Garda - Welcome to the Realm (32 page)

“Hello, Corey,” her voice shook as she spoke.

“There is nothing to fear, I’m not going to hurt you.” I smiled to show her I was sincere.

“I know that. If you were, you would have done it when Mitch was in the hospital.” She raised her chin up as if she expected me to challenge her words.

“If it had been his time, then yes, I could have, but he has many more years here, with you and your family.” I saw moisture begin to pool.

“Thank you. Thank you for not taking him from me.” A tear ran down her pale cheek. I stepped closer to her and saw her shoulders stiffen.

“Relax, Beth, I promise I’m not going to hurt you.” I stood in front of her, searching into her frightened face. She was a strong woman, and some residual guilt reared its head in me for what I had done to their relationship. “I’m very sorry for the pain that I caused you.”

She glanced away from my face and swallowed shakily, “Thank you, but you don’t need to apologize. If it wasn’t for what Mitch shared and lost with you, I might not have ever gotten him back.”

I slid a quick peek at Mitch. He hung his head for a moment and then looked back up at me solemnly.

“You have an incredible husband, Beth, and I know that you two will get through everything and have a wonderful, happy life together.” I reached out and touched her arm. What I felt coming from her startled me so much that I jerked my hand back and glanced at Mitch.

Mitch was confused at my reaction, “What’s wrong?”

I moved to stand in front of him, “Mitch, I know you might not want to see Brock, but I need him to come forward for a minute.”

Beth sucked in a breath and put her hand to her mouth.

Mitch turned to her, “Beth, it’s alright.” He turned back to me, “That’s fine. I’d like to speak with him myself.”

Beth was shaking her head back and forth slowly, and Mitch turned back to her, “Beth, I’ve already told you that I forgive you, and now I have to tell him I forgive him.”

Tear after tear rolled down her pale cheeks, but she nodded slowly.

“Do you really forgive me, Mitch?” While we had watched Beth, Brock had stepped over. Beth hitched in a tight breath and pushed her hand tighter to her mouth.

Brock stepped beside me, instinctively resting his hand on my back. Mitch noticed the gesture, straightened his shoulders, and refrained from making a comment.

“Yes, I do. When I got back home, I had Beth go up in the attic and pull down that box of stuff that I got from your house. If I had taken the time before instead of getting angry at the letters I saw, I would have seen the medical records you had stored in there.” He eyed Brock carefully. “I assume you left them there so I would know the truth.”

“Yes, that is exactly why I left them there.” I felt the tension in Brock’s body rise just before he spoke again, “I owe both of you an apology, especially you, Beth. I should have never allowed that to happen that night.”

Beth’s hand slowly lowered from her mouth as she bounced between the two men’s faces.

Mitch glanced at Beth, the side of his mouth tipping up, “Let’s just call it even and move forward.”

Beth nodded and faced me, “I think you told Mitch that Chase was a gift from God, well I believe he really is. Because of the accident, Mitch may never be able to have kids of his own.”

Sorrow pierced my heart to know that I might have caused that, but at the same time I knew I could do something.

Brock spoke up from beside me, “Chase is your child, Mitch. He might have been fathered by me, but we share the same blood, and there is no one else in this world that I would want to raise him.”

Mitch blinked his rapidly. “Thank you, Brock,” Mitch whispered.

“Beth, I need to take your hand for a moment, and I need Brock to take your other one, okay?”

Beth was immediately alarmed and stepped back from us.

“Please, don’t worry. We aren’t going to hurt you.” Her alarmed face turned straight to Mitch. He seemed concerned but told her to it would be alright.

I reached for her hand and grasped it tightly. Brock stepped up beside me.
What’s going on, Coralenna?

Just wait, you’ll see.
I said silently to him and reached for his hand, clasping it. Brock put his hand out to Beth and she reached out to take his. I closed my eyes, focusing on what I had felt earlier.

No way—
Brock shivered as he felt what I had earlier.

“We’re gonna fix that.”
I poured my energy into Beth, focusing on the dark mass that grew in her body. Brock sent energy into her, too, and we dissolved the mass completely.

When I opened my eyes again, Brock was smiling down at Beth. She moved her gaze between the two of us. “What did you do?”

