Retribution

by Ruth Langan

  “Why would my legs…” She went pale and wondered if she was going to faint.

  Just then she noticed that Adam was sliding slowly to the floor. “Oh, Adam. Oh, my darling, hold on.” She gathered him into her arms and rocked him, feeling his blood soak through her sweater and stain her flesh.

  At once, Picasso and Toulouse were there, licking Adam’s face, then Sidney’s, as if to assure themselves that they were indeed safe.

  As his deputies led the stranger from the cabin, Boyd glanced out the window and saw the headlights moving along the lane. “That would be the ambulance. The Feds ordered one, just in case there were casualties.”

  “…hospital.” Adam could feel his strength ebbing.

  “Yes. As fast as possible.” Sidney hovered as a team of medics assessed his wounds and administered a sedative before wheeling him toward the waiting vehicle.

  As Sidney climbed in behind him, the dog and cat followed.

  “Sorry, ma’am. You and those animals will have to…”

  Adam put a hand on his sleeve and muttered thickly, “You don’t want to take them on. They just overpowered a hired killer. Besides, the dog is a wounded hero. You may want the doctors to look at him, too.”

  “You don’t say?” The medic didn’t know whether to believe him or whether it was the sedative talking. At any rate, there was no time to argue, since his patient was out cold, as was the dog, and both were being tended by the woman and the cat.

  He turned to the driver. “It’s time to get this circus on the road.”

  Chapter 15

  Emily, dressed in a lab coat, a stethoscope around her neck, leaned over Adam’s hospital bed. “You look awful.”

  Adam struggled to focus through a haze. “You ought to see the other g

  “I did. He’s a mess. How do you explain those bite marks at his throat?”

  “Maybe I’m really a werewolf. Isn’t that one of the rumors going around town about me?”

  “Mmm-hmm. But not anymore. Now they’re saying you’re an undercover agent, and the guy being held by Federal officers is an international terrorist.”

  “Some people will believe anything.”

  “Quiet.” She took his pulse, then moved around the bed to shine a light in Sidney’s eyes, lifting first one lid, then the other.

  She studied her sister, holding tightly to Adam’s hand as though she might never let go. “Why are you so calm, Sid?”

  Sidney sighed. “I’m fine.”

  “Yeah, that’s what has me puzzled. At first I thought you were in shock. That’s what most people would suffer after a trauma like this. I was especially concerned about you, Sid. You’ve always been our…fragile one. You know. The one who doesn’t like stress and mess in her life. So just why are you acting so…serene?”

  Sidney merely held on to Adam’s hand as though her life depended on it. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s the new me. Calm. Controlled. Fearless now that the danger has passed.”

  “Just to make certain, I’ve asked one of our trauma specialists to drop by later and evaluate you.”

  “I don’t need…”

  Sidney looked up as Marcella Trowbridge came racing into the room and skidded to a halt.

  Seeing Adam lying in bed, his wounds covered with dressings, she rubbed her hands together. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, that bullet they removed has sent you back to square one in your physical therapy.”

  “You’re just full of good news, aren’t you?” Adam gave her a lopsided grin. “Why are you looking so gleeful?”

  “Just warming up these muscles. I can’t wait to get my hands on you.”

  He groaned, then winked at Sidney, who grinned back as though sharing some wonderful, silly joke.

  Hearing voices in the hallway, Emily looked over and gave a long, drawn-out sigh. “I recognize those voices. I warned the family to stay away, but as usual, they’ve decided they live by their own rules.” Under her breath she whispered, “Brace yourself, Adam. It’s the attack of the Brennans.”

  “Well done, son.” Frank Brennan was the first one through the door. When he reached Adam’s bedside he pumped his hand until Adam was forced to grit his teeth against the pain. “That was some fast thinking on your part, speed-dialing the police chief and alerting him to the danger you and our Sidney were in.”

