Marine of Her Heart

by April Zyon

  Working his way to cover on his belly, he took a small peek out around it. No way was he sticking his head up. That was how people lost their heads, and he liked his just fine where it was.

  He could see Spider, but not a hell of a lot else. Damn it, where the fuck was Peretti? A small chirp had him looking to where Crank was still in the doorway. Frowning, he watched the hand signals before giving a nod. Someone had stuck their head up, good to know. Now all he had to do was get there without being shot.

  Come on, Rhys, where the hell are you? he thought, planning his next move.

  For the next twenty minutes, maybe longer, he wiggled around toward where Crank had seen Peretti or one of his guys. The sniper occasionally tried to pick him off, got damn close on a few occasions, but no new holes yet. After Peretti, that fucking sniper was next on his list of fuckers to kill.

  A shot from behind him said that Crank was pulling some distraction, which meant he had to be getting close. Thank God, he really was tired of being target practice for some yahoo.

  Getting on his feet in a crouch behind an old shed, he peeked around. Right into the face of one of the goons. Holy hell!

  Acting fast, he grabbed his blade and brought it up right into the man’s throat. Holding him in position, Victor used his body as a shield and checked around him. Another goon, good.

  Slipping the blade free, he eased the body down and then moved up behind the guy. In a quick move, he grabbed his hair, yanked his head back, and slit his throat as he pulled him back from the edge of the shed. No shots from the sniper, which meant Vic was out of sight.

  Of course, he hadn’t heard from the sniper in a while. The guy was either changing position, or someone had finally gotten him.

  “Vic!” Simon called out. “We’re all clear. I have Peretti and Rhys nailed the sniper. Get your ass out here.”

  No, not right, they were missing one guy. Slipping to the corner of the shed, he peeked around and spotted the last one. He was sneaking toward where Spider’s voice had come from, gun up and at the ready.

  Shaking his head at the idiot, Victor moved up behind him. Tapping him on the shoulder, Vic caught the barrel of the M-16 as the goon swung around and used it to smack him in the face. Following that up with a solid right put the guy in the dirt.

  “All clear!” he called out.

  Laughter sounded from somewhere close. “About time,” Rhys’s voice, distinctive to say the least, called out.

  Rolling his eyes, he grabbed the goon by an ankle and dragged his heavy ass out around the old farm equipment to where his friends were lounging. “You do realize this asshole was headed right for you, right?” He took the rope that was tossed to him and tied the asshole up like he would truss a hog. He noted that the other men were tied up as well and nodded in satisfaction.

  “Of course,” Anthony said with a grin. “We just figured you needed to work off a bit more frustration before dealing with dickweed here. Besides, Rhys had him dead to rights if you actually weren’t up for it.”

  Grunting at that, Vic let the goon’s ankle go and walked up to Peretti. “Hi there. Welcome to Texas. I have a message for you from my girl,” he said, a smile on his face. Taking a step, he planted his size thirteen work boot into the guy’s balls, hard. “She says hello too,” he told the guy as his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell onto his side, unable to stop himself with his hands tied behind him.

  “Damn,” Rhys said, a hand protecting his own crotch. “That’s beyond cruel and unusual,” he muttered.

  “Get Gwen,” Vic said to Rhys. “Spider, Crank, call the sheriff and get these guys booked and in jail. Genny’s been shot and she needs surgery, now,” he said, tucking his weapon close before breaking into a run for the house.

  ****

  Genny lifted her head slightly when she heard the door opening. She was seeing a little clearer, her pain still there, but dull thanks to the morphine. “Vic?” She whispered his name like a talisman and smiled. “I knew you would come back for me. You love me too much to not come back for me. You cut his balls off and fed them to him, right?”

  “Sorry, love, no,” he said as he came to her side. Cupping her face, he pressed a kiss to her lips. “I did kick him for you, though. He won’t be walking straight for a very, very long time. Now we need to get you to the hospital and into surgery.” He moved to collect the IV bag, lying it on her stomach before he picked her up in his arms.

