Camilla pitched forward dizzily and finally lost control, vomiting all over her would-be kidnapper. She felt instantly better as she sat up and her world went a little topsy-turvy. Then everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ben ignored the sound of Tyler’s pansy-ass gagging as he followed Quinten around to the other side of the big rental truck.
Ben looked past Quinten’s shoulder and nearly knocked him over as he ran. “Catch her! Catch her! Catch her!” He softly cursed, barely making it in time as she toppled from the passenger seat. She landed in his arms looking very pale, and her eyes rolled back in her head. “Sugar?” She smiled wanly at him then went limp. “He must’ve drugged her.”
Spencer growled when he saw her. “EMS is on their way.”
Ben was relieved to have Hank with them. They’d seen everything that had occurred in the back hallway on the security monitors and had also seen that her attacker had been armed. It had taken every reserve of patience he’d had to listen to Hank’s plan and do as he was told. He’d wanted to rush right out the back door after them. Hank had ordered them to all stay back in the driver’s side blind spot as he’d snuck up on Camilla’s abductor. Ben had nearly panicked when he’d heard her whimper and fall to the ground as Anderson had dragged her to the truck. When it was all over, he was doing exactly as Hank had suggested. Wrap her up and carry her in his pocket where she was safe. Damn it! She looked so frail and tiny in his arms as he crouched by the open truck door.
Quinten jerked his suit coat off and spread it on the ground for him to lay her on and kneeled next to him. He brushed a dark smudge from her cheekbone and felt her pulse. “Good, steady beat. She kept talking that whole time. He must’ve underdosed her.”
Sylvan came running across the parking lot with Camilla’s coat, which they wrapped around her. “Is she all right? My gosh, did he drag her across the asphalt?”
Rage burned in his chest when he saw that her knees were skinned up from the fresh blacktop. Sirens echoed against the surrounding buildings as the emergency vehicles approached and emergency lights flickered against the vehicles in the back parking lot. They cut the siren as they got close to the scene, and Ben was grateful.
“Well, at least they didn’t come to the front of the building. This way we’re less likely to have the crowd inside empty out to watch the chaos.”
Sylvan patted his shoulder. “I’ll go make sure everything’s running smoothly inside and make an announcement if it becomes necessary. You just take care of Camilla. Oh! And poor Cody, too.” She rushed over to the back of the truck, where it looked like Cody was just returning to consciousness. She waved at Ben and gave him the thumbs-up before running back to the club. Ben was relieved they’d hired someone who obviously worked well under pressure.
Quinten looked over his shoulder and groaned. “You may have spoken too soon.”
Ben looked behind him and sighed. The news crew that had been at the front entry, interviewing patrons who were lined up out the door, came running around the corner, microphones, cameras ready.
Luckily, law enforcement headed them off. Hank joined Ben and Quinten as the Tarkett County Sheriff’s Department took over. “How’s she doing?”
They’d bundled her up in the coat, and as Ben shifted her, his hand got hung up in her corset laces. “Shit, what did he do to her?”
He reached under her coat and felt that the laces were pulled extremely tight on both sides. “He must have pulled her up by the laces. Her breathing is probably constricted. Quinten, got your pocketknife?”
Quinten grinned and reached in his pocket. “Always prepared.”
“She’s gonna be pissed when she finds out I ruined her corset.”
Hank said, “Understandable given the circumstances.” He turned his back, and Ben began grabbing the laces and severing them, careful to not get the blade close to her skin, until the corset loosened considerably. The EMTs came with a stretcher, and Ben gently lifted her and laid her on it, careful to keep the leather coat over her as a covering.
“So you know her?” the EMT asked as he removed a stethoscope from his bag.
“Yes. She’s my fiancée. We suspect she was drugged.” He glanced at Quinten, and he nodded at him. “She’s pregnant, nearly eight weeks.”
“Thank you for telling me. We’ll take good care of her.”