  Charley had her daughter in a fierce bear hug and looked as though she might never let her go. When she finally relaxed her grip, she held Sidney a little away to study her carefully. “Oh, my poor, sweet darling. I’ve been frantic to just hold you and know that everything’s all right. You’ll come home with us and let us pamper you for a few months. Then, when you’re feeling refreshed and restored…”

  Sidney stroked her mother’s hair. “I’m fine, Mom. Really.”

  “You’re fine?” Charley looked around at the others. “Sidney says she’s fine.”

  On the other side of the bed, Bert bent to press a kiss to Adam’s cheek. “Boyd Thompson told us how you saved our Sidney.”

  “It was the other way around. Sidney’s quick thinking saved us both.”

  “We figured you’d say that.” Hannah nudged Ethan, who nodded in agreement.

  Their two little boys, Danny and T.J., were staring at Adam as though he were a football hero.

  “Really.” Adam wondered why he was feeling so light-headed. Maybe it was the sedative. Or maybe it was that floating feeling he’d experienced at times while covering an especially dangerous assignment, when the adrenaline rush was over. “You should have seen Sidney. She was amazing.”

  “Did you cry, Aunt Sidney?” Danny asked.

  “Of course not.” She huffed out a breath. “Well, I would have, but there wasn’t time.”

  “You’re crying now.” Danny reached into his pocket and removed a clean handkerchief, before handing it to her.

  Sidney wiped it over her eyes, then blew her nose. “These are happy tears.”

  Trudy pushed her way through the crowd to stand at the bedside, staring down at Adam. Her rusty-gate voice was trembling with emotion. “I knew you were hero material the first time I met you.”

  “I told you, I’m no hero.” He turned to Sidney. “Make them listen.”

  She merely smiled. “The Brennan family is known for hearing only what they choose to hear.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m beginning to understand.” He leaned back against the pillows, watching the crowd gathering around his bed as though watching a sitcom on television. Their voices a chorus of high and low, soft and rough, anxious and teasing as they hugged one another, touched, whispered, nodded, laughed.

  He turned to Sidney’s grandfather. “I’m really sorry, Frank. You were right. I brought that madman right to Sidney’s door. My fault.”

  “Hush now,” the old man said. “Not another word of apology, do you hear?”

  “Adam, look.” Courtney signaled for her husband Blair to turn up the volume on the hospital TV. “You’re on the news.”

  For a moment they all fell silent as the news anchor showed file photos of Adam as he’d looked in half a dozen different countries while on assignment for WNN, sporting a beard in some, hair long and tied back in a ponytail in others, his eyes hard and fierce or bleary from lack of sleep, his voice edged with excitement, while at other times the words seemed slurred from sheer exhaustion.

  “Wow.” Courtney fanned herself with her hand. “You were some hunk.”

  “Were?” Adam winked at Sidney. “She makes me sound like a faded shadow of my former self.”

  “Okay. I admit, you’re still a hunk. Almost as hunky as my man here.” Courtney draped an arm around Blair’s shoulders as they drew close to watch and listen in rapt silence.

  The screen was filled with photos of the stranger, identified as an international terrorist who had carried out the car bombing that killed a foreign ambassador and his assistant while in New York several months earlier, as well as being a suspect in several other assassination at
tempts in foreign countries. In broken English he spoke angrily of the man and woman, and even a mad dog, that had foiled his attempt to steal the proof of his guilt.

  His words brought a round of cheers from those assembled around the bed in Adam’s room.

  “Quiet,” Hannah shouted as a video of Sidney, taken at one of the first public exhibitions of her art at a gallery in New York years earlier, flashed onto the screen.

  “Oh, look how cute you were,” Hannah said with a laugh.

  “I think she’s still cute.” Adam was grinning foolishly.

  The others joined in laughter while Sidney merely blushed.

  A nurse paused in the doorway with a bundle in her arms. “I believe this belongs to someone in here.”

  Adam wondered if he were hallucinating. “Please tell me that’s not a baby.”

  She merely laughed and set the bundle down on the bed beside him. When she opened a corner of the blanket, Picasso thrust his nose into Adam’s hand.

