THIS TIME I WOKE I knew where I was and was damn happy to see a face I knew and had wanted to talk to. I may not have had much time to think while being in the hospital, since I’d been sleeping most of the time, but what little I did, I knew I needed to set things straight with my father and I wanted to be with Ryder. I wasn’t letting him get away. He was mine and I intended to live with him and spend all my time getting to know him and figuring out how we worked. Knowing we were having a baby together, only made me want our time alone more.
My dad didn’t notice I was awake and it gave me a moment to study him. He looked different, older, tired and haggard. I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever seen him like this. He was always in charge and put together, but his clothes didn’t even look like they’d been ironed.
“Dad.”
His head shot away from staring out the window to me. “Hey kiddo. You get in to some trouble?” He leaned in closer and grabbed my hand. “I’ve never been so happy to see your pretty brown eyes.” He squeezed my hand. “I was worried about you.” He closed his eyes and I watched him compose himself. When he opened them again he looked a little more like the father I knew. “I’m proud of you. What you did, and how you fought. I’m…I’m just so proud.”
“Thanks.” I wasn’t sure what else I was supposed to say. My dad wasn’t one to give compliments. I was taken aback. This wasn’t what I had expected. “Um, Dad, are you okay?”
His chuckle was hollow. “Fuck. He’s Goddamn right.” He let my hand go and the grimace of annoyance that spread over his face reached his eyes. “I met Ryder.” He raised a brow. “I also know he has probably knocked you up. How do you feel about it?”
I was sure he meant about the pregnancy but I thought now was a good time to set him straight about everything. “Even though we’ve been together for a short time, I feel more for him than I have any other man.” I lowered my voice to whisper. “I think I might even love him.” I raised my voice again. “I mean, he’s all macho and totally not what I was looking for or would ever usually go for, but I can’t deny how drawn I am to him.” I sigh and look into my dad’s eyes that are so like my own. “He’s beyond good to me. He gives me foot, shoulder and back massages. He goes shopping with me.” I don’t miss the slip of his lips into a smile. Dad knows I’m a diehard shopper. I love a good bargain. “He listens to me and I know he hears what I say, because I find things that I’ve mentioned as gifts or he’ll take me to the restaurant or movie I mention. It’s little things too, like he happily let me relax against him and read while he watches TV, or snuggle while we watch Netflix. He may be all he-man and a bit, er, caveman, but…” I shrugged, happy when I didn’t wince. “Nobody is perfect, but to me so far he has been.”
He sighed loudly. “So does that mean you’re happy to pregnant?”
I hadn’t had much time to really think about being pregnant, but funnily enough I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t even scared. Now I was thinking about it, I was actually getting excited. “What’s the difference between taking care of you and Arron and taking care of a little baby? Now I think about it, I bet the baby will be easier than you two.” I can feel a wicked grin spread over my face as I stare at my dad.
“You’ve become a comedian since you awoke. Ha, hardy, ha.” He reached out and held my hand. “I have no doubt you will be a brilliant mother.”
I tried but didn’t have the strength to clutch his hand. “How will you be with me not there to look out for you?”
He groaned and his forehead rested on the edge of my bed. “Kiddo, I’m charge of hundreds of men. What makes you think I need you to look after me?”
I nudged him with my hand and when he looked at me I raised my brow. “When was the last time you cooked yourself a meal? Do I need to even mention the yelling matches I refereed between you and Arron?”
“Your brother is not like you.”
“Exactly. Dad, he’s not like you. He’s not like your men. You need to treat him like your son. The more you fight and tell him no, the more he rebels. He’s a good kid, Dad.”
Dad reached up and stroked my cheek. “If it wasn’t for my brown eyes and hair and that your mother was crazy and loved me and would have never cheated, I’d swear you weren’t mine. Actually, you remind me of her, you know. She had a heart just like yours always caring for the ones she loved before herself. I promise I’ll try harder with your brother. He’s staying with the Silvermans. They’re…they’re in your face, and hard to ignore. You’ve gained yourself a unique family.”
“Yes, they’re very hard to ignore.” I knew then that Dad and I were good. “So tell me what happened and the ‘official’ story.” I relaxed and listened to my father’s deep timbre as he filled in the gaps I couldn’t remember and what I needed to say to the cops when they came to talk to me. If they got the chance with Ryder and his family guarding me.
Divinity slept most of the time and when she was awake she didn’t have much energy, so we watched movies or I read to her.
