Commander's Spitfire [Rescue for Hire 5] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Bellann Summer

  Shane let go of his hand and pulled him into his arms. Tony sobbed for a few moments, pressing his face into Shane’s shoulder. Then in a shaky voice, partly muffled by Shane’s jacket, Tony told him the ending. “I turned around and left. I must have made a sound, because I heard Tyler call out my name. But I didn’t stop. I walked out of the apartment, intending to find a cab. Who should be sitting in a car right in front of the apartment but Janice? She had the most triumphant look on her face, and she was smiling with such victory. I knew right then she had somehow set the whole thing up.”

  “Did you ever talk to Tyler again?” Shane asked quietly, holding Tony tightly.

  “No. I caught a cab back to the airport and my cell phone rang. It was Janice.” Tony’s voice was completely void of expression. “I have never heard anyone more triumphant over such an evil act. She reminded me that she had told me to leave Tyler alone. She said that between the model and herself, Tyler would be too busy to even have second thoughts about me. That together, they were taking care of his life and career now.”

  Tony leaned back and looked at Shane. “She warned me she would find a way to destroy me if I ever contacted Tyler again.”

  “The next day, it was all over the papers. Pictures of the new, hottest, celebrity sports couple dancing and dining around town. The super model and the professional baseball player, finding love. Over the next month, not a week went by without a picture in the papers of the happy couple. Then the rumor mill exploded, reporting that a baby was on the way.” Tony snorted. “I don’t even know if that was true or not.”

  “So, Tyler knew about the plot to get you out of his life?” Shane asked.

  “You know, I don’t think so. I think he cracked under his mother’s pressure and went along with whatever she told him. Dating me was the only time in his life he ever went against his parents’ wishes. Tony isn’t a bad person. He’s just completely under his mother’s thumb.”

  Shane put his hand around the back of Tony’s neck and pulled him forward, covering his lips in a firm kiss. Shane slowly deepened the kiss, tasting Tony intimately. The kiss went on until Shane lifted his head and brought their foreheads together.

  “You know you just kissed a man whose face is covered in tears, sweat, and snot,” Tony informed him, sounding just a bit dazed.

  “I know. Probably won’t be the last time you get a little snot on me.”

  Tony lifted his head, brown eyes red rimmed and blazing. “I don’t think so.”

  “That’s okay, honey. I’ll be doing most of the thinking in our relationship,” Shane informed him, chuckling.

  Before Tony could respond, Alex walked into the room.

  “Sorry to interrupt, guys. Jack was just moved to the recovery room. Pip and his parents are going up to the room that the staff will be bringing him to after recovery.” Alex looked at Tony with regret. “We all know something happened with Pip’s parents. We keep waiting for you to open up and let us in. We’re family.”

  Shane’s large hand engulfed the side of Tony’s face, and he gently turned Tony to face him. Laser-blue eyes held sad brown eyes. “I’m going to go back to the waiting room and wait for word on Cade. I’ll let you stay here with Alex and talk.”

  “You’re really pushy,” Tony said in exasperation. What the hell was this “let” stuff?

  “You haven’t seen anything yet, honey.” Shane dropped a quick kiss on Tony’s lips and left the room.

  “He’s good for you,” Alex stated, watching the big man turn down the hall.

  “What? No way,” Tony denied. “I’m so not going there. Maybe in five or ten years, I might think about getting involved with someone.”

  “Tony, when a relationship is right, it happens pretty easily. A man like Shane Miller is even more extreme than Cade, Jack, Damian, or my Leo,” Alex pointed out. “My advice to you is sit back and let it happen. Enjoy the ride.”

  “Look how good that went for me the last time.”

  “When you were with Tyler, it wasn’t right. You both were trying to keep something going that was never going to work out.” Alex continued. “That’s your problem, Tony. On a rescue or behind a computer, you are better than a pro. When you have to make a judgment or decision about people in your private life, you suck.”

  “Well, that makes me feel good. Now I’m stupid.”

