“Catt?” He knelt at her side. Ty knew enough about medicine not to move her. She could have a spinal injury, a fractured vertebra, and if he moved her, she could become paralyzed for life. Anxiously, he searched her face. Her breathing was slow and shallow. But it was the dark red ribbon of blood dripping from her right temple that scared him the most. He saw the gunwale she’d struck.
“Catt? Can you hear me?” he called, bending to place his lips near her ear. She was so terribly pale. And their baby? Terror ate at him. Picking up Catt’s wrist, which dangled nervelessly between his fingers, he felt her pulse. It was thready. That wasn’t good. Very quickly, he ran his shaking hands across her body to check if she was injured anywhere else. No…nothing. Just her head. One of the most vulnerable parts of a human body.
Hurrying down below, Hunter located blankets and pillows. Plenty of them. In the next few minutes, he did what he could for her. She was in shock. He placed several blankets over her to prevent further heat loss. She had a head injury, so he didn’t elevate her feet, fearing that more blood would rush to her brain and put pressure on it. If there was hemorrhaging going on inside her skull, that would only hasten her death. With several pillows on either side, he braced her head. Finding some duct tape, he quickly used it to stabilize the area, just in case she had a spinal injury as well.
Getting to his feet, he hurried back to the console and put the throttles in reverse. The boat eased out of the channel. As carefully as possible, Ty moved the boat close to shore and shifted the throttles forward. He had no idea how far they were from Manaus, only that this was the right direction. Catt was unconscious. In a coma? Would she die? And their baby? Oh, Lord, no…no! Please, please let her and the baby live. I’ll do anything You want, just let her and the baby live….
As he steered the boat up the dark river, with the night being eaten away by sifting shreds of moonlight, Ty tried to concentrate on watching for floating debris. He wanted to hurl the throttles forward and make swift time to Manaus, but he couldn’t risk hitting a log. If they did, Catt could be killed. He had to move slowly, keep his intense focus on the river and get her to the hospital as soon as possible.
Tears burned in his eyes as the humid air tore at him. Ty stood braced at the wheel, his legs slightly apart to compensate for the movement of the mighty boat. Would Catt survive? What if she didn’t? The thought tore at his heart, shredded his composure. They’d survived so much! Had they lived apart for ten years, only to come together and then lose one another? No! It couldn’t happen! It just couldn’t. Grimly, his mouth thinned, he gripped the wheel even harder, his knuckles whitening. All around him, night shifted to a gray netherworld. He felt as if he were trapped in a surreal nightmare. He kept glancing back at Catt every minute or so. She remained unmoving. Dread filled him. Just let us get to Manaus. Let me get her to a hospital….
The world slowly came into view for Catt. She heard beeps and sighs. Her nose told her she was in a hospital, for the smell of antiseptics was familiar to her. Her body felt very weighted and heavy. When she forced her eyes open to bare slits, she saw that a number of blankets covered her. For a moment, her mind was fuzzy. How had she gotten here? What had happened? As she lay there in the silence, her blurred vision steadily became more focused, and bits and pieces started to take shape in her returning consciousness. She remembered the drug runners…Fernandez grinning darkly at her as if she were a prized slave captured for his own pleasure. And Inca…and…Her eyes widened slightly. Ty? On the heels of that thought, she moved her hand toward her belly. Her right arm had an IV in it. Her baby? Terror seeped into her awareness. Ty? The baby?
Catt parted her lips, but only a rasp issued forth. Her lips were chapped and dry. Her energy was slowly returning as her hand rested on her belly. Pain stitched across her right temple. The sensation didn’t stop. Instead, it intensified. Catt remembered hitting something. Her head was aching fiercely. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember more.
A noise caught her attention—a door opening and closing. Lifting her lashes, she saw Ty Hunter enter the room. He was holding a white plastic cup in his hand and his clothes were rumpled, dirty and sweat stained. The haggard look on his face—the darkness of a beard that was at least two days old and his bloodshot eyes—made her cry out, her voice a hoarse croak. But he was safe! He was alive!
