CHAPTER 33
NATALIE STAYED WITH Zach and Julian while they were transported by helicopter to University Hospital, Marc and the others remaining behind to finish the job and answer questions from federal investigators.
Zach was admitted into intensive care for tests and monitoring, while Julian was rushed into surgery, where a team of doctors hoped to remove the bullet from his shoulder and reattach his severed thumb.
Despite her objections, Natalie found herself shooed into the waiting area.
It was only then that the horror of the past two hours hit her, leaving her weak and shaking.
She struggled not to cry, getting herself a cup of coffee, hoping it would ward off the chill that had taken hold inside her.
People stared at her damp clothes, bare feet, and wet, tangled hair, but she didn’t care.
Let them try to hang on to a slippery roof twenty-four stories in the air during a thunderstorm while evil men tortured the man they loved, and see what they looked like afterward.
“Natalie?”
Natalie turned toward the sound of her own name. “Tessa!”
The two women hugged.
“You’re ice-cold. Your clothes and hair are damp. Bless your heart!” Tessa drew back, slipped her sweater off her shoulders. “Wear my cardigan.”
Natalie slipped into the warm blue cashmere, touched that Tessa would consider her comfort when she must be terribly worried about Julian and desperate to know how he’d been hurt. “Thanks.”
They found a quiet corner and Natalie told her what had happened—or what she knew of it, which wasn’t all that much. She stopped when she got to the part about dead bodies and blood. “I’m not sure I should be telling you any of this, with the baby.”
Tessa put on a brave smile. “The little guy is fine, and Julian will be, too. Chief Irving says Julian stopped to help a pregnant woman with a flat tire, and she shot him.”
Natalie hadn’t heard that. “I wondered what had happened.”
It would take some kind of deception to get the best of a man like Julian.
Tessa’s smile crumpled. “What sickens me is knowing that he was thinking of me when he stopped to help her. He’s a good man with a soft heart, especially when it comes to women. And it almost got him killed.”
Natalie took Tessa’s hand. “I’m sorry, Tessa. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“It’s not your fault.” Tessa gave her hand a squeeze. “Julian does a dangerous job. I’ve known that since I met him, and it’s part of why I respect and love him. We’ll get through this. We’ll all get through this. At least he’s alive.”
And Natalie wondered if she’d be able to respond with half as much grace if she were in Tessa’s position.
THE HOURS DRAGGED by as Natalie and Tessa waited, sharing a quiet dinner in the hospital cafeteria and getting to know each other in a way they hadn’t before.
Holly and Kara came with a change of clothes, shoes, and a makeup kit so that Natalie should freshen up and have something dry to wear.
Then investigators arrived to interview Natalie, followed by the media.
Hospital security took Natalie and Tessa to a private waiting room upstairs to keep the media from pestering them—except for their own paper, of course.
Tom sent Matt to cover the shoot-out, as he was the only member of the I-Team available.
Kat was still on the rez. Sophie was home with her own kids and babysitting Tessa’s daughter.
Comfortable only reporting the facts, Natalie told Matt what she could—which was far more than any other media outlet would be able to report.
“Good God, Natalie,” Matt said when she finished. “If you don’t get a Pulitzer out of this, I will personally kick the committee’s ass.”
Then he left, headed back to the newsroom for a late night of deadline reporting.
“Tessa Darcangelo?” A doctor in surgical garb stepped into the room, his green surgical mask around his neck.
Tessa’s face went white. She stood. “I’m Tessa.”
The doctor came over, shook her hand. “Your husband’s lost a fair amount of blood, so we transfused him.
We were able to remove the bullet, and that injury should heal well.
He’ll have stiffness and pain in his shoulder for a time, but the bullet hit muscle, so there was no injury to the structure of the joint itself. ”
“Thank goodness! What about his thumb?”
“We’ve reattached it. There’s blood flow. But we won’t know for some time how much function or sensation he’ll have. He’s awake and in recovery now, so if you’d like to see him—”
“God bless you! Yes, I’d love to see him.” Then Tessa turned, took Natalie’s hand, and gave it a squeeze. “I hope they bring good news about Zach soon.”
Natalie smiled, hoping the very same thing. “Go be with your husband.”
IT WAS ALMOST midnight by the time doctors came for Natalie with the welcome news that none of the tests showed permanent damage to Zach’s heart—and that Zach had been asking for her.
