Seal It With A Kiss (McClellan Trilogy) (2 page)

“Brooke, we can’t think like that—he is strong, he is a fighter, and he will make it.”

“But if he doesn’t, I can’t be a single parent.”

“What? What did you say?”

“I’m pregnant Brock—I don’t want to raise this baby alone, I just can’t.”

“Does Luke know? He didn’t say anything to me.”

“No, I was going to surprise him. Brock, he just has to pull through.”

Brock pulled Brooke into another hug “He is strong and he has so much to live for. He was so happy to be marrying you today. He will pull through for you—you have to believe that.”

“What happened today Brock? Who shot him? Is that why you were on the phone when I came out here?”

“Yes—I was on the phone with Officer O’Malley. We have a positive ID on the shooter. He was Randy’s brother.”

“Who shot him? I heard the second shot and I thought for sure I would be on the floor with Luke fighting for my life.”

“I shot him. As soon as I hear word on Luke, I need to go to the station for a briefing—it is standard protocol when an officer shoots a civilian.”

“You won’t lose your badge will you?”

“I will be placed on administrative leave until everything is cleared from Internal Affairs. I had already handed over my weapon to the officers on the scene—again, that is standard protocol. The shooting was justified—I just need to make sure that I get everything on record before too much time passes—I really can’t discuss this any further with you as I don’t want any conversation to influence my memory of what happened. We just need to focus on Luke and how he is doing. Let’s go back to the waiting room and see if they have any updates.”

After two and a half more hours passed, a doctor walked into the waiting room. “McClellan family?”

At the same time everyone looked up and said, “Yes.”

“I am Doctor Preston and I was the surgeon today when they brought Luke in.”

Brooke stepped forward “Is he? Will he? Did he pull through?”

“Yes.”

With just that one little word, Brooke felt her knees go weak and Brock and Sam caught her as she was about to collapse. “Here, have a seat Brooke.” Sam suggested.

“The bullet missed his heart by mere millimeters and his left lung had collapsed. He is in recovery right now and we will be moving him to ICU for a minimum of 48 hours since we have him in an induced coma to help his body recover. I want to warn you though—we have him hooked up to a machine to help him breathe, but this is only temporary.”

“When can we see him?” Margaret asked.

“As soon as he is moved to ICU, he will be limited to immediate family only and one visitor at a time.”

Margaret looked at Brooke and said, “You will go to him first—you’re his wife.”

Brooke nodded as happy tears streaked her cheeks while Brock squeezed her shoulders. “I need to head to the station—I will be back as soon as I can.”

An hour later Brooke walked into the ICU and made her way to Luke’s bedside. Her initial reaction was shock even though the doctor had warned her about what to expect. She picked up his hand and noticed that his wedding ring was missing. “Luke—it’s Brooke. I don’t know if you can hear me, but from what I have been told, it is possible. You sure had me scared today—I don’t even want to think about everything that was going through my mind when you were in surgery and we didn’t know what your condition was. I just knew that I couldn’t lose you. Our life together has just begun. I was going to save this for our wedding night—well, I guess it is our wedding night, so it really doesn’t matter does it? You’re going to be a father Luke—I am pregnant. So you see, you have to pull through not just for me, but for your son or daughter. We both depend on you. I love you so much—I knew that this type of love existed because I saw it with both my parents and yours, but I just figured it took years to develop not the short time that we have spent together.” Brooke leaned over Luke and kissed him. “I am going to let your parents come in to see you now—they are very worried about you, but I will be just outside in the waiting area. I am not leaving this hospital without you. You are stuck with me buster!”

On her way out of ICU, Brooke stopped a nurse and asked about Luke’s ring. “I will check for you—I am sure that they have a bag of personal effects from when they brought him into the ER.”

“I will be in the family waiting area for when you do.”

Ten days later

“Just help me walk out of here—I am tired of being in this hospital.”

“No! You will wait for the nurses’ aid to bring in a wheelchair—its hospital policy.” Brooke pointed out.

“I can walk out just fine on my own.”

“Aren’t you being a cranky patient?”

