Sin (The Waite Family) (3 page)

“Call my wife. I need her. Tell her…tell her to come here now.
Tell her
Sin’s
been hurt.
” Then Cain turned to the phone.
“Patterson…her boss, or whatever. She talked about you.
Said…she said that you…where is my sister?”

“They are taking her by my chopper out now. We should land in…hang on.” Cain heard him speaking to someone else. It was then that Cain could hear the
whoop-whoop
of chopper blades.
“She is going to be taken to
Guelmim
M
ilitary
A
ir
B
ase in
S
outhern
 
Morocco
. From there…I don’t give a good fuck what you think I can or can’t give him.
See these bars?”
Raised voices then Patterson was back.
“Sorry.
From the base we’re e-vac’ing her out asap to a hospital ship in the
Atlantic.
I’m pulling in all the favors I can to get you to her, but I can’t get you on the ship.
Closest I can get you is…I’m sorry
,
Waite, the closest I can get you is New York.
”

There was quiet now. Almost eerie quiet and Cain
thought
he’d lost the call.
Then
he head a toilet flush then a door shut.
He strained to hear something, anything when Patterson came back, his voice full of emotion and low now.

“Waite and I had a deal. She gets hurt enough where…where she might die and I was to call you. She wanted you to know.
‘No sugar coat
,
’ she said, ‘you tell Cain like its gospel.’
”
Another sob
,
then,
“
It’s bad, Waite, I’m not going to lie to you
. I
t’s real bad. They don’t…she might not make it to the M.A.S.H. much less to the ship.
I’m doing…she
’d been shot.
She…Christ
,
what they did to her.
”

Cain dropped to the floor. He simply couldn’t stand any longer.
His desk phone was ringing and he could only stare at it.
Nothing was getting through. He knew that Patterson was speaking still, but he couldn’t focus, couldn’t seem to grasp what
he was saying.
When a nurse c
a
me to him she was speaking, but he simply stared at her. Then he felt the room tilt and he was out.

~
Chapter
2~

Cain and Alyssa moved
among
the officers and servicemen who were onboard the ship
—
hospital ship
,
actually.
Alyssa was looking for the person in charge and for Patterson. She didn’t know whether to sh
o
ot him or hug him
when she found him
.

When she’d gotten to Cain’s office he’d been cussing a blue streak. Some of the words he’d strung together still made her smile. He could be quite inventive when the mood struck him
,
she realized.
But as soon as he’d seen her he’d pulled her into his arms and held her to him. She started to tell him to let her breath
e,
but the look on Marsha’s face had her stop. Something had happened.

“They won’t…Sin’s been shot and beat up. I was talking to her
boss…some lieutenant or something—Patterson. That was it.
He said…we can only go to New York then I don’t know…I need to…” Cain held her as he cried.

Forty minutes later she was on the phone to someone that could help.
Her father had made great contacts when he’d been alive and she had been working on reestablishing them since she’d been running Howard Corporation.
When she’d told the President what she needed the Waite family was on board a jet bound for Washington.
Then a short helicopter ride out to sea to the ship that Sydney was being treated on. They had arrived an hour ago.

“Mrs. Howard?
My name is
Ensign Charles.
I’m to take you to the receiving room. The
c
olonel
is there along with the
c
ommander of this
vessel.
They will meet you there.”

“Thank you
,
e
nsign. And it’s Waite, not Howard. I’m married.”
Cain took her hand as they followed the young man down the long hallway.

The room they were shown to was lovely.
Alyssa didn’t think
one would
be able to tell it was a room on a huge ship.
There were several sitting areas and a long couch.
There was even a fireplace.
After they were left alone Quinn and Drew took one area and Cain paced.
He’d been doing that a great deal over the past
several hours.

“What the hell is taking so long?
I want to see Sin
,
not sit around waiting for someone to get around to us.”
That was another thing he’d been doing, snapping at people.

“Cain, why don’t you just have—
”

“I don’t want to sit down. I want to see Sin. Now.”

Okay, she’d had enough.
“You either sit your ass down on that couch right now
,
buster
,
or I’ll put you there. And the next time you use that tone with me I’ll snap your dick off so quick you won’t know what happened.” Alyssa pointed to the couch.
“Sit!”

He sat
,
but he didn’t do it
without some grumbling.
She didn’t care so long as he sat down.
She
needed to take a breath too.
When the door opened and three men walked in Cain started to rise
,
but sat back down. She went to him and held his hand.

“Doctor and Mrs. Waite?
I’m Lieutenant Colonel Patterson
.
This
is the
c
ommander of this ship, Commander Welsh
,
and
Doctor
Keller.
Please have a seat.”

Cain stood up and watched Quinn walk to them.
She was seven months pregnant
with triple
t
s
and Cain
hadn’t
want
ed
her to come.
Alyssa smiled when she
thought
of the temper Quinn had and hoped she’d see it more.
She and Quinn had gone through their pregnancy together until Alyssa had given birth to hers and Cain’s little boy
,
Connor
,
a few weeks ago.
She looked over to where he was sleeping in the carrier Cain had sat on the end of the couch.

“This is
an
other sister
,
Quinn Miller
,
and her husband Andrew Miller.
My sister
s
Grace Ann and Lilliane are
en
route and Jasmine is coming with them later.”
Cain flushed.
“I’m sorry.
I’m babbling.
Please, tell us how Sin is.”

Doctor Keller cleared his throat.
“She’s alive
,
though I don’t have a clue why.
By all rights…I’m sorry.
I tend to speak my mind. But that girl should have died in that fucking jungle. Beg pardon, ladies.”

Alyssa smiled.
“Don’t worry. Just speak your mind. My husband is a doctor too.
I think we’d all like to hear what you have to say.”
They all nodded.
“Please
, go on.”

“Captain Waite was shot seven times
—
five to the chest, one lower abdomen, one to
the
right shoulder.
The ones to her chest missed her heart by
a
hair
’
s brea
d
th, and I do mean it was close. One centimeter to the right and she’d be dead.
Probably only thing that saved her w
ere
the field medic
s
.
Patterson here said they were all over her when they found her.
Those boys…they don’t get enough credit for what they do over there.”

Alyssa held Cain’s hand tighter as the doctor continued.
“Like I said, she’d lost a good deal of her blood.
Took seven units to top off her tank
,
then we had some standing by just in case.
She won’t like it,
but there you have it.
Heard tell she had one of them cards in her file that said nothing heroic.”
He laughed.
“Guess if her men knew about it, they plum forgot about it.”

Alyssa was sure that they hadn’t. She looked over at Patterson and she knew he was aware of it too.
Neither Cain nor Quinn knew
,
though, she could tell. Both wore
identical
expressions of disbelief.

“When can we see her?”
Cain was squeezing her hand tightly now and she was going to lose fingers if he didn’t let go.
“I think my husband and the rest of us need to be sure.”

Cain stood up and kissed her hand that he’d been abusing.
“I’d also like to see her medical chart and
confer
with the surgeon.
Is there a place my sister can
rest?
She shouldn’t—
”

A growl behind him stopped him and Alyssa laughed.
Oh yeah
,
this Quinn was going to be much mor
e fun than the pre-pregnant one.