Beth, shh, it’s just me, Corey,
I whispered into her mind.
When you go back to the doctors, the lump will be gone. You don’t have to worry about that now. Focus on your family because you’re going to have a lot to take care of soon.

Beth broke down in sobs, and I pulled her into my arms. I saw Mitch share a small smile with Brock as he laid his hand on Mitch’s shoulder. “It’s going be alright now, brother, it’s gonna be alright.”

Epilogue

~ Mitchell ~

I sat in the hospital room, smiling. How much our life had changed over this last year, so much anger, so much love, and so much life.

Beth told me a week later when she came in crying from visiting her doctor that she had had a large lump in her left breast, but now the cancer was gone. She stood in my arms, and we both cried and thanked God for what He had given us.

Two months before today, I gave a final deposition in court concerning the incidents in which Joe had tried to implicate me. Shortly before my day in court, Joe had disappeared, and no one knew where he was.

I knew that I needed to watch my back, he wasn’t like Corey, and I had my suspicions that he played for the southern team, but since the day at the cemetery, I had not seen Corey or Brock to ask.

“Here, can you take her?” Beth asked from the hospital bed, and I reached over and carefully picked up my daughter, Rebecca Corey. I tickled her soft skin with the tip of my finger while a wail came from Beth’s arms.

“Guess Mathew Brock is hungry again, huh?” I chuckled as she tried to adjust him to her breast.

“I’m sure he is, he already eats more than Chase, and he’s only a day old.”

I watched her feed our son and thought about how lucky I had been. That night that I had come home angry and upset, and Beth and I had made love on the kitchen floor had been the night these two had been conceived.

“Do you think they know?” Beth interrupted my thoughts.

I studied my little newborn daughter and then glanced at my son, wondering the same thing.

They’re beautiful, Mitch.

Tears pooled in my eyes as I looked up to see Corey and Brock standing in the corner of the room, both radiant and smiling.

“Yeah,” I forced myself to hold it together, “yeah, they know.”

Beth scanned the room and then turned her attention back to me, “Good.”

If Corey had not stopped me that night in the parking lot, and I had not gone home to Beth and made love to her, these two incredible gifts would not be here. Only a short time later when my accident occurred, my ability to have children disappeared.

What I had done earlier that night was wrong, but Corey stopping me, well that was just destiny—just pure and simple destiny—and that is what I would always believe.

~ Corey ~

“You do know that you changed the course of their lives, right.” Brock nuzzled my ear as we stood in the room and watched Beth and Mitch cuddle and feed their children.

“I didn’t change their destiny. I saw her future when I touched her. She would have beaten the cancer, but it would have been a long and dangerous road while she carried those two.”

“I think it’s pretty cool that they named them after us.”

I twisted my neck so I could look up at his face. He stood directly behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Let’s go home, Brock. It’s time to leave these two to their lives for a while. They won’t need us until those two get bigger.”

“Alright,” he gave me a quick kiss and smiled down at me.

“How about we play hide and seek?” I grinned mischievously.

His eyebrow rose quizzically over his left eye, “Okay, if that’s what you want. You go first.”

I phased from his arms and waited for him to follow. When he arrived in our bedroom, I was leaning back on the pillows of our bed. “It sure is a shame that we don’t land in the same place.”

Brock burst out laughing, remembering the time something similar had been said. With two steps, he dove onto the bed and into my arms, right where I wanted him to be.

THE END

Stacy Eaton is a police officer by profession. Currently, she is working as the department investigator and enjoys digging into cases and putting the pieces of the puzzles together.

Stacy resides in southeastern Pennsylvania and is the wife to a police officer and the mother of two. She is very proud of her son who is currently serving in the United States Navy and equally proud of her nine year old daughter who works hard in her Tae Kwon Do studies.

When Stacy is not working her demanding job, or spending time with her family, she works on her business and volunteers with the World Literary Café. When there is time, she writes.

Stacy is currently working on book 3 of the International Best Selling "My Blood Runs Blue" Series (release anticipated late Summer 2013). She also has plans to add a second book to her newest series, Garda, along with publishing a contemporary romance later this year.

Be sure to visit
www.stacyeaton.com
for updates and more information on her books.