adjoining chair. “You risked yourself, and your baby. To keep us safe. We always believed that you would. But we’re damn sorry that you had to, and that you got hurt by our fucked-up past.”

  She wafted the roses just beneath her nose and inhaled their sweet scent. “Hopefully it won’t happen again.”

  “O’Brien wanted our money more than he wanted to curry favor with a dying man headed for a life sentence in prison. He didn’t tell anyone where we are. The secret of our whereabouts died with him. We’re safe here.”

  Talk about a perfect segue. “I want you to be safe when you go back to Chicago, too. Which is why I won’t be your handler anymore. I�
��m handing you off.”

  “Why? You’ll be healed by October. We won’t trust anyone else as much.”

  “When I saw O’Brien’s gun, I acted. I didn’t think about my baby.” This time, Delaney let her left hand flutter over her belly. She’d awakened somewhere right before dawn, stricken and gasping with guilt. Wondering if Kellan would ever forgive her for being so reckless with their baby’s life. Wondering if she would ever forgive herself. “It was the right call, in the moment. To do what I had to, to protect all of you. But it isn’t the right call going forward.”

  Kellan sat next to her. “You’re quitting the Marshals Service?”

  As usual, her smart man had jumped three steps ahead. “I’m stepping down from witness protection. I can’t be one hundred percent focused on a protectee when I’m worried about the safety of my baby on board. Or later, risking my life and leaving this little one without a mother? I lived that. There’s no way I’d knowingly open up that possibility with my own kid.”

  Mollie gaped at her as she perched on Rafe’s knee. “You’re sacrificing your whole career?”

  Ouch. That sounded . . . final. “Hopefully not all of it. I want to do something working as an advocate for witnesses.” It was an idea that had barely bloomed after her talks with Kono and Sierra. An idea that she’d use the rest of her time healing in this beautiful space to fully form.

  “You know I’d never ask you to do that. Not for me.” Dark brows knitted together, Kellan patted the hand still resting on her belly. “Not for our little surprise in there, either.”

  “I know. My quitting would’ve solved our problems from day one. And you never even suggested it. Because you so wonderfully respect how hard I’ve worked to get here. I love you for that. But this is the best decision for the three of us.”

  Delaney hoped he didn’t feel pressured by her decision. Hoped the Maguires didn’t feel abandoned. But she knew it was the right one, to her core.

  Flynn sat in the other chair. “I can’t wait to spoil the heck out of my niece or nephew. So I can’t be anything but grateful that you’re doing this.”

  “You’ve got our support, Marshal.” Rafe arched an eyebrow hopefully. “Does this mean you’re finally going to stop hassling me?”

  “Doubtful.” Everyone laughed. “I’ll have a say in choosing my replacement. And all of our plans are already in place. You’ll be safe when you testify.”

  Rafe leaned forward, one arm slung around Mollie. “Isn’t that exactly what you said when you moved us to this podunk town? I think your exact words were there’s no place safer than a blip on the edge of the map.”

  “Technically, I was right. You’re all still in one piece and safely undercover. I’m putting that in the win column.” But she waited, nervously, to hear what Kellan had to say.

  He was looking at her again with that sideways tilt to his head. “You surprised me, Laney.”

  “We’ve made this beautiful gift together, you and I. From now on, I need to protect Baby Maguire every bit as fiercely as I protected the big Maguires.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.” Kellan wiped a hand across his mouth. “You just made what happens next a whole lot more of a sure thing than I anticipated. Feels like I can toss about two pages’ worth of a speech.”

  That was hysterical. Her man never skimped on using extra words. The bigger, the better, too. “What happens next?”

  Kellan dropped back down to one knee. A small red leather box was in his palm. “I fell for you at first sight, Delaney. I was a different man then. Literally. You were pretending to be someone else, too. But this chemistry exploded between us. Who we are today? Together? That chemistry’s even more explosive. Grounded in a deep love and respect.”

  Oh. Ohhhhhh. She couldn’t believe he was doing this. It was crazy. She was wearing borrowed hospital scrubs, for god’s sake. On the other hand, Delaney couldn’t deny the tidal wave of joy that flooded through her at his words—and the symbolism of what she suspected to be in that box.

  So she followed their pattern from day one. She poked at him. Just, you know, without the aggravation and rancor they’d originally had. With a teasing smile, Delaney sassed, “You’re mixing your chemistry and electrical metaphors, Counselor.”

  “What can I say—you throw me off-balance. In all the best ways. You make me happy. You’re who I want at my side, holding on as we tackle everything life brings our way. For a while there, it seemed like Fate was working overtime to keep us apart. But I think it was really just forcing us to realize how much we needed each other. How right we are together.”

  “Did we pass the test?”

