Firstborn (20 page)

“I’m allowed to whine.  I thought I was going to lose you, you know.  And I’ve even grown fond of Will.  I think it’s his PhD that makes him so charming.”

The two women giggled together.

“We’re getting married.”

“I heard.”

“Fiji wedding.  Do you need a vacation?”

Taryn’s face lit up at the prospect of helping to plan a destination wedding and to reap the
travel benefits as the maid of honor.

“Sooner rather than later.  We’re thinking next month.”

“That’s not nearly enough time for me to meet Prince Charming so that I can bring him along for some island romance and beautiful sunsets.”

Jac laughed.  “You could always call your mechanic.  You admitted he was hot.”

He definitely got her blood stirring, Taryn thought to herself.  But he had a knack for infuriating her.  She hadn’t shared her second encounter with anyone else.  She wasn’t sure what to make of it herself just yet.  Instead of responding to her sister, she pulled out a small square box.

“What is that?” Jac cooed.

“It’s a Thank God You Didn’t Get Yourself Killed Even Though You’re a Dimwit gift.  I picked it out myself.”

Jac removed the purple colored ribbon and popped open the jewelry box.  Inside lay a beautiful necklace.  It was an amethyst stone on a silver chain.  And when she lifted it out of the box, she realized that the symbol of the
triskele was engraved in the stone.

“I love it.”

“I had a dream about Mom last week.  She suggested it.  What made you choose that particular symbol as the name of your store?” Taryn asked, never having shown much interest in it before.

“It’s got a number of meanings, and that meaning changes depending on the period of time and the organization using it.”

“Are you familiar with the triple goddess?”

Jac
looked up into her sister’s flame blue eyes with surprise.  “I’m surprised that you’re familiar with that term.  What is this new interest of yours?”

“The triple goddess,” she urged her sister.

“Maiden, mother, and crone.  It’s about the powers of women in their various stages.  Others believe that the triskele has a connection with pregnancy and its trimesters.”

“I thought it was an appropriate symbol given our family history and our future.”

“You, me, and mom,” Jac suggested as the triple goddess.

Taryn smirked and nodded.  “More or less.”

Jac studied her sister curiously before concluding, “You’ve had a vision.”

Taryn put her hand in her sister’s.  “I have.  I think that it’s time I accept them.  Given the future of this baby, I might even have to embrace the visions.”

***

Less than an hour later, Taryn slid into a booth across from a tall man with hair that had once been dark.  Now, he bore a full head of silver hair and preferred to use it as a reason to garner even more respect.  Not that he needed any help in that area.

“Did you talk to your sister?” he greeted. 

“I just left her at home.”

“How does she look?”

Taryn shrugged.  “She’s fine, if that’s what you’re asking.”

He sipped his coffee and refused to answer.  He wasn’t typically a man who avoided affection, but his eldest daughter’s daring tactics to rescue a client had been particularly nerve-wrecking.  And when she lay there helpless in a hospital bed and introduced the client to him as her fiancée and the father of her baby, a small part of his heart broke.  If Taryn had been the brains and brawn of the two girls, then Jaclyn had been the heart and soul.  She reminded him so much of their mother, and he shuddered to think how close he had come to losing her.

“How long are you going to avoid speaking to her?” Taryn accused.

He raised his eyes suddenly and willfully.  “I’m not giving her the silent treatment,” he protested.  “I’m merely cooling my jets and giving her a chance to come to her senses.  She’s been traumatized and cannot seriously mean to marry that stranger.”

“He’s not exactly a stranger, Dad.  They’ve worked closely with each other for many weeks now.  Just because you didn’t get to know him over a consult and just because you weren’t the one to recognize how perfect they are for each other doesn’t mean that they are screwing things up.”

“I’m not a complete ass, Taryn.”

“Not completely,” she agreed with a dry twist of her lips.

“I know that you and your sister are adults.  I just also want to be able to keep you safe, even from heartbreak.”

She looked sympathetically at her father and smiled sweetly.  “You can’t protect us from heartbreak any more than you could keep us from sneaking out of our bedroom windows late at night to go to a party with underage drinking.”

He frowned at her immediately.  “Are you speaking hypothetically?”

“Of course,” she answered with a patronizing pat to his hand on the table.  “The point is that you need to leave Jac alone.  She’s a big girl and can make her own choices when it comes to love.  In the meantime,
I’m a bit psychic and I happen to have gotten a vision that suggested that you didn’t want to meet to complain about the fact that your twenty-eight-year-old daughter had the audacity to select her own future husband without first asking for your recommendations and then for your blessing.  So what’s up?”

“I want your read on the situation.  Did we avert a disaster or did we merely
delay the inevitable?  I don’t want this coming back to bite any of us in the ass.”

She nodded, understanding his concern.  The prospect of an entire militant organization coming after
one of their own with the arsenal of weapons they undoubtedly had access to, it was a certain death.  And since Jac had survived the attack and had gone home, she was an even easier target.

“All evidence suggests that Adam Holt was working with only two other militia members on this, both of whom are now dead.  Everything looks good, Dad.  I think it’s safe to say that the threat has been eliminated.”

He rubbed the scruff on his chin thoughtfully, ignoring the rasping sound he was making.  “I still want detail on them.”

“If you’re sure.”  She clearly did not agree with him.

“Permission to speak freely,” he suggested gruffly.

She smirked at his decision to revert to his old military speak.  “If Jac realizes you still have security guards following them around, and she will realize it, she will kill you.”

“Sounds like that’s between Jac and me, doesn’t it?”

