Texas Tornado (Freebirds Book 5) (35 page)

He gave me his hand, and I pulled it up until my head rested on our clasped hands.

His eyes went soft, and he smiled at me. “Are you okay?”

Knowing that we just needed to get the elephant out of the closet, I asked. “Baby?”

I think he purposefully misheard, because his eyes left mine, focusing on something above my head. “Janie’s fine. Shaken up, and understandably so, but she’s staying with Grammy and
Grampy
Todd.”

“I’m going to get an orderly to help you back in bed, Mr. Allen.” The nurse said quickly before leaving the room after she made her third attempt to get James off the bed and into the waiting wheelchair.

I snickered at the emphasis on Grampy, but didn’t give him a chance to retreat. My hand untangled from his, and I took a hold of his beard, holding on tightly so he couldn’t look away when I asked my next question.

“James...baby?” I asked again.

He sighed. “Fuck me.”

I didn’t let him go, and he didn’t try to turn his head again. “Please?”

“You’re hungry for peas?” He asked with a smile turning up the corners of his mouth.

I yanked hard on the beard and he winced, but his smile didn’t wane. “Did your brother ever really tell you what we do?”

I thought about what my brother did as a mechanic and custom bike designer. “Bikes?” I asked, confused.

He shook his head.

“Alright, let me tell you, but don’t interrupt me until I get it all out, okay? Please?” He asked softly.

At my nod, he continued.

“We’re motorcycle mechanics, builders, and designers. Although, that’s our day business. On the side, we help battered women escape dangerous and volatile situations. We’ve relocated thirty-five women. Teal, the woman you overheard the phone call about earlier, was one of those women. With me so far?” He asked.

I nodded.

“Teal knew she was pregnant before she was relocated. For all intents and purposes, though, that child is mine. I made that promise to her before she left that if something happened to her, I would take over custody of the child and do everything in my power to keep the child out of the hands of her ex-husband, and I’ll stick by it. I know the situation isn’t ideal, but there isn’t one single thing I can do about it. Nor would I want to. If it keeps an innocent child out of the clutches of a monster, then that’s the way it’s going to be.” James rasped.

Well, shit. Isn’t that part of who I am as well? To make sure that children are always put first? Why would this be any different? Then the truth hit me. If he had another baby, he wouldn’t want another one to deal with...would he?

“What happened?”

My head was hurting from our conversation and my aching mouth, but if James was willing to talk, I would listen. I did let go of his beard though, and he buried his nose into my hair.

“She’s been attacked. She’d filed with the lawyer she contacted that I was the father, and left my information down in case of emergency. Well there was an emergency, in the form of him nearly beating her to death at a stoplight, and I have power of attorney now that she’s clinically brain dead. Her ex-husband found her, I’m assuming, but the man was never apprehended. She’s not doing well at all, and they haven’t gotten any brain activity from her in over three days. They’re only keeping her alive at this point because of the baby.” He said sadly.

“Jesus.” I whispered.

“Yeah, that’s only the beginning. We have the other thirty-four women to worry about that we’ve relocated. Unless Teal fucked up, which I know damn sure she didn’t, we’ve got a leak. They’re about ten people besides ourselves that know that information, and the locations of all of them, as well as their new identities, aren’t even kept on record.”

“Who makes the new identification for you?” I asked.

“IDs?” He clarified.

At my nod, he answered. “I don’t know. That’s something that Sam’s taken care of. I do know that we have more than one man who does it. We change after every three women. However, Sam’s already aware of what’s happened, and he’s looking into it. If it turns out that it was the man we went to for Teal, we’ll have to relocate the other two women just in case. I have a feeling that Teal’s ex was looking for her specifically, and he has a lot more reach than she’d told us about. She knew that, knew that he’d find her. That’s why she went to so much trouble to name me the father.”

“Fuck.”

“I agree,” James rumbled, sounding sleepy.

However, in the next instant, his body tensed, and I knew something was wrong by the way he froze against me. All his muscles tensed

“Mr. Allen? I’m Roderick, would you like me to help you...”

