by Marla Monroe
Wounded Warriors 2
Abby’s Two Warriors
Abby’s heartbroken when Kermit won’t see her. He doesn’t want to be a burden with his injuries. Abby and refuses to give up despite the challenges ahead for them. Even if they aren’t married yet, for better or for worse is just as binding to her. And then there’s Heath. Will he be their salvation?
Heath is Kermit’s best friend, but he has a secret. He’s in love with Kermit’s fiancé but would never break his friend’s trust. When Kermit returns home a broken man, Heath wants to help, but with his own issues threatening his job, Heath thinks he’ll be in the way.
With her two best friends in trouble, Abby refuses to walk away no matter how hard they try to push her away. As Kermit struggles with the changes in his life, he realizes it’s always been the three of them against the world so maybe instead of pushing them away, he needs to open his eyes to the possibilities.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 58,250 words
ABBY'S TWO WARRIORS
Wounded Warriors 2
Marla Monroe
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
ABBY'S TWO WARRIORS
Copyright © 2015 by Marla Monroe
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-311-5
First E-book Publication: May 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
About the Author
ABBY'S TWO WARRIORS
Wounded Warriors 2
MARLA MONROE
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
“I’m sorry ma’am. He still refuses to see you,” the kind nurse said, understanding sharp in her eyes. More than likely she had to tell someone this a lot over the years.
“Tell him I’m not leaving this time until he at least has the decency to tell me to my face. I’ll even fight the fucking MPs if they try to make me leave. He’s not kicking me to the curb without looking me in the eye and telling me he doesn’t want me anymore.” Abby Redgrave had to fight hard to keep the tears from her eyes and out of her throat.
She was a military brat—a Marine brat at that. They didn’t show emotions or acknowledge defeat in her family. “No” was just a code word for “try harder.” If she learned anything growing up it was how to persevere. Patience wasn’t a strong point in her personality, but if it took setting up camp outside the damn doors of the hospital, she’d do it.
“He’s hurting and trying to come to grips with the changes to his body. He needs time to…”
“Fuck that! I’m hurting, too, because he won’t let me in. He’s had plenty of time to realize that life is going to be different, but it isn’t over and I’m not giving him time to build up any more defenses against me—against us! I deserve the right to grieve with him and go through it all with him. He made me a promise when he left that no matter what, he’d come back to me. Kermit doesn’t break his promises. I sure as hell won’t let him break this one,” she said, chest heaving with the effort it took to keep from screaming the walls down. She wasn’t going to let him close the door in her face one more time.
“You go right back in there and tell him that. Tell him that his fiancée is standing out here waiting to see the man she loves more than her pride or anything else,” she said, stopping only because she ran out of breath and the strength to keep the tears from falling if she said one more word. “You tell him that for me.”
The nurse nodded and squeezed her shoulder before turning and walking away. The silent swish of the automatic doors closing reminded Abby of the soft noise her last formal dress had made when she and Kermit had danced at a military function only eight months earlier. They’d snuck out on the balcony under the moonlight to dance alone. They could still hear the music, but beneath the stars and the moon, it had felt as if they’d been the only two people in the world.
Now, she waited for that same man who’d whispered all the dirty things he wanted to do to her when they went back to the hotel room to even acknowledge that she was there. She knew he was miserable and devastated at the loss of his legs, but so was she. Her man had gone off to defend their country despite the mixed beliefs over their presence there and had come back to her a broken man. Not less of a man, but a broken man
who needed her love just as much as he needed the medical attention, and by God, she was going to give it to him, one way or another.
Six weeks ago she’d been told that he’d been injured when the SUV in front of him had driven over an IAD and triggered it. Everyone in that vehicle had died. Kermit and two of his crew were mortally injured while two others were in serious but stable condition. They’d told her and his family that he might not pull through.