David Northup, the Tarkett County Sheriff, showed a vial to the EMT. “We found this and two empty syringes in Anderson’s coat pocket.”
The EMT took a close look at the vial and then nodded at him. “Morphine. She’s symptomatic for it.” To Ben he said, “Her vitals are stable, so we’ll transport her. There’s room for you if you want to come with her.”
Ben glanced at Quinten, giving him the option to ride with her, even though Ben had identified himself as her fiancé.
Quinten said, “I’ll be right behind you in the truck.”
Ethan came out of the back door as they prepared to load her in the ambulance. “I’ll stay here and cover for you. Sylvan has everything under control. Very little fuss inside. A few were curious when the television crew took off around the building, but otherwise, everything’s fine inside. You two go ahead. Take care of your lady.” They paused to check on Cody, who was complaining about having to ride to the hospital, too.
Ben said, “Cody, listen. Camilla is also headed to the hospital. He drugged her, too. You need to get checked out. Heath and Spencer can handle things here.”
“I’ll stay and help out too,” Hank said. “It’ll be like old times when I helped out with security a few years ago at The Pony.”
Ben nodded. His trust in Hank was absolute.
He rode in the ambulance and was nearly giddy with relief when she came around while in transit.
* * * *
Camilla groaned, nausea assailing her again as her equilibrium shifted, and she felt like she was floating.
“Sugar?”
Struggling to lift eyelids that felt weighted down, she turned to the sound of Ben’s voice. “Where am I?” Her eyes refused to stay open.
“You’re in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.”
“Club?”
His solid, reassuring hand stroked her shoulder. “The grand opening is going off without a hitch. Ethan and Sylvan and the guys are all there.”
“Quinten?”
“He’s right behind us, sugar. You’ll see him soon.” Camilla blinked her eyes and looked up at a stranger kneeling over her.
“Hello, ma’am. I’m Eric. We’re taking you to the hospital here in Morehead. We’ll be there in another two or three minutes. Not far.” He asked her a lot of questions, which she tried to keep straight and answer correctly—not easy with her muddled state of mind.
She reached out for Ben. “How is…” Her lips had a hard time forming the name. “Codee?”
Ben came into focus on her other side and his handsome, relieved face was a fine sight. “He’s fine, sugar. He’s in the ambulance behind us.”
“Drugged him…Shot him?” If Tyler had shot Cody, she’d never get over it.
“He drugged him. Knocked him out cold.”
Camilla frowned. “Poor baby. What ’bout Tyler? That dickweed.”
She heard Ben chuckle. “Sheriff has him in custody. He drugged both of you. Apparently he wanted money and the key to a safe-deposit box.”
“Oh, yeah,” she replied with wry amusement that came out sounding drunk. “Dat key is looong gone.”
“So is his freedom. We all heard everything he said.”
Panic filled her, and two pairs of hands held her down as she tried to sit up, their faces going in and out of focus. “The baby?”
“That’s the first thing we’ll check when we get in the emergency room, ma’am. I don’t have a fetal heart rate monitor on this ambulance. We’re pulling in right now, and they have it ready for you.”
The ambulance lurched to a stop, and the back doors opened immediately. She closed
her eyes and groaned at the movement, which made her nausea return as they pulled her stretcher from the ambulance.
Her reflexes were still slow as the emergency medical staff pulled her stretcher into a treatment room and they removed her coat. She gasped when the cold air hit her chest.
“Sorry, sugar,” Ben called out, evidently noticing her reaction. “I had to cut the laces on your corset.”
They covered her up with a sheet.
Damn that Tyler!
She gestured with her hands, trying to demonstrate what Tyler had done before her rubbery arms went limp at her sides again. “He yanked on them getting me up in the truck. Hurt me.”
Ben appeared by her head, and he stroked her forehead. “I’m just glad you’re all right.” A lovely sound filled the room, and the doctor smiled. “Both heartbeats sound fine. You’ll want to follow up with your doctor, though.”
