Chasing the Fall (Naughty and Spice)

Fifteen

Bran

I try to pay attention to the kid on my lap, but when five minutes goes by, and Tally hasn’t returned, I can’t hide my alarm.

Standing, I hand the kid off to Floyd. “Take over.” Without leaving him space for argument, I stride toward the back, one hand moving to the gun I keep at the small of my back.

Only it’s not there. I release a low stream of curses, remembering that I left it with my street clothes in a locker out of deference to there being small kids around. Sending up a prayer that there is no actual danger, and Tally is simply lollygagging, I push open the door to the back of the store.

My prayer goes unanswered. I unleash a roar when I see Thurston dragging an unconscious Tally toward a rear door. I don’t hesitate, launching myself over the boxes and other crap piled between me and the man who thinks to take my woman away from me.

It’s not going to happen. I’ll kill him first.

Thurston must recognize as much because he looks up, sees me, and drops Tally, taking off for the rear door at a dead sprint. He’s in the alley behind the store in the seconds it takes me to reach Tally, and I hesitate, torn.

I have a choice. I can go after him, and possibly apprehend him, or I can help Tally.

It takes a single hard look at her pale face and slumped form to help me make my decision. Tally wins. Squatting beside her, I find my phone in Santa’s breast pocket and call 9-1-1 as I lay two fingers against her throat to check her pulse.

Then I wait.

Six hours later, I’m still waiting, only now it’s in a private hospital room with the soft sound of a machine’s intermittent clicks and beeps as company. Tally hasn’t regained consciousness yet, but the doctor assured me that was to be expected, as the sedative Thurston gave her was a long-lasting one.

Jack came by and stayed for a while, telling me that his deputy had picked up Thurston’s trail and was hunting. He left when Gunner and Shiloh showed up, wanting to join his deputy and not overcrowd Tally’s bedside.

Shiloh was visibly upset, wiping a steady stream of tears from her face while Gunner kept her tucked securely into the circle of his arm. “This is all my fault,” she whispered over and over. “He wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t killed his brother.”

“You know better than that,” I told her. “Your actions have no bearing on the fact that Thurston has a psychosis, plain and simple. We can’t determine what people like that will do or not do. Tally drew a target on herself when she went online and started poking the hornet’s nest.” I looked down at her, lying so still and pale in the bed, and stroked her hair away from her forehead. “And I didn’t watch closely enough.”

They left soon afterward, eliciting a promise to text and let them know immediately when Tally woke up.

A brief knock sounds on the door, and it opens a second later, revealing Kael. I tip my chin to him but don’t rise as he closes the door softly behind him and walks to the bed to stare down at his cousin.

My failure to stand on ceremony will register as one as disrespect, but I’m beyond caring. The only thing I care about is lying in that bed. The rest of the world can go to hell in a handbasket; I’m sure I’ll be right behind them soon enough.

“How is she doing?” Kael asks.

“She’s expected to wake within the next couple of hours, and aside from being knocked out by the drug Thurston injected her with, she’s fine.”

“Good.” Kael places his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. “You don’t know how glad I am to hear that.”

A beat of silence passes, during which I say nothing. I know he’s not finished. Sure enough, he continues after walking to the window and looking sightlessly down into the parking lot below.

“How glad I am to hear that I don’t have to kill my best man.”

“I won’t try to defend myself,” I reply evenly.

“That’s probably wise. I told you to bring her to Philly. You took her hiking. I told you to bring her to Philly again. You took her to a remote cabin in Tennessee. I told you to bring her to fucking Philly yet again, and you brought her right back here, where a deranged psychopath is running around with her name on his to-do list. What the hell were you thinking, Bran?”

“...stop…” Tally’s voice, a weak thread of protest, silences the response on my tongue. I stand, leaning over the bed to grab the call monitor and page the nurse.

“Hey, there, baby…how are you—no, don’t try to sit up…how about some water?”

