by Kahlen Aymes
What ensued next was chaos. Agents flooded in, and the room was suddenly illuminated by floodlights.
“FBI!” was shouted as Chase and I rushed inside and over the door into the shabby room searching in unison for the little ones. The bathroom was too close to the door for the children to get to when I’d commanded, and we found them both huddled together on the floor cowering and crying behind the second bed against the far wall. Dylan was holding his left arm with his right.
My heart broke. They were dirty and disheveled, but I was so relieved to find them alive.
“We’ve got you,” I said, as I bent to retrieve Dylan and enfold him into my arms. He cried out in pain, and I slowed my movements. “You’re okay now, buddy.” I breathed into his hair. He smelled sweaty and felt clammy, but I could think of only one other time I’d been this grateful or relieved; when Remi’s leukemia was cured.
Chase was already holding Remi and stroking her hair as her little arms wrapped tight around your neck. “You’re safe, baby girl. We’re here now.”
“Derrick Ellington, you’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…” We heard from the other side of the room as the FBI agents descended into the room. Ben got up and lifted the door allowing Derrick Ellington to be handcuffed and pulled to his feet.
Both Chase and I sat on the edge of the bed cradling our children, Chase reaching out to pat Dylan’s back, while I cradled the back of Remi’s soft head. Her long hair was a matted mess.
We were both tearing up, sitting there, holding them close until the two of them started to squirm.
“Are they okay?” Ben asked, towering by the foot of the bed.
“Uncle Ben?” Dylan’s head lifted. “You came all this way to rescue me?” He asked incredulously.
“You bet I did, buddy! You and this little lady,” he said tenderly, pointing at Remi. “Are you guys alright?”
Dylan shook his head, and Ben sat on the bed next to us, the mattress sinking to accommodate all of our weight. He ran his hands over Dylan’s arms and legs gently, then his ribs. Dylan let out a sharp cry.
Sirens ensued, and the parking lot filled with flashing lights.
“Remi, are you okay, sweetheart?” I asked gently. I wanted to hold her, but Chase was kissing her head and hugging her tight.
“Yeah. That mean man yanked my arm and hit my face! Dylan tried to stop him, but then he got shoved hard into the wall.”
I was full of rage, and my eyes ricocheted from Ben’s to Chase’s. So that was what happened to Dylan’s arm. I could see they shared my hatred for this man. The FBI agents were reading Ellington rights.
“Dylan, we’re going to get you to the hospital and fixed up as good as new.”
“It hurts so bad!” he cried and cried. I felt helpless. All I could do was hold him until the ambulances arrived.
Ben was the only one of us not holding on to a child. “I got this,” he said, rising, “for all of us. For the kids.” He walked unceremoniously over to the man now in handcuffs. In one smooth motion pulled back his arm and delivered a sucker punch to Ellington’s stomach.
Ellington doubled over, grunting as the air rushed from his lungs. He fell, first to his knees and then hard onto the floor. The agents who had been holding onto both of his elbows let go, letting him crash to the floor.
“We are going to nail your ass to the wall, Ellington,” Ben said viciously, leaning down to speak to the man he’d just put on the ground. “My nephew has a dislocated shoulder, you son of a bitch! Touch him or any kid again, and I swear as well as I’m breathing, I will put you down like the dog you are. I swear to fucking God!”
Chase and I looked on, pleasantly stunned, as Ben walked over to Agent Daniels and put his hands together ready to be cuffed.
“Shit, I wish I could have done that,” Chase admitted.
“Me, too,” I agreed.
The agent looked at Ben blankly, glancing down at his offered wrists and then scrubbed down his weary face with one open hand. “What are you doing?”
“Don’t you want to arrest me for assault?” Ben asked calmly.
Two of the officers wearing black, holstered their weapons and lifted the still suffering bastard to his feet again, and started to remove him from the room. “Yeah, he assaulted me!” Ellington moaned. “Arrest him.”
After he was taken out of the room, Ben still stood there, towering over the shorter man, calmly waiting to be arrested.
“Did you see anything?” Daniel’s asked Webster.