Everything narrowed to the pinpoint of eye contact between her and Ben. His dark brown eyes were all she could see right then. The only other sound that registered was her pulse pounding in her ears.
“You mean my heart and the baby’s?” Am I dreaming this?
“No, I’m picking up two fetal heart tones. Is that news to you?” he asked with a gentle smile. She nodded, in shock, and he grinned. “You’ll want to check in with your doctor and have a thorough ultrasound done. But I’m definitely hearing two. Any twins in your family?”
“My mom was a fraternal twin.” All she knew about her was that she’d died in a car accident when Camilla was a baby. “There may have been others, I don’t really know. She never talked about her family much.”
“Well, congratulations, Mom and Dad. Regarding the morphine you were injected with, we need to draw some blood for lab work. Judging by your vitals and your responses, you were given the equivalent of moderate sedation for a medical procedure like a root canal or setting a bone fracture. We’ll put you on oxygen and fluids, and monitor your vitals. Because you’re pregnant, we’d like to keep you overnight, but I think you’ll be just fine. You’re lucky whoever did this to you erred on the side of caution.”
“How is the man who came in the same time I did? Is he okay?”
Ben quietly said, “I’ll go see how he’s doing. Do you want me to send Quinten in? He’s probably in the waiting room worried sick.”
“Yes, please.”
Ben kissed her forehead and paused to whisper in her ear, “Congratulations, sugar. You want to tell him about the twins or should I?”
“Can I?”
“Sure. I’ll send him in.”
A nurse cleaned up the stinging scrapes on her knees from when Tyler had dragged then dropped her on the asphalt. She helped Camilla to sit up and removed the remains of her beautiful leather corset, and Camilla chuckled with mild amusement. Her corset and costume-wearing days might be over, but she’d sure gone out with a bang.
She awakened when they brought a wheelchair into her emergency room cubicle. Quinten smiled at her and she realized that she must’ve fallen asleep right after the nurse had left the room earlier.
The nurse and Quinten helped her into the wheelchair and she placed her hand over Quinten’s. He caressed her shoulder and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Baby, I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I must’ve dozed off. How long have I been asleep?” Her words sounded much more coherent than they had while she was being treated.
“About an hour ago. I’ve been sitting with you. They’re moving you to a private room.”
Camilla smiled, figuring she could wait to tell him the big news until they had a little bit of privacy. I didn’t hallucinate that, did I? Twins?
A few minutes later, she was tucked into a hospital bed, swaddled in blankets the nurse had brought in because she’d still felt chilled from being out in the night air earlier. She watched the nurse exit, thinking that the only thing that would be better would be if Ben and Quinten were tucking her between the two of them in their bed at home.
Camilla patted the side of the bed, looking at Quinten. Ben drew up a chair on her other side and took her left hand while Quinten sat on the bed and took her right hand. “How’re you feeling, baby?”
“Better. The grogginess is mostly gone, which makes a world of difference. I have something I want to tell you.”
Quinten stroked her fingertips and she gazed into his fatigued, but happy, blue eyes. “What’s that?”
* * * *
Marge nudged Rebecca, the other nurse who was on duty that night, and looked at her over her reading glasses. “I’m telling you something is up with those three in room two-seventeen. You shoulda seen the way those hunks both looked at that little gal. Like she hung the moon for both of them. It was weird.”
Rebecca shrugged as she looked away from the monitor. “We’ve seen weirder things working the night shift. She’s just an itty-bitty little thing, isn’t she? Looks like she’s been run through the wringer tonight. I say to each his own—”
“Whooopeee!”
Marge and Rebecca jumped up at the jubilant hollering and went trotting down the hall to—wouldn’t-ya-know-it—room two-seventeen.
Marge jumped back, bumping into Rebecca as one of those hunky men came charging out of the patient’s room. He steadied her with his hands on her upper arms and his big blue eyes looked ready to pop from their sockets.
“I’m having twins! I’m having twins!”