She saw his eyes widen even though he looked utterly fatigued. Placing the coffee on the bedstand, he leaned over her. “Catt?”
She tried to smile, but found it impossible. Just his fingers wrapping around her hand made her feel incredibly joyous. “You’re—okay….” she managed to murmur.
Skimming her from head to toe with his eager gaze, Ty couldn’t keep the tremble out of his voice. “Yeah, I’m fine…fine…and you? Are you okay? You’ve been unconscious for nearly forty-eight hours.”
The urgency in his tone made her sigh raggedly. Weakly, she returned his grip. “I hurt like hell. I mean…my head…”
“You took a nasty spill in the back of the boat when we collided,” he told her apologetically as he eased himself down on the side of the bed, facing her. She was so pasty looking. From the dark blue shadows beneath her eyes and the way her cracked lips parted, he knew she was in pain. “The doctors said your X rays showed a concussion on the right side of your head. They weren’t sure how bad. They didn’t detect any bleeding in your brain, and they were hoping you’d wake up pretty soon.”
He was unable to control the flood of emotions tunneling through him. Leaning down, Ty brushed her mouth gently with his own. The moment his lips glided against hers, he heard her sigh softly. Catt tried to return his welcoming kiss, but she couldn’t. She was still too weak. Lifting his head away, he met her drowsy, confused-looking blue eyes. Her right pupil was still slightly dilated, indicative of the concussion she’d received.
“Ty…” Catt gripped his fingers as hard as she could “…our baby?” Her heart pounded wildly in her breast. Terror ate at her as the news of her condition slowly sank in. As a medical doctor, she knew that a baby could easily be miscarried in such a traumatic ordeal.
Grazing her pale cheek with a finger, he smiled a little. Tears flooded his eyes. “The doctor said you haven’t miscarried.” His mouth pulled into a trembling smile as he carefully cupped her cheek and held her gaze, which rapidly blurred with answering tears. “You’re still the mother of our baby, darlin’. All I want you to do is lie there, sleep and get well. You hear me? You’ve got our baby to care for, so I want you to do what the docs say.”
The words fell over her in a heated cascade of relief. An incredible happiness spiraled through Catt. “Oh!” she whispered brokenly, “Oh, thank you…thank you! I love you so much, Ty…so much….” And she weakly tried to raise her arms and slide them around his broad, capable shoulders. He smelled of sweat. He was dirty. But she didn’t care. She loved him with every breath she took. Ty had saved their lives.
Gently, he caught her arms and folded her hands into his. “Just lie there and get your strength back, my woman.”
His woman. The words sounded wonderful to Catt. She felt an incredible sense of tiredness stalking her, however. How badly she wanted to talk further with Ty, but she felt a seeping heaviness pulling at her. “I—I’m so tired, Ty…. Sleep…I have to sleep….”
He sat there and watched her thick red lashes rest against her pale cheeks. Squeezing her hands and resting them across her belly, Ty rasped unsteadily, “Sleep, darlin’. Sleep for yourself and for our baby…. I’ll be here when you wake up, I promise. No one’s going to leave you or abandon you this time….” He choked back a sob that had lodged deep in his throat.
Ty sat there holding her hand and watched her drift off into a much needed, healing sleep. Catt’s bright red hair looked shocking against the white of the pillowcase she rested upon, against the pallor of her skin. Still, he felt warmth coming back into her once cool, limp fingers. Just the way the soft corners of her mouth lifted told him of her joy that she
was still carrying his baby. His child. Trembling violently, Ty looked around the private room of the hospital, situated on the outskirts of Manaus. Light leaked in around the blinds covering a small window at one end.
They had so much to look forward to. So much. But first things first. Ty didn’t want to, but he eased off the bed. Leaning over, he pressed a tender kiss to Catt’s cheek and then straightened up. Morgan Trayhern had flown down to Manaus upon hearing what had happened to Catt and was in the waiting room. The man had stayed with Ty the last twenty-four hours. Morgan had had a head-injury specialist from Houston, Texas fly down with him. Dr. Rona Peters was known to be the best in her line of emergency medicine, and she was in charge of Catt’s care. Ty was grateful that the doctors at this hospital had worked willingly with Peters to give Catt the very best chance to pull through.