His parents and two brothers had been flown over to Germany where he’d been taken once they’d stabilized him, but she hadn’t been allowed to go since they weren’t married. She’d wanted to fly over herself, but the government had warned her that she wouldn’t be allowed in to see him if she did go, so Abby had waited.
And waited.
His parents had returned without him since he still needed more surgery before he could safely fly. They broke the news to her that he’d lost both legs below the knee and had a good bit of shrapnel damage to his abdomen, chest, and arms. The worst part was that he wasn’t out of the woods yet. There were still worries over developing an infection, throwing a fat embolus, or even something as simple as pneumonia.
After he’d finally returned stateside, she’d rushed to be at his bedside only to be turned away. No one but family was allowed in the intensive care unit. She’d felt as if she was no one to Kermit, when they’d been each other’s world for nearly eight years. It hurt, but she understood. She’d been patient and waited.
Only now that he was in a room and could have visitors who weren’t officially family, the man she loved refused to see her. It hurt—a lot. More than that, it pissed her off that he thought he was the only one in pain. His entire family was devastated because they thought he would never be able to do any of the things he’d once been able to. She was devastated, not because she thought he was limited now, but because he was hurting and had obviously lost his faith in everything, including himself. Well, Abby wasn’t going to let him wallow like a pig. He was a frog, damn it! Frogs didn’t wallow, they fucking swam, even when the mud was up to their armpits.
Several long minutes later the nurse returned with a tight smile. She indicated that Abby could follow her to the back. Abby’s heart pounded like a base drum in her chest. She felt as if she couldn’t take a deep breath around it.
“He’s going to see you, but I want to warn you that he’s planning to tell you to leave him alone and never come back. He’s probably even going to tell you that he doesn’t love you and never did. He’s lying,” the nurse said.
“Of course he’s lying. There’s nothing he can say that will change how I feel about him. I’ve got this,” Abby said, smiling over at the woman.
“I hope you do. I see this all the time with the guys and gals who come through here. They lose their hope for a future, and the government only gives them so much to hold on to before they’re on their own.”
“I know, but he has me, and I don’t let anyone, not even him, run over me. I’ve already made a list of organizations that are out there that can help, and I’m setting up some others. He might decide not to marry me, but he can’t unfriend me like on Facebook. I’m here to stay.” Abby shook the nurse’s hand and stepped in front of the door to Kermit’s room.
She paused and drew in a slow deep breath then let it out and knocked on the door before pushing it open and stepping through. She was expecting him to still be tethered by tubes and lines and cords but found that all he had hooked to him at the moment was the nurse’s call light that had been fastened to the T-shirt he wore.
A rolling IV pole with an empty bag hooked to tubing stood on the right side of the bed as if it might be used again later. A portable commode chair with a towel draped over it sat on the left side of the bed as did a comfortable looking recliner.
What slammed into her first was the fact that he didn’t look at her at all. He knew she was there, had seen her walk through the door, but had quickly turned his head to stare at the TV and ignored her presence.
She gritted her teeth and walked over to the end of the bed and stood there so that even though he could look over her head at the TV, she could see his face and any flinch or muscle movement he made while she talked to him.
“What the fuck, Kermit? I thought I was your fiancée? I’ve been waiting to see you since the day they called your parents that you’d been injured, and you’re refusing to let me in?” She swallowed then continued. “Look at me. We had a deal. Are you backing out on it?” she asked.
The corner of his left eye twitched and the tight line of his mouth seemed to grow even tighter, but he didn’t look at her. He didn’t even speak at first. After a couple of seconds that seemed more like minutes, Kermit’s jaw flexed and relaxed and he finally dropped his gaze to her face.
“We’re through, Abby. I don’t want to marry you anymore. You were just someone here at home I could depend on when I was on leave. Now get out of here and don’t come back,” he said.
His voice almost cracked on that last word. Abby heard it, though he didn’t show it in the cold, almost dead looking stare he leveled on her. She stared back at him then smiled. She slowly walked around the side of the bed where the recliner and commode chair sat and lifted her hip onto the bed about even to his lower thigh. She didn’t sit all the way on the bed because she didn’t want to hurt him, but she made sure it was obvious that she was sitting right next to what was left of his leg.
