Maya Banks - Softly at Sunrise

Ethan’s brothers crowded around her stretcher, all demanding to know if she was all right.

“I’m fine,” she stressed. “Just shaken up. Please make sure Ethan is all right. He’s the one who was shot.”

“He’s a tough bastard,” Sam said with a chuckle. “Though he did give me a damn heart attack when he stepped in front of that bullet.”

Rachel shuddered and felt the blood drain from her face.

Nathan stroked his hand over her head. “Don’t worry about Ethan. They’ll load you both up and get you to the hospital. If I know the grumpy bastard, he’ll raise so much hell that they won’t be able to wait to get rid of him. He’ll probably show up in your exam room and be done before you are.”

Rachel glanced anxiously over at Ethan, who was predictably protesting the need to go to the hospital at all. Then he seemed to have lost her in the crowd of people crammed into the room and hallway, and he let out a bellow of displeasure.

Sam glanced up as a grim-faced older man stalked toward him. He let his hand briefly touch Rachel’s shoulder.

“I’ll see you at the hospital. There are things here I need to take care of. Garrett will ride with you and stay until Ethan is cleared.”

“Is everything okay, Sam?” she asked in alarm.

He smiled and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Nothing that won’t work itself out. I have to smooth some ruffled feathers, and then I have to call my wife. She’s been blowing up my phone, and she’s not very happy with me because I didn’t tell her the entire story. I’m sure she’ll be waiting at the hospital to light into me.”

Rachel grinned, relief so sweet in her blood that she was intoxicated. Her family would be waiting at the hospital. Her sisters by marriage. Ethan’s brothers would all be there soon. Frank and Marlene would rush in and take over.

She closed her eyes and leaned back on the stretcher, emotionally exhausted by the stress of the morning.

As soon as her stretcher was pushed into the bright wash of sunshine, the world dissolved into chaos. The media was shouting questions. Parents were demanding answers. People asked if she was alive.

She opened her eyes just to answer that particular question, but she remained quiet, the buzz of questions swimming in her ears until she wanted to cover them to shut out the cacophony.

She and Ethan were loaded onto waiting ambulances, and she stared through the open back doors at the sea of police, media, and general public. It looked as if half of Tennessee was gathered on the middle school parking lot.

Then the medic attending her climbed into the back and shut the doors, obscuring her view. The ambulance pulled away, leaving the flashing lights and mob of people behind as it headed toward the hospital.

“You okay?” Garrett asked. “Sarah’s texting me wanting to be sure I’m taking good care of you. If she gets it in her head I’m falling down on the job, she’ll kick my ass.”

Rachel laughed and put her hand out for the phone. Garrett relinquished it with a grin, and Rachel quickly sent a text to Sarah telling her she was fine and then affixed her name to the bottom of the text.

Barely seconds later, the text came back from Sarah. Just two words.

Thank God.

“I’m so lucky to have all of you,” Rachel whispered.

Garrett gave her an indulgent smile and then ruffled her hair affectionately. “We’ve been friends a long time, sweet pea. I think it’s safe to say that we’re lucky as hell to still have you. Ethan knows it too. He may be stubborn as hell, but he’s not dumb.”

Rachel closed her eyes, no longer able to keep her head up. It was plenty warm in the ambulance, but a chill had settled bone deep, and she shook from head to toe.

She heard Garrett’s worried demand to the medic and the medic’s reassurance that it was just shock. A warm blanket slid over her body and was tucked around her neck. Garrett’s hand curled around hers, gripping it tightly.

Now that she allowed herself to think of all that had happened that morning, she was ready to completely lose her cool. She could have died. One of the children could have gotten hurt or killed.

Ethan could have died.

It was more than she could hold up under any longer.

“I don’t need goddamn x-rays!” Ethan roared. “What I need is to see my wife!”

Donovan put his arm out to push Ethan back onto the bed. “Look, if I go check in on her and get a report from Garrett, will you shut the hell up and get the damn x-ray? You’re making things worse by raising so much hell. If you’d just let them do the x-ray, you’d be done and out of here, and you could go be with Rachel.”

Ethan pushed up from the bed, holding his chest where the bullet had bruised his ribs through the vest.