Opening the door, Ty took one last look at her. How badly he wanted to be home, to be back in Atlanta with her. He wondered what her place looked like. There was so much catching up to do. So much discovery lay ahead of them. And now their prayers were being answered. Easing out of the door, Ty shook his head. Maybe the mysterious and enigmatic Inca was right: the Great Mother Goddess of them all had taken his request to heart and given him a second chance at love, at life, with Catt. And on top of it all, she’d given the added, unexpected gift of a baby, created out of the aching passion of love that had simmered, unknown to either of them, for nearly a decade. No, all he wanted now was peace, quiet and time to share with Catt. That was all.
Moving down the hall, Ty met Morgan Trayhern in the visitors’ lounge. His boss looked decidedly haggard, his dark blue suit rumpled, his white shirt open at the throat, the tie removed and hanging over one of the plastic couches. Ty smiled wryly, realizing he probably looked even worse than Morgan did. But Trayhern’s care for his people was refreshing to Ty, and he was deeply indebted to the man for many things, especially for the neurologist he’d brought in for Catt. What corporate boss would do something like that for one of his employees? Not many, that was for sure.
Morgan lifted his craggy head. “Is she better?” he asked in a rumbling tone.
“Much,” Ty said. “She’s conscious now. I think we’re over the worst of it.” He halted near the couch and casually placed his hands on his hips. “Have you made contact with Rafe yet?”
A slight smile pulled at Morgan’s mouth. “Inca got him back to his houseboat safe and sound. He called me just a few minutes ago to report in. I guess the Valentinos’ boys beat him up pretty good. Inca had released him from the room in the villa where he was imprisoned, but he was suffering from a concussion and got disoriented out in the jungle after he escaped. If Inca hadn’t found him, he might have gotten recaptured. They went downriver to a Catholic mission, borrowed a boat and she just got him home.”
“That Inca woman is something else.”
“Isn’t she, though? Makes most of our soldiers look like shredded wheat in comparison, from what Mike Houston has told me about her.”
“You ever meet her?” Ty wondered as he rubbed his jaw. He badly needed a shave and a shower.
With a heavy shake of his head, Morgan said, “No…but I’ve got a gut feeling that we’ll be working a lot more closely with her in the future. Rafe has worked with her for years and swears by her. I understand Inca’s got a lot of murder warrants out for her arrest. That isn’t good. Perseus does not work with people wanted by the legal system.”
“That’s what Rafe said.” Ty sighed. “Well, if it weren’t for Inca breaking in and freeing us, we wouldn’t be standing here talking right now. Catt and I would be dead.”
Giving him a grim look, Morgan nodded. “No question. The Valentino brothers own the Amazon basin around Manaus insofar as drugs and drug trafficking go. I’m itching to take them down, but it will have to be a concerted effort involving the U.S. and Brazilian governments.”
“And Inca,” Hunter reminded him. “No one knows the Amazon basin like she does.”
“First things first,” Morgan said. “You’re thinking about Catt?”
Ty would never get used to Trayhern’s ability to almost mind read at times. Startled, he nodded. “Yes, I am.”
“You’re going to be a father. Congratulations.”
Grinning a little sheepishly, Ty said, “I heard that Laura had twins a week ago. I think congratulations are to be shared all the way around.”
Morgan glowed and shook his hand. “Fraternal twins. Neither of us could believe it when the doc did the ultrasound and found two babies, not one. Twins don’t run on either side of our family. She had them at home with a terrific midwife by the name of Aledra Scott. It was really something to be a part of….” He smiled fondly in remembrance. “So now we have four in our brood. Laura always wanted a big family and she got her wish.”
“Four,” Ty murmured with a shake of his head. “I can’t imagine four kids around. Maybe one or two…”
Chuckling, Morgan clapped him on the back in a fatherly way. “Believe me, once you see them moments after they’re born, once you hold them in your hands, you know that nothing was ever so right.” His eyes twinkled with merriment. “You’re going to get your chance soon, Ty.”
