by Jayne Rylon
Jambrea knocked on Lucas’s door before crossing the threshold. Bracing herself for his acerbic barbs, she called out, “I’m going to see baby Ezra—want to come take a look at the little guy?”
No answer. So she stepped inside.
The curtain to his bed was open for once, but he didn’t occupy the rumpled bed and his wheelchair was missing. The bathroom was empty.
Could he have bailed on the hospital entirely? Oh shit.
Whipping out her cell once more, she speed dialed Matt.
“Hey, wild thing.”
“I think we might have a runner.” She winced at her hasty wording. “Lucas is missing.”
“Actually, he’s up here.” Matt dropped his voice to a whisper. “I think he was sneaking a peek at the baby but got busted. Now he’s kind of stuck talking because he hasn’t let anyone see him lately. Since, you know...”
“Yeah. The surgery has been hard on him.” She sighed. “Lacey and I both have tried to encourage him to spend some time with Razor while he’s been hanging around the hospital, but he wouldn’t.”
“It’s hard to see him like this,” Matt confessed softly. “He’s got a sheet draped over his lap. You can still tell, though. There’s nothing there past his knee. Especially since he keeps rubbing his leg. It draws your attention. Then I feel guilty for looking.”
“He’s been having phantom pains for the past several weeks. It’s not uncommon,” she informed him.
“There are so many things I want to say, but I know he’ll hate every one of them. They’d be for me, not him, you know?” Matt’s heavy heart was obvious even over the phone.
“You don’t have to address it. Just be his friend, like you’ve always been. That’s enough.” Jambrea jogged to the elevator. Her guys needed her. They didn’t have her experience with the emotional wounds inflicted on recuperating patients. Especially not when paired with their own despair for a dear friend. “Remember it’s the same him. Don’t treat him any differently or he’ll hate you. Right now he needs normal.”
“So I should be a jackass? Is that what you’re saying?” Matt had a little smile in his tone that time.
“Exactly.” She clicked her phone closed as she hopped off the elevator and ran into Matt’s open arms. “You’re doing great. Get rid of the kid gloves and it’ll be fine. The rest is up to him.”
“I love you, Jambi.” He kissed her lightly. “It’s a gift, what you can do with people. For them. I hope you know that.”
“Hey there, no making out without me.” Clint joined them in the hallway outside the maternity ward. “I missed you today.”
Sometimes their schedules got crazy with their mix of unusual shifts, but they were starting to get things aligned so they all worked nights and had their days free to enjoy each other. And when they couldn’t, well, it seemed absence really did make the heart grow fonder—or the cops grow hornier, however that saying went.
“Can you make it another half hour or so?” She spun from Matt’s arms into Clint’s, patting his ripped chest.
“Torture. But I’ll try.” He kissed her, making her debate the merits of a little time with their friends after all. She knew of enough maintenance closets in the hospital that they could probably take a quick break in before meeting up with the rest of the Men in Blue.
Except Jeremy and Lily exited the elevator right behind them.
“Look who we have here.” Lily smacked Matt on the ass before hugging Jambi and Clint. “I hope you’re not planning on slipping away.”
“You guys are the newlyweds,” Jambrea shot back.
“Mmm.” Lily smiled, all traces of her hardass alter-ego gone in an instant. “That we are. Probably why we’re kind of late to this party.”
“I don’t want to know.” Matt clapped his hands over his ears. “Whatever monkey sex you and JRad were indulging in, I’m staying out of it. And so is our lovely Jambi. You’ve done enough to corrupt her already.”
“I didn’t hear you complaining after I taught her all about cock rings. Especially the vibrating kind.” Lily raised a brow and her husband laughed as he slung an arm around her shoulder.
“Come on, kids.” Matt shuffled forward, nudging them all toward Izzy’s room. “At this rate, Ezra will be eighteen by the time we see the fellow.”
They filed into the bright, spacious room, which was blanketed in flowers. So different from the sterile environment Lucas had kept for himself. The man had donated any gifts brought to him, leaving standing orders with the nurse’s station to get rid of them without even showing him the cards.
