Chapter 30
Fox sat in a hospital chair in a pair of borrowed scrubs watching Ethan play with the dinosaur he had packed in his small backpack.
Bailey had only agreed to leave him there because there was a policeman stationed outside the room.
There had been a rotation of them for the last two days while he recovered from being strangled.
The doctor assured him that his voice would recover in time, he just needed to rest it for now. Ethan thought it was great fun drawing on the small whiteboard Knox found for him to communicate with.
His brother had hovered around like an old woman the entire time. He had explained that they would be met at a private airport and whisked away the second he was well enough to leave the hospital. No one told him where they were going.
Knox was currently running Bailey to her house to gather them some clothes.
He had already packed a bag from Fox’s apartment.
He wasn’t too worried about them even though Edmund was still on the loose.
Dover had regaled him with the story of Knox burning the warehouse doors down to get inside.
If anyone could protect Bailey, it was his overgrown brother.
“I’m hungry,” Ethan complained. Fox rubbed his stomach and nodded. The whiteboard was great with adults, but the four-year-old couldn’t quite read sentences yet.
“What do you want?” Fox croaked out instead.
“Pizza!” His grin was so infectious that Fox grinned back. Then Ethan’s grin turned into a frown. “Aunt Bailey said you’re not supposed to talk.”
Fox held up his fingers like he was locking his mouth, then he crossed his heart. Holding up a finger, he snatched up the whiteboard. Quickly, he wrote a message while Ethan watched.
Slowly, he opened the room door. The officer quickly turned to see what was happening. Fox held up the whiteboard so he could read it.
“I can have some sent up to you from the café,” the man said. Fox scribbled another line on the board and turned it around. “No, you’re not leaving this room, even for the café, without authorization from Detective Addams. She’d have my head.”
Fox wrote one more time on the board. Turning it back around, the officer read it with a smile. “Call me what you want, but that’s the best I can do.” Fox nodded. The officer motioned for a nurse and asked that some cheese pizza sent up.
Fox closed the door. He wouldn’t be eating any of the pizza. His throat still hurt too much to swallow anything but soft food. At least he could smell it while Ethan ate.
He was so ready to leave the hospital, he could scream. Not that he would ever return to his apartment again. Knox was making arrangements to pack everything up and move it to storage. He would deal with that when they returned.
The future was such a crapshoot now anyway.
Dover had mentioned him moving in with her, but he would much rather relocate farther north.
He didn’t know if Bailey would even want him around after all of this.
Somehow, he had managed to get her sister killed and her pulled out of her home and into hiding.
The pizza arrived, so Ethan sat on the bed eating it on the rolling table.
Fox searched the room for something to do.
He had no idea what had happened to his phone, and the television was set to cartoons.
They had agreed the last thing Ethan needed was news coverage of his mother’s death.
Fox had watched more cartoons in the last two days than in all his life prior.
“Hey,” Knox said, pushing the room door open.
“Pizza? How did you get pizza?” Ethan giggled.
“Man, someone’s getting spoiled.” Ethan giggled again.
“You about ready?” he asked Fox. Fox nodded, so Knox gathered up Ethan and his pizza.
“Bailey is waiting with Dover in the lobby. The bags are already in the car. We’re getting an escort. ”
“What’s that?” Ethan asked.
“The police are going to take us to the airport. Isn’t that exciting?!”
“Yay!”
They rode the elevator with two police officers to the ground floor. In the lobby, they not only met Dover and Bailey, but Memphis stood next to them. A pretty woman and a little girl completed the group.
“Hey, you look a tad better than last time I saw you,” Memphis said.
“I mean, as much as your ugly face can.” He pulled Fox into a bear hug.
Turning him lose, he turned to the woman.
“I’m staying in Boston to help with the hunt.
This is my wife, Thayer. She thought Ethan might enjoy someone to play with for a little while.
” He squatted to his knees. “Ethan, this is Blue. She wanted to meet you. Is that okay?”
Blue waved, and Ethan smiled. “I like dinosaurs,” he announced.
“Me too,” she answered. “Daddy said were cousins.”
“Okay,” he agreed.
“Thayer will show you around and make sure you’re settled,” Memphis said, pushing back up to his feet. “If you need anything, you just have to ask. Or in your case,” he added, turning to Fox, “grunt.”
“We need to get you out of here,” Dover said. She pulled Fox in for a hug. “Take care of yourself.” She handed him a phone. “It’s encrypted so you can get a hold of me whenever.”
“Let’s go.” Knox took the hands of both kids and herded them through the door. There was a large SUV waiting just outside with what looked like undercover agents standing at the ready.
“Be careful,” Memphis said when Fox shook his hand.
He nodded before joining Knox next to the car. He slid into one of the seats next to Bailey. Her hand found his. A police car pulled away from the hospital with their car following. He turned to look out the back to find a second police cruiser following.
“Are you doing okay?” she asked quietly. He nodded and moved his arm around her shoulders. She leaned against him the entire way to the airport. He decided that moving north of the city might not be such a stretch anymore.
When they got settled wherever they were going, he did need to email his boss though. Hopefully, he would still have a job when all of this was over.
The kids chatted in the back seat, both bent over some game Blue had brought. Knox sat next to them dozing with his head against the window. Thayer sat on the other side of Bailey. He hoped she would be the comfort Bailey needed to mourn her sister if he wasn’t enough.
They pulled through a private gate onto the tarmac of a private airport. The SUV stopped next to a private jet.
“Exactly who did you make arrangements with?” Bailey asked.