  “Well, old boy, aren’t you looking fine.” Adam ran a hand over Picasso’s back and was rewarded with several licks of a wet tongue before Toulouse leaped onto the bed and nudged the dog aside before settling on Adam’s lap, purring contentedly.

  The nurse turned to Sidney. “We summoned two veterinary doctors to check our little hero. The bullet passed clear through. He was stunned, and in some pain, but he’s comfortable now, and the doctors assured us that he’ll be good as new in a few days. They said to warn you that your cat, however, is armed and dangerous. He sank his claws into the first doctor who attempted to examine the dog. We had to restrain him in a cage before the doctors could work on Picasso.”

  While the others roared with laughter, Sidney found herself weeping again, especially when her grandfather gathered her into his arms and drew her close to his chest.

  “Oh, Poppie. You should have seen Picasso. He was so brave.”

  “From what I’ve heard, he wasn’t the only one.” He tipped up her quivery chin. “My brave granddaughter deserves nothing less.” He looked over her head. “Only the bravest of pets, and men, for my brave, wonderful girl.”

  She managed to smile through her tears. “Are you saying I’m no longer delicate and…fragile?” She actually wrinkled her nose at that word, which brought another round of laughter from the othe

  “Not a bit of it. Why, I believe you may be the strongest one of all the Brennans,” her grandfather said with pride.

  Someone found a chair for Bert, who pulled it close to Adam’s bed before settling herself in it.

  “Look at them.” Her voice was a sea of calm as she studied her family crowded around the room. “Aren’t they something?”

  Adam caught her hand. “Yeah. I was just thinking the same thing. You have an amazing family, Bert.”

  She smiled at his easy use of her nickname. “There’s always room for one more.”

  He chuckled, before lifting her hand to his lips. “You’re a sly woman.”

  “So I’ve been told.” When he released her hand she folded it in her lap and sat back, enjoying the show.

  Adam, she noted, seemed to be enjoying himself immensely while Emily, ever the efficient doctor, was trying, without success, to control the chaos.

  Emily turned to the nurse. “Would you mind closing that door? If word gets out that we have animals in this hospital, we’ll start hearing from a dozen different patients about their allergies.”

  “Too late, Dr. Brennan. Word’s already out. The hospital, and the whole town, is buzzing about the international conspiracy that just put Devil’s Cove on the map. The place is swarming with television crews. They’re hunting down anyone who has ever known Sidney and Adam, and I predict that Sidney’s pets will become part of local folklore.” The nurse was still laughing as she left, closing the door firmly behind her.

  When he was certain they were alone, Frank Brennan produced a bottle of champagne and paper cups, which were quickly filled and passed around.

  Emily tried to take the cup from Adam’s hand. “You really shouldn’t have this until the sedative has worn off.”

  “Wait a minute.” Laughing, he took it back. “I earned this.” He touched it to Sidney’s cup. “And so did you.”

  As the others lifted their cups, he said softly, “Here’s to the bravest woman I know. Sidney, without your quick thinking, we wouldn’t have survived.”

  In silence they all sipped.

  It was Danny’s voice that broke the silence. “Weren’t you afraid, Aunt Sidney?”

  She nodded. “I was terrified. I’ve never even seen a handgun before, let alone held one. But how could I let my fear paralyze me when Adam’s life hung in the balance? I knew I would either find a way for him to live, or I was going to die with him.”

  The sincerity of her words had the others sighing.

  After clearing his throat several times, Frank was able to mutter, “That’s my girl. I always knew you had the right stuff.”

  As the others began proposing more toasts, Adam set aside his cup.

  Alarmed, Sidney leaned close. “They’re tiring you out, aren’t t’ll make them leave…”

  “Don’t you dare.”

  “Adam, you don’t mind…?

  He merely grinned and caught Sidney’s hand, bringing it to his lips. “I think we should take a lesson from your grandmother and just enjoy the show.”

  Sidney glanced across the bed at the old woman who sat sipping her champagne. As their gazes met, the two women shared a secret, knowing smile.

  Sidney leaned close, nuzzling her lips to Adam’s ear. “Admit it. You like my family, don’t you?”

