Men-of-Action-Seres-04 -Saints and Sinners (19 page)

“Alaina,” Sully ran to her and dropped to one knee.

“I’ve been shot again,” she moaned. “In the same arm.” The hard lines of his face told her his anger was just as high as hers, just as entrenched as hers.

“It’s just a graze,” he pulled her up into his arms and walked into the sitting room, away from her father’s lifeless body. She imagined he was trying to mitigate the emotional nightmare she would have from seeing her father die—again—this time for real.

“He wasn’t my father,” she said absently.

“Alaina, he was…”

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knew as my father. I don’t know who he became, but I can’t believe that the entire ten years of my life was a lie.” She just couldn’t live with that.

She came from two parents who thought only of themselves. If that’s who they were, then what did that make her? She thought she had some good in her because of her father, but if he had always been this way then what good could he have passed down to her.

“You’re nothing like them,” he said to her as if he had read her silent thoughts. “You are the woman you are because of who you choose to be everyday. You’re not them. You’re good, you’re beautiful inside and out. Don’t you dare let either of them take that away from you.” He placed his fingers on her chin and lifted her head so that their eyes could meet.

“Do you understand me?”

She shook her head slowly.

“I didn’t hear you.”

She smiled. “Yes. I understand that.”

“Do you believe it?”

“I’m trying to,” she admitted. “I’m trying to believe I won’t become them.”

“You won’t. You hate what they did too much to become them.”

“Yeah,” she shook her head again. “You’re right. Free will and all that jazz. I’m me, my own person. And I’m nothing like either of them.”

“Damn straight,” he admitted. “Ambulance is on its way. We’ll get that cleaned up for you.” He pointed to her arm, the same one she had been shot in before.

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“It’s just a graze,” she shrugged. “Hardly seems worth fretting over.”

He laughed. “You’re kidding me. I shot you and you went ballistic.”

“I thought you were cute and I couldn’t believe you shot me while trying to rescue me. You completely broke my idea of what a rescuer would be like. Plus, it was so much fun watching you squirm every time I brought it up.”

He shook his head. “You’re going to have to marry me for that one,” he smiled, looking deep into her eyes.

“You want to marry me?”

“I spent years with Kathryn before we got married, and I never felt for her what I feel for you. So yeah, I want to marry you. Will you have me as your family, Alaina?”

Her lips turned upward. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, yes, yes…do you think Teagan will be angry?”

He shook his head. “It was her idea.”

“What?”

“Before we left that morning she kept saying how fun it would be to have you as a mother because you liked her and she liked you and I should listen to her nanna and just marry you.”

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“My mom made the mistake of speaking in the same room as Teagan just because she thought she was napping on the couch. She said you were a good woman, and that I needed a good woman in my life.”

“Mother and daughter know best,” she took his hand in hers.

“I know best,” he leaned in and kissed her lips softly. “Now, I better put this gun out of my reach before those cops come bursting in here.”

She watched him put the weapon out of his reach before returning to her side. The last thing either of them wanted was for him to get shot because the officers saw a gun in his hand.

“How’s two months from now?”

“Two months?” She tried to figure out what he meant.

“For the wedding; will two months be okay?”

“What about next month?” She didn’t need a big affair with gowns and loud music. All they needed was something small, something private where they could be surrounded by people who loved them.

“Next month it is,” he said quickly. “And I’m not letting you out of it,” he winked.

“I’m not trying to get out of it either. But I do have to warn you. I am the world’s worst sleeper. I have been known to kick things out of bed.”

“You kicked me out of the bed,” he mumbled.

“I did not.” She emphatically denied his claim.

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“Yes, you did. The first night. I hit the floor hard. I was surprised I didn’t wake you up.”

“Oh,” she sighed. “Sorry. I should have warned you earlier. We can do separate beds. It’ll be safer.”

He shook his head no. “I’ll just be sure to move the bedside table and put down an air mattress so I’ll have something comfortable to land on when you kick me out of the bed again.” Now it was her turn to laugh. She had just gone through hell and somehow it didn’t seem to matter because she was with Sully and he, he was genuinely a good man. He wasn’t perfect, nor did he try to be, but he was honest, and noble, and good. And she loved him. No matter what her parents had done she wouldn’t let them destroy who she was and who she could become.

“One more thing,” she leaned in close to him.

“What?”

“I want you to give me something.”

“What’s that?”

“A little boy,” she smiled. She wanted his son, their son.

“When I get you home I will gladly work on granting your request, Alaina James.”

“Alaina Masterson,” she corrected him. “We might as well get used to hearing it now.” She would still have to go by James in the art world, it was after all, the name on all of her artwork, but everywhere else she was going to be Alaina Masterson.

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“I like the sound of that.”

“Me too. And we can name our son Windsor.” He froze. “Excuse me?”

“Your mom told me.”

“My mom told you…”

“That your middle name is Windsor? Yeah. Sully Windsor Masterson. It’s sounds very classy.”

“I hate that name. There is no way we’re naming our son Windsor.”

“I love it, and I think we should.”

He trembled just thinking about it. “I think we can come up with something else before you give birth.”

She shrugged. “All right, but if we don’t…Windsor is going on his birth certificate. Deal?”

“Deal,” he said reluctantly. She was sure, as determined as Sully was, he would work non-stop at coming up with a name for their child, one that didn’t include his middle name.

“Windsor Masterson,” she said.

“Please stop.” He stood and brushed his hand over his head.