“Oh, thank God! When can I see him? I’d like to stay with him tonight.”
“Only family are allowed back into the ICU.”
And so she lied. “I’m his wife.”
Back in the ICU, she found Zach asleep, his naked body covered only at the groin, by a towel.
Electrodes were attached to his chest and side, IVs in his left arm, an oxygen tube beneath his nose.
There were red blotches on his torso, dressings on his right shoulder and left thigh where bullets had grazed him—proof of how much he’d risked and how much he’d suffered to protect her.
She took his hand, pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I’m here, Zach. I’m going to stay right here beside you.”
IT WAS A combination of fluorescent light and a woman’s sweet voice that woke him.
Zach opened his eyes, found Natalie sitting next to him, her gaze fixed on the heart monitor screen, worry and exhaustion lining her pretty face. “Angel.”
She looked down at him, her lips curving in a sweet smile. “How do you feel?”
“Not too bad . . . for a dead guy.”
Her smile vanished. “Don’t even joke about that.”
“Sorry.” He glanced around. “I thought they were moving me out of ICU.”
She stroked his cheek. “Not till later this morning—and only if your heart keeps beating like it should.”
His tests had come back normal, no sign of organ damage, external burns only. He was one lucky son of a bitch, and he knew it.
He reached up and ran a knuckle down her cheek, needing to touch her. “How can you look so beautiful after all you’ve been through?”
“I don’t.” Her smiled returned. “They’re just giving you good drugs.”
“You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever known.” He slid his fingers into her hair, savoring the silky feel of her dark strands. “I love you, Natalie.”
There. That didn’t hurt, did it, McBride?
Her eyes widened, and she looked down at him, searching his eyes as if trying to see whether he truly meant it. “Zach, I—”
“Shh.” He pressed his finger to her lips.
“When I realized I was going to die, the only thing I could think about was you and what an idiot I’d been for not telling you how I felt about you.
I think I’ve loved you from the moment you lifted that awful blindfold off my face.
I opened my eyes, and there you were, the bravest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.
You set me free, Natalie. In so many ways, you set me free. ”
Tears glittered in her eyes. “I was so afraid I’d lost you!”
He drew her down to his chest, held her. “When you’re up to it, tell me what happened and how you got back inside the loft. I thought they’d carried you off in that helo. I was so relieved to think you were safe.”
When she had finished her story, he found himself smiling.
“My angel, up on the roof, shouting at the thunderstorm, telling it what to go do with itself. Sounds like I owe Rossiter big-time. I’m sorry I had to put you up there.
I really had no choice. If I’d put you inside a closet, they’d have found you—if a stray round hadn’t killed you first. Even rounds from a handgun can pierce walls, and—”
“Hush, you. Don’t you dare apologize. You kept me safe, kept me alive.” She bent down and kissed him, her lips warm and soft.
Again and again she kissed him, and Zach knew that she, like he, was reveling in the feeling of being together, safe and alive. He slid his fingers deeper into her hair, teased her tongue with his, the feel of her beside him calling him back to life.
“Ahem.”
They both looked toward the entrance to his room—in the ICU there were no doors—and saw his favorite nurse, a tall big-boned woman named Chris who looked like she could probably bench-press him.
“You had several ectopic heartbeats, so I thought I’d come check on you, see how you were doing. Now I see the cause.”
Natalie looked at the nurse, guilt and regret on her face. “Ectopic heartbeats?”
Chris smiled. “That’s medical jargon for when your heart skips a beat. It’s completely harmless. You can go back to kissing your husband. Just keep it above the waist, okay? We don’t offer that kind of intensive care here.” Then Chris walked off, laughing at her own joke.
Zach looked up at Natalie. “Husband?”
That guilty look came over Natalie’s face again. “I told them that so they’d let me stay here with you last night. I hope you’re not angry. I don’t think they really believed me, anyway. No ring.”
That was something he planned to change.
He wasn’t ready to ask her yet. There were still too many loose threads in his life. He needed to tie those up, consider the offers that were on the table, and choose what he thought would be best—for both of them.
Natalie looked down at him, a playful smile on his face. “So, kissing me makes your heart skip beats, does it?”
“That’s hell-to-the-yeah, angel. Now kiss me again.”
THEY MOVED ZACH out of the ICU just after lunch.