Two detectives, who were friends from the department, had talked to her. She stuck to the story her father gave her, and I was glad they went easy on her by not making her go into too much detail. They tried to talk to me about the case, but I was being good. I was already in trouble and as much as I wanted to be involved in the case and make X pay, my focus was on Divinity and getting her better. She was my world. Everyone and everything else could wait until I knew Divinity was okay. When she was out of the hospital I intended to talk to her about my work. Divinity deserved to have a say on whether or not I stayed in the police force or found a safer job. Being a Silverman already gave me enemies, but with me being a detective it added more. I hated knowing that because of me, my soulmate, my lover, my vixen Divinity had been kidnapped.
I knew she was getting better when she faked being asleep when my Aunt Gillian and mother came for a visit. They came with wedding magazines and wedding cake photo books. With Destiny’s feigned sleep, I’d had to listen to Aunt Gillian speak about our options of where we could have the ceremony and reception, and which bridal, florist and cake shops she thought were the best. I didn’t agree to anything, because I knew that Divinity would want to have a say in every little detail of our wedding, and when she wasn’t sick I didn’t doubt she would hold her own against Aunt Gillian.
As soon as Divinity was sure Aunt Gillian was gone, I watched her trying, and failing not to laugh as her eyes flashed open and she glared at me. “What the hell is your aunt talking about? Why the fuck is she bringing me wedding shit?”
I raised my brow. “After what happened there is no way I’m letting you out of my sight without you tied to me in every way possible.” Her pout would have worked on me if I wasn’t staring at her in a hospital bed. “I’ll make the elaborate proposal up to you, I promise, but I’m making you my wife as soon as you and my family can organize your dream wedding. You saw the ring from when I put it on you the first night you stayed over. I have it in a safe place, but I didn’t think having it here was appropriate. I’ll give it to you when we get home.”
“Mmm, home,” she moaned. “If you can convince me, I’ll think about it.” I nodded and she looked anywhere but me for a while, then groaned, picked up the bridal mag and started looking through it.
That was the last I’d heard on the wedding, but I did see her mark pages and take notes and the next time Gillian came, she didn’t fake sleep and even invited my mother to join in.
They kept Divinity for another week after she awoke from her coma and they only let her go early because she begged to come home. I promised I would get a nurse to help her and I had my uncle Carl on speed dial. Eric and I were getting on as best I thought we would. He agreed without argument that Divinity was coming home to my, our, house. I hoped being home would limit visitors. Divinity sure was popular, and at visiting hours there was always at least one person there to see her. All her salon co-workers, even some of her clients came. Then she had all her friends, some even traveled just so they could visit and make sure she was doing better. I thought being a Silverman was bad, but being her fiancée, well, I’d never been talked about like I wasn’t there and was just a piece of eye candy so much. Some women even asked me to stand and twirl, so they could get the full effect, or so they said. If it wasn’t for Divinity, I would have told some of them to stick their ‘twirls’ or their ‘flex your muscles’ comments and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine. They even talked about how well I performed in bed. I’m not afraid to say that sometimes I ran from the room. If the bodyguards went through that when they were at the hair and beauty salon, I was giving them a raise.
Divinity had a cast on her left hand to help heal the break in her wrist and her fingers on her right hand were in a special splint. She had a short cast on her left leg and a brace on her right. She was one unhappy woman when the pain meds were lowered to help prove she was ready to go home.
Waiting in her room for the nurses to bring her discharge papers and a wheelchair for her to leave the hospital, I couldn’t help feeling relieved that we’re leaving too. Chad had taken all our things to the car and was meeting us at the entrance. I was looking forward to sleeping on a comfortable bed and eating real food. The hospital café was terrible, although from seeing the food Divinity received, I was sure her food was worse than mine.
A nurse in pink scrubs strolled in with a wheelchair and paused by the bed. Her nametag said Renee. “Are you ready to ditch this place?” she asked Divinity, who had a huge grin on her face as she nodded.
“Am I ever! No offense to you or any of the amazing staff, but I’m looking forward to my soft bed, TV with Netflix on the big screen instead of my laptop, and real food, just to name a few things.”
Renee smiled at Divinity. “Well, let’s get you out of here. Do you need my help to get in the wheelchair or can you do it on your own?”
Before Renee could finish her sentence and Divinity could answer, I was up and went to Divinity and carefully lifted her, cradling her in my arms before placing her gently in the wheelchair.