“It belongs to Thayer’s father. I used to work for him. He does me a favor from time to time,” Knox answered.
“Some favor.” They opened the doors and climbed out.
Blue ran up the steps into the airplane as if she did it every day.
Ethan waited at the bottom until Bailey nodded at him to follow.
By the time Fox managed to climb aboard, they were sitting in the back with a box of colored pencils between them on a table.
Fox dropped into a seat, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes. It had been impossible to sleep in the hospital with the staff coming into his room every few hours. Fatigue was finally catching up to him.
“Is there anything I can get you before we take off,” Thayer asked quietly. “It’s a short flight. The drive after is only half an hour, then you can rest.”
“Thank you for doing all of this,” Bailey answered.
He listened to them visit as he slowly fell asleep.
His dreams were brief but filled with a faceless man torturing him as he swung from the ceiling in a cell.
The face slowly morphed into a man he had spent days ignoring while he worked on the townhouse.
The cell became the attic with the new floors he had painstakingly laid and the deep blue paint Edmund had chosen.
The dreams continued until he was jolted awake by the wheels touching down on the runway.
They were ushered into another large SUV.
It wound through the countryside until it reached an intimidating set of gates.
There was a guard who stepped out to nod as they drove by.
The driveway ended at a house that landed just under what would be considered a mansion.
It could easily accommodate all of them with room to spare.
“Dad sent his regrets that he couldn’t be here to welcome you himself.
He’s busy arguing about the military budget on Capitol Hill this week,” Thayer said as she led them up the front steps.
The kids pushed past her and barreled up the stairs into the foyer.
“They’re fine. There’s a room full of toys upstairs.
We probably won’t hear from them for hours. ”
“I’m sorry. He usually acts better than this,” Bailey began.
“He’s had a lot to deal with this week. It will be good for him to forget for a little while.
Now, let me show you to your rooms.” Thayer led them up the stairs.
“The kids have adjoining rooms at the end of the hall, and yours are this way.” They followed her down the hallway to a suite of rooms at the other end.
“I’ll sleep in the room next to the kids in case they need anything. ”
“This is beautiful. Thank you.”
“Just let me know if you need anything. We’ll have dinner about six. I’ll be downstairs or checking on the kids. We might go for a walk after a while.” Thayer pulled Bailey into a hug. Fox watched as Bailey seemed to melt against her. Finally they parted.
“Get some rest and don’t worry about a thing.” Thayer turned and walked to the other end of the long hallway before disappearing into one of the rooms.
“Which room do you want?” Bailey asked. In answer he took her hand and led her into one of the rooms. He didn’t care where he was as long as he was with her. “Okay, I can take the other one.” He pulled her around him until the back of her knees touched the bed.
“Stay with me,” he whispered. She sank to sit on the bed.
Her bright blue gaze looked up into his.
She nodded, and he pressed her back onto the bed.
He followed her down until he lay over her with his arms taking his weight.
His lips met the hollow where her neck met her shoulder.
Her moan urged him on. “I need to be inside you.”
“Yes,” she begged.
He stood and moved to lock the door, so they wouldn’t take a chance on any young children walking in on them.
Returning to the bed, he pulled her blouse over her head.
It was tossed to the floor. She arched her back so he could slide a hand up her back to unhook her bra.
It was added to the growing pile of clothes.
“You’re so beautiful.” He bent until he could pull a hard nipple between his teeth.
“Fox,” she gasped. Her hands stroked through his hair.
He continued to worry her breasts with his tongue, flicking until she gripped his hair in her fist. His hands slid inside the waistband of her pants and pulled them down.
Sinking to his knees, he pulled them over her feet and tossed them out of the way.
He spread her legs wide taking in the dampness of her panties. His nose pressed against them as he took a breath. Nothing was better than being pressed between her thighs.
Sliding her panties to the side, his tongue reached for its first taste. She began to squirm, and he pressed an arm over her abdomen to hold her in place.
“Be a good girl,” he snarled before returning to where he left off. She fought against his arm as her moans grew louder. Without warning, he felt her contract against his tongue as he thrust it inside her. He wrung every ounce of her orgasm from her, leaving her replete on the bed, before standing.
He expected her to remain down as he undressed. Instead, she sat up quickly and began tearing at his clothes. Her hands plunged into his pants as she worried the tie at his waist loose. Then his pants and underwear were around his ankles.
Her mouth quickly closed over his hardness. For a moment, he worried he’d finish before he could press inside her the way he wanted. But she stopped at the last moment to lay back on the bed.
“Turn over,” he growled. He helped her roll onto her knees. Grabbing her hips, he climbed onto the bed and slammed into her. She groaned loudly like a reward only he understood. He held her shoulder in his hand to keep her steady as he plowed into her over and over.
Nothing he could remember in this life had ever felt so good. It wasn’t just about the sex. It was knowing the woman he’d always meant to be with was finally his.
There was a second of guilt over Brooke that rushed through his mind. He would never have wished the fate of a violent death on her, but it had happened nonetheless.
He felt Bailey tighten again, and he was done. Lava rushed up his spine, spilling into her. She collapsed under him, with him following her down. He rolled off quickly to prevent hurting her, but he pulled her into his arms.
“I know we’re in hiding,” she said quietly.
“And there’s a part of my heart that will always miss Brooke.
” She rolled over so they were facing each other.
Her hand carefully brushed his cheek. “But I can’t help feeling happy.
I know it’s early, but I think I fell in love with you the first time I met you. In lust anyway.”
“I understand,” he whispered. Softly, he kissed her nose. “And this is only the beginning.”