“That’s just it—I am discharged. I’m no longer a patient and I want to leave.”

“You had better lose this attitude because I had planned on spoiling you rotten once I got you home, but now I am thinking that I don’t have to!”

“Spoiling me? What did you have in mind?” Luke asked as he took Brooke’s hand and pulled her towards him.

“Hey! None of that—you need to recuperate.”

“I am sure that I read on the doctor’s orders that sex was encouraged for my recovery.” He said winking at her.

“Now that’s the Luke I remember!”

“Mr. McClellan, I am here to take you downstairs so that your family can take you home. Now if you will just have a seat in the wheelchair, we will get going.”

“Saved by the chair!” Brooke said with a grin.

After another week had passed, Luke announced to Brooke that he wanted to take a drive. “Where do you want to go? I will drive us.” She offered.

“No, I am released from the doctor and I will drive. Let’s go!”

“Where are we headed, anywhere in particular?”

“It’s a surprise, and yes.”

Brooke raised her eyebrows in question, but climbed into the truck. After they drove for twenty minutes, Luke pulled into a driveway. “Where are we Luke?”

“We are home.”

“What did you say?”

“I said we are home. This is my wedding present to you. What do you think?” He asked.

Stunned, Brooke opened the truck door and got out. She looked at the house and then back to Luke—it’s perfect.”

Luke picked her up and carried her into the house.

“Welcome home Mrs. McClellan.”

Once inside the house, Luke began to give Brooke a tour. She was shocked to see that he had moved everything from her storage unit into the house. “When did you have time to do all of this?”

“Let’s just say with you at your parent’s house the week before we got married, I couldn’t sleep and I drove my brothers crazy until they agreed to help me.”

After he showed her the master bedroom on the lower level, he led her upstairs to show her the other rooms. Brooke paused in each bedroom before finally saying “I think this room would be perfect for a nursery, don’t you?”

“Well, sure I guess you can pick any of these rooms for a nursery when the time comes.” He responded.

“Do you think we can get it ready in 5 months?” She asked smiling.

Luke froze looking at Brooke. “What did you say?”

“Nothing, I guess I was talking out loud. I was wondering if we could get a nursery ready in as little as five months is all.” This time snickering.

“You’re, you’re pregnant?” He stammered.

“No, we are. You and me—we.”

“I thought I dreamt that you were, but I didn’t want to say anything.” He said as he dropped to his knees and kissed her belly rubbing a hand over it. “We’re going to have a baby! How long have you known? How did you keep this a secret?”

“I found out the week before we got married while I was at the hospital. I wanted to surprise you. It’s my wedding present to you.”

“How are you feeling? Should you be resting? My God, can I hurt the baby when we have sex?”

“First of all, I am feeling fine and I don’t need to rest this early in the pregnancy. Second, I have had a little morning sickness, but it hasn’t been that bad. And third, you cannot hurt the baby. Sex is good.”

“Sex is good—that’s it? Good? I kind of think it has been great myself.” He joked.

“Truth be told, it’s been phenomenal. Are you ready to christen the new house? I have heard that pregnancy makes a woman horny.” She said as she took his hand and led him downstairs.

CHAPTER TWO

“Brock, I am assigning you to be lead detective for a serial rapist case that has come across my desk.” Captain Lewiston stated. “Have you met detective Cavanaugh yet?”

“No, I haven’t. Is he new to the department?”

“She transferred from the five four.”

“She?”

“Oh—you were paying attention! Yes, she will be arriving at any moment. I will introduce you. Here are the files that we have on all of the rapes that have occurred in the past eighteen months. Here she comes now.” He said walking towards the door of his office.

“Cavanaugh, come on in here and let me introduce you to Detective McClellan. You will be working closely with him on a new case that has come across my desk.”

Brock looked up to see a tall, dark haired woman enter the room. His first impression was that she was a tomboy. She wore a t-shirt and jeans that had some wear to them and a leather jacket. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she wore no makeup. Her dark brown eyes were piercing as she extended her hand to him. “Hello, my name is Holly Cavanaugh—you can just call me Cavanaugh.”