Jambrea had kept every single correspondence, refusing to trash the show of support from a variety of acquaintances she bet Lucas hadn’t even realized gave a damn. Someday he would want to know who’d kept him in their thoughts.
It made her heart happy to see him surrounded by their friends. Not the center of attention, but just another one of the guys along to see the newest addition to their team. He rolled into the gap between the wall and Izzy’s bed. She’d always been the most beautiful woman Jambrea had ever met. Now, with the glow of motherhood around her, she was radiant.
She dazzled Lucas with one of her perfect white smiles and asked, “Would you like to hold him?”
“Who, me?” Lucas looked around as if there were someone else sitting right beside him. “I-I’ve never held a baby before. I don’t want to hurt him.”
“You won’t.” Izzy extended the precious bundle to Lucas, supporting Ezra’s neck.
“If Razor can manage not to fuck it up, so can you.” Mason chuckled from across the room.
“Sure, okay,” Lucas agreed, then kept very still as Izzy laid her son in the crook of his arm. The baby blinked up at the enormous-by-comparison man cradling him with the biggest, bluest eyes Jambrea had ever seen.
Ezra didn’t cry. No, he cuddled into Lucas’s hold and promptly fell asleep.
“Wow.” The tough guy trailed a knuckle down the baby’s cheek. “He’s pretty amazing.”
“Would you expect anything less of me?” Razor buffed his nails on his shirt.
“I think I had something to do with him too, you know.” Izzy laid her head on Razor’s shoulder.
“Thank you for being the best thing in my life and giving me more than I could have dreamed of.” Serious for once, Razor hugged his fiancé tight. He smiled down at her. “So now that the baby is here, can we talk about setting a date for our wedding? Please?”
Izzy beamed up at the love of her life. “How about fall? When the leaves are turning and all the colors are rich.”
“If that’s what you want.” He kissed her forehead. “I can’t wait for it to happen. I want to call you mine. Officially.”
“I’m already yours.” She banded her arms around him. “That’ll give me a couple months to get my figure back.”
“I like your shape just fine.” He ran his hands along her side to her hip. Tiny, she’d been one of those women who looked thin even pregnant. The bitch, Jambrea thought laughingly.
Lucas even chuckled from his seat near the bed. “You’re so itty bitty you’ll blow away if you lose a single pound.”
The whole gang was teasing Izzy soon enough, making her cheeks blush with their indirect compliments. It was then that Ellie joined them.
“What’s so funny?” she asked as she came inside, setting her purse on the only vacant chair. When she turned and saw Lucas, she froze.
“Let me out of here.” He jerked as he tried to reach for the wheel of his chair with one hand. “Come on, Tyler, move so I can get through.”
Startled awake by Lucas’s barking, Ezra began to fuss.
“Shit, sorry. Sorry.” He carefully handed the infant to Razor, who effortlessly quieted his son with a little rocking and some baby-talk.
Ellie rushed forward, “Lucas! How are you?”
“I gotta go.” He glanced up toward Mason, who nodded. Closest to Ellie, the eldest of the Men in Blue reached out and hugged her to him. For once her a
ttempt at wrenching away had more to do with running toward a man than running from one.
“Hi, Mason. Nice to see you too. I want to talk to—”
“He’s not ready,” Mason murmured into Ellie’s hair.
Her eyes, already bloodshot, filled with tears. She whipped her head toward Lucas. “What have I done to you?”
“This isn’t about you.” Lucas zipped past them in his chair. “How self-centered are you? Jesus. Maybe it has something to do with the missing half of my goddamned leg?”
They all saw the impact his verbal assault had on Ellie. She flinched and turned into Mason’s chest, which only seemed to incense Lucas more.
Irate, he snarled, “I knew I should have stayed in my room.”
“You know, if I start to hate you it won’t be because you’re short a foot, asshole. It’ll be because of your lack of heart.” The only person brave enough to speak to him so directly, Ellie turned to glare at him.
Lucas stared at her for a moment, his jaw hanging open.
