19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter nineteen
A ria sprinted to the information desk in the hospital lobby, barely remembering Mason and Lyric were following behind her. “Which room is Nick Gunn in?” She didn’t have time for pleasantries, or being polite. She just needed to see him.
“Are you family?”
“Yes.” She held up her thumb and raised her arm to indicate behind her. “That’s his brother and sister-in-law.” She had no idea what she was to him. At the moment, labels didn’t matter.
Well, actually, they kind of did, because being his fuck buddy or girlfriend wouldn’t get her any information. It wouldn’t get her into his room.
The older woman behind the desk looked past her to Mason and said, “Room 212.”
Aria sprinted for the elevator to the left and hit the Call button like ten times in two seconds. She bounced from one foot to the other, impatient.
Mason put his huge hand on her shoulder. “Calm down. You go in there like a tornado and you’ll upset him.”
“He can be upset all he wants as long as he’s okay.”
“He’s fine. You heard everything my mother said when she called. He’s out of surgery. No major damage.”
Except for two cracked ribs, extensive bruising across his chest and back, stitches for the two gashes he got when someone tried to stab him. And, oh yeah, a stab wound to his shoulder. That and the through-and-through gunshot wound to his thigh required surgery to clean up and repair. He’d be off that leg and using a crutch for a while. He’d need physical therapy.
The elevator doors opened. It was all she could do to wait for others to walk out before she dashed in and hit the button for the second floor. She should have taken the stairs. She could burn off some of the pent-up energy she’d stored up worrying through the long flight from Boston to here.
Lyric stepped in next to her and Mason filled the rest of the space.
Her sister hooked her arm around Aria’s shoulders. “He’s going to be okay.”
They kept telling her that through the whole flight. She’d seen the look in Lyric’s eyes when Mason got that text at the table while they were celebrating Melody and Fox’s engagement. Mason had said something to her. Lyric’s gaze had met his, and in her eyes, Aria could see the relief that it wasn’t him. At the same time, lines of concern for Nick wrinkled her forehead.
Mason and Nick were so close. Brothers, yes, but it was more than that. What they’d both endured on the job and survived brought them even closer.
“My head knows he’ll be okay. But…I need to see him.” She couldn’t explain it. Until she saw him with her own eyes, she couldn’t take their word for it.
Nick was tough. Nothing ever really seemed to bother him. Well, except when someone he cared about got hurt or needed help. Then, he was there, ready to do anything and everything for them.
She wanted to be that person for him.
But he hadn’t called her. He’d sent that text to Mason and gone silent.
She shouldn’t feel like he’d picked Mason over her. Mason had explained they had a system in place for when things went to shit. As they often did in their line of work. So when Mason got the text, he’d called his parents to let them know Nick was in trouble, most likely hurt, then he’d called in to the FBI office to get an update. Mason had shared very few details from that ten-minute call.
All Aria knew was that Nick had gotten close to capturing a very dangerous man. Their suspect shot him three times. Thank fucking God for his vest, or he’d be dead. The guy’s sister stabbed Nick, while Nick tried to save some children.
Heroic stuff.
That was her Nick.
There to help everyone. To right wrongs. To take down the bad guys. To rescue children taken from their families.
But Aria wanted to be Nick’s first call.
The elevator doors opened and she nearly ran into his parents. “Oh. Sorry.”
Nick’s mom, Adeline, took her by the shoulders. “He’s going to be so happy to see you.” She pulled Aria into a hug, holding her close for a few seconds before stepping back.
“Where are you going?” She stared at both Adeline and her husband, Noah, who she’d met several times when they came down to Wyoming to visit Mason and get to know Lyric.
Noah gave her a quick hug, then looked from her to Mason and back again. “Nick is asleep. We’ve been here all night. We’re just going home to freshen up, have a good meal, some sleep, then come back later. They’ll discharge him and the children tomorrow.”
“Are their families here?” Mason asked.
Adeline shook her head. “Not yet. They’ve notified the parents and helped them get flights, but they won’t start arriving until tomorrow afternoon. The FBI will want to interview the kids before they send them home. From what I understand, the kids refused to be separated from Nick. They’re all in there with him. They won’t talk to anyone, just among themselves.”