Curling an arm around Tally’s shoulders, I ease her up just enough to sip from the cup of ice water a nurse left earlier. “Saints, but you had me worried.” Tilting my head, I press a hard kiss against her temple.

I don’t pay any attention to how my words and actions might be construed until Kael speaks again.

“I told you to keep your fucking hands to yourself, and you fuck my baby cousin!”

Tally inhales sharply and pushes the cup away. “Kael!”

“Stay out of this, Twiggy.” Kael’s fists are out of his pockets now, balled into twin fists.

“I will not stay out of it! It concerns me! And I prefer Tally now, thank you.”

Kael ignores her, fixing his attention on me instead. “Well? Anything to say for yourself, or are you going to hide behind the tiniest scrap of a woman I’ve ever seen?”

“I—”

Before I get half of what I’m thinking out, Tally’s cup of ice water sails through the air and beans Kael in the ear.

“Oh, shite.” The Irish curse slips out as my gaze travels between them.

Tally is sitting upright in bed now, her face red with temper. “I may be small in size, but I can assure you that my absolute rage right now is big enough to compensate. You do not get to dictate my life, Kael Gallagher. The only person who gets to decide what I’m doing, when I’m doing it, and where I’m doing it, is me. And if that ‘what I’m doing’ happens to include a ‘who I’m doing,’ then so be it. You don’t like it, you can sit and spin.”

“Is that a fact?” Kael swipes water from his face.

Twiggy nods aggressively. “Damn straight.”

The nurse chooses that moment to walk in, her gaze darting nervously between the three of us. “I see someone’s awake. How are we feeling, Miss Gentry?”

Kael jerks his head in the direction of the hallway. “Out.”

“I’ll be right back.” After pressing another kiss to Tally’s head, I rise and follow him. In the hall, we face off, me reluctant and wary, Kael still bristling. He crosses his arms over his chest. “This thing with my cousin. What is it, exactly?”

I try to ignore the water still dripping from his hair and give him the truth. “It’s whatever she allows it to be. I love her, Kael.”

“It’s been…what…four fucking days?” He sneers.

“It’s been a lifetime in the making. I just had to see her as an adult.” I hesitate. “You do, too.”

“Don’t tell me what I need to do.” Kael’s gaze focuses behind me, down the length of the hall, and after a second’s contemplation, he breathes a heavy sigh through his nose. “Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to bring her back to Philly with you, get her away from this psycho hunting her, and you’re going to make a damn honest woman out of her.”

“I heard that!” Tally’s voice sounds from inside her room. The nurse steps out, edging around us warily.

“Good,” I call back, not looking away from Kael. “It’ll save me the trouble of repeating it.” Kael gives a clipped nod, content that I can and will handle his cousin.

“Excuse me?” Tally’s voice comes again. “Was that a proposal? Because I sure as heck didn’t hear a ‘will you marry me’ anywhere in all that mess.”

“Will you marry me, Tallulah Gentry?” I lift a brow to Kael, whose lips curl up in a satisfied smirk. Somehow, it’s easier to look at him than it is to face her. Face the possibility that she might say no.

Of course, if she did say no, I’d just whisk her away somewhere until she saw reason.

“Would you get your ass in here and ask me proper?”

Or I could do that. Blowing out a breath, I walk inside the hospital room and kneel beside Tally’s bed, then take both of her hands in mine. “I love you, Tallulah. I already told you, I want all your nights. I’m greedy, though…I want all your days, too. Will you be mine—officially?”

I pretend not to notice the tremble in her bottom lip. “Only if you play Santa for me every year.” She transfers her attention to her cousin. “And we’re only staying in Philly until they catch Thurston. Lucy Falls is my home.”

Kael’s groan is the last thing I hear before I seal my lips to Tally’s and let the sound of our pounding hearts drown out everything else. The future will take care of itself. Right now…I’ll be taking care of Tallulah, and that’s all I plan on worrying about for a long time.

THE END