“Just give me a damn shirt and not one of those fucking hospital gowns either,” he said in a testy voice.

He wasn’t in the mood to play nice. The very last thing he cared about was whether he’d cracked a rib. It was obvious that he hadn’t broken one or done serious damage. If the x-ray showed minor fractures of his ribs, what the hell could they do about it anyway? All they’d do is tell him to take it easy and give him something for pain.

The best thing they could do to ease his pain was to let him get to Rachel.

Donovan sighed in exasperation and then tossed him a T-shirt from his pack.

“Get your dumb ass dressed while I find out where they put Rachel. Swear to God, if you so much as move before I get back, I’ll hold you down while they sedate you. You can’t go barging through the E.R. scaring the shit out of the other patients.”

“Then hurry the hell up,” Ethan snapped.

He yanked on the T-shirt, wincing when his knuckles brushed over the tender spot on his midsection. Not that he’d admit it in a million years, but he hurt like a son of a bitch. Taking a bullet close range, even with the vest on, wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.

A bruise the size of a softball had already formed.

But that’s all it was. A bruise. Hell if he was going to be sidelined over a damn bruise. He’d endured worse, and nothing was going to keep him from Rachel.

He was getting fidgety when Donovan finally walked back into the tiny cubicle. He lunged up from where he had been leaning against the bed and confronted his brother.

“So where is she? And is she all right?”

Donovan held up his hands. “Garrett’s with her, and Ma just got here. The wives are in the waiting room, and Dad’s on his way to see you right now. Just settle down. Let Dad see that you’re okay, and then we can all go down and see Rachel. The E.R. is a madhouse, and they’ve had to position police officers to keep the media out. Getting home is going to be interesting.”

Ethan sighed and leaned back against the bed again. He was going to go out of his mind if he didn’t get to Rachel soon, but he also didn’t want his Dad worried about him. The last thing Frank Kelly needed was more stress. He’d already had one heart attack, and Ethan wasn’t going to be responsible for giving him another.

The door burst open, and his dad barreled through it. As soon as his gaze lighted on Ethan, his entire body sagged in relief.

“See, I told you, Dad. He’s fine and cranky as ever,” Donovan said.

Frank Kelly didn’t respond. He hauled Ethan into his beefy embrace and damn near squeezed the life from Ethan. Ethan winced but held on to his Dad.

“I’m fine, Dad,” Ethan said in a low voice. “It’s Rachel I’m worried about.”

His Dad held him for another long moment and then pulled away, his eyes suspiciously bright.

“Your mother and my daughters-in-laware checking in on her now,” Frank said gruffly.

“I’m heading down there. Was just waiting on you once I heard you were here,” Ethan said.

Frank frowned. “They’re already finished with you?”

Ethan cleared his throat, and to his relief, Donovan came to his rescue.

“Told you nothing was wrong with the ornery bastard. He’s too much like Garrett. He’s worried about Rachel though. It would calm him down if he could just see her, so let’s move down there so he can put his mind at ease.”

Ethan shot Donovan a grateful look.

“You scared me, son,” Frank said gruffly. “I swear you boys are always getting up to something. You’re going to make an old man out of me yet.”

Ethan grinned. “Nah. Just keeping you on your toes.” He slapped his dad on the back. “Come on. Let’s go see, Rachel.”

It was hard to keep her pregnancy secret when the medical personnel were ensuring that all was still well with her pregnancy. Garrett stayed off to the side and out of the way, but then Marlene Kelly arrived, and hell no was anyone keeping her from her baby.

Disregarding medical staff objections, Marlene pushed her way to the bedside, sat down, and gathered Rachel into her arms, hugging her so tightly that Rachel felt smothered.

It was the very best kind of smothering.

“You scared the wits out of us all,” Marlene said even as she held Rachel closer to her. “I’ve never been so scared in my life, baby. It was all over the news, and then I saw you being carried away on a stretcher, and I made poor Frank break every speed limit getting here.”

“I’m fine, Marlene,” Rachel said, a smile in her voice.

She pried herself away and leaned back, taking in Marlene’s anxious gaze.

“Ethan’s the one who was hurt,” Rachel said, the smile fading. “He was shot. He had a vest on, but it still hurt him. I wish someone would let me know how he is.”