“Dad, I’m eighty-five percent sure that none of the other militia members are privy to the prophecy and will, therefore, be leaving Jac and Will alone.  And their baby, as well.”

“Are you willing to gamble your nephew’s life over that other fifteen percent?”

The typically warm and affectionate Joe MaCall had been gruff and crotchety since Jac had shared her news with him.  He seemed to truly be floundering with the concept of his daughter being old enough to make such important decisions on her own.  Personally, Taryn suspected he was wounded that she hadn’t asked for his advice or his approval.

“What do you recommend?”

He sipped his coffee again, shifting into MSC mode.  “I recommend security detail on each of them as well as the house and
both offices.  I want a scheduled drive-by to monitor the details, as well.  It would be easier to run detail if Jac and Will knew about it and supported it, but I suspect that she will refuse our assistance.  And it’s easier to ask forgiveness of her than it is permission.”

Taryn had to admit that it couldn’t hurt to assign the detail, except that it was going to take manpower and, therefore, money.  MSC wasn’t hurting, but it seemed irresponsible to spend so needlessly.

Her father recognized her doubt.  “Holt had access to phone records and text messages.  He hinted at unlimited resources.  I’m not such a fool that I cannot believe a militia doesn’t have access to resources of their own, but something tells me that there is someone else involved.”

Taryn had to admit that he had a point.  “You’re the expert,” she finally admitted.

“And I want you in charge of the detail.”

That was just great.  Now when Jaclyn realized what was happening right under her nose, she wasn’t going to just kill her dad.  She would be going after her sister, as well.

***

The following morning, Will woke her from his bed and dangled a bag with fresh bagels over her head. 

“I have fresh baked goods,” he taunted.

“My gold star for saving your life, Dr. PhD?” she teased.

“I have to admit to something.  It’s been driving me mad with guilt for the last two days, and I need to get it off of my chest.”

“You do have an exquisite chest.”  She lifted her hand to run them over the muscles in his chest now covered with the thin cotton of his t-shirt.  “Get me the cream cheese.  I’d rather have this for breakfast.”

He laughed and pushed her hand away.  “Don’t tempt me, woman,” he scolded.

“Okay, doc, what’s eating at you?”

He shook his head in disbelief.  “If I hadn’t seen you take out Holt and his associate, I would not have believed it myself.  You leapt off of the floor and attacked one before charging across the room after the other.  It seemed to be in slow motion, and yet it was over in an instant.  You completely kicked ass.”  He paused, but she didn’t interject.  “It was hot, I won’t deny it.  But it’s also a bit emasculating for me.  Then you lifted the dead weight of the associate over your head and hurled him against the wall like the Incredible Hulkess.”

“Now you’re going to embarrass me, Dr. Exaggeration.”

“
When you first collapsed at my feet…”

“You thought I was dead,” she finished for him.

“For a second.  But I saw you breathing.  That’s not it.  The police raced in on the heels of your sister and for just a second, I found myself thinking that for once, it didn’t appear as though I was completely incompetent while you pulled your Wonder Woman heroics.”

“Will, you were tied to a chair.  Do you think that they thought you somehow turned into the Tazmanian Devil and tornadoed across the room to kill those men while I lay unconscious on the ground, your personal damsel in distress?”

“Like I said, a bit emasculating,” he argued.

She grinned at him.  “They’ve seen me work, Will.  They know that I kick ass.”

“Modest, too.”

She took his face between her hands and pulled her in for a kiss.  “As long as you love me, you will always be my hero.  And this little boy will grow up knowing that his daddy is the greatest
man the world has ever seen.  He will learn from you and will one day, play the hero to millions, maybe even billions of people around the world, Will.  Let that be enough.”

He made a horrific picture, smiling through his bloodshot, blackened eye and battered face.  “Let it be enough?  Dr. MaCall, that’s everything.”

“Let’s take a quick rest.”

“Tired?”

“A bit,” she answered, massaging her still flat stomach.  She wasn’t showing at all yet, and she hadn’t experienced any morning sickness at all.  But the little bugger was definitely sucking all of her energy.
  Even taking a simple walk in the park required some occasional breaks on the park benches placed beneath large oak trees.

“I want to take you out for dinner tonight to celebrate the completion of the first trimester.”

Jac leaned in and kissed him, slipping her hand into his.  He squeezed her hand in a quiet show of affection, and she felt her fingers press together around her wedding ring.  They had been married for a month and a half, and kissing her husband as the sun went down on the beach had been the most beautiful moment of her life.

“My mother also wants to take you shopping for maternity clothes and baby clothes.”

All of a sudden, she felt the flutter kicks of the baby.  She gasped and pulled Will’s hands over her belly.  “He’s kicking,” she cried out.

Will leaned over and moved his palm across her belly, following his boy’s kicks as he moved.  “He’s protesting about the shopping trip,” he laughed.

The instant connection between Jac and her men gave her a jolt of overwhelming emotion. 
And then she was in the delivery room.  She screamed in agony, using every ounce of her strength to bear down in an effort to bring that baby into the world.  She heard Will speaking in her ear but couldn’t concentrate on his words.  She was squeezing his hand so severely that he was fairly certain he would have some broken bones. 

And then she felt the baby sliding from her body, in a fluidly graceful entrance to the world.  She heard him cry out in protestation. 

“You did it,” she heard Will whisper, kissing her cheek. 

“He’s here,” she said to him, tears springing to her eyes.

“Ready to save the world,” Will whispered with tears in his own eyes.

In the next moment, one of the nurses was cradling the tiny screaming infant.  “Congratulations, Mom and Dad.”