Brock shook her hand and said, “My name is Brock McClellan—you can call me Brock.” as he let it go.

“I prefer to call you Detective McClellan if you don’t mind—I don’t like to get too personal with my co-workers.”

“Well, now that the introductions are out of the way, I will let the two of you get started on going through the case file. You will have your work cut out for you.”

“Yes sir, Captain.” Brock stated.

Looking towards Cavanaugh, Brock said, “I will show you to my office and we can get started.”

Holly nodded and followed without saying a word. Brock silently made a mental note to himself that Holly was going to be a challenge to work with and an even bigger challenge to get naked. Whoa! Where did that thought come from? He was not in the least bit interested in anything but a working relationship with the “ice queen”. He shook his head and cringed at that thought.

“Did I miss something?” Holly asked.

“No, what are you talking about?”

“You just shook your head no.”

“Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind—my brother just got out of the hospital a week ago and I was thinking that I need to stop by his house. I haven’t had an opportunity to since he got out and I was making a mental note is all.”

Holly’s first impression of Brock was that he was ruggedly good looking and she needed to keep her distance from him because she wasn’t going to allow herself to fall for his kind ever again. She fell for good looking before and that didn’t end so well. The next time she got involved with someone, she was going to base it on personality, how he treated other people, and how he treated her cat. Charlie never did like her fiancé for some reason, so she was going to make a mental note of that. Her last relationship ended when she found out her fiancé was cheating on her with her best friend. She came home early one day to find them going at it in her bed. The worst part was that she wasn’t upset about it—she felt that it had been over for quite some time but never ended the relationship before because she thought that that was how relationships were. Hot and heavy to begin with and then—comfortable. Yeah, that is what her relationship with him had become—comfortable. She didn’t need a man in her life, so what the hell was she doing trying to qualify why she needed to keep Brock at a distance? Oh yeah, the fact that he was gorgeous and built like a brick wall, and oh that smile and the way his eyes drank her up. “Stop it!” She said.

“Stop what?” Brock asked raising an eyebrow.

“Um, nothing—I guess I was thinking about what one of the victims would say, and I didn’t realize that I said anything out loud.” She wanted to crawl under a desk—any desk. How lame did that excuse sound? Mental note to self—keep mouth shut when thinking about Brock.

“Okay, here is the first reported rape file. Read through it and see if anything jumps out at you. Make as many notes as you think are necessary and don’t discount anything. We are looking for the dirt on the grain of sand here. I will take the second file and do the same and then we will switch. Once we have both looked through these first two files, we will compare notes.

“We’ve been at this for hours, let’s call it a day.” Brock offered.

“You must have someone to go home to—go ahead, I want to stay on this while things are fresh in my mind.”

“As a matter of fact, I don’t have anyone to go home to, but I would like to go visit my brother and new sister-in-law since I haven’t seen them in a week. Why don’t you come along?” Crap—he thought to himself. What did I just do?

“No, I don’t think so, but thanks for the offer. I won’t stay long—I should get home myself pretty soon or Charlie will be mad that supper is late.”

“I hope I didn’t get you into trouble—you should have said something.”

“No, it’s no trouble. He will just get a little cranky is all, and I am used to it.”

“He isn’t abusive is he?”

Laughing, “No, he pouts more than anything. Really, I will be fine and he will get over it.”

“All right then, I will see you tomorrow.”

Brock started his car and headed to Luke’s house and was beginning to get a little road rage when traffic was moving slower than what he thought it should. “What the hell?” He said aloud. “What has gotten in to me?”

Ten minutes later he was pulling into Luke’s. He shut the car off and got out and headed for the front door when suddenly the door burst open and he was met by both Luke and Brooke. Luke pulled him into a bear hug. “Where the heck have you been bro? I have missed you!”

“Sorry Luke, I have been swamped at work and now I have just been given another huge case.”

Brock pulled Brooke into a hug and whispered, “Have you told him yet?”

“Yes, Luke knows that he is going to be a daddy!”

“Wait a minute—Brock knew you were pregnant?”