  “What he’s trying to say,” Treb interrupted, walking into the room with Damian, Bret, and Leo, “is that you’re gullible. Tyler is just the latest. How many times has your family had to step in because the person you were dating wasn’t treating you right? How many times has one of us had to?”

  “You won’t have to rescue me anymore. I’m done with relationships.”

  “Bullshit,” Treb countered. “The reason we won’t have to rescue you anymore is because the commander has you in his sights. Give up gracefully, Tony. It’s a done deal.”

  “What if I don’t want him?” Tony challenged. He would be in control of his destiny from now on, really.

  Treb just snorted and sat down in one of the chairs across from the couch that held Tony and Alex.

  Bret, Leo, and Damian sat in the chairs that were left. Bret looked at Tony and said, “Tony, the commander sent us in here. He said you had something to tell us.”

  Tony froze for just a second. He realized it was time to tell the whole sordid tale to his chosen family. Taking a deep breath he began. “It started with the christening party for the twins…”

  Forty-five minutes later a grim-faced Alex with Leo walking next to him, a stone cold Treb holding Damian’s hand, a very worried Bret, and a completely wrung-out Tony walked into the waiting room. Tony didn’t even think about it. He went right over to Shane and sat down next to him. He took comfort in the arm that came around his shoulders and pulled him close.

  Tony was relieved that Pip and his parents weren’t in the room. After he had finished his story, it had taken a while to stop his teammates from confronting Pip’s parents. He was still worried. Pip was so sweet, and Tony didn’t want him hurt just because his involvement with his brother hadn’t worked out.

  “Listen up everyone,” Shane ordered. “Cade has been taken to recovery. Bret, I have the room number he has been assigned to, so we can go wait for him. The rest of you can stop all of the little plans you are making in your heads. We’ll wait with Bret until Cade is brought into the room. Then we will go and see Jack. After that we’ll go back to the hotel.

  “Now,” he continued. “I will handle Pip’s parents. Does everyone understand me?” Shane looked at every person around him until each of them nodded. Treb may have taken a little longer to nod, but once Shane scratched the side of his face, Treb nodded in acknowledgement.

  Shortly before Cade’s arrival, the group moved to his room. They waited until the sound of rubber wheels signaled Cade was being rolled to the room.

  Bret couldn’t hold back his small cry of distress at the sight of his big bear. He had an oxygen mask on his face, but that didn’t hide the gash high on his cheekbone. Around the gash and Cade’s eye was a huge purple-black bruise. Snow-white bandages covered his chest and torso, with a tube coming out of his left side. Cade’s poor left leg was held up in a metal brace, much like the brace Bret’d had when he was shot in the knee. Bandages, stained here and there with spots of blood, were covering Cade’s leg from his hip to his ankle, and the whole leg looked grossly swollen. Bret could do nothing but stare in horror at his bear’s mangled leg.

  “Baby, come here,” a hoarse muffled voice ordered him. Bret looked up to see Cade reaching out to him with the arm that didn’t have an IV attached to it. Bret rushed to Cade’s bedside.

  Cade put his arm around Bret’s waist and said, “Up.”

  Bret carefully climbed up onto the bed, snuggling into Cade’s uninjured side. Bret lay there quietly as Cade relaxed and fell asleep.

  Bret became aware of a sharp voice over by the door saying, “Oh that will never do.” Bret watched as Shane pu
t his huge arm across the doorway, preventing a nurse from entering the room. He could see she was frowning, looking toward where he lay next to Cade. Now she was having a low conversation with Shane. Bret could hear words like “protocol” and “hospital rules.” He couldn’t make out what Shane was saying, but for a moment, fear passed over her face, then she nodded and Shane lowered his arm.

  The nurse, whose nametag said Sally, came over to the other side of the bed so Bret could see her. She pleasantly told him he could feed Cade ice chips when he was awake and how to use the pain machine to keep his bear comfortable. She wouldn’t answer any questions on Cade’s condition, saying the doctor would be in soon and that would be the time for him to have all his answers. Bret wondered what Shane had said, because it became quite apparent that she was doing everything in her power to help him keep Cade calm and as comfortable as possible.