The older man shook his head. “Nope. Did you?” He looked at Chase and me.
“See what?” Chase asked, still comforting Remi. “It’s okay, baby,” he said, kissing her hair.
“The only thing I saw was you guys taking out the trash,” I added, my lips lifting in a half grin. Dylan was still whimpering on my lap, and I held him gently, careful not to bump or touch his injured shoulder.
“I knew you’d come, Jensey.”
I sighed into his hair, so grateful he was okay. His shoulder and the bruise on Remi’s cheek would heal. It could have been so much worse.
Paramedics came in and lifted both of the children from our arms, laying each of them on separate gurneys, and quickly examining them. Chase, Ben, and I stood close by watching. Their small little bodies looked even smaller as they lay there, surrounded by paramedics and police.
“They both are dehydrated and need IV fluids, but since the hospital is only half a mile from here, we won’t start a line now.”
I went down on my haunches to place a soft kiss on Remi’s forehead while the paramedics examined her. She has a nasty purple bruise on her cheek and under her left eye, which was swollen. No punishment Derrick Ellington could suffer, or no amount of prison time would ever be justice enough for what he’d done. I could only hope that he’d get what he deserved.
Chase gave me some space to talk to Remi, and I could hear him promising Dylan he’d take him to the game against Ecuador in Orlando that was coming up in a few weeks.
“Your dad is going to ride with you in the ambulance, sweetheart, so I can ride with Dylan. Is that okay?” I brushed her injured cheek with gentle fingertips. Remi was so precious to me. Chase needed to tell her about her new baby brother and might do so on the short ride to the hospital. She nodded and tried to smile. “You know how much I love you, right?”
“Love you, too,” she said. She nodded again. “You know, I was Dylan’s damsel, Jensey. Even more than Tommy’s,” she said.
I smiled broadly, remembering the story she told me a couple of months before about Tommy rescuing her on the playground. Apparently, Tommy was out as her ‘boyfriend’. “You are, huh?”
Remi nodded. “Yeah, and even though he didn’t have any shiny armor, he was my knight.”
I wanted to laugh out loud, but the paramedics were lifting the gurney.
“We were scared, but he told me you and Daddy would come save us from that bad man.”
I pictured the scene in my head. Dylan had to have been scared to death, yet he was brave for Remi. Love, unlike any other, filled my heart for both of these perfect little people. “I’ll see you at the hospital, baby,” I said. “Your mommy is there, waiting, too.”
We followed the gurneys out of the motel room, and I watched Chase climb in behind Remi as I waited for them to load Dylan into his ambulance.
“Jensey!” Dylan called weakly.
“I’m here, buddy.” I put a hand on his leg; conscious not to touch him anywhere near his shoulder. His injured arm had been placed in a sling to hold the joint still until it could be set back into its socket at the hospital.
I settled in next to him for the short ride to the hospital. He was clearly suffering, and I wondered if he’d been given anything for it. “What will they do to my shoulder?” he asked.
“Well, they’ll give you some medicine to make you sleep, and then you’ll wake up, and your arm will be fixed,” the woman paramedic said. Her name, Shelly, was embroidered
on her uniform jacket.
“Will I be well so I can watch Chase play Ecuador?”
I couldn’t help but smile, shaking my head. Soccer was all he could think about, even as hurt as he was. “Let’s just concentrate on healing, okay?”
“But, will I?” he asked urgently.
“Well, when is that?” Shelly inquired.
“Three weeks from now,” I answered.
“Yeah, can I? Chase said I could go on the field with him and sit on the bench with the team!” His eyes filled with tears. “I can’t miss it!”
“Wow!” Shelly said, smiling. “You’ll have to be good and do everything the doctors tell you, so you heal up. You might still have a sling, though.”
“Awww!” he said.
“Just take it easy, little man,” I advised. “Going with a sling is better than not going.”
“I want us all to go. Can we?”
“Who’s all of us?”
“You, mom and me, Remi, Chase, Teagan, and Uncle Ben. My whoooole family!”
