More Than Forever (Providence Series Book 2) (18 page)

Hanging up, I rang the next contact. “It’s time to make the next move on the 

Townsend’s. Focus on the weakest links and get back to me when it’s done.” 

Ending the call, I put the burner back in my desk. I didn’t care what he had to say back, I’d said all that needed said.
 

Chapter

FOURTEEN

I
sla
 

W
e were sitting in Luke’s
parents living room surrounded by his parents, Gram and her friend William, and Luke’s brother Adam. My boys Johnny, Reed, and Caleb had just turned up and weren't looking amused.  

Luke’s youngest brother Mark was on FaceTime as he was still at college. Obviously, everyone had heard the news about our marriage and we were trying to explain it all to them and calm Christie down, who had been, putting it mildly, devastated that she hadn’t been able to plan the wedding with me. Luke had just explained that we were going to do it again now that we were home, so she’d still have that opportunity and she’d calmed down. 

“How did this happen, Isla Banks?” Reed growled. My boys were acting like protective fathers ready to get their shotguns. 

“Montgomery,” I mumbled.  

“What?” 

“It’s Isla Montgomery,” Luke said smugly from beside me. I wondered if he had a death wish because all three of them stood glaring at him, and I knew from experience that they could be irrationally protective of me. 

“You’re not helping,” I whispered to him and then decided to calm my boys down. 

“Guys, it wasn’t planned, but I have two babies who are right here,” I pointed to my bump and all of their faces softened as they looked at it; these men were such great guys. “I couldn’t have asked for a better surprise, though, and I need you guys behind me and not planning the death, or moments filled with intense pain, for my husband here.” I gestured with my thumb towards Luke, who snorted.  

“We taught you about protection, though, Isla,” Caleb cut in and everyone in the room looked at me, including Mark from the iPad that was being held facing towards me by Christie.  

Clearing his throat, George spoke. “So, moving on. You know you’re having a boy and you couldn’t find out the sex of the other one.” 

Luke started to fill them in and brought out the sonogram photos that he carried everywhere with him now, which was seriously cute. Soon everyone was discussing wedding plans and baby plans while I sat back listening with my mouth open. The reason being that the ones who had the most ideas were the guys. 

“So, where did you knock her up about,” Grams said loudly, causing everyone to stop talking at once and stare at her in shock. 

I slowly turned my head towards Luke and saw that he’d gone bright red. The reason for that was that we’d done the math the other night and discovered that it had been on his desk in the office; something that I did
not
want anyone to know. 

“Ohhhh, this looks juicy,” Gram crowed, clapping her hands. “Please tell me that it wasn’t, in the back of the car at least? I mean that’s just not right and it’s uncomfortable too.” 

“It definitely wasn’t, Gram.”  

“Good! Cause then you’d most likely have been caught by the police, knowing the law in this town, and those torches are
bright
!” We’d all been sitting staring at her in horror at this, and not one person said a word. “Isn’t that right, William?” She winked and nudged the man sitting beside her, who didn’t look in the least bit embarrassed by this. 

The sound of retching from the iPad filled the room and even the boys looked like they were gagging silently while the rest of us sat there with our mouths open.  

“That Officer Doohickey deliberately goes out looking for us, I reckon.” She said looking like he had audacity. Officer Dooley and Gram had had many run in’s over the years, so I don’t doubt that he most likely did look out for her car now. “Has he never heard the saying ‘If this car’s a rockin’ don’t come a knockin’?” 

“Jesus,” Luke muttered from beside me, rubbing his face with both hands. Like most of the people who weren’t now gagging audibly, I had absolutely nothing to say on the matter, I couldn’t even think of one word to say. 

“So,” George said sounding a bit unsure and desperate. “Have you told your father yet, Isla?” 

Caleb, Reed, and Johnny all stopped retching and looked at me. Like Luke, they knew everything that I’d been put through over the years by them. George and Christie might know some, but they didn’t know all and the bits they didn’t know were the worst ones. 

“No, I don’t think they’d be interested to be honest.” And this was true. 

“Isla, sweetheart,” Christie spoke up. “We know that there’s a lot that happened, we also realize that we don’t know all of it, however, do not give them that over you. 

You tell them your news and you walk away knowing that they will never share one second of that with you and that regardless of what they tried, they didn’t succeed.” She may be very quiet normally, unless there were weddings and babies being discussed, but when she spoke she was wise. 