  That was a good thing, too. The Rescue for Hire team tended to react badly in hospital settings. Their instincts kicked in and their training took over when they were in pain and felt threatened. Bret would stay by Cade’s side until he could take him home. He knew the rest of the team and Shane would band together, taking care of their members in the hospital, as they always did. That was Bret’s last thought as he drifted off to sleep pressed against his bear’s side.

  Chapter Four

  Shane watched little Bret finally relax enough to fall asleep next to his brother. Now that they had all seen for themselves that Cade had made it through surgery, it was time to go see Jack. Shane knew the next hour was going to be very interesting. He had made it clear to the others that he was going to be the one confronting Pip’s parents. Hopefully, if he handled this right, there wouldn’t be any problems between the team and Pip. What Pip’s mom had done to Tony was unacceptable. Shane figured it would go one of two ways, things would go well or they wouldn’t.

  Tony walked down the hall toward Jack’s room. The big man at his side had totally taken charge of the team since his arrival at the hospital. Shane Miller had the same dominating alpha presence as Cade, maybe even more. They were both about the same height and build and even though they both had the same dark brown hair, Shane’s was cut military short. There were lines around his laser-blue eyes and a hardness about him that made a person think he was older than Cade. However, Tony suspected that Shane was younger, although he had to be older than Tony’s own twenty-seven years.

  As they reached the room Jack had been assigned, Tony could hear Pip’s voice mixed in with his parents. Tony wanted to run back down the hall, but instead took strength in his teammates and the big hand holding his.

  Shane went through the door first, scanning the room, taking in Jack sitting up in the hospital bed, bandages encasing his left shoulder and arm. Pip was sitting on the bed next to him on his right side, holding a cup with a straw to Jack’s lips. Pip’s parents were standing by the bed, his mother jabbering away about some such nonsense.

  Jack took a last soothing swallow of the water his sweets was holding for him and looked up as the group entered his room. He couldn’t help raising an eyebrow at Tony holding the hand of a man who could only be Cade’s brother. Cade had always been closemouthed about his family, but Jack was his best friend. He knew Shane was the only family Cade had left.

  The question now was what happened that had the two men holding hands and the rest of the team looking like they were going to do some damage to someone?

  “Hey, Jack, how are you feeling?” Tony asked.

  Jack didn’t miss how strained Tony’s voice sounded. He also hadn’t missed that Tony was not looking at anyone else in the room except him. Even with all of the drugs running through his system, he knew something major was happening.

  “I’m a lot better now. Thank you for getting us out of there so fast, Tony. The doctor said I should have complete use of my arm and hand once it’s healed.” Jack continued. “If you hadn’t had that helicopter waiting and it hadn’t gotten us here so quickly, I may have lost my hand due to the blood being disrupted from the dislocated shoulder.”

  “Ah, Jack, that’s what we do. We rescue people.” Tony smiled. Jack noticed it didn’t reach his eyes.

  Jack frowned. “Is there something you guys need to tell me?”

  Jack watched as the huge man at Tony’s side stepped forward and held out his hand to Jack. “Hi, I’m Shane, Cade’s brother. I came to help with the company. Nice to finally meet you. Cade’s had a lot of nice things to say about you.”

  Jack shook the man’s hand and said, “Cade has mentioned you as well. I’m glad you could be here. I think we’re going to be shorthanded for a while.”

  “Now that you two have sized each other up, I want to say hi before those drugs hit you and you’re out cold again.” Treb came forward and shook Jack’s hand.

  “Thanks, Treb,” Jack said. Both men knew he was thanking him for getting him out of that death hole he and Cade had fallen into.

  “No problem.” With that Treb stepped back, and Jack watched as he went to stand by the door of the room.

  Shane let go of Tony’s hand after he had given it a small squeeze and moved near Pip’s parents and said, “Why don’t we let the rest talk to Jack for a moment and step out into the hall?” Then Alex, Leo, and Damian stepped forward on each side of Tony, and they all started talking to Jack and Pip.