Divinity rolled her eyes. “Obviously, I don’t need to do a thing when I have my He-Man around. I have a feeling I’m not going to even need to use the wheelchair that we ordered. My man will just carry me everywhere.” She was right. I’d carry her anywhere she wanted. I loved her in my arms so it was a win, win, for me.
The nurse, who was probably in her late forties, giggled and then blushed. She grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and moved Divinity out of the room and walked towards the elevator. I couldn’t hold back the grunt of annoyance as she leaned down and whispered to Divinity. “Our female staff are going to miss you the most. The visitors you get…” she sighed dreamily and Divinity laughed. Thanks to my woman I now knew what it was like to be a prized pony on display and so did my brothers, and cousins.
“Ha, you know my workmates said something similar.” The laughter in her voice had any annoyance I felt fading. As we got into the elevator I didn’t miss the massive, beaming smile on her face. “I’m pretty lucky because not only am I surrounded by man candy, but they are the nicest men, who are all great company, and they help to keep me safe.”
The irony of her last words wasn’t lost on me. We hadn’t kept her safe, and she was in the hospital because of it.
Renee wheeled her to the entrance where Chad sat in the SUV waiting for us. I reached down and carefully picked up Divinity while Renee opened the passenger door. I placed her in the seat and did her seat belt up before turning and smiling down at the nurse. “Thank you and please thank all the staff for your help.” I shut the door, walked around to the other side, and got in the back-passenger seat next to Divinity.
“Yes, what he said,” yelled Divinity as she pressed the button for the window to go down.
Renee waved as we slowly drove off. Chad stayed quiet.
The car stayed quiet until we were almost home when Divinity loudly sighed. “I’m really looking forward to getting home. I know we have tons to talk about and settle, but I can’t wait to relax on a soft bed and comfortable furniture.”
I was grinning like a loon. I knew we needed to talk and I was looking forward to it. Any time I spent with Divinity I looked forward to. What I was grinning about though was that she called my place, our place, home. I loved that she liked our home and everything in it.
I’d been home for two days and had been waiting for the onslaught of friends and family, but they didn’t come and I was grateful. I needed a rest from everyone. I knew they all meant well, but it was exhausting keeping up with them all and I didn’t want to show them how much pain I was really in so I down played it. Now at home I could whine and whine and only Ryder and Arron, when he was there, had to put up with me.
I would never tell Ryder, but the psychologist that visited every afternoon was helping. I had fought him for a week or so while in the hospital when Ryder had told me he’d hired a woman psychologist for me to talk to, almost the day after my nightmares began. He won the fight and the last week of my hospital stay she’d come and listened to me for an hour every afternoon. That week I hadn’t spoken to her about what had happened, I found I could talk about anything but being kidnapped and what had happened to me. It had only been since being home, that I had started talking about what had happened when I’d been kidnapped. I still couldn’t get to what I’d had to do to escape yet, and the nightmares still plagued me almost every night, but I knew coming to terms with everything and working through what I’d had to do and living with the consequences wouldn’t be all good overnight.
I had hoped that Ryder would talk to me about what was going on with the case and him being suspended and what his plans were, but he’d kept to safe, getting-to-know-each-other-more topics. Like favorite color. I was surprised we didn’t know these yet. His was red and mine was purple. We’re both dog people, but I like smaller dogs. Not rat size, but not huge shepherds either. Ryder loved the big dogs. I loved spring, when it was hot, but not too hot. His favorite time of year was autumn, when it wasn’t too cold but not too hot, and he could run for miles happily. I’d learned a lot of things over the last couple of days and was surprised when I learned them that I didn’t already know. I was determined to talk about his work and what we would do though.
Sitting on the long-padded sofa I watched Ryder come and sit at the end, placing my feet over his lap. He started massaging my toes and I closed my eyes as warmth flowed through me. “Mmm, you’re not distracting me. I called you in here so we can finally discuss the elephant in the room. The case and what the fuck is going on with your suspension from work.” I opened my eyes and glared at him so he knew I was serious and he couldn’t change the subject.
“Are you sure you want to talk about this?”
I threw my arms up and winced. I really did forget about my injuries. My drugs were good, until I did something to make them known. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to talk about this.” He stopped massaging my feet. “Don’t stop. I want to talk about what’s going on and could happen, but that doesn’t mean you stop what you’re doing.” I wiggled my toes as best I could with one foot in a cast.
He chuckled and continued to work his magic on my feet. “I heard back a couple of days ago about my suspension and was cleared. I can go back to work anytime now.”
