Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83384 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83384 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“Stay strong, Aileen,” Nolan says. “He’ll be alright. Stay strong, lass.”
In the end, they have to take me with them, in the ambulance that goes to the hospital. I won’t let him go. We fought for this. We fought through this. They’re not taking him away from me. No one will.
I’ve never seen my husband so pale and wan. He’s strong as an ox. He’ll pull through this.
“Stay with me, Cormac,” I whisper. “Stay with me, and the baby.” I don’t know if he even hears me. I close my eyes, the wails of the sirens speaking the song of my heart.
Chapter 21
Cormac
Bright lights and hazy vision are for the fucking birds.
I rub a hand across my brow, and blink to clear my vision, but it’s not working. Bloody hell.
“You should go home.” It’s Keenan. He’s to my left, and he’s standing by Aileen, speaking to her. My vision begins to clear.
“No,” she says stoutly.
“For Christ’s sake, woman, you listen to the Chief,” Keenan growls.
“You’re not my Chief,” she says staunchly. “You can’t make me.”
I smile even though it hurts to, my heart swelling at the sound of her stubborn voice. I love this fierce, headstrong, beautiful woman.
“Feisty lass,” I mutter. My voice doesn’t sound like my own.
“Cormac!” She’s on her feet and rushing to my side before I can catch a breath, but she stops right before she launches herself at me.
“My God, I thought they’d killed you. I was half ready to wake them from the dead and kill them all over again.”
I look down at myself. “Eh, shot through the feckin’ shoulder, they’d have to try harder than that.”
“Aye,” she says, her beautiful eyes brimming with tears. “My God, you scared the hell outta me!”
“Scared the hell out of both of us,” Keenan says grimly. “And brother, I’d appreciate it if you’d get yourself better so you can tame this woman of yours. Escaped her own fuckin’ room barefoot in a hospital gown to find you, hasn’t listened to a doctor’s orders, damn near killed herself waiting for you to wake.”
“Silly girl,” I say, taking her hand. “You’ve got to take care of yourself.”
“Ach, go on with you,” she says, shaking her head at Keenan. “He’s exaggerating. I put shoes on.”
Mam enters the room, takes one look at me, covers her face and bursts into tears.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” she weeps. “Just when I think I get a handle on you men, you go and do something like this. I’m done, I tell you, done.”
“Go on, now, Mam,” Keenan says soothingly. “He’s alright. You know Cormac. Has to throw himself on the frontline for his girl, but he’ll heal and move on.”
“You’d bloody better,” she says, giving me a look I haven’t seen since I was an errant teen. “You’ve got a wife and child to look after!”
I look quickly to Aileen. I swear her belly’s more rounded.
“The baby isn’t hurt, then?” I ask, sitting up so quickly in bed pain shoots through my shoulder and I wince.
“Get back on those pillows,” Aileen orders, wagging a finger at me. “The baby’s fine.” She turns to mam. “He’ll be fine, Maeve.” She reaches for my mother’s hand and gives it a squeeze. “I’ll see to it he doesn’t do anything stupid to jeopardize himself again, alright?”
“Will you, lass?” I chuckle. “Near death experience freed your tongue, aye?”
“I’ll tie him to the damn bed if I have to,” she says, ignoring me. “Make him rock the babe, and do the midnight feedings. I’ll exhaust him so he collapses into bed at night and can’t go off chasing the bad guys.”
Keenan snorts at “the bad guys.”
“Don’t need a babe to do that,” I mutter. “Already exhausts me.”
I can’t wait to get her alone again, to hold her in my arms and kiss her. To hear her lilting voice sing the songs of our people. To tug that golden hair. To school that mouth of hers, with pleasure.
“You’re both alright, then?” I ask.
Aileen pours me a glass of cold water from a pitcher on the table beside me. “Drink, Cormac,” she says, the edge in her voice softening now. I take the glass and drink. She nods approvingly before she answers. “Aye. We’re fine. The baby’s strong as an ox. Should know the sex next week, if you’re so inclined.”
“Told you,” I say, teasing her. “Will be a son.”
She rolls her eyes heavenward. “Because that’s what this family needs is more testosterone.”
Mam laughs out loud. “Damn right. We need another woman to balance off the sexes. More lavender and pink.”
Keenan groans.
I look around the room and realize I’m in the hospital wing at home. “So who’s going to tell me what happened then?”
Keenan looks to Aileen, and the symbolism of his deferring to her is not lost on me. As Clan Chief, it’s his job to keep me abreast of what happens, but he’s giving her space to do so, recognizing our relationship as husband and wife.