I nodded at her and reached for Luke’s hand on my thigh getting a squeeze as soon as I took hold of it. 

“So,” Gram’s said on a hand clap. “What are you calling my great grandbabies?” 

The next ten minutes were filled with the boys and Mark arguing amongst each other over which one of their names we were calling the babies. This then led to a bit of wrestling on the floor, while the rest of us watched on and Mark continued to shout from the iPad. Adam sat back, his ever controlled self, and watched in amusement as they pulled hair, gut punched, and tried to get each other in choke holds. 

“
Sayang
,” Luke whispered in my ear. “There is no
way
any of these nutty bastards are babysitting our kids; just saying.” And leaned back in the couch. 

I had to say, I was inclined to agree. God knows what they’d teach them. 

Three days later….
 

The girls and I were
heading to see Cooper, who was still in the hospital. He’d regained consciousness two days ago and I wanted to make sure that he had everything that he needed. 

Walking through the glass doors with Baz and Coleman’s guys behind us, Maya, Amy, Lucy, and I followed the instructions that the lady at the reception had given us to get to his room.  

“How badly injured was he?” Lucy asked, her nurse side coming out. 

“I don’t know yet,” Maya replied, and I would have expected her to be one of the first to know. We’d had a long discussion the day before and both of us were scared shitless, but we were being careful not to show Ren and Luke because it would upset them even more. 

We got to the room and walked in to see a large man lying on the hospital bed with bandages on his arms and one on his face with Coleman standing beside him. They’d been discussing something and had stopped as soon as we walked in. 

“Cooper, this is Isla Montgomery,” Coleman said and I had to admit, I struggled not to grin whenever I heard my new name. 

“Hey Coop,” Maya cut in before I could do anything other than raise my hand. “This is my sister Lucy and my best friend Amy Mitchell.” I watched Coleman’s eyes lock on Amy and stay there, interesting. 

After half an hour of thanking him, apologizing for him getting caught in the blast even though it wasn’t our fault, and asking what he needed brought to him, it was time to leave. I was working from home on Montgomery Co. legalities and had a mountain of paperwork that needed to be dealt with. 

Walking out of the electric glass doors at the front of the hospital, I was just about to ask Coleman a question when, all of a sudden, the world seemed to explode. There were loud bangs and the glass doors we’d just walked through shattered behind us. 

I was knocked down to the floor by a heavy body, that thankfully cushioned my impact with the floor with their legs and arms as much as they could as I landed on my side. 

“Keep your head down Isla,” I recognized the voice as Graham, one of Baz’s men who had been assigned to me. 

It felt like it lasted for hours, but it must have only been minutes because, suddenly, the bangs stopped and then there were shouts from our security with deep voices yelling instructions to each other and the sounds of boots hitting the floor at a run. 

There was a groan from beside me and I saw Amy holding her side with blood on her hand and yelled for help. Coleman ran up to us and yelled for one of Baz’s guys who hadn’t gone after the shooter to get a gurney and then bellowed, “FUCK!” 

I think I was in shock, because everything had become surreal and slowed down to an almost Matrix style pace as I watched him crouch down beside her and gently move her hair off her face before picking her up and carrying her into the hospital. That’s when I heard other moans through the ringing in my ears. 

“We need to get her checked,” Graham yelled, and then I was being lifted and the bright lights from the ceiling of the hospital appeared above me before they started spinning. The next thing I knew they were gone. 

L
uke
 

I sat beside Isla’s bed
with my hand on our babies, listening to the beep of her heart beat and the swooshing sound of the babies’ heartbeats from the monitors beside us.  

She was bruised and in shock still, but other than that unharmed. When I’d got the call about what had happened, I’d been in the middle of looking over surveillance footage that Mace had got from his man Neil in Kansas City. There was a man that we think could be involved, and I’d dropped everything to get to her.  

She’d woken up as I walked in and they were attaching the monitors for the babies’ heartbeats and she burst into tears as she heard both of them swooshing away strongly. She was being kept in to be monitored overnight as her blood pressure was obviously high and they wanted to make sure that both she and the babies were okay. After she’d fallen asleep, Baz and Coleman had debriefed me on what had happened, and the thought of Isla being caught in that made me sick. Maya and Lucy were also unharmed and were now back at Ren’s, but a bullet had skimmed Amy’s side and she’d ended up needing a lot of stitches to close the wound up. Coleman’s face as he relayed this information went from scary to fucking murderous.