Aria still hadn’t been told about the children and their situation. “Are they okay?”
“One has a badly broken arm. The others seem to be fine, though how can they be when they’ve been kidnapped and trafficked.” Noah’s disgust for the people who did that to them rang in his words, along with his sorrow for the children.
“I’m sorry. I need to see him.” She rushed past Adeline and Noah and straight to room 212, where two agents stopped her.
Mason came up behind her. “Aria is Nick’s girlfriend.”
They gave the nod and she burst through the door and found Nick straight ahead, lying in a bed, dead asleep.
“Ssh.”
She turned to the other four beds packed in the room and found a young boy with a broken arm and three girls. The group looked to be somewhere between seven and twelve years old.
The boy’s eyes went wide when Mason walked in behind her. At six-three and solid muscle, he looked intimidating to most people.
Aria wanted to put the kids at ease. “This is Nick’s brother, Mason. I’m Aria, Nick’s girlfriend.” She pointed to her sister. “And that’s my sister Lyric. She’s married to Mason.”
“Nick said you were coming.” The oldest girl whispered like Aria had done to keep from waking Nick.
Still, he mumbled from the bed, “Ari.”
She went to him and brushed her fingers through his hair. “Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.” She kissed his forehead, then pressed her head to his and inhaled a full breath for the first time in hours. “I love you.”
He leaned his head to hers for just a moment, then she felt him relax back into sleep. She stood next to the bed and for the first time really looked at him. His left shoulder was wrapped in bandages. The other side of his chest was bare, except for a mottled bruise blooming on his pec and barely seen over the sheet. She carefully lifted it and hissed at the massive bruising.
Mason moved to the other side of the bed and checked it out with a wince. “Thank God he had his vest on,” he whispered, then met her gaze. “He’s okay.”
She knew that, but looking at him only brought home how close she’d come to losing him.
Lyric put her arm around Aria’s back, her hand on Aria’s hip. “It looks bad, but you know he’s going to be up and ready to go in a couple of days. Nothing keeps a Gunn down for long.”
“That’s for damn sure,” Mason agreed, then turned to Hawk, who had walked into the room after taking care of the helicopter he brought them here in. “Gunns don’t quit. We never give up.”
Lyric yawned. The pregnancy was making her exceptionally tired, and it had been a long day.
Mason jumped to it and went around the bed to pull her close. “He’s asleep. Let’s go to the cabin and get some rest. We can come back in a few hours.”
Lyric looked to Aria. “Come with us.”
She shook her head. “I’m staying with him.” She settled into the chair beside the bed and laced her fingers through Nick’s. She wanted him to know she was here. If he woke up, she wanted to be the first thing he saw.
“I’ll hang out a bit, too.” Hawk pulled up the chair across from her and sat down.
Lyric gave Hawk a hug, then left with Mason.
Hawk stared across Nick at her. “Rumor is you two broke up.”
“I ended it, because he seemed to care more about work than me. Then he told me we weren’t over. We started really talking to each other. He convinced the FBI to set up an office where I live and bought a house. I’m so damn happy he refused to let go.” She picked up his hand and kissed the back of it.
Nick didn’t wake, but he turned his head toward her.
“So you’re back together?” Hawk’s sharp gaze studied her.
“He is everything I want and more. But I know he loves his job. I’d never ask him to give it up. The way he’d never ask me to leave my family and the business we’ve built. It seemed we couldn’t overcome the distance.”
“But Nick found a way.” Hawk glanced at his cousin, then back to Aria.
“That’s what Nick does. Right? He’s moving to Wyoming to be with me.” Saying it out loud made it seem all the more real. It made her love him all the more because he was changing his life to be a part of hers.
“So, you’re all in now.”
“He has my whole heart. He always did. But I couldn’t stand to be the last thing on his mind, or the thing he put off for something else. I’m hoping things change once he’s in Blackrock Falls.”
Hawk nodded, a frown on his face, though he never really smiled. “That had to be hard.”
“I want a life with him.” She stared at Nick’s gorgeous face. “I almost lost him twice before we could make our dreams a reality.”
“He’s tough. It’s going to take more than a couple of bullets and some psycho with a knife to take him down.”