A fresh rush of love came over me for this little guy. I wanted to give him and his mom everything they’d never had. “I think we can work it out.” I yearned to tell him that Teagan had a new baby boy, but I wanted to make sure Chase had told Remi first. I didn’t want to ruin that special moment for them.
We were pulling into the hospital ER entrance, waiting for them to unload Remi from the other ambulance which had arrived in before of us.
“Can mom and me live with you now, Jensey? I don’t want my other dad to get me again.”
My heart swelled to the point of bursting. “He isn’t going to hurt you anymore, Dylan. We’re going to make sure of it, okay?”
“I don’t want to see him anymore. He’s a bad man.”
“A very bad man, but a lot of good men love you, Dylan.” I didn’t want the little boy to feel bad because his real father was so awful. “Chase, Ben and me. You’ve got all of us.”
Dylan’s blue eyes met mine, imploring. “Jensey, do you think you could be my real dad?” Incredulity made me speechless. “Cuz… well… I just feel that way, okay?”
Shelly’s head turned to glance my direction. She smiled softly, both of her hands crossing over her heart. “Awww,” she mouthed silently.
I nodded; my eyes clouding over with emotion. I blinked, wishing I could hug him tight. “I’d love nothing more than to call you my son… son.” My throat was very tight, restricting my words and as I tried to clear it before I continued, blinking rapidly to stop myself from tearing up at the same time. “Ugghghghg. We have to ask your mom, though.”
Dylan smiled the brightest smile I think I’d ever seen. I found myself wishing, more than anything, that I’d be able to adopt Dylan someday.
“Cool! Can I have your last name, too?”
I swallowed hard, dabbing at the tear in the corner of my eye as manly as I could manage. “I think Dylan Jeffers has a certain ring to it. I’ll do whatever I can to make that happen, okay?”
“Cool!” he said again, his exuberance was contagious. “Does that mean I get to call Chase, Uncle Chase?” His eyes flashed with excitement.
I laughed out loud, nodding my head in the affirmative. “I think he’d be down with that. I absolutely do.”
The ambulance doors opened, and another paramedic appeared to start pulling Dylan’s gurney out.
Shelly put her hand on my arm to stop me for a moment. Her eyes filled with tears. “He’s absolutely precious. He obviously adores you. It’s plain as the nose on your face. You are one lucky guy.”
Chills ran over my entire body as her words sank in. “I know. I feel like the luckiest man on earth today.”
She gave me a wink, and then I hopped out of the ambulance to follow my son into the ER entrance.
MISSY
We were both so relieved.
Teagan and I had melted into a puddle of hysterical tears when Ben texted that they had the kids and that Chase and Jensen were riding to the hospital with the children and so couldn’t let us know themselves.
Dylan and Remi were both given IV fluids in the ER. My son was given IV pain meds before the procedure to put his shoulder back into place, and thankfully, it hadn’t worn off. We’d just gotten home, and Jensen had placed his sleeping form into his bed in our new apartment.
It didn’t feel like home, having spent most of my time in Atlanta staying with Jensen, or Chase and Teagan.
Dylan would be very sore for a while, but he’d fully heal in time. He wasn’t happy that he had to wear the sling for a few weeks, but Chase had placated him by agreeing to arrange for the entire family to fly to Orlando for his soccer game with Ecuador and spend some time at Disney World.
I was grateful that Derrick hadn’t hurt him even more than he had. It was horrible to think of the terrible pain my son had gone through when he was thrown against the motel room wall. The hatred I had for Derrick before only burned deeper inside me, now.
I cried through a laugh when Remi told me how Dylan stepped in front of her, screaming for Derrick to stop him from hitting her again. It was hard for me to listen to the description of the scene because it played out in slow motion inside my mind. Teagan and I shared a proud motherly moment when Remi told us that Dylan was going to be her prince forever and ever after.
“What about Tommy?” I’d asked.
She’d lifted her little shoulder in a half-shrug. “Well, he’s gonna need to understand, I guess. He’s still my friend, but Dylan saved me bigger than him.”