  For a moment, Shane didn’t think Pip’s parents were going to cooperate. Janice Hayward looked like she was offended that he would ask her to leave the room. Finally they turned and walked past Treb out the door to the hall.

  Shane followed the couple, knowing Treb was right behind him. They all walked to the end of the corridor where there was a small sitting area in front of huge floor-to-ceiling windows. In the sitting area, everyone stood in a small circle looking at each other.

  “Why do I have the feeling that you have something to say?” asked Glen Hayward.

  “I think we need to clear the air, and since my brother isn’t capable of taking care of it right now, I will be the one to set things straight.” Shane thought he was doing well, even though he wanted to grab the woman around the neck and throw her out the window behind her.

  “How about you just tell us what you’re talking about and what needs to be cleared up.”

  Before Shane could say anything, Tony came up and stood by his side. He refrained from putting his arm around him, wanting to, but knowing he shouldn’t antagonize the situation any more than it was about to be. It was becoming clear that Pip’s father didn’t know what Shane was alluding to. But he could see Pip’s mother was looking more and more uncomfortable. Shane decided it was time to cut to the chase.

  “Mrs. Hayward, we don’t want any repercussions toward Pip by you or your son’s actions. It wasn’t his fault that Tony and Tyler became involved. From what I understand, it would be just like Pip to blame himself for the pain Tony is going through right now.” Shane felt Tony’s body tense up.

  “Janice, what is this man talking about?” Glen Hayward interrupted.

  “My actions? I don’t know what you’re talking about. It didn’t look to me like Tony was in much pain holding your hand.” Janice snarled.

  Treb tried to go around Shane, but he put his arm out and stopped him. Shane tried being nice. Now he had had enough. He was just about to let the women have it, when Tony spoke.

  “You don’t think it hurt when I found Tyler and a woman in bed together. I saw you sitting in the car on the street when I ran out of the apartment. I know you set that whole thing up. You decided that your son’s image was more important than two men in love.”

  “Janice,” Glen said, “is this true? Did you have anything to do with Tyler’s breakup with Tony and that woman he is running around with now?”

  “Glen,” she pleaded, “we have spent our whole lives raising those children and grooming Tyler to be the star he is. I couldn’t let some fling ruin everything. Because of me, he is now on the path to a MVP season with the right woman by
his side. He now has a future because of what I did.”

  Glen Hayward looked stunned by what his wife was saying. Then his complexion turned a little green. Grabbing Janice’s arm, he turned to Tony and said, “I apologize for what my family has done to you. I’ve been accused in the past of being oblivious to what is happening around me. It seems once again this is true. For that, again, I am sorry.”

  Turning back to his wife, he said, “We are going back in there and saying our good-byes. Then we are getting on a plane and going home. We have a lot to talk about.”

  Meekly, Janice Hayward followed her husband into Jack’s room. Inside she was fuming. She couldn’t believe Tony Grayson had the audacity to confront her about what happened at Tyler’s apartment. How dare that little nothing think she cared that he had been hurt because she had straightened out her son’s way of thinking.

  Now she was going to have to calm Glen down and wait a few weeks, before she could get everyone back to concentrating on making Tyler a superstar. She was not giving up on Tyler’s sports career like she’d had to give up on her own budding soccer career when Glen had gotten her pregnant with Brad.

  It made her want to cry in frustration, to be stopped when things were finally going so well.

  Shane watched the couple come out of the room and head toward the elevators. Shane could see that Pip’s mother was trying to hold back tears. He wondered if they were tears for being sorry or tears for being caught.

  Turning, he took Tony in his arms and asked, “Are you okay?”

  Tipping his head back, Tony looked up, his brown eyes less troubled than Shane had seen them before.

  “Yeah,” he answered. “Surprisingly, being able to confront her helped. By the way, thanks for being there.”

  “No problem.” Shane kissed Tony gently before they went back into Jack’s room.

  * * * *