  He flicked open the box. An empire-cut diamond sparkled in an Art Deco design, flanked by four baguettes. It was beautiful. And not nearly as intense as the sparkle in Kellan’s light blue eyes. “Marry me and find out. Be my wife, the mother to our children. Be my partner. My love. My future and my forever.”

  Thumbing away tears, Delaney whispered, “Yes.” Kellan slid the ring onto her finger. Then she reached for him, to kiss him. But he pulled away and stood up.

  “I’ve got another surprise for you now.”

  She waggled her finger. “Bigger than this? I doubt it.”

  “Oh, you’re going to eat those words.” Grinning from ear to ear, Kellan knocked on the door. This time Sierra and Lucien came out. Sierra wore a pink dress like Mollie’s and held a bouquet of ivory roses. Lucien, who she’d met at the festival, carried an iPad.

  Leaning on the armrest to crane around, Delaney asked, “How many people did you hide in that room? Does it have a secret tunnel directly to Norah’s coffeeshop?”

  “This is it. The bare minimum.”

  “For what?”

  “For a wedding.” Kellan’s smile absolutely dazzled her. “For our wedding.”

  Delaney gaped at him. “You’re crazy.”

  “Nope. I’m seizing the day. You said yes, so why wait? It’s dangerous out there. We’ve both got jobs with a higher than average degree of injury and fatality. There are—” Kellan cast a sidelong glance at Lucien and clearly rethought his next words “—unknown forces that may or may not be at work. We can’t control what the world throws at us. We can control getting married so that we face it all together.”

  Sierra grouped the ivory roses around the pink ones that Delaney already held. Mollie stuck a jeweled headband attached to a veil on her head and helped her stand. It felt spontaneous and passionate and altogether naughty. Like she and Kellan were thumbing their noses at what should be and rules and convention. Like they had all along.

  It was hilariously perfect.

  Kellan touched her arm. “We can still have a big party when you’re ready. White dress, tux, DJ, the whole nine yards. Oh, and the wedding rings. I didn’t have time after you got shot to get back up to the jewelry store. But you don’t have any family left. Mine’s all here. What more do we need?”

  Silly man. Guess that was another whole page of speech he should’ve ditched. “Stop selling me on it. I’m all in. This is a great idea. It fits us.”

  “Yeah. Exactly what I thought.”

  “Damn.” Rafe pulled some crumpled bills out of his pocket and handed them to Flynn. “I had fifty bucks on you telling him hell to the no for this surprise wedding. You two really are right for each other.”

  The matching outfits. The flowers. It all made sense now. Except for Lucien. Who’d thrown open the doors and stood on the patio, fiddling with his iPad. Suddenly music rang out—something lushly classical.

  Mollie put her fingers on Delaney’s pulse. “We’re good to go, but this has to be bare bones. I don’t want her standing for very long. I didn’t bring my suture kit along if she passes out again and hits her head.”

  With a roll of her eyes, Delaney said, “Really? Is this going to be a forever thing with you? Assuming I’ll pass out at the drop of a hat?”

  “Well, I figure it’ll stop being funny once your baby bump’s the size of a bowling ball. But we
’re going to be sisters. That gives me license to tease you.”

  “Sisters sounds great.” She reached out to Rafe and Flynn. “Brothers sound great, too. I didn’t expect to like either one of you. But I do. I’m in awe of the strength it took to turn your lives around, and I’ll be honored to be a part of the Maguire family.”

  Both of those big, bad guys ducked their heads in an aw, shucks gesture that tickled Delaney to no end.

  “Hey.” Kellan lifted her into his arms. “Save the mushy stuff for our vows.”

  Everyone else went out and lined up on the patio, with Lucien in the middle. “What’s he doing?” Delaney whispered.

  “My friend there got himself ordained online. He’s marrying us.”

  Yet another surprise. “I didn’t think he believed in marriage. Didn’t you tell me he’s a huge playboy?”

  “That’s the rumor. We’re bucking convention top to bottom in this wedding. What do you think?”

  She looped her arms around his neck. “I think I love it. I love you. I’d thought that falling for you was the biggest surprise of my life. The most unlikely thing that could happen. The worst, biggest risk I could take. Was I ever wrong. It turns out that I’m a little addicted to choosing a risky, uncharted path. As long as it’s with you.”

  “I’ll be right there with you on every path, for the rest of our lives,” Kellan promised. And then he carried her outside to make that solemn vow official.

  Epilogue

  Five months later . . .

  Valentine’s Day

  Kellan paced back and forth across the kitchen of the house he used to share with his brothers. “I’m nervous.”

  Delaney caressed the back of his neck. It was probably supposed to be soothing. In reality, it turned him on. Just like every single time she touched him. Including last week when she took out a splinter—painful—but the underside of her breast had brushed against his arm and totally distracted him from the extraction.

  “You planned an entire surprise wedding in less than twenty-four hours after I was shot. How could a family dinner possibly throw you off your stride?”