Izzy tried to diffuse the situation. “I hope you’ll come back and keep me company tomorrow when everyone else is at work.”
Lucas didn’t respond to her invitation, though Jambrea would dance on top of the hospital naked if the wounded man returned.
“Don’t let her follow me,” Lucas ordered Mason. Then he disappeared down the hall in his wheelchair as if attempting to qualify for the Special Olympics.
“Lucas! Wait!” Ellie overcame her injured pride when Mason loosened his hold. She tried to veer in that direction.
Jambrea caught Ellie by the elbow and Mason let her take guardianship. “Hang on a second.”
To keep from riling Ezra farther, they stepped into the hall. Matt and Clint were close behind.
“But he’s getting in the elevator.” Ellie’s shoulders slumped when the doors smashed closed with her nowhere near joining Lucas for the ride. “I missed him.”
“He really isn’t ready yet. Mason’s right about that.” Jambrea softened her proclamation by hugging the girl. “It might take a while. We have to be patient with him.”
“So he wasn’t really sleeping all the times I called?” She sighed. “I guess I knew he’d still be allowed to have his laptop in recovery. I’ve emailed him…so much.”
Somehow Jambrea didn’t think Ellie referred only to the volume of the unread messages she’d seen cluttering Lucas’s inbox when he left his email open on the screen. The content might be pretty weighty as well. “Sorry. Part of his recovery is social. Not exclusively physical.”
“Maybe it’s me he has a problem with, not his surgery. He was hanging out with all of you. So what’s wrong with me?” Ellie scoured a tear from her cheek.
“Do you think it could be that he cares more about your opinion of him? Of how you perceive him as a man?” Jambrea wished she could make the young woman see what Jambrea did.
“No. He’s struggling and I want to be there for him. Except maybe he’s angry with me. I mean, it’s my fault—”
“I never want to hear you say that again.” Jeremy overheard them from his post at the door to Izzy’s room. His Dom tone rang out, causing both her and her friend to stop short as he approached. “I was there. You were a prisoner. He’s trained to fight for freedom. He would have sacrificed gladly for anyone being violated that day.”
From what Jambrea knew of the Sex Offender lab raid, Jeremy had chosen that word carefully. Ellie had certainly been raped. Even if she’d begged for sex, it had been the drug talking, not her. How many times or how brutal the act had been were open questions. On those matters, she was as obtuse as Lucas. Certainly, she bore immense scars of her own, even if her wounds were invisible compared to a lost limb.
“Don’t make me tell your brother…” Jeremy cut off when the man in question piped up from behind them, joining the party as the elevator burped out more visitors.
“Tell me what?” Ben and Ryan strolled into the gathering, which now spilled outside the room, with little Julie—Ben’s niece—between them. Each man held one of her hands. Her mother had also been part of the Sex Offender fallout.
Only she hadn’t been lucky enough to escape.
When Julie saw some of her favorite adults, she released a giddy squee, shook off her de facto fathers’ hands and trotted into the room, getting hugs from every direction.
Tyler pulled a lollipop from his pocket, and she was in love. She crawled into his lap, swinging her feet while she smeared the treat all over her face.
Ryan ruffled his sister’s hair. Though she was a young woman, he still treated her like a child most of the time. Maybe because it was easier to ignore all that had gone wrong that way. The things he’d done to rescue Ellie had been horrifying enough. None of them needed to relive those evil times when they had such cause for celebration. “What’s the commotion, Ellie?”
“Your sister is looking at that nursery over there all googly-eyed.” Jeremy shrugged. He would never betray Ellie’s trust. Besides, telling Ryan the truth really would likely get Lucas’s ass kicked.
“Ugh.” Ryan groaned. “I’m not ready to be an uncle yet.”
“You’re pretty much Julie’s uncle by default,” Ben reminded him. The two men had become close and even lived together after their time in Morselli’s dungeon. “And you’re damn good at it.”
“Yeah, well…doesn’t matter. For that I’d have to have a guy first.” Ellie pouted a bit as she stormed away, though by the time she’d gotten close enough to catch her first real peek of the tiniest boy in blue, she’d completely melted.