Epilogue
“Home has never felt so good,” Catt said in a low tone as she entered her small condominium. Ty’s hand on her elbow felt good, too, as he guided her across the shining cedar-wood floor of the entry hall. Her head was aching and she knew it was from the flight and the altitude. Ty brought in their luggage and found her bedroom down the hall to the left.
It was late afternoon and sunlight was filtering in through the lace curtains. Going over to the windows, Catt unlocked them and slid them open. The soft scent of the sweet gardenias blooming on large, shiny-leafed bushes in her small backyard wafted into the room.
She heard Ty return, the heavy step of his boots announcing his arrival. Turning, she smiled a little. “This is it. Home,” she said.
Looking around, he nodded. “Feels good.” His gaze settled on Catt. She was still pale and there were shadows beneath her glorious blue eyes, but they sparkled with life when she looked at him. It made him feel strong and good once more. “What I’m looking at reminds me of home,” he told her gravely.
Flushing, Catt allowed joy to thrum through her. She moved over to him as he opened his arms. Stepping close, she slid her own arms around his thick neck and savored the feel of him holding her, as if she were some kind of fragile, beautiful flower. All this she had missed because she’d been immature, stung and hurting so long ago.
“Do you want to stay here with me?” Catt asked as she looked up at him.
“If you want me to.”
Catt nodded. “I’m not letting you go this time. I’m not running ever again, Ty.”
Ty realized how much softer Catt had become since she became pregnant. No longer was that hard, defensive wall keeping people away. She was accessible and vulnerable to him now and he tried to tread gently because of the gift she’d given him. Sliding his fingers through the hair on the side of her head that hadn’t been injured, Ty rasped, “Why don’t you go get a hot bath and just soak? You’re looking tired. Remember what the doctor said? That you should take it easy for a while?”
“Casey already knows I’m on pregnancy leave for the duration. How much more time do I need?”
Hunter smiled a little and held her golden gaze. “After I get the details of what happened to us written up in a report, you and I have a lot of things to work out,” he warned her.
“Such as?”
He brushed a few wisps of hair from her brow. “Such as…marriage. We need to talk about the possibility. What you want and expect from me…from us, darlin’. Little things like that.”
Sliding her hands across his proud shoulders, Catt whispered, “I’m looking forward to that, Ty. I really am.”
“I thought so,” he replied, leaning down to kiss her.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Lifti
ng his head, his mouth inches from Catt’s, he scowled. “You expecting anyone?”
Catt twisted her head in the direction of the door. “No. Are you?” She stepped out of his embrace, pulling at her blouse so that it didn’t looked wrinkled.
“Let me answer it,” he said heavily.
Hearing the warning in his voice, Catt stood expectedly in the middle of the living room.
Ty looked through the small peephole in the door. “It’s my brother Dev,” he told her, surprise in his voice as he reached for the doorknob.
Catt quickly ran her fingers through her hair. She’d never met the daredevil of the family. According to Ty, this brother was the second born, and a year older than Ty. She knew from conversations with Ty at the hospital in Manaus that Dev and Shep both worked for Perseus. Worry cut through her as Ty opened the door.
The man standing in front of them looked deceptively at ease in navy-blue chinos and tennis shoes. He was as tall as Ty, leaner looking but in obviously good shape, his light-blue, short-sleeved shirt revealing his powerful biceps. His face was square, his intelligent-looking eyes a dark green, with thick, straight brows across them. As Catt stood there appraising him, she thought Dev might pass for anything but a mercenary. Maybe a beach bum, she mused, except for his short, red-brown hair. That was the name of the mercenary game, however—to blend in, not stand out. There was a sense of danger around Dev, and Catt vividly recalled the power she’d felt around Inca. Dev had that same kind of energy, though it was far less palpable than that of the green warrior.
“Sorry to bust in like this, Brother,” Dev said, his gaze sliding past Ty to Catt. “I just got handed an unexpected mission by Morgan. I wanted to see you before I left.”
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