  “Okay.” She lay her head on his shoulder and smiled. “I’m glad you kicked him at least. The bastard deserved that. He’s going to jail, right? Rhys will make sure that the sheriff puts him and his goons in the jail?” She could be ever so hopeful at least. “Don’t let me go. I don’t think that I can breathe without you, Victor.” Genny’s words and thoughts were all over the place.

  “Not letting you go,” he said softly. “We are getting you to the hospital, though. Before you bleed out and I have to figure out how to get at that prick through the sheriff. Oh, and I kind of told Rhys to call your sister too. Sorry.”

  “Oh crap,” Genny grumbled. “Gwennie is going to have a heart attack when she sees me. She’s a trauma surgeon, though, so she’s seen bullet wounds before, right?” Her sister was going to have a flipping coronary and she knew it. “I’m not going anywhere. Well, surgery, but I’m sure that Gwennie will be there too, so you will know that they aren’t taking me away from you.” She yawned, the pull of sleep tugging at her. “I’ve never felt so exhausted, or fuzzy and weak before.” It was the blood loss, she knew, but her brain wasn’t connecting fully yet. “They need to know that I can’t get regular blood. Gwennie knows it. I have that RH thingy.” She let her fingers twirl in the air. “Negative, that’s it.” She said as if she had an a-ha moment. “Mom has the same type, but Gwennie doesn’t. I doubt that you can get dear old Mom to donate, though, if they don’t have it. Gwennie knows, though.”

  “Shh,” he murmured. “It’s okay, Gwen will know what to do. We’ll get you looked after and all patched up. You’ll be back on your feet in no time at all.” He brushed a kiss to her lips as he headed out of the house and straight toward his truck. “Simon! I need you to drive,” he called out, sliding into the passenger seat as he cradled her closer to his body.

  Genny smiled. “Maybe when Gwennie fixes me all up, you can ask me to marry you, and then we can have our happily ever after? I will get the love of my Marine for the rest of time?”

  “Yes, dear, sleep now, will you, please?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “She’s still bossing you around. I have to say I like this side of her,” Simon said as he got in and started the truck. “Especially since she gets you to agree with anything and everything she says.”

  “Shut up, Simon, and just drive already,” Vic snapped out.

  “Okay, sleep now.” Genny yawned again. “I love you, my Marine. And remember.” Her eyes were closed and she knew she was safe. “Size five, platinum.” She gave her ring size and her metal of choice before slipping off into sleep.

  Epilogue

  “Gennifer Baker, what the ever-loving hell do you think you’re doing?” Victor’s voice had her stopping mid-motion. “Get your gorgeous ass back into that bed. The only reason your sister agreed to let you come home after six days in the hospital was if you stayed in bed.”

  “I had to pee, dammit,” Genny said quietly. “Now, scootch.” She eased into the bed with him and held her arm close. “God bless America, this hurts like crazy. When can I have more pain pills again?” Genny was more than a little bit of a baby and she damn well knew it. She hated pain—well, pain that didn’t equate to pleasure, and right now neither of them were getting pleasure with her being hurt as she was. “Will you hug me? I can’t seem to get close enough with this sling thing Gwen insisted I wear for another week.”

  “Of course I’ll hug you,” he said. He shifted around and slipped an arm under her head, rolling her into his body. The other hand settled on her hip. “You can have another pill in ab
out an hour. Try to sleep, love. It’ll be easier on you if you can rest until we can give you another one. I know this sucks, trust me on that, been there, done that shit. Hell, I even have t-shirts.”

  “At least we have a matching body art thing now, right?” Bullet wound scars weren’t exactly body art, but what the hell. Why not? At least her hair was red once more, and it was starting to grow out, making her feel more like herself, which was good. “I think sleep is good.” She rubbed her hand over his chest and smiled. “Especially since the wedding planner is coming tomorrow. You poor man, planning a huge Texas-sized wedding.” She looked up at him and smiled. “It makes me happy to know that you love me enough to go through that. It’s what I’ve always wanted.” While her friend Ali wanted to run away to Vegas—hell, even Gwen did—Genny had always wanted a huge wedding with the white dress and all of the trimmings. “Have you decided yet who is going to be your best man?” It was a running joke now. The men tossing out how they saved her and then how they saved Vic and so on. It was amusing when she was drugged up with pain meds.