“Why are you at home then? You don’t need to be here. You hired a live-in nurse to help take care of me.” I raised my brow. “Which I might add is a waste of money as you do everything and she barely does a thing. Emma has the breeziest job ever. Case in point.” I tilted my head towards his hands.
He chuckled again and I loved it. I had to admit his deep baritone as he chuckled and when he laughed was my favorite sound in the universe. “I’m home because I don’t know if I want to go back. Do you want me to? I already put you in danger being a Silverman, and I put you in even more with the work I do. You got kidnapped because of me.” I winced when he dug in real deep on my foot. “Fuck. I’m sorry vixen.” He let go of my feet as if they were on fire.
Wiggling closer to him I maneuvered so I laid my head against his chest and snuggled against him. “I’m not going to tell you to stop or leave your job. If it’s what you love to do then I support you one hundred percent. As for being unsafe, nothing is safe anymore. I mean being a Silverman isn’t safe because of your money and all the connections your family has and stuff, right?” I shrugged. “If being a cop, detective or whatever makes you happy then be it. I’m a big girl.” I narrowed my gaze on him. “I want X found and I want him to get what he deserves. I want his drugs off the streets and I want everyone to feel safer knowing he’s locked away.” I squeezed his hand that was hugging my stomach. “I know you will get the job done because you’re determined.”
I felt him relax and smile, happy because he liked my answer. “Shit’s hit the fan since I’ve been on suspension. That biker gang, you know the ones from the day we went to Wet’n’Wild, The Devil’s’ Queens, they’ve gotten involved now and are fighting any of X’s men, so every night it’s turning into a blood bath.”
I turned and inched back so I could see his face. This was some shit. I knew The Devil’s Queens hated the Silvermans and with them fighting X, this was huge. I was surprised Ryder was at home with me and not out kicking arse and arresting people. I could see the worry lines around his eyes and his lips were thin, but it was his eyes that gave away how frustrated and angry he was at everything, I wanted to wrap my arms around him and hug him to me and help him feel better. “So why aren’t you at work?”
“I’m not going to risk leaving you and anything happening to you again. I’m staying and protecting you. You are more important to me than anyone else. You’re the only person I care about getting hurt.” His moan was deep and guttural and clearly a sound of pain. He stroked my cheek, his rough callused fingers adding to the sweet feel of his touch. “I don’t think you understand how much you mean to me. I know I explained the soul mate gypsies’ gift, but you have become more. With you I laugh, I have fun, I talk for hours, I can just be. I’ve never had that with anyone, not even my brothers. If I ever lost you I would go insane. I’m not even joking. When I found out what happened to you I nearly had a heart attack and when you made it to the hospital? I have never prayed and begged so much in my life. I don’t care if I never work in law enforcement again. You have become my whole world. You’re all that matters.”
Oh. My. God. I loved this man. I was so damn lucky. I beamed up at him, happier than I could ever remember being. “Thank you. You’re an amazing man and I’m so lucky to have you, but you don’t have to stop doing what you love doing because you want to keep me safe wrapped in a bubble. I can take care of myself. I got kidnapped, sure, but I promise I’ve learned my lesson and know what the bodyguards are for and will make sure I have them with me at all times. Go back to work. Catch bad guys.” I kissed his lips and, being careful of all extra medical bandages and cast, straddled his lap. I gave up when I couldn’t bend my right leg thanks to the brace. “Argh. I hate this. I want to be closer to you. I want to feel your body against mine. Dammit I’m so horny, especially after those sweet words you gave me.
His groan of need at my words eased me some. It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one suffering.
I was back at work but working from home. I was still reluctant to leave Divinity. When she had some of the cast off, I’d told work I’d go in for a couple of hours, but it would still be a couple of weeks. Work wasn’t happy, but it was either that or I told them I’d retire. And they didn’t want me to retire. Not only because I was good at my job, but because they used my contacts and my name.
The department also liked that I knew how to deal and work with the media, thanks to my upbringing. I was grateful I wasn’t my American or English cousins as they dealt with a lot more media than we did here.
The news I’d just learned scared me. Divinity’s father Eric, had been hounding the detectives working the case while I’d been on suspension for weeks about getting X, but for the last two days they’d heard zilch from him. I’d seen firsthand what Eric could do, and on the one hand I was glad he was involved, because I knew now that X would be found. On the other hand, I was petrified of what shape I would find X when, or if, he was given over to me.
I’d tried calling Eric and he wasn’t answering. This worried me more. I had a feeling this was either going to blow up in my face, or I was going to have everything sorted out in a week or so. I was praying for the latter.