“I guess that’s that, then,” Teagan said, hugging her little daughter close. “Dylan is really special.”
“Yep!” Remi agreed.
I couldn’t stop smiling after that. It was so incredible, and I was happy that Dylan had Remi. She really helped him settle into the new school and make the transition from Jackson Hole easier, even if they’d argued a little at first.
Now, Chase was with Teagan and their new baby at the hospital, while Remi was staying with Chase’s family at their home. His parents, brother, and sister had all rushed to Atlanta when they’d heard about Remi and Dylan’s kidnapping. They wanted to see with their own eyes that the kids were safe and to meet the new edition to the Forrester line, little Mace. After meeting the entire clan, I had a better understanding of why Chase and Teagan needed such a huge house.
Ben was flying back to Jackson Hole in a couple of days, but not until our mother arrived tomorrow. She was cutting her “vacation” short and was adamant about spending time with Ben before he left Atlanta. Her main concern was my son, of course, but she hadn’t seen my brother in more than a year, so naturally, that was important to her.
Ben was sleeping on the couch, and I was laying up against Jensen in my bed, snuggled under the covers, with my head on his chest. It was the middle of the afternoon, but we’d all been up all night and were exhausted. This was my happy and safe place; close to Jensen.
“Thank you,” I said into the silent and dimly lit room. I was tracing figure eights on Jensen’s bare chest, and my leg hooked over his. One of his strong hands was holding my thigh and the arm behind my head, his fingers playing in my hair.
Jensen turned his head toward mine and brushed a soft kiss on my forehead, his lips lingering. “For what?”
“For rescuing Dylan. For just… being here for me. Always. It means a lot to me.”
His breath rushed warmly over my skin as he spoke. “No need to thank me,” he said sleepily. “I love you.”
My fingers stopped their teasing motion, and I slid my arm around his defined abs. I gave him a squeeze. “I love you, too. So much, Jensen.”
“I’d be making love to you right now if I weren’t so dead tired.”
“And, if Ben wasn’t in the other room,” I murmured, feeling sad that we couldn’t, but also sad that he had to leave in a few hours.
“That, too.” Jensen agreed.
When Remi and Dylan had come into the hospital in the middle of the night, we’d focu
sed on them. Jensen didn’t have much time to tell me what happened when the children were found, though he did explain how the three of them accompanied Agent Daniels and how they caught Derrick. I guess Ben had given him quite the smack down in the middle of the flashing lights; in front of several FBI agents and local law enforcement officers. Jensen and Chase were laughing when they related the story of how my brother had fully expected to be arrested for the assault but didn’t give a damn. Leave it to Ben.
“Maybe in Orlando,” I said regretfully. It was Sunday and Jensen would be flying to Bristol to do his Sunday and Monday night NFL shows.
“What’s wrong?” He shifted in the bed, turning to face me and pulling me into his arms. He kept my leg over his body, now resting over his hip. It was a provocative position, and something deep within me stirred. His eyes opened, and he stroked my hair back.
“I’m sad you have to leave soon, that’s all.”
He bent to place a series of soft, deliciously tempting kisses on my mouth. It wasn’t long before we were breathing hard and his hips were thrusting involuntarily into mine, his hand on my thigh, slid higher to my bottom, pulling my hips closer to his. “Mmmm….” he moaned. “Do you think we can be quiet? I want you so much, baby.”
“It feels like forever since you touched me…” I breathed out against his mouth, the tip of my tongue sneaking out to lick his top lip.
“Four days,” he breathed in between kisses, and then his mouth opened more forcefully over mine. I gave him full access to its warm recesses.
I could feel him harden, his dick involuntarily bobbing against me, and pressing into my leg. We weren’t naked in case Dylan called out and needed one of us, but in that instant, I was regretting it. Jensen had on sweats and a T-shirt, and I was wearing a pair of short pajamas. Jensen pushed my top up to wrap one warm hand over the fullness of my breast, lightly kneading, his index finger and thumb gently tugging on my nipple. Instantly, I felt my body open as desire shot through me. I let out a wanton sigh and bit my lip.