  “I’m thinking I’ll ask your sister,” he muttered. At her look, he shrugged. “Why not? It would shut their pie holes. Oh God, I can’t believe I just used that phrase.” He groaned. “I’ve been living here way too long. It’s already infecting me. Damn it, I need a cure for this Texas language disease.”

  Genny just grinned and patted his chest. “Oh, sugar, you are just getting started. Texas is in your blood now. It’s home now. You, my darling, have finally come home. Oh, and you can’t have Gwen. She and Ali are my bridesmaids, maids of honor, or whatever it’s called.” With that pronouncement, she fell asleep against him.

  ****

  Someone was poking her, not hard, but definitely enough to be annoying as shit. It wasn’t stopping either, just a constant jab to her cheek. “Hello there, sunshine.” Anthony grinned down at her. “Time for your meds. Oh, and your sister called. She’s on her way over. Apparently, there’s an issue with something or other that needs to be fixed immediately. Vic tried to talk her out of it, said you were sleeping and didn’t need to be woken up, but she was having none of that. Better get ready, we’re about to be invaded, and yes, you are expected to be up and looking presentable. You have,” he paused and tipped his head. “Oops, time’s up.”

  “Crank, get the fuck out of our bedroom,” Victor growled.

  “Shit,” Anthony mouthed. He held up the pills. “I was just bringing in her meds,” he tried, a little desperately.

  “Out,” Vic said, snatching the bottle. “Now. Go and deal with Rhys and Gwen for ten minutes while I get her moving. Now!”

  Genny giggled. She couldn’t help herself. She was warm and held by the man she loved. She wasn’t ready to get up. “I will take the pain pills, but I say we toss everyone else out of the house so that you can snuggle with me and we can just laze about all day. What do you think of that idea?” She liked it, a lot.

  “I happen to love that idea, but I doubt your sister is going to let us get away with that. She tends to be rather determined, after all.” Vic took a deep breath and got her a pill. “Here, pop that sucker down. I’ll try and get rid of everyone, but I don’t think they’ll want to go, love.”

  “Okay, at least see what’s wrong with Gwen. Hopefully, it’s not the venue. If it is then we will need to rethink where we are getting married. At least the reception is being held at Rhys’s place, so that’s a good thing.” Which meant that they would be able to come home and enjoy their time after the wedding, thank God. “Just don’t be surprised if we are kept up for hours after we leave with guns firing and fireworks. Crazy Texans really know how to throw a party,” she teased. Granted, they weren’t getting married for another five months, but still, she was trying to prepare him every moment possible.

  “Must you tell me this stuff?”

  “She got past me, incoming!” someone yelled.

  Victor groaned just as the door burst open and Gwen came bobbing in. “Your sister is here,” he muttered, burying his face in her hair with a curse.

  Gwen came sliding into the bedroom and grinned. “Hey.” It didn’t even faze her. “So.” She moved to the bed and settled on the side with Genny very gently. “I just need you to know that if we leave in one week, you have a fitting with the wedding gown designer you-know-who.” Wang, Vera Wang. Gwen was giddy with the knowledge she was getting the famed designer. The woman was a goddess when it came to wedding gowns and to get an appointment with her was massive, huge, unheard of even. “But that means that you need to be up and ready to move by then. We will drive to New York.” She looked at Victor and grinned. “You are coming too. So are the boys. You are all taking turns driving and you are getting suits while we are there. No grumbles either, mister.” She looked to Genny and asked, “How are you doing, sis?”

  “Really? New York? You do realize how far away that is, right?” She looked at Vic and shook her head. “She’s the crazy one, not me.” But if they were driving… “Oh, hell,” she grumbled as it hit her. “If we are driving, we should probably leave soon. That way we have plenty of time for stops for me, huh?”

  “Yep, kind of why I bumrushed over here. Now, get up and get packed. We are going to New York.” Gwen kissed Genny’s cheek, and then patted Victor’s and danced away merrily with laughter trailing along behind her. “Oh, Ali and Josh are going to meet us there. They are flying.”

