by J. Woods
“I’m sorry,” she breathed. Pushing her hair gently away from her face, she shouldn’t have been surprised by the contrast between the fierce tension that lined his face and the tender touch.
“Are you okay?” His palm moved to cup her belly, his thumb moving back and forth in a soothing rhythm.
“Yeah, I had some pain but its okay now.”
“Okay. We have to go now but I’ll get you checked out as soon as I can. Maybe I can get Aunt Sylvie to come in and see you or maybe Stella.”
“Max, what’s happening?”
“I’ll tell you in the car.” Pressing one more soft kiss to her mouth he grabbed her hand and pulled out his gun in the other as he guided her through the back of the bar and out to the parking lot where an unfamiliar car sat.
“Where’s your truck?”
“They know what my truck looks like.” She watched as his eyes never stopped moving, his body constantly blocking her as they walked across the parking lot and into the car. As he climbed in behind the steering wheel, he placed the gun in his hand into the glove compartment and she could see the glimpse of the one still attached at his ankle. “Buckle up,” he commanded tersely. Brie felt every muscle in her body tense as Max pulled out into traffic. Constantly checking the mirrors to ensure they weren’t being followed, she waited patiently for him to explain.
“Ace made contact. Vasquez never returned. There was report of a private flight leaving his base in Columbia that was directed toward New York.”
“And?” she persisted when it seemed as though he wasn’t going to continue.
“And it never made it. That was on Monday. We’ve been searching for him since - it’s like he’s a fucking ghost.”
“He’s here, Max.”
“What?” He turned a fierce frown on her, the low simmering anger that was burning in her eyes was now aflame, burning hot and bright.
“I think I ran into him. He was outside of my building the day we went to the doctors. I bumped into him and I just thought I was being clumsy, not paying attention. And he seemed normal, but he had an accent and these dark, cold eyes.” As she continued to ramble on quickly, purposely not allowing him to chastise her about not telling him, what Max didn’t see was the dark tinted van that was weaving in and out of traffic with one target in mind.
Brie watched as Max remained silent, unblinking as he kept his eyes glued to the road in front of him. Taking a chance she reached out and placed her palm on his thigh. “Max?” When he didn’t respond she let out an audible sigh and pulled her hand away to ring in her lap. Staring out the window, she felt the need to explain. “I didn’t tell you because I forgot. Honestly. I wasn’t trying to hide it from you or anything - I’m not an idiot. I get that this is a serious situation. It’s just that you came to my office and I hadn’t seen you and then we went to the doctors and I forgot about it in the joy of the day.” She heard her voice crack on the last word, the weight of what was happening finally resting upon her shoulders. Staring out her window, she looked down when she felt his big hand envelope hers. Entwining their fingers, he pressed his lips to the back of her hand. As he opened his mouth to say something, Brie was launched forward in her seat from the impact of another car slamming into them. Distantly she heard Max yell her name before she conceded to the darkness.
Feeling her eyes flutter she heard herself moan in pain before coughing on the smoke that was floating in through the shattered windshield. And that was when she realized they were upside down.
“Max?” she croaked. Turning her head she saw him still in his seatbelt, his eyes closed as blood ran sluggishly from his head. “Max?” she said in a louder, more panicked tone until she was repeating his name over and over, hoping, praying he would open his eyes. Reaching out she gripped his shoulder, desperately trying to shake him awake. His limp hands shook with the movement, the blood from his head dripping onto her arm. She heard herself begging, pleading for him to wake up through the panic that he wasn’t. Feeling the tears run in a hot stream down her cheeks she shook her head, not wanting to believe the thoughts that were increasingly persistent in her throbbing head. Looking around for help, she did a double take when she saw the same man who had followed her to the bar, limp around the overturned black van clutching his injured arm. His face was bruised underneath the blood that stained the skin around his eye, but it was the gun in his hand that Brie couldn’t take her eyes off of. Maintaining his focus on the car, he started toward them.
