Chapter 39 #2
“Settle down, now. We had to drain a few of your friends to make up for all that blood you leaked into your abdomen. It’ll take some time to recover. The bullet ripped through several vessels and a couple of organs.”
“And did the bullet also take off my clothes? Ach, I’m naked as the day I was born.”
I take a deep breath and flop back on the pillows. This asshole can’t answer any of the questions I have, so I guess I’ll just have to wait for Quinn to show up. It’s not like anyone else would be waiting for me to recover. I didn’t exactly make friends like she did.
The door bursts open, and Quinn nearly breaks her ankles to get to my side once she realizes I’m conscious.
She throws herself onto the bed, and I don’t even care that she’s yanked out my IV and sent blood squirting all over the pristine sheets.
The doctor rushes over to slap a tourniquet on it while I use my other arm to hold the girl.
“Oh my god,” she wails. “I thought you’d never wake up!”
“And miss hearing about how you all killed Desmond? Lass, tell me he’s dead.” I brush her hair out of her face as she sits back. “Tell me you found your mother and that it was you who ended him.”
Quinn offers a sad smile, then kisses my forehead. “We found her. She was in that little closet, reduced to bones and dust, but it was her. Our DNA matches, and so do mine and Desmond’s. He’s really my father.”
“He is? I was hoping for more of a he was.”
“And let you miss out on the kill? Not a chance.” Her smile shifts to something happier, and she eases off the bed and starts for the door.
“Hey, where are you going?”
She pauses and looks back at me, her eyebrows pulling together. “To tell the others.”
“Others?”
“Yes, silly. Jim, King, the entire group—everyone is out there waiting for good news. Ice Pick and Grim even showed up yesterday. Everyone has been coming in shifts.”
“For me?”
“I’m not the only one who loves you, Aven.” She pulls the door closed again. “You’re just going to have to accept that.”
Aye, I will. And with open arms, at that.
My days of keeping to myself are over, and I think I’m okay with that.
The isolation was always a reaction to my father’s treatment.
He never understood me. Never even tried.
Then the people who wanted to understand me were never given the chance because I’d already closed myself off.
“There’s one more thing you need to know,” Quinn says as she steps closer, and my heart begins to hammer.
I shake my head. “I won’t hear it. Not yet. Not until we’re married.”
“Married?” Her eyes bulge, and she takes a timid step toward me. “What sort of drugs do they have you on?”
The doctor looks up from his tablet. “Morphine, mostly.”
“Thanks,” I say. “Think you could give us a little privacy?”
The doctor nods and leaves the room, and I pat the side of the bed. Like the obedient little lass she is, Quinn shuffles over and sits down.
“I mean it, lass. I want to marry you. As soon as I’m out of this bed, we’ll hop a boat to Scotland and begin our lives, and the first time we step foot on that soil, I want it to be as man and wife.
I don’t care if it’s sudden. What I feel for you was sudden, too, and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. ”
“Aven . . .” Her lashes flutter, and she fidgets with the blanket. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Ach, say yes. Jim’s already become an officiant so that he can marry Kindra and Ezra. We could get him in here and have it done right away.”
She bites her bottom lip and considers this. “Quinn Slade . . .” She wrinkles her nose. “I kind of hate it. I’d gotten used to thinking of myself as Quinn Carter.”
I shake my head and pull her closer, breathing in her toasted-vanilla scent. “We won’t be taking my da’s last name. He was never a father to me. Not any more than Desmond was to you. He abandoned me at my lowest point. Meanwhile, your mother never abandoned you.”
“I finally know the truth,” Quinn whispers. “That she thought she was giving me a better life. Did you know she planned to get me back after she went through rehab?”
“Aye, lass. King told me everything. Your mother loved you something fierce. Could we take her last name?”
“There is a reason I was okay with taking the Parkers’ last name,” she says with another wrinkle of her nose. “Quinn Butts never really sat well with me.”
“We could be the bonnie Butts of Scotland, lass. I can picture it now. We’ll have two wee ones named Harry and Rosie.”
“And a little dog named Itchy,” she says with a laugh. I close my eyes and revel in that sweet sound. “No, I think we’ll have to come up with something better.”
The door bursts open, and Jim practically falls into the room. Quinn spins in my arms to face him as he offers the most sheepish smile I’ve ever seen.
“Sorry, couldn’t help overhearing your little discussion,” he says with a wiggle of his fingers.
I roll my eyes. “Come off it, pal. You were eavesdropping again.”
“It’s a nasty habit, and I’m working on it,” he says. “But that’s beside the point. You see, I may have a simple solution to your little surname issue. That’s if the two of you plan to be wed?” He rocks on his heels and looks at us with an expectant gleam in his eye.
“We don’t want to be the Madigans, but thanks for the offer,” Quinn says.
“No, no. Not my last name. One of your very own.” He grins and shakes his head. “But I’m getting ahead of myself. Why not make a game out of it, hmm? If you let me marry you right now, I’ll tell you your new last name.”
Quinn and I share a look.
“Think of it,” Jim continues. “I’ll marry you here in the hospital room. After that, you can go off on your honeymoon to slaughter Desmond on the island. You’ll have the entire park to yourselves.”
“That does sound incredibly romantic,” Quinn says with a nibble of her lip.
“Then it’s settled!” Jim claps his hands and turns to leave the room. “I’ll just grab our witnesses, and—”
“Wait!” Quinn holds up her hands. “I don’t even have a ring! I can’t get engaged without a ring.” She turns to face me. “And you didn’t even ask me. You told me.”
The door opens again, and King falls in this time. He straightens and brushes his tie before clearing his throat. “Apologies. Jim’s little habit is catching, it seems, but I may have a solution to that jewelry problem.”
He steps forward and places a tiny black box in my hand. The corners have been rubbed white from years of sitting in someone’s pocket. I open the box, and Quinn gasps. A massive diamond sits in a cluster of smaller stones.
“I asked your mother to marry me no fewer than three times. You were there for all of them, though you were too small to remember.” He smiles at the lass as he nods toward the ring. “Don’t make the same mistake. If you love him, say yes, child.”
I pull the ring from the box and hold it toward her with a shaking hand. “Quinn, I cannae promise our life together will be perfect, but I promise it will always be a life together. Will you marry me?”
She nods her head and holds out her hand, and I slip the ring over her finger.
“Oh, happy day!” Jim says with a flail of his hands.
King pulls a handkerchief from his front pocket and passes it to his weeping friend.
“One change of plans, though,” I say. “If I could wear more than a hospital bed sheet as I say my nuptials, I’d appreciate it.”
“And could we at least throw together a dress?” Quinn asks.
“Oh, hell, let’s just make it a wedding!” Jim says. “Eve, Cat, and I can plan something for tonight. Just meet us at the hotel.”
With that, Jim and King leave the room, and Quinn’s eyes bulge when she looks at the ring again.
“Holy shit,” she breathes. “We’re getting married.”