“Sully Windsor Masterson Junior.”

“No,” he shook his head. “Please don’t even think about it.” She laughed, hard, considering the events going on in the room around her she couldn’t understand how she could laugh, but being with Saints and Sinners 182

Sully had a tendency to make her feel as if the world around her was going to be okay. “I rather like it.”

“I hate it,” he mumbled.

“Well, if you feel that strongly about it I guess we’ll have to think up something else. You better hurry. The way I see it, we’ve had enough unprotected sex that I might already be pregnant. And if I’m not, every night for the rest of our lives is bound to turn up something sooner rather than later.”

“You’re right, I’d better hurry.”

“Are the two of you okay,” Thomas approached.

“You finally made it.”

“You took off in my car—without me,” he reminded him. “I would have been here already if you hadn’t done that.”

“Yeah…sorry about that.”

Alaina shook her head.

“Thomas,” he said to her. “We can name him Thomas. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have been able to get to you in time.”

“Name who Thomas?” Thomas stared at her inquisitively, as if trying to determine if they were talking about what he was now thinking about.

“Our first son.”

“First?” Sully looked at her incredulously.

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“Unless you’re planning to invest in several boxes of condoms I’m guessing there will be more than one child. And if we have another girl we’ll definitely have to have another boy.” Thomas laughed. “I would tell you to have fun, Sully, but I’m sure you don’t need me to remind you of that.” He laughed heartedly. “I’d be honored to be the inspiration for the little tyke’s name.” Alaina shrugged. “Hey, what’s going to happen to Tony?”

“He started singing like the proverbial canary once the cops told them they had a witness who could paint the jury a vivid picture of him as the killer of the nurse. He’s going away for a long time after this.”

“Good,” she mumbled. “There has been too much death because of them. Too much pain and suffering.”

“Let’s get you to the hospital,” Sully guided her out the front door and down to the ambulance that had just arrived on scene.

Alaina Masterson, she rolled the name around in her mind. She liked the sound of that, she liked it a lot.

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"My father and Tony worked together all that time?” Sully nodded affirmatively. “Your father paid off his father’s debt, to some really heavy hitters—mafia. Tony felt obliged to be loyal to Sean.

When he infiltrated your mother’s inner circle he rooted himself in deep.” She nodded. Apparently, Tony had spent most of his life devoted to her father. All that time Liz thought she had a loyal errand boy. “What a messed up bunch of people,” she admitted.

“At least it’s over. They can’t hurt you anymore.” She knew that. Her father was now really dead. Tony was awaiting trial, but it was a pretty much an “in the bag” case, or so they had been told, and Liz…well, Liz would always be Liz. She was working hard trying to spin the debacle to her political advantage. She would probably win too, because that’s what Liz did. She won at all cost. So far, most of Capri Montgomery 185

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the news articles had been sympathetic to her; and why wouldn’t they be?

She was the devoted agent, mother, presidential candidate…or so they thought.

“Well, it is what it is,” Alaina rolled over in bed. “I won’t dwell on it. I have too many good things to think about.”

“Do you really now?” He trailed his fingers over her collarbone.

“Uh huh,” she nodded. “You see, I have permission from a very sweet little girl to marry her father. You might know him.”

“I might,” he said absently as he let his hand slowly slide down her body.

“And I’m getting married in a couple days.” She gasped as his fingers slid over her breast.

“Uh huh,” he mumbled.

“And I’m…I’m pregnant,” she managed to say. His hand stopped quickly.

“Say that again?”

“I’m pregnant.”

He leaned up on his elbow and looked down at her. “Are you sure?”

She giggled. “I took the test while I was in the bathroom. That’s what took me so long. I suspected, but I wasn’t sure. And well…there was a plus sign. Of course a doctor should confirm, and we should wait until we hit at least three months before we blab to everybody…but, yeah, I’m pregnant.”

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“Wow,” he exhaled slowly. “Wow.”

“You’re not ready for this?” She felt the panic start to creep in. It was too late to change things now. She put drops of pee on that little stick and a plus sign showed up, so she was definitely pregnant…unless the test was defective or something. She had confidence in the test because just yesterday the pharmacist had assured her it was the best brand on the market. She had waited to take the test, thinking maybe she would get her period, but when it hadn’t arrived by that morning she just couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. So she took the test, and it was positive. She hadn’t thought he wouldn’t be happy about it.

“We’re ready,” he assured her. “I’m just…wow, this is fast.”

“Well, I don’t know if you remember, but that night, at the cabin, and then that morning, and that afternoon, and…”

“I remember,” he grinned. He leaned in and pressed a kiss on her stomach. “Be a boy,” he mumbled.

She placed her hand over her stomach. “Be healthy…and sane.” She added the sanity request because she had seen enough insanity in her world lately to know that it seemed to run in her bloodline.

“That too,” he added. “But be a boy. Otherwise I’m going to have to keep getting her pregnant until we have one. You see, I promised her a boy. And well, even if it takes us twenty tries, we’re going to have a boy.”

“No we’re not,” she shrieked. “There is no way in this world I am going to get pregnant and have babies twenty times.” He shrugged. “Then you might want to tell it to be a boy.” Capri Montgomery 187

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Her eyes widened. As much sex as they had she didn’t doubt that he could get her pregnant twenty times. “Be a boy,” she agreed. “And you,” she pointed to Sully’s chest, “you either get some condoms or get a vasectomy.”

He laughed so hard and so loud she thought he might wake the whole house.