I don’t know how it happened, nor what happened, but in the next moment, the report of gunfire echoed throughout the tiny hospital room. A nice little hole, the size of a penny, entered into the man’s chest almost exactly where James had been shot just a few short weeks ago.

The gun in James hand lowered slowly, and screaming started in the hallway.

Somewhere in the aftermath of James shooting the man, Sebastian showed and pried the gun from James’ hand. Wiping the gun off on the black t-shirt he wore, he fired once more into the man in nearly the same place, ejected the clip, removed the bullet from the chamber, and tossed them all into the bathroom before closing the door.

“Knew he’d come here, stupid bastard. Just meant to be here in time.” Sebastian smiled at the two of us.

James cursed and made it to his feet slowly before peering at the man who was bleeding out on the floor.

I took a closer look at the man on the floor and finally noticed the numerous tattoos on the man’s forearms, neck and head. “What the fuck?” I asked.

Oh, and did I mention the huge ass shotgun?

“Now’s not the time for that, Shiloh.” James said distractedly.

Jesus Christ, I really had to work on this talking thing. Then again, I would think that two grown men would think more of me than to say ‘want to fuck’ in the middle of this kind of dilemma. I mean I was kinky, but I wasn’t into doing it with dead people in the room.

“Everybody on the ground! No excuses. Get the fuck down.” A man’s voice called from the hallway.

Was that expected of me? Because if it was, I’d hurt myself. So would James. However, that turned out to be an unnecessary thought when Sebastian scooped me up from the bed and laid me gently down on the ground, following me down once he had me there comfortably.

“Keep your mouth shut.” Sebastian whispered.

James’ body hit the floor beside us way less graceful than I would’ve thought, and he grunted in pain, which was the only thing that kept me from punching my brother in the gut. Son of a bitch thought he was funny, too, if the smile on his face was anything to go by.

My perch on the floor was all kinds of precarious.

I couldn’t lay my face down because my jaw hurt too badly. I couldn’t use one of my hands because it was in an L shape plastered against my body, and my foot was stuck underneath me.

I had no traction to do anything to try to get comfortable, and when men rushed into the room, some dressed in police uniforms, and others dressed in hospital security uniforms wielding guns, it became very uncomfortable, very fast.

“Get off her, you piece of shit. She should still be in bed. She’s about four hours post-surgery on her leg and jaw, if you hurt her any more than she is right now, I will have your goddamn badge.” James snarled from beside me as he was restrained by another officer.

The hands on my back lightened, and I was supremely grateful.

“Help her in to bed. She’s no threat to you.” James snarled again.

I couldn’t see him because of the officer standing beside my head, but I could see Sebastian as he was rolled over onto his back, cuffed arms underneath him. He had a twinkle in his eyes, as if he had a secret.

“Alright, boys. Back away from these men and my daughter. I’m Silas Mackenzie with the CIA. My credentials are...”

My father’s voice surprised me, but the man’s boots at my face twisted in surprise, accidentally kicking me in the process.

And you guessed it. Right in the kisser.

The burst of pain flashed through me, vomit rose in my throat, poured out of my mouth, burst through my clenched teeth, my nose, and maybe even out my ears.

I puked and then dry heaved for nearly a minute before the pain in my jaw calmed down enough.

I was proud to see that the man that kicked me in the face now had puke on his shoes, as well as a new bruise on his face. He looked incredibly remorseful, but that didn’t help the waves of agony that were rolling through me with each pulse of my heart.

“Goddammit! I told you to fucking watch her you stupid piece of shit. You’re fucking done.” James snarled from his back, straining to get to me.

The arms that were wrapped around me were my father’s as he smoothed the hair from my face, wiping my face off gently with a cool towel.

“Page the nurse. Tell her to bring some medication in here for her pain.” My father demanded of someone.

I was crying, but the look on James’ face had my tears slowing until I was looking at him with wet cheeks only. He looked agonized, as if what he’d done inadvertently caused me to be hurt. Once my tears had stopped though, he calmed, somehow composing himself enough to stop struggling himself.