“Max... Max please. It’s time to get up now. Bad guy at three o’clock. Max!” Looking back he was close enough now that she could see his leg was badly injured, his jeans stained a dark red. She could also see it didn’t matter. He had a job to do. And that job was to take Max’s life. The man who promised he was exclusively hers. Her love.
Like hell.
Reaching for the glove compartment she struggled to pull it open, the car too crumpled and stubborn to give way. Screaming in frustration she hit the hard plastic of the dashboard when her eyes caught the gleam of black above her. Reaching for Max’s ankle she pulled the smaller weapon from its holster. Taking in a shaky breath she ignored the tremor in her hands. Through blurred vision, she tilted her head at an awkward angle to see the man better when her eyes targeted on raised gun in his hand and aim it at Max’s unresponsive form. Distantly in the background she could hear the wail of sirens approaching when instantly they were drowned out by gunshots.
Brie watched as the man moved his surprised eyes to her before he fell to his knees, the heavy black weapon falling from his fingers as the bloom of red spread across his smoke stained white t shirt. She realized the gun was still aimed at his still body, her breathing heavy as tears ran tracks down her cheeks.
“Brie? Brie!” Turning the gun on the male voice she was immediately relieved of her weapon as she stared into Nate’s worried eyes.
“Okay, sweetheart. You did a really good job. We’re going to cut you out of here okay?” She nodded her head turning to see Aiden on the other side of the car, his fingers pressed against Max’s neck before a palpable sense of relief washed over him.
“He’s going to be alright. Let’s get you out of here.”
Less than a minute later she was pulled from the car and put into an ambulance. Without Max. No one would let her see him and the last image she had before she was whisked away to the hospital was his unmoving form laid out on a stretcher while paramedics, including his sister, busied around him.
Chapter Eighteen
Max opened his eyes to find himself strapped to a stretcher and being pushed through the emergency room doors of the hospital. Stella was beside him gripping his fingers as she called out orders. Squeezing them back she looked down at him and he could see the relief in her eyes followed by the poorly masked concern.
“Welcome back, sunshine.” An elderly female doctor took his vitals as they moved him into a room. His head throbbed like he’d been hit by a baseball bat as he tried to remember what happened. Transferring him to the bed they hooked him up to machines and just as the younger nurse was about to stick an IV into his hand he shot straight up, pulling the cardiac cords from his chest.
“Brie,” he demanded.
“Max, she’s fine. You can see her once we get you settled, I’ll bring her in myself,” his sister placated.
“No.” He moved to get out of the bed when the doctor placed a hand on his leg.
“Mr. Savage. It is very important we get you hooked up to the IV. I need to be able to assess you. You were in a very serious car accident...”
“I don’t give a fuck about me. What I do care about is my fiancée. You’re not sticking anything in me until I see her. I need to see her. Now.”
“Fiancée?” Stella asked with curiosity.
“Now,” he repeated. He watched his sister look to the doctor.
“I suggest you do as he says. He can be quite stubborn. This will all go better for everyone if you get her in here.” The doctor rolled her ey
es and huffed out a frustrated breath before storming out of the room. Max swung his legs off the bed, prepared to get up and tear the hospital apart to find her. He needed to see her, to make sure she was okay. He wasn’t even sure what happened but he hated that he was an asshole to her before the accident. He was just so mad at her that she didn’t tell him, that she was disobeying what he told her to do.
“Max, sit back down,” his brother commanded as he walked in, blood staining his shirt. His heart plummeted, hoping it was anyone’s but Brie’s. “It’s yours. Relax, she’s fine,” Nate informed him. Breathing a sigh of relief, Max felt his knees hit the back of the bed as he stumbled backward. Just as he opened his mouth to protest, to tell his brother that no one was going to keep him in this room Nate dropped a bomb.
“She killed him.”
“What? Who killed who?”
“Brie. She shot Vasquez’s man.” Max’s hand flew to his head as he squeezed his eyes shut against the searing pain that shot through his skull.