“I call bullshit, frogman. If I’d just been a port of call bunny, you wouldn’t have given up scuba diving off Hawaii to attend my college graduation. If I was just some chick you hooked up with when you were on leave, you wouldn’t have made arrangements for me to fly to California when you were stationed there for three weeks while you did some über special training there.” She smiled at him though her heart didn’t feel anything like smiling.
“You were easy. I didn’t have to work for it with you. What can I say? I’m lazy and you were just an easy lay for me, Abby. I admit it. I’m a bastard, but I don’t have nothing for you anymore,” he said, lifting his gaze back to the TV.
She leaned over and blocked his view so that he either had to stare at her or turn away. “See, now I know you’re lying. Ain’t nothing about me ever been easy, frogman.”
She leaned back and stood up again. He jerked his gaze back to the TV now that she wasn’t in his way anymore. It was killing her inside to hear him say the things he was saying but she kept reminding herself that he was only saying them to cut her free. He felt like he wasn’t a man anymore and didn’t want her tied to him out of duty or pity. Well, she made her own decisions and losing him wasn’t one she was going to be making.
“I’m going to tell you how it’s going to be, Kermy. I’m going to come and see you every day, and you’re going to let me. I’m going to help you exercise, and make sure you eat enough. I’m going to learn all about what you need and how to get it for you. Then I’m going to take you home with me, and we’re going to finish planning our wedding,” she said with more bravado than she was feeling right then.
Out of the blue, Kermit yelled before turning to glare at her, “I don’t fucking want to marry you! I don’t want to get married at all, never did. It was all you ever wanted to talk about, and I just went along with it to keep you happy. So take a hint, little girl. Get the fuck out of here!”
Abby couldn’t help but take a step back. She was sure surprise and probably hurt showed on her face before she could shut it down again. The way he’d yelled made it seem as if he really meant it. Did he? Had she really forced him into all of it?
She blinked back a tear and focused once again. No. She had never mentioned marriage until he’d proposed to her on his knees on a damn surfboard. He’d pulled off the engagement ring he’d been wearing on a chain around his neck to show her. They’d been having so much fun swimming and surfing that she hadn’t even noticed it until that moment. So no, she hadn’t pushed him into it. Maybe she’d gone crazy over planning the wedding, bu
t she hadn’t been the one to bring it up.
His beautiful gray eyes were dull, almost lifeless, and didn’t have the normal hint of mischievousness that she was so used to seeing. His tight, short hair that he’d worn that way since his senior year of high school had grown out in a messy wave of light brown. It looked as if he hadn’t combed it in days.
She wanted to run her hands through it and across the slightly longer than stubble beard he seemed to be growing. Oddly enough, instead of light brown, the stubble appeared to be more gray than brown in color. She could see the fresh wounds from flying shrapnel on his cheeks and arms, but with the shirt on, she had no idea how much more there would be to his chest and back.
“Why can’t you take a hint? I don’t want you here. I don’t want to ever see you again,” he said, still staring up at whatever sitcom was on.
“Because I know you’re just trying to get rid of me. You have some sort of fatalistic idea in your head that it’s for the best if I let go and go on with my life. You think you’re doing me a favor by releasing me from our engagement because you don’t feel like you’re enough of a man for me anymore. Well, you don’t get the right to make those decisions for me. I make those decisions, and I say bullshit. You’re mine, Kermit Anderson, and I’m not letting you go.” Abby was panting by the time she’d finished speaking.
She realized that his eyes were bright with unshed tears now. It nearly choked her to see him so emotional when he’d never been that way before. He hadn’t cried when his granddad had died of a heart attack back in high school. Nor had he cried when one of his best friends had been killed only two weeks after they’d been deployed overseas while Kermit had still been stateside waiting on orders.