Epilogue
The fragrance of pinyon pine smoke scented the air as Ben and Quinten stood out on the balcony. The majesty of the sunset view from the snowy mountaintop made the moment sweeter as they waited on the beautiful woman preparing for their first night as men and wife.
Quinten looked at Ben and said, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Literally everything. But mostly for today, for letting her take wedding vows with me. I would’ve given that privilege up to you.”
“I wanted her to have your name…carry on your family line. It seemed like the right thing to do. I also knew you really wanted the privilege. I wanted to give that to you. I’m glad Camilla insisted on your parents being there, too.”
It was Christmas night. They’d said their vows that morning in a simple service, with Quinten’s parents serving as witness to Camilla’s marriage to Quinten. Immediately after, they’d had the binding ceremony, which Camilla had wept through as Ethan had performed it. To have one of his best friends perform the ceremony joining him and his other best friend with this incredible woman had brought a tear or two to Ben’s eyes as well.
Since Divine’s population of committed polyamorous unions had continued to grow, Ethan had looked into performing the binding ceremonies himself. Ethan’s friend, Blake Gray, had journeyed to Divine on many past occasions to perform the ceremonies for their friends’ ménage relationships.
They’d been able to determine that Tyler Anderson had been behind the break-in at her house and the damage done to her car and her office. He’d also been the one to slash her tires. That had been his bumbling attempt at buying time to pilfer through her house while she’d dealt with a tow truck. He hadn’t counted on her having two overprotective men to see her home and had barely made it out of the house without being caught.
The contents of the safe-deposit box, which she’d never known anything about, had been confiscated. The judge hadn’t been impressed with Tyler’s pleas that he wouldn’t have really hurt her, that he’d just been desperate to get the money. His parole was revoked and he’d been returned to the state prison in Huntsville.
Anticipation grew inside Ben with each passing moment, and the two of them savored it together as the sun set behind the snowcapped mountains in the distance. She’d asked them to give her fifteen minutes before coming inside from the balcony of the remote mountain home in Colorado they’d rented for their honeymoon.
The doors leading into the spacious master bedroom opened, and Camilla stood there dressed in nothing but a long, sheer white r
obe, which seduced his imagination with glimpses of her hardened, peach-rose-colored nipples. The fabric rippled in the breeze, the edges parting to reveal more of her glorious cleavage. Ben was rooted to the spot, staring in wonder. The last rays of the setting sun glistened in her strawberry-blonde curls and illuminated her peaches-and-cream complexion.
The diamond teardrop pendant Ben had given her for Christmas sparkled with brilliant fire at her throat. Quinten’s gift to her, matching earrings, glistened in her ears.
Her full breasts swayed gently with her movements as she opened the doors, the span of her abdomen still smooth with barely a hint of the babes that grew inside her.
“Will you come inside with me now?”
Quinten let loose a soft sigh, as though he’d been holding his breath. “I’d go anywhere with you.”
She smiled at him and then shifted her soft green gaze to Ben. “I want you both, but I have something for you first.” She backed up into the bedroom, and they followed her in, closing the doors behind them. She’d added logs to the fire to ward off the chill from having the door open.
“I need you to take your clothes off.” She climbed onto the end of the bed and watched them as they did just that. Quinten’s clothes went flying all directions, he stripped so fast, making Camilla smile, while Ben took his time, keeping eye contact with her as he removed each article.
They came to her, and she motioned to the multitude of piled-up pillows at the head of the bed. “I want you there, side by side, as close as you’re comfortable sitting next to each other, legs out in front of you.”
They did as she asked, finally reclining back against the pillows. About six inches separated them, allowing room for movement if need be.
Camilla walked to the fireplace mantel and lifted a small white remote from it. The flames in the fireplace flickered behind her, illuminating her form as Ben laid his head back and drank in the sight of her. The candlelight and shadows accentuated the two tiny dimples at her tailbone as she turned, and he wanted to kiss them until she writhed with pleasure.
Tiny Dancer [Divine Creek Ranch 13] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 33