  “Lucky bastards,” Genny muttered when her sister was out of the room. She sighed and looked to Victor. “Do you still love me?”

  “Yes, but I don’t like your sister nearly as much as I did before,” he said with a glare for Gwen. “You are right, though, we do need to get moving if we’re going to get there. Especially since you will need plenty of breaks along the way. Shit, we should set up an inflatable mattress in the back of one of the SUVs so you can sleep the entire way. No stress on your arm then.”

  “Honey, I will be okay. I will keep the sling on and we will be good. Besides, I will have you to lean on a lot of the way. Right?” Her issue was she didn’t want to sleep alone. She had gotten rather used to having him holding her when she was sleeping. “It just means we will stop in each state along the way for a night at a hotel. No way will I handle driving straight through.”

  Victor frowned and squinted at her. “I don’t think we’ll be stopping in each state if you want to get there in time. We can hit most of them, but from what I vaguely recall from geography class, we don’t have enough nights to stop in each one, sweetheart.”

  “True.” She moved out of the bed with his help and shifted slightly, wavering on her feet just a bit. “But I know Gwen and I know we will likely stop a couple times. If we have a week to get there, then she will rotate all of you out and we will stop after that or something.” She rolled her eyes. “I swear I think Gwen is letting this wedding planning go to her head. Just because she and Rhys did the Justice of the Peace doesn’t mean she has to go all insane with our wedding.” She liked it, though. Now if only her mother would come off of her latest high or whatever. “Okay, Marine of my heart, you up for a long ass drive to get me a wedding dress?” The men were lucky. They had beautiful dress uniforms they all could wear, and would if she had any say over it.

  He rubbed her back slowly and sighed. “If this is what you want, I’m with you the whole way,” he said softly. Pressing a kiss to her cheek, he wrapped his arm around her waist. “Let’s get you cleaned up so we can hit the road. I’m betting that your sister will be chomping at the bit, and honestly, I don’t think I can take much more of her chipperness right now. You are so damn lucky I love you.” He smiled.

  “Yeah, I am pretty damn lucky, aren’t I?” Genny asked as she looked up into his face. “Okay, let’s get dressed. If we are lucky, somewhere along the way we will have a room to ourselves, and hopefully, I will feel more like having you make love with me than I have for the last few days.” She missed that connection to him so much. “For now, we will go and deal wit
h those northern folks and then get me a dress and boot scoot home.”

  He groaned at her words. “Woman, stop with that, please. You’re killing me here.” He shook his head. Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to her lips. “I love you, Gen, but your family is a bunch of weirdos,” he whispered.

  “Hurry up, damn it. We need to get on the road already!” Gwen’s voice came up to them. “What the hell is taking so long?”

  “I’m going to kill her, slowly, painfully,” Vic grumbled.

  “No, you aren’t. I love you too, and just think, you are marrying into the weirdos and we are even adopting your friends into our family.” Simon and Anthony had become closer to brothers to Genny rather than simply friends. “For now, let’s just placate the crazy lady who has your friend’s credit card and we will let him buy my dress for me.” She was teasing for her sister’s good, and Rhys’s. They were both in the hall if the sounds of their kissing and moaning were anything to go by. “Also, note to self, get our room soundproofed and lots of locks. Lots and lots of locks. Now, help me get dressed and pack us a bag while I take my meds?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said with a smile. He looked toward the hall when there was a giggle. “Lots of locks,” he muttered. Hugging her close, he pressed a kiss to her cheek gently. “All right, let’s get this show on the road. Quickly, otherwise those two will end up in a bedroom and we’ll never get out of here.”

  “Sounds damn good to me. Let’s do this thing.” With her hand in his, Genny walked out of their bedroom after they both dressed and packed a bag. He was carrying the bag, which was promptly taken by Simon when they got downstairs. She was happy. Genny never in a million years would have believed that there could be so much happiness in finding a soulmate, and that’s just what Victor was. She looked at the men and her sister and smiled. It was damn good to be home, and even better to have her own private Marine to call her own.