  “I do.” He tucked an arm under his head and looked down at the dog and cat, happily asleep on the blanket. “I never had much of a family. Never had a pet, either. I think, if I play my cards right, I just might have them all.”

  “You’re thinking of staying?” Sidney felt her heart skip several beats as she waited for his reply.

  “How could I ever leave this? Or you?” In his head he could hear the music from Camelot playing. The words of a lover, wondering how he could leave his woman in spring, summer, winter or fall.

  Maybe he really had fallen under some sort of spell. Maybe Sidney Brennan really was a witch, living in an enchanted cottage. If so, he had no intention of finding a way to chase away the magic.

  He knew he was wearing a silly smile. It didn’t matter. He knew, too, he’d probably feel like hell in the morning when the pain medication wore off. That didn’t matter, either. What did matter, more than anything in the world, was what he had right here in this room.

  He wasn’t going to let his very own Camelot slip away. Not if he could help it. Not now. Not ever.

  Epilogue

  Adam peered out the window of the lighthouse at the sea of people swarming across the leaf-covered lawn, and shook his head in dismay. “Is the whole town invited?”

  “You bet.” Jason Cooper, handsome in a dove-gray morning coat and striped trousers, reached for Adam’s tie and knotted it. Stepping back he gave a nod of approval. “Okay. You’ll pass.”

  “Or pass out.” Adam glanced once more at the scene outside the window. The historical society, eager to showcase their lighthouse for this special occasion, had decorated the lawn, the porch and all of the rooms with masses of russet and gold and white mums, as well as gourds and pumpkins and golden shafts of wheat and corn. Hundreds of chairs, each sporting a satin bow, had been arranged in a circle, with a platform in the middle for the wedding party. Zigzagging through the crowd were Picasso and Toulouse, sporting white-satin bows of their own, and savoring all the attention they were getting from the invited guests. “What was I thinking when I agreed to this?”

  “What every guy is thinking.” Ethan nudged Blair and the two shared a chuckle. “We’ll do whatever the little woman wants, as long as she ages to be ours exclusively. The next thing you know, that simple little wedding ceremony turns into the event of the year.”

&nb
sp; Frank Brennan stepped into the room carrying a tray with a bottle of whiskey and five tumblers on it. He glanced around nervously before setting it down. “You’ll let me know if you see Trudy coming downstairs. Right now she’s up there.” He nodded. “With all the females, fussing over the bride.” He began filling the glasses and passing them around. “If she catches us drinking before the ceremony, she’ll tell Bert. And I promised my lovely wife that I’d keep this day dignified and unsentimental.”

  “As if you could keep such a promise.” Jason Cooper grinned at the others.

  “And what’s that supposed to mean?” The Judge shot him a look.

  “Unsentimental? When you’re presiding at your last single granddaughter’s wedding? Judge, I’ve seen you cry at old Lassie movies.”

  The men roared with laughter.

  “I will not shed a tear.” Frank lifted a tumbler. “Gentlemen…” As that word washed over him he gave a sly grin. “Do you realize, with the addition of Adam to our family, I’m no longer outnumbered by women?”

  Ethan glanced at his two sons, looking adorable in their new suits and crisp white shirts, blond hair slicked back, shoes so shiny they could see their reflections. “It took long enough, Judge.”

  “So it did. Better late than never. Now where was I?” Frank thought a minute. “All right. First, I’d like to propose a toast to my son, Christopher, who is surely watching from heaven and feeling so proud of his wife and daughters.”

  “To Christopher,” the men said in unison before drinking.

  “And of course, to you, Adam.” Frank lifted his glass in a salute. “For bringing the sunshine back into Sidney’s life.”

  Adam watched the others drink. “You’ve got it wrong, Judge. She brought the sunshine into mine.”

  Just then Trudy clattered down the stairs, dabbing an apron to her eyes. The men quickly formed a solid wall of bodies in front of the tray, but Trudy wasn’t fooled.

  Her red-rimmed eyes flashed fire. “Judge Brennan.” Her words were a huff of righteous indignation. “You gave your word.”