“Okay Mr. Savage, I’m going to need to hook you up to the IV now. It also contains pain medication that may make you a bit drowsy.”
“No!” he barked at the nurse. Moving to get up again, he heard her sweet voice before she stepped into his room. Everyone disappeared the minute he laid eyes on her slightly bruised face, her concerned eyes meeting his.
“Max?” She moved quickly over to him, pushing him back down on the bed as her hands moved to cup his jaw. “Oh my god. Look at your face.” He hadn’t had a chance to look in the mirror but he could feel the baseball sized lump growing at his temple. Their lips met in an urgency Max had never felt before. An urgency that demanded reassurance. He tasted the salt from Brie’s tears and he pulled back, ignoring the needle the nurse was sliding into his hand.
“Brie?” She shook her head. His heart clenched hearing the hitch in her breathing. “Baby, what is it?”
“Mr. Savage, we’ve hooked you up to a bag of antibiotics. It may make you a bit drowsy but you need to rest.”
“What? No, I need you to check out Brie...”
“Max, it’s okay. I’ve already been released with a perfect bill of health, just a few bruises.” She leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his split lip. “Do as they say, please. I need you better,” she pleaded in a whisper only for him to hear.
“I’m fine,” he muttered in attempt to argue.
“You’re so stubborn. Think of it this way, the sooner you do as they say, the sooner we can get out of here. And go home.” He let out a surrendering sigh as his thumb swiped through the dampness lining her cheeks. “Thank you,” she mouthed. He watched the nurse send her a grateful smile before leaving them alone. He didn’t know when his family had left but as he looked around, it was only the two of them.
“Are you okay?” he asked her then. “Nate told me briefly what happened. I’m so sorry Brie - that should have been me. You shouldn’t have had to do that, but I’m so proud of you.” He felt her slightly lean into him as if the weight of the situation rested fully on her shoulders.
“You should be lying down,” she said, avoiding his question.
“I’ll lie down once you answer me.” He stared into her exhausted blue eyes silently both challenging and pleading with her to talk to him.
“I’m okay.” She let out a rough breath before he guided her to sit on the bed next to him. Entwining their fingers he waited patiently for her to continue. “I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never even held a gun before today, let alone fired one. But it makes me sick to think of what could have happened... of losing you.”
“That’s not going to happen, Brie.”
“But it almost did Max. You weren’t waking up and I was so scared that you were already gone. And now... I mean, it’s not over is it?”
“No, it’s not over. But it’s close. That man tonight, he was Vasquez’s last known man and now that we know where he is, we’ll be able to take better security measures.”
“Max, I will not lose you, not to this. Do you understand?” He tried to contain his smile at the intensity in her voice. “I get that I’m in this now, that this is you, your job with the danger and the bad guys and the guns and all that. It’s all been made quite clear to me. But I’m warning you right now, if Blue and I lose you to...” He didn’t give her a chance to finish her sentence. He shouldn’t want her as bad as he did in that moment, hooked up to an IV in a hospital bed but the fire in her eyes made him want to pull her on top of him as he ripped the clothes from her gorgeous body. Instead he settled for a hungry kiss, one that let her know exactly what he was feeling. Pulling back he rested his forehead against hers.
“I love you, so much.”
“I love you,” she returned, her eyes drowsy from his kiss, a lazy desirous smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
“Come.” He pulled her more fully onto his lap as he fixed the bed so they were half lying down. Closing his eyes he wrapped his arm around her, his other hand palming her belly as she rested her head against his chest. “I called you my fiancée,” he admitted into the silence. She lifted her head with a raised eyebrow and a curious smile.
“Did you, now?”
“I did.”
“Hmm...”
“What do you think about that?” She leaned up and pressed her lips against his jaw before resting her head back on his chest.
“I think you’re not getting away without asking me properly.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he told her, chuckling into her hair. “Can you do me a favour and grab my phone? It should be in the pocket of my leather jacket.”