The sharp pinch of a needle entering my arm brought my attention to the nurse, the same one that hated me for some reason, punched a needle into my arm a little too hard, and I lost the battle with consciousness.

***

James

“Simmons is gone. I don’t care what you have to do, but you make him gone. He did that on purpose. He was standing a little more than a foot away from her face. He didn’t kick her on accident.” I hissed to Silas, and then turned to The Captain, making sure they both understood my standpoint.

“We’ll look into it...” The Captain started to say before I interrupted him.

“No. He will be gone. It’s either him or me. You decide.” I gritted out between clenched teeth.

Partly because I was in a lot of pain from my own gunshot wound, and secondly, I didn’t trust myself to start yelling the rooftops down.

When I’d seen Glen entering the room, at first my eyes didn’t quite comprehend what I was seeing.

I’d been lying in bed with Shiloh for a little over two hours when she’d finally woken. I’d been getting the run around by the nurse for going on half a day about Shiloh’s progress, and the nurse kept telling me that she was still asleep.

Since I was in no place to argue with the woman, I let her be, knowing she’d get a hold of me as soon as she was able. Which she’d done, but I’d promptly screwed up by not acknowledging her. I was in shock. I hadn’t believed Teal when she’d said that she was too important to be let go. That her ex-husband would find her no matter what she did.

I’d been naïve. I’d thought I knew this world. Thought I knew the kind of scum that inhabited this earth. Teal had been an innocent, and to know that she’d been beaten to within an inch of her life, absolutely shredded me. I’d brought the concerns to Sam, but we’d done everything we could possibly do, short of killing off the ex, which wasn’t what we did.

Until now.

With Shiloh asleep on the bed next to me, and Teal being kept alive halfway across the country, I knew that I wouldn’t stand by and let this happen anymore. Something had to change.

I’d been thinking about the changes that needed to take place when Glen walked in. Although dressed as an orderly, the shotgun in his hand was unmistakable.

It was gut instinct, on top of raw need to protect the woman I loved, that made my hand act. The gun became an extension of me. It took all of six seconds to get the gun in my hand, aim, and fire. It was only divine justice that the bullet had hit Glen in the same spot as he’d had a sniper take me.

The Captain’s vehement speech to Detective Howell brought me out of my musings. “Larson’s wanted on attempted murder of a police officer, kidnapping of a woman, attempted kidnapping of a child, and numerous other things, Officer Howell. We have the testimony of his brother and his girlfriend. The man is guilty. What Mr. Mackenzie did was acceptable.”

“Jesus Christ. You realize this is a colossal clusterfuck. This facility prohibits firearms on the premises. He had to get a gun in here someway without passing through a metal detector. Which means he entered illegally, and purposefully carried a firearm into the facility. That’s a violation of the law, and the hospital has the right to press charges, which they are doing.” Detective Howell gritted out through clenched teeth.

Technically, me and every other member of my team had done the same in the past week, as well as the past four years all together. I didn’t go anywhere unarmed, and that includes lying flat on my back in a hospital bed.

It was another two hours before they moved us to my room, the charge nurse opting to let Shiloh and I share a room until our stay was over with, since Shiloh’s was now a crime scene.

Sebastian was arrested for the possession of a firearm, and since he had priors, they kept him, denying him bail.

Shiloh slept.

I guess it was good that at least one of us could. I was fucking exhausted, but my mind was on a hundred different things, going in one hundred different directions.

***

Two days later

“They’re releasing you, but not me?” Shiloh asked.

Well, to the best of my knowledge, that’s what she asked. “Yeah, but I’m not going anywhere, honey. I’ll be here until you get to go home, too.”

“Good,” she hesitated. “You should go home anyway, spend some time with Janie. Get her used to having a new sister.”

I looked at her. I was thinking the same thing myself. Nonetheless, I knew something was bothering Shiloh, minus the fact that her brother was still in jail.

Pressing the button on the side of the bed, I waited for it to lift me up fully before I turned completely towards Shiloh, who was laid back in her own bed, looking even more pitiful than she had two days ago. I couldn’t wait to cuddle her, hold her close to my chest, and feel her sleeping next to me again.