Vendetta (17 page)

“I lost the baby,” she said with tears in her voice and her eyes.

“I know,” he took her hand in his after pulling a chair up to that side of her bed and sitting down in it. “We can try again after you’ve healed—after the wedding.”

“Wedding?”

“I told you before, Thena Davis, that I wanted to marry you. I know I hadn’t made things official with a ring, but that didn’t change my hopes, my goals, my desire to have you as my wife. If you still want me I—”

She placed her fingers over his lips. “I want you as my husband, Thomas McGregor. And, if everything mends properly, I want to have your babies too.”

He laid his head on her stomach, lightly as not to hurt her, just to feel her, and she slipped her fingers through his hair. “I love you,” she said.

“I love you too.” He looked up into her eyes.

“You left this with me,” she reached beneath the sheet and pulled his medal out. “I slept with it. The nurses left it in on the counter when they came in, but your sister put it back in my hand every time that they left, and once I woke up I just put it right here, beside me, close to my heart, so that I could have a piece of you here with me.” She held her hand out, offering him his medal of honor back.

“I want you to have it,” he said. “You’re my heart, Thena. You always will be.”

She smiled at him. “And you’ll always be mine.” She wiped away tears from his cheek. “Did you serve up justice to that bastard?”

“He’s not an issue anymore,” he said. “We all made sure he paid.”

“Good. He was a horrible man, and I’m glad you can finally be free of him now.”

He kissed her once more, thinking of the life they had ahead of them; the life they could share and would share with each other. He loved her, for now, for always.

“Don’t worry about it. They took out Sabian, now they’ll all go away,” Turner looked at the file in front of him. One big mess, but fortunately for him he was privy to the clean up and disposal. They had lost one valuable piece of information, something vital to their project, but they would get it back. He was sure they would get it back. “We can still salvage this. They don’t have our Washington unit and that’s the heart of our operation. With Sabian out of the way they won’t be hunting for him and that puts us in the clear. We’ll finish this, maybe behind schedule, but we’ll finish it.”

“Are you sure,” the deep voice on the other end of the line seemed skeptical.

“As long as we don’t go after one of their own again we’ll do fine. We can’t afford mistakes. They don’t know about us, which means we can still complete our assignment. Just don’t make any fool decisions to go after one of their people and we’ll have smooth sailing.” He disconnected the call, hoping his cohort would follow the rules. Sabian had screwed up—royally. They couldn’t make that mistake again.

Chapter Fourteen

T
he wedding day couldn’t have been more spectacular. His family, his friends, the people he loved—they had all came back to Boston for his wedding. “She’s beautiful,” London said. “You would never know to look at her that just six months ago she was struggling to walk without that cane. She’s a fighter, Thomas. You’re both lucky to have each other.”

London was right. In his book, he was the lucky one. Thena’s body had taken a beating with that car bomb. Her leg, her stomach, her internal organs; and yet she had fought to survive. His lips curved upward into a proud smile. He knew she was tough from the day she walked into his office telling him she wanted to hire him to find out who killed her mother. She didn’t care about the attempt on her life—or more like she wasn’t worried about it. She wanted answers. She went down to the docks planning to deal with the Irish mafia on her own. She stood up to corrupt police officers, and she put up with him from day one. She was one of the most amazing women he had ever met. And to him, he was the one who was blessed that she graced him with her love.

He watched her, as he sat down on the wooden bench in the reception hall. She was laughing and talking freely with his friends and family. She was a vision in her deep blue gown that flowed long around her ankles. She was perfect. She was completely nontraditional. She didn’t want a church wedding. That suited him because he wasn’t religious, and neither was she actually. She didn’t want a white gown. She didn’t want a massive affair; she just wanted friends and family. He was the one who talked her into doing it up in lavish style. She thought about saving money while he thought about giving her the world. She surrendered to his request, her only stipulation was that she did not, emphatically did not want to wear white. She never had. As a child she thought she would wear black or red, but she wasn’t sure if she could. As an adult, a woman who had just survived death, she decided she was going to wear what she wanted. She wore blue to symbolize the rebirth of the ocean after the storm. Much like what had just happened to her, she had been reborn, metaphorically speaking, after nearly dying. She was the same woman he fell in love with, but she had a new light, a sparkle within her that told him how much she was grateful for each day they had on this earth; for each day they had with each other.