Jambrea laughed. No one could resist Ezra’s charm. He’d inherited that, at least, from his dad.
After a quarter of an hour had passed, a soft knock came at the door. At first it went unheard in the riot of the overcrowded hospital room. Good thing Jambrea and Lacey could shoo away the glaring nurses from this ward, who would prefer their patients rest. Otherwise they’d all have been kicked out ages ago.
The next time she heard the light tapping, Jambrea wiggled through her friends in time to spot Shari David’s rich brown hair pulled into a messy ponytail that still managed to look utterly lovely with her off the shoulder floral blouse and skinny jeans. Her boots may have been functional at Camp David, but they were just plain sexy with her outfit.
“Shari!” She ran to the woman and wrapped her in a hug, almost tipping them off balance in her enthusiasm.
“Careful,” Mason rumbled as he braced them. Tyler laughed from his spot right next to his partner and husband.
Lacey reached out from her place on their laps, which had been abandoned by the fickle little girl when her candy had all been eaten, to squeeze Shari’s shoulder. “So good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you and your brother.”
“Thanks.” She smiled and swallowed hard. It couldn’t be easy to be surrounded by the chaos of so many people after years of solitude. But with these men and their wives, she’d find a family that understood the sacrifices some people made for the freedom of others who didn’t know or care about the cost of maintaining their rights. “I hope I’m not interrupting. I had to come to the city to finish some paperwork and I thought I’d stop by the hospital to see Jambrea.”
“Don’t be silly.” Izzy smiled serenely, looking effortlessly glamorous as always, despite her frumpy hospital gown and the plastic bracelet she wore instead of the jewels of her socialite days. “Friends are always welcome. Friends of friends, even.”
Ryan got up quickly and offered Shari his seat, though he stammered over his greeting and offer. Ben was quick to make introductions, starting with himself.
Jambrea smiled as she imagined the possibilities. No one quite knew what Ben and Ryan’s relationship was these days, but Lily swore they were more straight than bi, or at least they had been before their lives had been changed forever by the unwanted captivity the Mistress had discovered them in.
It seemed kind of fitting that their group might end up with three groups of three.
Jambrea looked to Lacey. Her friend smiled and nodded as Ryan and Ben fell all over themselves to ensure Shari’s welcome and comfort.
Matt and Clint each put a hand on her shoulders. She leaned back into them, knowing they’d always be there to support her. After baby Ezra had been fed, he made his rounds of the room.
Just like his dad, he had all the women wanting to pinch his cheeks.
Until Matt coughed. “Holy crap. What is that smell?”
“I think it’s literally crap.” Clint’s eyes watered.
“Well, I guess we know he’s really your son, Razor,” Tyler teased their ex-rookie. As youngest and mouthiest of the bunch, he still took the brunt of the ribbing. “I’ve come across that odor before in the station bathroom after you’ve had too much cheap coffee to wash down a box of six-day-old donuts.”
“Gross!” Lily whacked her brother-in-law on the arm. “You know you shouldn’t eat junk like that. My sister needs you healthy to grow old with her and take care of your spawn.”
“Don’t worry, Aunt Lily. You and JRad are his godparents. Ezra will be your problem if I croak.” He beamed at them, true affection wiping away any faux insult in his snark.
“I think it’s time Razor learned how to change a diaper.” Lacey snagged him by the elbow.
He lifted Ezra, holding the baby as far away from his nose as possible and followed her to the nursery. “Yeah, yeah. I see how it is. The rookie always gets the shit jobs.”
They all burst out laughing, including baby Ezra, who gave a tiny gurgle.
He was already a Man in Blue in training.
About the Author
Jayne Rylon is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She received the 2011 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Indie Erotic Romance. Her stories used to begin as daydreams in seemingly endless business meetings, but now she is a full time author, who employs the skills she learned in her straight-laced corporate existence in the business of writing. She lives in Ohio with two cats and her husband, who both inspires her fantasies and supports her career. When she can escape her purple office, she loves to travel the world, avoid speeding tickets in her beloved Sky, and, of course, read.