Aria looked over her shoulder at the kids. “Since he goes up against people willing to try to kill him all the time, it’s not that reassuring.”
Hawk acknowledged that with a tilted frown and nod. “He’s going to be really happy to see you.”
“I’ve missed him so much. I hope this case is over and we can finally be together.”
“It won’t be over until Nick has his man in custody.”
Aria sighed, knowing Hawk was right. She briefly glanced at the four kids trying to be quiet while they whispered between them. “I just hope those kids are safe now.”
She wondered if the reason they weren’t asleep was because they were too afraid to let their guard down.
Hawk narrowed his gaze on all of them. “They’ve probably been through more than their fair share of misery.”
“I’m bored,” one of the girls whined. “Can we watch TV?”
The oldest girl shook her head. “Agent Nick needs his rest.”
Hawk stood, drawing the attention of every child. “I’ll go see if they’ve got something in the gift shop downstairs for you to do.”
Aria picked up her bag and pulled out some cash. “Raid the snack machine for them, too.”
Hawk stared at the stack of bills. “That’s a lot of ones.”
“Tips from the bar,” she whispered back with a smirk.
Hawk approached the kids to ask for their candy order, then he walked out.
The room remained quiet until he returned with a pack of cards, a checkers set, and enough candy to fill a Halloween bucket. The kids were all smiles, making her wonder how, after everything they’d been through—being taken from their home and family, being at the mercy of monsters—they still trusted a stranger, who handed them candy and sat down to play a game with them.
Resilience. Courage. Strength. Heart.
Those were the things monsters couldn’t touch or take or crush, because a hero found them and restored their faith that good people do good things, and they recognized the difference between a good man and a monster.
They recognized anyone associated with Nick was a good guy.
“What are your names?” Hawk asked, keeping his distance, letting the kids get used to him.
The oldest spoke for all of them. “I’m Nicole. That’s Emma and Stacy.” She notched her chin up toward the boy with the cast on his arm. “Toby can’t wait for Nick to wake up.”
Aria smiled at the little boy. “Me, too.” She wanted to ask how he’d broken his arm, but was afraid of the answer and reminding him of what he’d gone through.
“Is there really an agent outside the door?” Toby asked. “Is it because Agent Nick thinks he's coming back to get us?”
Hawk stood and left little Emma’s bed and headed over to Toby. He stood at the end of the bed and looked the little boy in the face. “There are two agents outside that door. They will protect you with their lives. But they aren’t there because the FBI thinks someone is coming for you. They’re there to make you feel safe until your family comes to pick you up.”
Stacy’s bottom lip trembled. “What’s going to happen when we go home and there are no agents?”
Hawk turned to her. “Nick and every agent on his team are going to find the people who hurt you and they’re going to lock them up and never let them out again.” Hawk took a couple of steps closer to Stacy, then sat on the edge of her bed. “I know you’re scared. I would be, too, if I was you. I was in the military. I fought in the war overseas. I know what it feels like to be really scared. And when you go home, you may feel that way a lot. But you’ll have people there who care about you, who will help you learn to feel safe again. It will take time. But one day you’ll catch yourself laughing or smiling or just having fun. And it will feel weird, because you’ve been through what no one else has been through exactly the way you’ve been through it. You might even think you don’t deserve to be happy. Or you’ll think, finally, you do get to be happy. Whatever you feel, however you feel, just keep telling yourself you do deserve to be happy.”
Aria appreciated that Hawk spoke plain and didn’t make promises that everything would magically be better. He simply told the kids the truth.
She wondered what Hawk’s long-sleeve shirt was hiding. What was beneath his skin? What lingered in his mind? What tormented his sleep? What was he holding on to that kept him quiet and on the fringe of the family?
Because the haunted look in his eyes matched the one in these children’s eyes.
Aria wanted to see them laugh and smile and feel carefree. She hoped that hadn’t been permanently stolen from them like their childhoods.
Nick would want them to find that again. It’s why he worked so hard to save them. Why he put his life in jeopardy.
Why he’d never quit.
She’d accepted that. Now she had to find a way to live with it, and be the person in his life who helped him through the hard times and enjoyed the good times they’d have together by his side.