Now he was facing one more special woman in his life. He patted the bench next to him for her to sit down. “Eve, I need to thank you for all of your help. I didn’t want you involved, but if it hadn’t been for you we wouldn’t have known as much as we did. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she sat facing him on the bench. He could see the pain in her eyes. She came to the wedding because it was his wedding, but he could tell it was tearing her apart just being there. He wanted to ease the ache. “I know you all weren’t happy that I went to Afghanistan, but it was the only way I could talk to the guy. He wouldn’t share anything over the Internet, and I had to go there. I knew it was a risk, but…” she exhaled slowly. “I didn’t care about the risk. If it helped you I just didn’t care what happened to me.”

He knew that, and it worried him. She was putting her life on the line more frequently and in her present state he wasn’t sure that was a good thing. He hated it before, but now he worried because at least before he knew she would take every precautionary measure to be safe. Now he wasn’t sure. She could have been captured, killed, tortured, and she hadn’t thought twice about it. Now there was something else that he needed to say to her, to tell her, and he wasn’t sure if it would push her farther away.

“So it’s over right? You got Sabian, done deal?”

“There was somebody behind him. There’s something bigger. I just don’t know who, or what.”

“And you want to go save the world, don’t you?”

“I feel like I need to do something, but the government agency investigating assured us they would look into things. They got a major piece of government intel back with Sabian’s death and they seem to be interested in finding the rest of the missing items.”

“But you don’t believe them.”

“They haven’t done anything in all these years; why start now?”

“So you’re going to keep working this?”

“You don’t want me to?”

“I think you need to spend time with Thena. I think you should focus on what’s right in front of you because you never know when it will be gone.”

He saw the longing in her eyes; the longing for the love she once had in her life. The pain that consumed her wrapped around him, smothering him with its weight. He wanted to make the world right for her, but he knew what he had to say would probably only make things worse.

“Eve,” he spoke softly and waited for her eyes to reconnect with his. “About Adam…his death—”

She placed two fingers over his lips. With tears in her eyes she shook her head no. “I need to believe it was just an accident, Thomas. And if I hear you utter the words I know you’re about to say then I’ll have to admit that it wasn’t. I’ll have to admit that it was my fault for bringing him into this and I can’t handle that right now. So please,” she whispered. “Whatever you know, don’t tell me. Not today.”

He took her hand in his, removing her fingers from his lips and he kissed the palm of her hand before closing her fingers over the spot he had kissed as if he were letting her hold a treasure in her hand. “I love you baby sister,” he said. “And his death, no matter the circumstances, was not your fault. One day I hope you’ll believe that.”

She shrugged. “I have to go,” she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying desperately not to cry. “I’m going to Belfast for a story and then I have an interview in London for another job.”

“London? You’re moving out of the country?”

“I don’t have any place I call home now,” she stated calmly. “You all will have some place to come visit anyway. You think Gavin would bring London to London?” She smiled, but it wasn’t a smile that went clear to her eyes. She hadn’t smiled one of those smiles since the day Adam died.

“Please don’t go. Please don’t move there. It would nearly kill me to have you that far away.”

“Thomas, I haven’t even had the interview yet. I might not even get the job.”

“You’ll get it,” he assured her. “You’re too good not to.” He took her hands in his and held on tight. “They’ll offer it to you and you’ll take it. I know I don’t have a right to ask, but I’m begging you, Eve. Please don’t take the job? Please don’t go away from me; from us?”

