Chapter 60
Chapter Sixty
KEEGAN
I don’t mean to be making the man uncomfortable. He is, by all accounts, my father-in-law. But he’s fidgeting in his seat and avoiding looking directly at me, adding fuel to the fire burning in my gut.
“Keegan.” Ronin’s voice cuts off my unwarranted scrutinization of Captain Joseph White, of the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, an important subsidiary of DOCB. “Put ya fecking belt on, we’re about to land. Jesus wept, look at this fucking weather.”
I look out the cabin window of our private jet, surprised to find the weather as shite as it is.
I’d spent the last however long staring Joe down, trying to work out if he’s setting us up at the eleventh hour.
Now I’ve got new worries, like I’m not sure if it’s the weather or Ronin’s flying ability that worries me more. Ah, that’s BS, it’s Ronin.
His energy is as wild as the snowstorm were flying through. Every time the turbulence hits, he laughs manically, like we’re riding a fucking roller coaster.
It’s doing my head in, which is why I was losing myself trying to get another read on Joe.
Rafferty’s happy as a lark next to him as his co-pilot. Raff’s beaming smile is making his sweetened sage scent flood the cabin. And nine times out of ten, knowing my Omega is right as rain would be enough, but I’m with Tynan… about to lose my fucking cool and shoot these two numbskulls myself.
I shove my AirPods in, cutting out the noise.
No music comes through. I’m putting myself in my wife’s shoes.
Kicking Tynan’s foot for his attention, he’s already ahead of me and tells me to fuck off in sign language.
But now more than ever, he’s also aware he can’t be cutting me off like that, so we sign about random shit, putting those lessons we’ve all been a part of to good use.
Joe’s mentioned on more than a few occasions that Tal’s not there yet in terms of her recovery.
She’s still struggling with her hearing aid.
And for those reasons, and the thousand fucking others, my heart breaks all over again for her.
When she’s ready to accept she’s lost pretty much all of her hearing on one side, at least we’ll be able to bitch in sign about how fucking unjust life is together.
And the permanent injury she sustained to her ring finger, and her leg.
Though Tynan has made time, in between us taking over from Paddy and setting the Irish straight, to work with the leading injury specialists who’ve rehabilitated patients with similar injuries.
He’s brought special equipment for the gym just for her.
Severe femoral bifurcation, complicated by her being close to bleeding out and a fracture high in her femur, will take a long time to recover from.
She’s likely going to have a limp forever from it.
But we’ve got all the time in the world and strong arms to hold her in when walking, or existing, gets to be too much.
All that, though, isn’t a patch to the tremendous hits she’s taken mentally and emotionally.
Like with her other medical reports, Joe’s kept us up to date on the progress on her mental health.
The therapists the police have on their books are good, but as is always the case, the ones in the private sector are better.
We’ve spared no expense, and won’t stop spending, when it comes to her regaining her strength.
With the best medical team available, and her pack never fucking leaving her side again, loving her however she needs, I have no doubt that, one day, Tally O’Connor will be back to the confident, formidable woman who sent me to my knees in Genoa.
RAFFERTY
“I feel sick to my stomach,” I whisper, breaking the stony silence inside the hired car.
Right in front of us is the small cottage our wife has been recovering in.
It’s exactly how I thought it would look in real life, though seeing it is a reminder of what she’s been through.
Downstairs, Harris is walking room to room, doing another sweep.
The man deserves a medal, although right now, he’s going to be lucky to make it through to morning tea alive.
Ronin and Keegan are snarling under their breath with each step he takes.
Their designation and their obsessive need to protect our wife is riding them hard.
On top of that, the whole male around our wife and packmate thing eats at all of us.
Tynan’s silence is what has me most worried. I twist around to ask him if he’s good, and he’s already out of the fucking car, nearly over at the cottage.
“Shit.”
Joe’s the one who stops me from chasing after my brother, grabbing his phone. Harris answers on the first ring. “You’ve got a visitor coming in hot. Now might be a good time to go do a perimeter check. She’ll want to see you, though. Stay close.”
A wave of grief hits me hard and fast as Joe’s words fly out of his mouth. It’s not easy to hear that your wife isn’t her usual confident self, relying on strangers to help her. Tears prick at my eyes, and Ronin shuffles in his seat to pull me over to his lap.
“She’s okay, Raff. Inside her sadness, she’s still there.”
I take the comfort my Alpha gives, nuzzling my face into his neck, up near his scent gland. Tipping my head, I watch as Tynan cuts away from the front entrance, flowing like a shadow to the side door where Harris emerges.
Keegan’s hand is on the handle of the door, ready to race to Tynan’s side. I think we all expect my twin to go fucking postal, but he surprises me when he nods at Harris, then wordlessly trails behind him on his perimeter check.
The emotions I had managed to blink away are back, and I swipe my cheek on Ronin’s shoulder. Ty’s love is deep and as raw as he is. Keeping her safe will forever be one of his goals in life.
“He’s going to be worse than he has been,” Ronin says, watching my twin closely.
With the small emergency averted, Ronin shuffles me around. “You can’t rush her, Raff. She’s going to be in a state of shock, seeing us. Throw in all of us showing up at once, she’ll naturally feel like we’ve been deceiving her, since everyone’s in on our visit.”
I nod, agreeing completely. Trying to stop the clawing need to feel Tally in my arms by repeating how we’re going to approach letting Tally know we’re here. “Joe goes in first. She’s armed and twitchy.”
“Aye to both.”
“Need to approach her from her left-hand side.”
Ronin doesn’t have to agree and nod his head to everything I say, but he does.
Because, as much as we have Tally needing our attention, my Omega side is spiraling out of control.
It’s her discomfort and pain bringing out my desperation to hold her tight, hide her under a mountain of blankets, and promise to keep her safe forever and a day.
Keegan, Ronin, and Joe let me keep running through the same thing we’ve been preparing for since the day we found out Tally was alive.
Tynan returns after a while, stopping the panic quelling inside me with one of his small smiles. He looks over each of us with equal measure and respect before speaking. “I canna wait no more.”