“Sure.” She pushed herself up and off the bed and Max watched with a knowing smile. Rummaging through his pockets, she kept her back to him, muttering about not knowing where his phone was. “Try the inside pocket.” Instantly her body stilled as her fingers found it. Turning around slowly her eyes never left the small black velvet box that now sat in the palm of her hand. Max forced himself to sit up, swallowing the urge to wince when fire lanced through his ribs. Pushing himself off the bed he lowered himself so he kneeled in front of her. Gently taking the box from her hand he opened it before sliding the sparkling rock onto her finger.
“Brie, my love. You were the last thing I saw coming when you stole my heart so many months ago only to realize you were the one I’d been waiting for. You make my every day brighter and I can’t imagine another without you wearing my ring and accepting my promise of forever. Marry me, Brie.” She stared down at him with tears in her eyes and slowly he watched as her disbelieving smile turned into a mask of pain.
***
Brie didn’t know what was happening. All she felt in what was supposed to be one of the happiest moments of her life was the searing pain that shot through her belly. Letting out a strangled moan her arm gripped the side of the bed while her other wrapped around her stomach. Suddenly she looked down and beneath her skirt she could see the slow trail of warm red sliding down her leg.
“Brie! Baby, what’s wrong?” Max scrambled to his feet just in time to catch her before she fell to her knees, the pain too strong and stealing every breath she had left.
“Max...” Before she could say anything else she felt the blood coming faster, in a steady stream against the soft material of her sheer pantyhose. Distantly she heard him yelling for a nurse in between his concern for her and his attempted words of comfort. She was soon swarmed by bodies in blue scrubs barking orders and before she knew it she was placed on a bed and told she was being taken to the maternity ward.
“Max?”
“I’m right here, baby.”
“Mr. Savage, you cannot take your IV out...”
“Try and keep me away from her,” he growled.
“Who is her OB?” she heard one of the nurses ask him with exasperation. Black stars danced before her eyes and instinctively she knew this wasn’t labour. Something was wrong. She heard the demand to call Dr. Dae, hating the urgency she heard in their voices.
Wheeling her into a large room, the sound of Max’s aunt, strong and confident eased some of the panic swelling inside of her. Max’s fingers never left hers, his lips finding her damp forehead as his murmured soft words told her everything was going to be okay.
“Brie, I need you to tell me what you’re feeling,” Dr. Dae asked her while cutting her pantyhose off of her legs and placing them in the stirrups.
“It hurts,” she groaned.
“Okay, sweetie. We need an IV going, stat and I need to see her on the monitor now,” she called. “Brie, I need to perform an internal exam, it’s going to be uncomfortable.” Brie looked up at Max and saw the silent conversation between him and his aunt.
“Max, what’s happening?” she whispered.
“I don’t know yet, but you’re doing so well and I’m right here.” Instantly her back bowed off the bed, her fingers squeezed Max’s hand and her mouth opened on a silent exhale, the fire that shot through her belly allowing only a whimper. She could feel Max’s tension, the worry that emanated off of him as she stared into his eyes waiting, praying for the wave of hurt to dissipate.
“There’s too much blood, we need to get her in to an emergency C-section now. Max, you’ll need to go get changed into scrubs.”
“What? No, I’m not leaving her.”
“Max, if you want to be in that operating room you’ll get your ass into a pair of scrubs, now.”
“I’ll be right back, okay,” he told her before pressing his lips softly against hers. Dr. Dae took his place beside her, her mouth and nose covered in a white mask, her bloodied gloves already discarded.
“Ready to move?”
“What’s going on?”
“We’re going to have a baby, darling.”
“Is the baby okay?”
“Honestly, I’m concerned with the amount of blood that you’re losing but we’re going to deliver this baby and then deal with everything else, okay.”
“As long as the baby’s okay.”
“I know sweetie, we’re doing everything we can.” She reached up to check the IV bag and motioned to the rest of her team that they had to move.