Adam didn’t just die; he took a part of Eve with him and it was the part Thomas loved dearly. He took with him her childish innocence, her uninhibited silver lining side; the softness in her heart that made her different than the McGregor men. They were hardened from war. They expected the worst because they had seen humanity at its worst, but she had always expected the best in life. No matter how bad a situation turned, Eve was the one who would step up to the plate and assure them things were going to be fine. Before Adam died she was talking about covering the stories that mattered to her heart, showing the world the brighter side of humanity instead of the darkness. And after he died she took every assignment she could get that put her in a war zone. He wanted to give her back her light, but he didn’t know how to do it. And now, now she was talking about moving out of the country. If she did that he knew she would never come back.

“Belfast first,” she said as she pulled her hands from his. She refused to promise him anything. “Two weeks. Then I’ll be in London. I’ll email you to let you know I’m still alive.”

“Eve…”

“I’m meeting with the IRA, Thomas. You never know…” she shrugged as if he shouldn’t care that she was going into a terrorist unit for an in-depth interview. Was she crazy? Yes, he assured himself. She was going crazy.

“Why are you doing this, Eve? Do you want to die?”

She looked at him, unshed tears still in her eyes. “Most days,” she nodded. “Most days I don’t even care.” She kissed him on his cheek. “I’ll be fine. The guy who set up the interview, requested me, and I’m not going in alone so don’t worry.”

He growled low as she walked away. She sure as hell wasn’t going in alone. He wondered if Blaine Ashworth would be willing to do some recon work for him once again. Valencia had told him the man seemed taken with Eve. Maybe he had been taken enough to want to keep her safe once again.

He was deep in thought about how he could pull off protection detail for Eve when Alyssa came over. She was another one of his sisters giving him and Gavin a near heart attack. It wasn’t easy being the brothers of stubbornly independent women. He loved their ability to take care of themselves, but he hated when they felt the need to play some fictional Amazonian woman without letting him and Gavin help. They refused to make the position of big brother easy for either one of them.

“That girl is hurting something fierce, Thomas. I don’t know how to help her. She won’t even talk to me about it.”

“She won’t talk to any of us,” he stated flatly. If she were going to talk to anybody it would have been him; they all knew that. He couldn’t talk about this right now. He couldn’t talk about how much Eve seemed to be pulling away from him, or how much it was killing him that she was. He shifted the conversation to the other problematic sister in his life. He shifted the conversation to her.

“London tells me you’ve placed an ad for security at your store,” Thomas looked down at Alyssa and she knew he was going into protective mode. What he needed to do was enjoy his wedding and stop meddling in her affairs. Or maybe he could focus on Eve. Everybody knew Eve was his favorite. She was fine with that because she had enough trouble with Gavin. She didn’t need both of the brothers McGregor to team up on her now.

“It’s nothing,” she said. “There have been some robberies at the shops on the Row and I’m just being cautious.”

“Who are you hiring?”

“Whoever I can afford,” she noted. “I can’t pay much so I guess I’ll get what I can get, but I’m hoping for somebody good.” He scowled. “Seriously, Thomas, stop worrying so much. Go enjoy your new wife,” she winked. “I’m going to go sit with Eve. She’s holding up on the outside, but I have a feeling she’s falling apart on the inside.”

“She just left,” he said. “She had a flight to catch.”

“Where to this time?” She asked dryly. Her sister was on a plane to someplace they didn’t find out about until she got back far too regularly. She didn’t even have a home. She still had the cabin at London and Gavin’s ranch-style bed and breakfast, but she didn’t use it for anything other than storing the things she packed up after Adam’s death. If she wasn’t in the Andes, she was covering riots in Egypt, protests in Russia. The woman was running—running fast and hard and she wasn’t stopping for anybody or anything. One of these days her grief was going to knock her on her behind and make her deal with it and she just hoped on that day she wasn’t alone.